Pankaj Jain

Dr. Pankaj Jain’s monograph on Mahāvīra, the 24th Tīrthaṅkara of Jainism, offers a comprehensive exploration of his life, teachings, and enduring influence on Jain virtue ethics and environmental sustain­ability. Structured around the five Jain milestones – conception, birth, renunciation, omniscience, and liberation – the manuscript draws from primary Prakrit and Sanskrit texts, as well as secondary sources in English, Hindi, and Gujarati, to construct a detailed biography. It ad­dresses the scarcity of English-language works on Mahāvīra compared to those on Buddhism, emphasizing his role in shaping Jainism’s dis­tinct identity. The introduction critiques the ‘imperialism of categories’, advocating for a dhārmic framework that intertwines philosophy, religion, and ecology, avoiding Western dichotomies. Jainism’s core virtues – Ahimsa (non­violence), Aparigraha (non-accumulation), and Anekānta­vāda (pluralism) – are explored as foundational to sustainable prac­tices, influencing figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. The manuscript highlights Jainism’s environmental contributions, such as vegetarianism and animal sanctuaries, exemplified by inst­itutions like the Sumati Jeev Raksha Kendra. It also engages with scholarly debates, critiquing Western Indology’s neglect of contem­porary Indian sources and addressing sectarian disputes, such as Mahāvīra’s birthplace and marital status. Supported by FLAME University and the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, this work underscores Mahāvīra’s legacy in promoting non­violence and ecological consciousness, offering a nuanced perspective on Jainism’s relevance to modern sustainability challenges. Through rigorous analysis and interdisciplinary insights, Jain’s monograph bridges ancient wisdom with contemporary environmental ethics.

Within Jainism, an ancient Indian religion based on nonviolence (ahiṃsā), non-possessiveness (aparigraha), and austerity, farming and flora have a complicated and nuanced place. Although the teachings of Jainism emphasize compassion for all living things (Jain 2021), Jains have moral issues when it comes to farming because it involves harming insects, soil organisms, and plants. Although no Jain would imagine slaughtering their livestock to sell meat, tilling the land to grow food may or may not be considered violent, as we will see in this essay. This study investigates how Jains reconcile their agricultural practices with religious teachings by examining the historical, theological, and cultural viewpoints on flora and farming. This article sheds light on Jainism's distinctive response to agricultural life's ethical and environmental challenges by examining scriptures, moral discourse, and modern practices around vegetation. The essay's final section explores a related issue of plants and trees. It emphasizes how deeply Jainism reveres plants and trees, seeing them as representations of spiritual power, patience, and optimism. All 24 Tīrthaṅkaras, fordmakers, achieved enlightenment under certain tree species, each of which is named and revered. As part of Jain-ism's spiritual and ethical obligation, the section demonstrates environmental preservation and tree planting, encouraging sensitivity toward nature.

This book provides a unique insider’s look at the world’s largest film industry, now globally known as ‘Bollywood’ and challenges existing notions about Indian films. Indian films have been a worldwide phenomenon for decades. Chapters in this edited volume take a fresh view of various hidden gems by maestros such as Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, V Shantaram, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Shakti Samant, Rishikesh Mukherjee, and others. Other chapters provide a pioneering review and analysis of the portrayal of Indian religious communities such as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Parsis. The themes covered include unique Indian feminism and male chauvinism, environment and climate issues, international locations and diaspora tourism, religious harmony and conflict, the India-Pakistan relationship, asceticism, and renunciation in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Unlike many recent studies of Indian films, these chapters do not distinguish between popular and serious cinema. Many chapters focus on Hindi films, but others bring insights from films made in other parts of India and its neighbouring countries.

Modern Jainism: A Historical Approach (Springer, 2023) presents a substantive yet accessible introduction to the modern thought of Jainism. It examines the life and thought of some of the most influential 19th- and 20th-century Jain ascetic leaders that remain little known in the Western world. The book's first part provides a detailed philosophical overview of Jain thought based on the translation of a seminal Hindi text, Jain Darshan. The second part introduces eight Jain saints from the major Jain sects, including their biographies, philosophical perspectives, and related contemporary movements flourishing in various places across India and beyond.

Although Indic perspectives toward nature are now well documented, climate engineering discussions seem to still lack the views from Indic or other non‐Western sources. In this article, I will apply some of the Hindu and Jain concepts such as karma, nonviolence (Ahiṃsā ), humility (Vinaya ), and renunciation (Saṃnyāsa ) to analyze the two primary climate geoengineering strategies of solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). I suggest that Indic philosophical and religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism offer ethical concepts to call for humility in all acts of climate engineering leading to a favoring of CDR over SRM and a favoring of lifestyle changes (particularly vegetarianism) over both. I demonstrate these concepts by introducing the five great elements from the Hindu philosophy, two Hindu legends from Hindu mythology, the Indic ethical ideas of karma, renunciation, and humility, and the moral authority of Gandhi.

Scholars have long noticed a discrepancy in the way non-Western and Western peoples conceptualize the scientific and religious worlds. Non-Western traditions and communities, such as of India, are better positioned to provide an alternative to the Western dualistic thinking of separating science and religion. The Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization was founded by Dr. Anil Joshi in the 1970s as a new movement looking at the economic and development needs of rural villages in the Indian Himalayas, and encouraging them to use local resources in order to open up new avenues to self-reliance. This book argues that the concept of dharma, the law that supports the regulatory order of the universe in Indian culture, can be applied as an overarching term for HESCO s socio-economic work. This book presents the social-environmental work in contemporary India by Dr. Anil Joshi in the Himalayas and by Baba Seechewal in Punjab, combining the ideas of traditional and scientific ecological knowledge systems. Based on these two examples, the book presents the holistic model transcending the dichotomies of nature vs. culture and science vs. religion, especially as practiced and utilized in the non-Western society such as India. Using the example of HESCO, the book highlights that the very categories of religion and science are problematic when applied to non-Western traditions but that Western technologies can be radically transformed through integration with regional legacies to enable the flourishing of a multiplicity of knowledge-traditions and the societies that depend upon them. It will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Studies, Religion, Environmental Studies, Himalayan Studies, and Development Studies. "

America now is home to approximately three million Hindus and Jains. Their contribution to the economic and intellectual growth of the country is unquestionable. Dharma in America aims to explore the role of Hindu and Jain Americans in diverse fields such as: education and civic engagements medicine and healthcare music. Providing a concise history of Hindus and Jains in the Americas over the last two centuries, Dharma in America also gives some insights into the ongoing issues and challenges these important ethnic and religious groups face in the America today.