In early 2020, Jain diaspora communities and organizations that had been painstakingly built over the past decades were faced with the far-reaching consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and its concomitant restrictions. With the possibility of regular face-to-face contact and participation in recurring events—praying, eating, learning, and meditating together—severely limited in most places, organizations were compelled to make a choice. They either had to suspend their activities, leaving members to organize their religious activities on an individual or household basis, or pursue the continuation of some of their habitual activities in an online format, relying on their members’ motivation and technical skills. This study will explore how many Jain organizations in London took to digital media in its different forms to continue to engage with their members throughout 2020. Looking at a selection of websites and social media channels, it will examine online discourses that reveal the social and mental impact of the pandemic on Jains and the broader community, explore the relocation of activities to the digital realm, and assess participation in these activities. In doing so, this article will open a discussion on the long-term effects of this crisis-induced digital turn in Jain religious praxis, and in socio-cultural life in general.

In the past three decades, Jains living in diaspora have been instrumental in the digital boom of Jainism-related websites, social media accounts, and mobile applications. Arguably, the increased availability and pervasive use of different kinds of digital media impacts how individuals deal with their roots; for example, it allows for greater contact with family and friends, but also with religious figures, back in India. It also impacts upon routes—for example, it provides new ways for individual Jains to find each other, organize, coordinate, and put down roots in their current country of residence. Using extensive corpora of Jainism-related websites and mobile applications (2013–2018), as well as ethnographic data derived from participant observation, interviews, and focus groups conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, and Belgian Jain communities (2014–2017), this article examines patterns of use of digital media for social and religious purposes by Jain individuals and investigates media strategies adopted by Jain diasporic organizations. It attempts to explain commonalities and differences in digital engagement across different geographic locations by looking at differences in migration history and the layout of the local Jain communities.

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is currently working as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Languages and Cultures of Ghent University in Belgium. She obtained a PhD in April 2019 for her research on the Jain diaspora and new media, which was part of the FWO-funded project 'Online religion in a transnational context. Representing and practicing Jainism in diasporic communities'. Her publications discuss different aspects of the Jain diasporic experience and the role of digital media within them.

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the UK, the US, and Belgium, as well as an analysis of a wide array of digital sources, this volume compellingly conceptualizes the digital and the diaspora as separate but intertwined frontier-spaces in which religious adaptation and change can be expected to occur. Touching upon a variety of aspects of Jain socio-religious experience and practice, the volume succeeds in shedding light on the diversity of Jain diasporic experiences and practices, and underscores the different roles digital media can play in individual religiosity and identity formation, community building, and the dissemination of traditional as well as innovative ideas.