Roland Windsor Vincent
SPECIAL EDITOR, ECOSOCIALISM & ANIMAL RIGHTS
Are you familiar with the Jains?
Probably not.
The Jains* are a small religious sect in India, with some adherents around the world.
They have been in decline for over 1,000 years.
Of all the world’s religions, only Jainism advocates against harming animals.
If I were religiously inclined, I’d be a Jain.
There are some in the Animal Rights movement who point to Jainism as proof that a religious belief system can impact public policy for animals, citing advances in laws in India largely resulting from Jain influence.
As far as it goes, they may be correct, at least as far as India is concerned.
However, beyond India, Jains have almost no influence.
And Jainism has no built-in evangelism or methodology to expand. Almost every Jain was born into the faith. There are no Jain televangelists, no Jain revival meetings, no Jain Witnesses knocking on doors or handing out tracts.
Jainism is dying. And with it any hope for a converting the world to a religion which preaches Do No Harm.
Animal Rights cannot, and will not, be won through religion.
The Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are based on the concept of dominion over animals. All three rely on the barbaric teachings of Moses, on animal sacrifice, on the spilling of animals’ blood, on a genocidal maniac of a god who demanded animals (and even humans) be killed and incinerated because he enjoyed smelling their burning flesh.
There are some folks who buy into the idea that Jesus was vegan. If they can sell the idea, I think that is wonderful. I don’t care why people stop killing animals as long as they do.
But mainstream Christianity is as steeped in animal blood as are Judaism and Islam. And the concept of dominion has justified atrocities for thousands of years.
If religion were an answer to animal abuse, exploitation, and murder, only Jainism is the correct answer.
And it is inevitably becoming irrelevant.
The answer to animal abuse, exploitation, and murder is government.
Not any government.
Certainly not capitalist controlled government.
The answer is government that places compassion over profits and animals over businesses that exploit them.
Government that will ban animal slaughter.
Ban animal consumption.
Ban animal experiments and testing.
Ban animals in entertainment and as sport.
A government that will guard animals’ rights as zealously as it guards human rights.
A government that will end the ownership of animals, just as it ends ownership of people.
It is, granted, very far in the future, if at all, but it’s worth fighting for.
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ABOUT JAINISM
* Jainism is India’s sixth-largest religion and is practiced throughout the whole country.
As per census there are about 4,200,000 Jains in the 1.028 billion population of India, but actually there may be around 80 lakh, majorly living in Rajasthan and Northern India, however, the influence of Jainism is far greater on Indian population that these numbers suggests. Jains are to be found in 34 out of 35 states and union territories with Lakshdweep being the only union territory without Jains. The state of Jharkhand, with a population of 16,301 Jains also contains the holy pilgrimage centre of Shikharji.