Contemplating Dairy: Jain vegetarian cognitive dissonance alleviation strategies in Jain foodways

Due to the widespread harms the dairy industry causes to animals, humans, and the environment, some Jains contemplate and adopt veganism into their personal and community foodways. Jain pro-veganism has, nevertheless, led to pushback against veganism within the global Jain community. This paper specifically shows how contemporary Jains draw upon Jain scriptures to advocate against veganism, while nevertheless also incorporating non-Jain anti-vegan arguments encountered transnationally. By integrating perspectives from Food Studies, Critical Animal Studies, and Human-Animal Relations, the paper reveals how transnational cognitive dissonance alleviation strategies are a central component of many Jains’ increasing contemplations of anti-veganism. Drawing from recent discourse in the vegan/anti-vegan debate in the global Jain community, the paper will illustrate how non-Jain, transnational cognitive dissonance alleviation strategies perpetuated by the dairy industry have penetrated Jain anti-vegan scriptural discourse within Jain communities, causing those who promote them to inadvertently contemplate and perpetuate harmful anti-vegan discourses.