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simply a message for ethical living. In the present times, those shrinking away from religion and fearing to be part of any sect will find Anuvrat attractive." The Anuvrat Movement: Contemporary Relevance in Diaspora
Many of the concerns related to violence are relevant not only India, but in the United States, as demonstrated in the two incidents of December 2012. One is the gang rape that took place in India and the other is the example of the gun culture and the massacre of twenty innocent children and their six teachers in Newtown, USA. Such incidents are perceived as the negative consequences of modernization and globalization.
The question that I will now explore is whether the Jains in diaspora view these contemporary problems from a different perspective than the Jains that I interviewed in India. I made three central observations about the Jains I have met in the United States. Firstly, I noticed that they come from a higher socio-economic class than many of the Jains in India. Secondly, they more often placed a greater emphasis on education and the need for open-mindedness. Thirdly, I observed that many of our conversations touched on the process of creating new identities as "American-Jains," and they were very conscious of how this new identity may differ from their Jain identity in India.
For example, some of my interviewees thought that the wording of Tulsi's vows was too old-fashioned and that the Jains in the West incorporate more modern ideas in their practices than do the Jains in India, so some of these vows are not suited to the western context. For example, one respondent said: "Dowry is not a social evil in this country."120 There was much similar consensus regarding five vows concerning violent
119 Mahapragya, Dharma Chakra ka Pravartan, 7.
Neptune Srimal, interview by Shivani Bothra, October 10, 2012.
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