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BOOK REVIEW:
JAINISM AND ECOLOGY
Rajesh Shah evaluates a major new book on this subject, based on a conference at Harvard University where the Jain Spirit project was first discussed
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ENVIRONMENT
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NONVIOLENCE IN THE WEB OF LIFE
Jainism and Ecology
EDITED BY Christopher Key Chapple
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THAT HAS JAINISM GOT TO SAY ABOUT THE increasing poverty, inequality, social injustice, pollution, ecological destruction and extinction of thousands of species in the modern world? From 1996 through 1998 a group of ecologists and religious scholars asking similar questions convened academics and leaders from all major religions to ask a set of questions regarding the current ecological crisis, one that threatens the very existence of all life-forms on earth. Why have religions not guided their followers in modern times in which we have plundered the natural resources and other life on this planet? How could the wisdom in the various religions be resurrected to provide guidance out of a situation that threatens our own existence? The Centre for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University convened these conferences, with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim as series editors.
The result of these meetings was a book on each major religion (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Indigenous
Jain Spirit December 2002 February 2003
Jain Education International 2010_03
The essays can be divided into two camps. One camp, consisting of scholars and leading practitioners, states that Jainism is ecological. Among other proponents, Nathmal Tatia in The Jain Worldview and Ecology, John Koller in Jain Ecological Perspectives, and Kristi Wiley in The Nature of Nature: Jain Perspectives on the Natural World, describe Jain ecological concepts, the value placed on each life and even on inert elements. Since Jainism advocates against harming any life, it is ecological. Satish Kumar in Jain Ecology describes his mother's rural lifestyle, and Sadhvi Shilapi mentions the tree-planting project at Veerayatan in Bihar. Others talk about historical principles Sonras and the practice of vegetarianism to show Jainism as 0800 ecological.
The other, smaller camp of scholars state that the Jain principles can be ecological but, as John Cort states in Green Jainism?, there is no Jain environmental ethic per se. For example, Jains are against killing individual life-forms, but Jainism does not have holistic views of environmental ethics. Paul Dundas in The Limits of a Jain Environmental Ethic states that Jains see nature as the reason "for the degradation of humankind," while Christopher Chapple would like us to have "an approach to the natural world that engenders feelings of tenderness, respect and protection."
These are not opposing camps and both sides are very supportive of Jainism. Both camps focus mainly on historical thinking and practices and do not analyse the present state of Jainism or the lifestyles and values of modern Jains. dmod
Religions, Confucianism, etc.) and their relationship with ecology. Jainism and Ecology-edited by Christopher Chapple- contains essays by various authors around several themes, including Jain theories, challenges to the possibility of a Jain environmental ethic and voices within the tradition.
This book is not intended to be a historical or explanatory text on Jainism. It provides a very good, though non-linear, background on Jainism and its principles with most of its contributors referring to the primary texts and quoting historical scholars such as Hemachandra and Haribhadra. It also presents the thinking of modern ecologists and some opinions on where the solutions lie.
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