This paper considers Jain participation in discourses of “Dharmic capitalism,” surveying a spectrum of emic attitudes toward the relevance of principle tenants of Jain religion to navigating complexities of 21st century global free market commerce. Making use of interviews, popular media, and popular and academic publications advancing normative and prescriptive viewpoints, the author highlights Jain efforts to locate principles of free market capitalism within their own scriptural tradition, alongside present-day Jain attempts to reconcile the moral vicissitudes of the global financial marketplace with the strict Jain precepts of non-violence, non-possessiveness, and absolute truthfulness. The author examines what are in some cases direct correspondences between Hindu and Jain sentiments regarding the historical presence of liberal economic models in India historically, direct interface between Hindus and Jains which has generated a portion of this discourse, as well as discourses of “Jain exceptionalism,” i.e. insistence that Jain economic success has been historically supplemented with superlative models of philanthropy.
Attached Paper
In-person November Annual Meeting 2025
Capitalism and the Cultivation of Virtue from Jain Perspective
Papers Session: Religion and Global Capitalism in Jainism and Beyond
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)