Roots, Routes, and Routers: Social and Digital Dynamics in the Jain Diaspora

Abstract

In the past three decades, Jains living in diaspora have been instrumental in the digital boom of Jainism-related websites, social media accounts, and mobile applications. Arguably, the increased availability and pervasive use of different kinds of digital media impacts how individuals deal with their roots; for example, it allows for greater contact with family and friends, but also with religious figures, back in India. It also impacts upon routes—for example, it provides new ways for individual Jains to find each other, organize, coordinate, and put down roots in their current country of residence. Using extensive corpora of Jainism-related websites and mobile applications (2013–2018), as well as ethnographic data derived from participant observation, interviews, and focus groups conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, and Belgian Jain communities (2014–2017), this article examines patterns of use of digital media for social and religious purposes by Jain individuals and investigates media strategies adopted by Jain diasporic organizations. It attempts to explain commonalities and differences in digital engagement across different geographic locations by looking at differences in migration history and the layout of the local Jain communities.

Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity

“…They genuinely do appreciate the efforts the Belgian Catholic Church and local parishes have made to get through these last couple of months, but they all long for 'normal times'. Not like other religious groups and communities who are already well trained and experienced in practicing religion online, such as for instance migrant or diasporic faith communities-see, among others, Leurs et al (2012) and Vekemans (2019)-or the faithful who already made use of the internet before the outbreak of the pandemic-see for example Evolvi (2018) and Campbell (2020a)-the Belgian Catholic Church and its believers had very limited experience with practicing religion in the online sphere. Therefore, this sudden shift to the online world was not planned.…”

Crisis and Continuation: The Digital Relocation of Jain Socio-Religious Praxis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In addition to theoretical discussions on religion and digital media, case studies have contributed to a more contextualized understanding of digital religion. Such case studies focusing specifically on South Asian religious traditions include Xenia Zeiler's Digital Hinduism (Zeiler 2020) as well as Murali Balaji's slightly earlier volume by the same name (Balaji 2018) on Hinduism, Gregory Price Grieve and Daniel Veidlinger's The pixel in the Lotus on Buddhism (Grieve and Veidlinger 2014), and my own works on Jainism (Vekemans 2014(Vekemans , 2019a(Vekemans , 2020(Vekemans , 2021Vekemans and Vandevelde 2018). Although these studies discuss different traditions with different doctrinal rules and sensibilities that impact the ways in which digital media are engaged with for religious purposes, they have many tropes and findings in common.…”

Lost and found, centre and periphery: narratives of the Jain diasporic experience online

“…through WhatsApp) can help maintain and build relationships and even communities with a large offline component (such as local Jain centres (saṅghs)). In the same way, digital media allow people who have no offline contact to come together and participate in a shared project (chat groups, digitally mediated reading groups (satsaṅgs), Facebook groups like Jain Study group) (Vekemans 2019b). Lastly, some websites and apps facilitate religious practice, allowing the user to perform rituals in front of a virtual shrine (Vekemans & Vandevelde, 2018).…”

“…These various religious figures have contributed to the affirmation of the diaspora as a more integral part of the Jain world (Flügel, 2012, 978;Long, 2009, 79-80). vi As members of the local community undertake deeper study of (aspects of) the Jain tradition, they become a local source of information for diasporic communities (Vekemans 2019b).…”

“…2017 Even whilst acknowledging the increased availability of local and online sources, respondents like R. did have a keen sense of nostalgia towards India as their spiritual homeland, often phrased as 'missing something'. To counteract this, respondents fill bookshelves with books imported from India and/or travel to India regularly, specifically allocating time for spiritual pursuits, contact and learning (Vekemans 2019b).…”