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of individual freedom has a complex dialectical relationship with the world of social obligations within which it takes place. In the western tradition the contiast of individual freedom and the authority of traditional social obligations has often sharpened into conflict and radical change In India, on the other hand, traditional authority has been seldom questioned within the ambit of common social life When great moral and spiritual reformers found their contemporary social ethos inadequate or defective, they tended to create distinct and new sects or communities embedded within the same ageless social and cultural milieu If the expression of moral freedom in terms of social change was thus dampened, it nevertheless found a redoubled expression in the realm of individual spiritual life or else was transmuted into the symbolism of sectarian ritual and ceremonial aiding the cultivation of a subtle attitude which would he distinctive enough for sectarian affiliation and yet so subjectively and symbolically held that it would not be an obstruction to the accustomed traditional way of social life It could well degenerate into moral equivocation but it could equally rise iuto a path of spiritual widsom which disdained to quarrel with the ignorant
Jaina Tradition and the Indian Cultural Milieu
Whatever might have been the source of this social conservatism which tended to increase with time, it certainly lent to the diverse currents within the Indian ethical tradition the aspect of a pervasive unity with but minor shades of difference When the Jaina tradition first emerged into the limelight of history, it did represent a sharp contrast to the existing Vedic tradition but in course of time the Jaina community became a well accepted part of the larger Indian socio-ethical framework Indeed, it has been argued that the very survival of the Jaina tradition unlike that of the Buddhist one has been due to its strong conservatism and its self-imposed limitation on proselytism which enabled it to Cuntinue as it was without seeking to disturb others from being what they were i It will be seen in the sequel that this outlook is fundamental to the Jaina ethos
