Engaged Jainism and Animal Advocacy

Catalog description

What does the ethic of ahiṃsā (nonviolence) demand with respect to animals? Jains have insisted on the practice of vegetarianism for millennia, but what else might a proactive “engaged ahiṃsā” involve? This course begins with traditional interpretations of ahiṃsā in Jainism—from both lay and acetic perspectives—and how these interpretations have generated dietary regulations, condemnations of ritual slaughter, and imperatives to rescue and care for animals in need. The course then pivots to contemporary animal advocacy movements that conceive nonviolence as the guiding force behind their educational, legal, political, entrepreneurial, and grassroots activist efforts to address the plights of animals. The course concludes with Jain considerations of these movements and efforts, and how younger generations of Jains are weaving “insider” and “outsider” perspectives into a new engaged Jain animal ethics.