Jains in India and Abroad

Author(s): Prakash C Jain
Publisher: International Summer School for Jain Studies

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environmental factors do not allow a majority of diasporic Jains to indulge in elaborate religious rituals.
Such circumstances have prompted the diasporic Jain community to practice two variant value systems of orthodoxy, namely neoorthodoxy and heterodoxy (See Banks 1992; Dundas 1992; Jain, R.K. 1999: 16). A study of Leicester Jains done in England and an anthology on the Jain way of life published in the U.S. amply illustrate these developments (Banks 1992; Jain, Y. 2007). Before we further discuss the emergent Jain way of life in certain diasporic context, a definition each of the two concepts mentioned above would be in order. According to Dundas (1992: 233), neo-orthodoxy "presents itself as modern and progressive with an emphasis on those aspects of Jainism which can be interpreted as scientific and rational and can therefore be accommodated to and encompass western modes of thought." Again to quote Dundas (1992):
Heterodoxy involves an interpretation of Jainism as theistic and frees from the metaphysical complexities which many feel to be a feature of the religion, with the ford-makers being viewed as in some way the manifestation of a supreme deity and endowed with the capacity to intervene directly in human affairs and offer assistance. Here God-focused devotion plays an important part in the Jains who have espoused this heterodoxy see no incongruity in, for example, worshipping in Hindu or Sikh temples.
It must be pointed out here that in India too, there are a few adherents of the two value systems (See Mardia 2003; Kachhara 2005; Rankin 2007).
Interestingly, the first initiative that reinterpret Jainism as per diasporic requirements has come from North American Jains in the form of an edited book "Jain Way of Life" by Yogendra Jain, an engineering professional in the US. The book should be considered as a major step in "repackaging” Jainism which is relevant in the modern context for Jains and non-Jains. The book, as the subtitle reads, provides an excellent guide to "compassionate, healthy and happy living”. According to Yogendra Jain, the Jain way of life
Jains in India and Abroad