In November 2017, the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission of Dharampur, Gujarat (SRMD) unveiled a 34-foot bronze statue of Srimad Rajacandra (1866-1901), a Jain layman and spiritual leader who is best known for his correspondence with a young Mahatma Gandhi. Over the previous decade, the SRMD's founder, Rakeshbhai Jhavery (b. 1966), has developed a sizable following, in...

In South Asia’s distinctive history of religious diversity, the Jains stand out as a perpetual but prominent minority especially attentive to the range of doctrinal options surrounding them. This talk will delineate some classical Jain philosophical efforts to conceptualize differences, navigate disagreements, and seek agreement with others as exemplified in the emblematic and transformative figure...

In this lecture I offer provisional perspectives on the question, acquiescing in necropolitics? In the first part of the lecture I highlight some of the debates on same sex relations in Cameroon. In the second part of the lecture I discuss the recent genealogy of necropolitics in Michele Foucault and Achille Mbembe. This will lead...