Jain Digest 2003 09 Vol 22 No 3

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 12

JAIN STUDIES IN N. AMERICA....(cont)
dissertations have been written during this period that either in whole or in significant part deal with Jain materials. This is a remarkable number, especially when one considers that there is not a single university which I could recommend as an obvious place to go to do such research. Almost every one of these scholars, therefore, has been largely self-trained in Jain studies. In addition, several established scholars trained in the study of Hinduism and Buddhism have also turned their attention to Jainism, and written important books and scholarly articles on Jainism.
The subjects of these dissertations and books cover a wide range of materials within the study of Jainism. There are studies of Jain literature and music. There are studies of philosophy and karma theory. There are studies of temple worship, yoga, and devotional songs. Art historians have studied Jain temples, sculpture, and painting. A number of important studies have focused on the Jain community, including studies of all four branches of the Jain congregation: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. There have also been studies of Jain history, and of the experience of Jains in North America.
Of these scholars whose dissertations focused on the Jain religion, today there are nine who have teaching positions at North American colleges, most of them in departments of religion and art history. But not a single one of them was hired because of his or her specialized interest in Jainism. They have been hired by religion departments to teach comparative religion, Asian religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, and by art history departments to teach the arts of Asia. Most of them never teach a course devoted solely to Jainism, and those who do can do so teach it only occasionally as an optional course. The colleges and universities that have hired these scholars do not see teaching or studying Jainism as important.
Further, not a single one of these scholars is at a university involved in the training of the next generation of scholars. In other words, while there is today a renaissance of Jain Studies in the United States, there is absolutely no guarantee that these studies will continue beyond the present generation of scholars. Given what we have seen of Jain studies in the first half of the twentieth century, in which the promising beginnings made by Bloomfield, Brown and Johnson came to nothing, it is very possible that twentyfive years from now there will again not be a single scholar of Jain
studies in North America.
The situation of Jain Studies stands in stark contrast to that of Sikh Studies. American universities have not been willing to invest their scarce resources in Sikh Studies either. This is not unique to these two Indian religions. The history of American universities is that the teaching of minority religions including Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and even Catholicism has found a place in the major research universities only when the members of
10/JAIN DIGEST⚫ Fall 2003 Jain Education Intemational
those religious communities have stepped forward and invested the money needed to endow permanent chairs in those fields. The Sikhs have understood that for their religion. As a result, there are now four chairs in Sikh Studies in the United States, and plans to endow several more in the next few years.
To date the Jains have not exhibited a similar vision of their role in American higher education. And this is the challenge I put forward to the Jains of North America. We all agree that Jainism should be studied and taught in American colleges and universities.
An endowed chair—or, if the Jain community wants, several chairs will not be cheap. Universities expect that the interest earned from the permanent endowed fund will cover the full salary and benefits of the professor, as well as related institutional costs such as offices and administrative support. But at any university an endowed chair in Jain Studies will cost much more than one million dollars, and perhaps as much as three or four million dollars.
Part of the reason why an endowed chair will be expensive is that it needs to be at the best possible university. Having an endowed chair in Jain Studies at a university that did not provide adequate course offerings in related subjects would be a waste of money. Any chair in Jain Studies should be at a research university that already has strong programs in Religious Studies and South Asian Studies.
There needs to be a Department of Religious Studies so that Jainism can be taught in a comparative context with other world religions.
There also needs to be a strong program in South Asian Studies. Anyone studying Jainism will need to be able to study Indian languages: Sanskrit, maybe Prakrit, and one or more modern languages such as Hindi and Gujarati. They will need to be able to study Indian history, sociology, culture, art, and literature. There are about a dozen universities in North America that have such
programs.
Endowing a chair is not a speedy process. It obviously takes time to raise the necessary funds. The process will also involve extended conversation and interaction between the Jain community and the relevant universities, as the two get to know each others' goals and expectations. There probably will need to be some intermediate steps, such as providing funds for a short-term visiting Professor of Jain Studies, or the funds for graduate student scholarships.
It is self-evident that Jainism is an important world religion. There should be some university in North America where a person can go to study Jainism in an academic setting. But at present there is no such place. If you want Jainism to be taught and studied on a regular, permanent basis, then you, the Jains of North America, will have to step forward and actively support such efforts. Whether or not there will be Jain Studies in North America twenty-five years from now is largely in the hands of the Jain community itself. For Private & Personal Use Only