In Good Faith

2.2

IN GOOD faith

WRITTEN BY Kelsey Brown

RIGHT: Jain temple, photo courtesy of PxFuel.

Amid all of the past year’s bad news, the Religious Studies department received some extraordinarily good news: a million-dollar endowment for a Jain Studies endowed chair that left the department “absolutely delighted,” according to Religious Studies chair Dr. Sophia Pandya.

The endowment will allow the department to hire a ful-time tenure track professor who will primarily teach courses on the Jain tradition, but will also be able to teach courses on the religions of South Asia, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism— as well as related courses in departments like philosophy and history. Dr. Pandya explained how the secular study of religion helps students understand the diverse and globalizing world and the role religion plays in it. According to Dr. Pandya, there are only four to five million Jains left, which is why the establishment of this chair is imperative.

People in the Jain community “feel strongly that their philosophy is so important to not just the survival of humanity, but the survival of our planet, that I think it compels them to want to share it,” Dr. Pandya says. “When they open Jain studies programs, this is not an attempt to convert people to Jainism at all—it’s an attempt to be understood.”

Other California universities like UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara also have endowed chairs in Jain studies, and Dr. Pandya hopes to collaborate with those schools as a part of a larger project orchestrated by the Jain community.

Though Dr. Purushottama Bilimoria is already teaching classes relating to Jain studies as part of the Selected Topics in Religious Studies course, by the fall semester of 2022, Dr. Pandya hopes to have an introductory Jain studies class in the course catalog, as well as a professor hired to develop the course.

Dr. Pandya explained that most students entering the Religious Studies department have only limited experiences with religion, mainly within their own faith. Expanding their knowledge to religions originating in South Asia—like Jainism, which predates Christianity—enables students to understand the diversity of religion “in a more profound way,” she says. The fundamentals of Jainism, which promote nonviolence and open-mindedness, are principles anyone can use, she asserts.

“This tradition is quite a positive force,” Dr. Pandya says. “Just this idea that you don’t hurt anything—ahimsa—that you believe in a many-sided reality—pluralism. This is very positive.”

Dr. Pandya says she hopes that the creation of the chair will instigate students’ interests in other parts of the world and teach them that religion is multidimensional.

“We want to be more diverse; we want to be excellent,” Dr. Pandya says. “We have wanted to have more of a focus on South Asian studies, but we didn’t have the resources. Now we can.” O

Five Great Vows of Jainism

AHIMSA

Non-violence

SATYA

Truth

ACHAURYA

Non-stealing

APARIGRAHA

Non-attachment

BRAHMACHARYA

Chastity

Dr. Kristy Shih, human development professor.