Framing the Pandemic: An Examination of How WHO Guidelines Turned into Jain Religious Practices
Department of Indology, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Academic Editor: Christopher Key Chapple
Religions 2022, 13(5), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050377
Received: 6 January 2022
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Revised: 28 March 2022
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Accepted: 10 April 2022
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Published: 19 April 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hinduism, Jainism, Yoga and Ecology)
This paper identifies and examines a Jain narrative that frames Jain tenets as being in line with some of the most impactful COVID-19 measures. It demonstrates how during the early stages of the pandemic (i.e., mid-March 2020 to January 2021), some Jains drew parallels between various Jain principles and the WHO guidelines, finding agreement, for instance, between the muhpattī (“face cloth”) and the public face mask and the dig-vrata (a Jain vow of restraint) and social distancing. This paper shows how some also viewed several unintentional consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (such as not being able to go shopping during the lockdown) as being in line with Jain practices (here the practice of aparigraha or non-possessiveness). By means of an analysis of two Jain writings on the WHO guidelines, I demonstrate how some Jains framed several COVID-19 measures within a distinctive Jain worldview. I argue that the equation of Jain practices with the WHO guidelines should be understood within the ongoing universalization and scientization of Jainism, processes that present Jainism as a universal and scientific solution to global disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Keywords:
Jainism; COVID-19 pandemic; WHO guidelines; Jain worldview; environmentalism; scientization; universalization
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MDPI and ACS Style
Maes, C. Framing the Pandemic: An Examination of How WHO Guidelines Turned into Jain Religious Practices. Religions 2022, 13, 377. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050377
AMA Style
Maes C. Framing the Pandemic: An Examination of How WHO Guidelines Turned into Jain Religious Practices. Religions. 2022; 13(5):377. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050377
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaes, Claire. 2022. "Framing the Pandemic: An Examination of How WHO Guidelines Turned into Jain Religious Practices" Religions 13, no. 5: 377. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050377
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