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Jainism and Democracy
from it?" and he himself provides the answer, "No, surely the root and the flower are one process and like your head and your feet it all goes together. In that sense then the Universe and what you or I do, all goes together, and the picture of this universe is really the picture of you."
Caste Distinctions and Sex Discrimination.
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Castism and sex discrimination are the bane of Indian society. Mahavir led a crusade against both the evils. He said repeatedly and emphatically that Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra are determined through their actions and not their birth (Uttaradhyan Sutra 25/33)
He also raised the status of women by giving them a social position equal to men. Unlike his great contemporary Buddha, he unhesitantly accepted females in his saintly order and amended Chaturyam (four fold) doctrine of his illustrius predecessor Parshvanath by making it five-fold (Panchsheel) through the addition of the vow of Brahmacharya. According to Chaturyam theory, the vow of
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