Template Of A Community Identity
Ranjeeta Dutta
IDENTITY, COMMUNITY AND STATE: THE JAINS UNDER THE MUGHALS by Shalin Jain Primus Books, New Delhi, 2018, 403 pp., 1095
July 2018, volume 42, No 7

The histories of bhakti and sufi traditions have dominated the study of religious developments in the medieval and early modern period in the South Asian region.  Consequently, the presence of other religious communities is hardly recognized and research on them remains somewhat marginalized. The book under review is a much-needed intervention in the historical scholarship of religious studies of the pre-colonial period. Based on wide ranging sources, mostly unexplored till date, the work highlights the developments within the Jaina community, the development of the community identity and its interactions with the Mughal imperial authority in northern India especially in the Mughal provinces of Ajmer, Awadh, Allahabad, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Lahore and Malwa. Though the mercantile community in the Mughal period was mostly Jaina, it is contended here that the analysis of the community and consolidation of its identity should not be based merely upon economics of trade and commerce but also focus on the social and political processes of state formation. It is further argued that such an analysis will inspire a nuanced social approach and highlight the fact that the Jaina community at no point of time was homogeneous. It is emphasized that although the idea of community implied a shared set of beliefs and a symbolic unity, the presence of dissent, conflict, and dynamic relationships between the Jaina religious functionaries and laity also underscored the notion of a community. In this context, the book discusses various Jaina ideologies and religious institutions that competed and contested with each other. Fresh insights on the functioning of a plural society in the medieval and early modern period with a vibrant space for diverse textual and ecclesiastical traditions and religious practice have been provided in the book.

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