Jainism and Food

Introduction

One of the most remarkable sights in the Indian Subcontinent (a land of many marvels) is a lightly clad man or woman walking along the roadside sweeping the path head with a straw broom. The sweeper is a Jain monk or nun, and the reason for this action is to clear the path of any insects he or she might accidentally step on and kill.

So great is the Jains’ reverence for all forms of life that monks will not kill insects that bite them, till the soil which may harbor small forms of life, or eat after sunset lest they accidentally ingest a bug. It goes without saying that the Jains do not eat meat. As one scholar wrote, “To say that Jains are strictly vegetarian hardly begins to convey either the rigour and severity of the rules which some Jains put themselves under or the centrality of such practices to Jain religious life” (Laidlaw 2003, p. 153).

The 2001 Indian Census reported 4.2 million Jains in India, 0.4% of the total population. They are concentrated in Western and...