Jain Veganism: Ancient Wisdom, New Opportunities

Abstract

This article seeks to elevate contemporary Jain voices calling for the adoption of a vegan lifestyle as a sign of solidarity with the transnational vegan movement and its animal rights, environmental protection, and health aspirations. Just as important, however, this article also seeks to present some of the unique features of contemporary Jain veganism, including, most specifically, Jain veganism as an ascetic practice aimed at the embodiment of non-violence (ahiṃsā), the eradication (nirjarā) of karma, and the liberation (mokṣa) of the Self (jīva). These are distinctive features of Jain veganism often overlooked and yet worthy of our attention. We begin the article with a brief discussion of transnational veganism and Jain veganism’s place within this global movement. This is followed by an overview of Jain karma theory as it appears in the Tattvārtha Sūtra, an authoritative diasporic Jain text. Next, we present two case studies of contemporary Jain expressions of veganism: (1) The UK-based organization known as “Jain Vegans” and (2) The US-based organization known as “Vegan Jains”. Both organizations have found new opportunities in transnational veganism to practice and embody the virtue of ahiṃsā as well as Jain karma theory. As we will show, though both organizations share the animal, human, and environmental protection aspirations found in transnational veganism, Jain Vegans and Vegan Jains simultaneously promote ahiṃsā to varying degrees in service of the Jain path to liberation. We conclude the article with a brief reconsideration of Marcus Banks’s diasporic “three tendencies” model to demonstrate how contemporary manifestations of Jain veganism compel us to revisit our understanding of diasporic expressions of Jain religious belief and praxis.

Claiming veganism and vegan geographies

“…Moral abstinence from eating and using animals has been part of religious and spiritual practices. One of the most pertinent examples of this is found in Jainism, with scripture dating ethical abstinence from meat and animal products to approximately 450 CE (Miller & Dickstein, 2021). Similarly, Hinduism and Buddhism have long established foodways based on vegetarianism (Kumar, 2021).…”

Factors shaping the adoption of sustainable vegan diets

“…Vegan diets have been scrutinized for their nutritive content, with findings highlighting potential benefits such as higher fiber, increased antioxidants, and lower saturated fat compared to omnivorous diets (Sutter & Bender, 2021). Additionally, studies have explored taste‐related factors (Kessler et al, 2016), religious beliefs (McKeown & Dunn, 2021; Miller & Dickstein, 2021) and the influence of social and familial environments (Fresán et al, 2020) in the context of vegan diet adoption.…”

Yoga Teachers on Consuming Animals

“…Since antiquity to the present day, proponents of ahimsa have called for vegetarianism due to 1) the harm inflicted on the animal being consumed, and 2) a belief in mental and spiritual harm inflicted on the consumer of the animal (Schmidt 2010;Dickstein 2021;Tristam 2006). Indeed, according to Natrajan and Jacob (2018: 64), India, the birthplace of yoga, has the highest number of vegetarians anywhere in the world at up to 40% of the population.2 The rise of industrial animal farming-and its accompanying ethical, welfare, and envi-ronmental problems-has intensified this debate and developed the call for vegetarianism into a call for veganism by some yoga leaders (e.g., Gannon 2008;Dickstein 2020) and members of related communities such as Jains (Miller and Dickstein 2021).…”