Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This talk starts from a travelogue relating the experiences of a Jain mendicant travelling around the Western Indian Ocean in 1946. As such, it provides a unique glimpse into the fast-changing world of the 1940’s, with independence movements, the formation of new nation states, and the development of Jain communities around the Western Indian Ocean. The focus, however, is on the doubts and motivations that structure the travelogue’s author’s decision to accept an invitation to visit Mombasa, an analysis of which brings forward themes of reform and counter-reform, the impact of modernity on lay-mendicant relations, and the possibility of pansectarian as well as subaltern solidarity.
Short Bio
Professor Tine Vekemans holds the Ācārya Mahāprajña Chair for Jain Studies at Ghent University in Belgium. Her work on contemporary Jainism and Jainism outside of South Asia combines textual and anthropological methods, and approaches Jainism from the day to day experiences and practices of Jains. Her courses include Modern History of South Asia, Society and Current Affairs of South Asia, and specialist seminars on migration, modernity, contemporary Jainism, and Jain texts in Hindi and Gujarati.
This talk starts from a travelogue relating the experiences of a Jain mendicant travelling around the Western Indian Ocean in 1946. As such, it provides a unique glimpse into the fast-changing world of the 1940’s, with independence movements, the formation of new nation states, and the development of Jain communities around the Western Indian Ocean. The focus, however, is on the doubts and motivations that structure the travelogue’s author’s decision to accept an invitation to visit Mombasa, an analysis of which brings forward themes of reform and counter-reform, the impact of modernity on lay-mendicant relations, and the possibility of pansectarian as well as subaltern solidarity.
Short Bio
Professor Tine Vekemans holds the Ācārya Mahāprajña Chair for Jain Studies at Ghent University in Belgium. Her work on contemporary Jainism and Jainism outside of South Asia combines textual and anthropological methods, and approaches Jainism from the day to day experiences and practices of Jains. Her courses include Modern History of South Asia, Society and Current Affairs of South Asia, and specialist seminars on migration, modernity, contemporary Jainism, and Jain texts in Hindi and Gujarati.
