Religion in the Everyday Lives of Second-Generation Jains in Britain and the USA: Resources Offered by a Dharma-Based South Asian Religion for the Construction of Religious Biographies, and Negotiating Risk and Uncertainty in Late Modern Societies. Issue 3 (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shah, Bindi V.
• Is Part Of: Sociological review. Volume 62:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 512
• Page End: 529
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: dharma-based religion -- second-generation Jains -- cataphatic reflexivity -- apophatic reflexivity -- religious biographies -- late modernity; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-954X.12177
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0261

Abstract

While the growth of spiritualties is associated with post-traditional societies and the ability of individuals to engage in reflexive construction of religious biographies in late modernity, these arguments ignore various dimensions of reflexivity and processes of re-traditionalization. In this article I explore linkages and affinity between social discourses in late modernity and a religion, with a distinctive ontology, originating in South Asia. Drawing on qualitative data, I examine processes involved in the construction of a religious self among second-generation Jains in Britain and the USA. Living in late modern societies, young Jains have established a reflexive habitus. Such reflexivity has affinity with a neo-orthodox tendency in Jainism that rejects the authority of ascetics and rituals while elevating one's own knowledge, discipline and insights in the construction of a Jain biography. I find that neo-orthodox Jainism provides resources for young Jains to constantly reflect on and actively choose how to be a Jain; to enact cataphatic reflexivity in the construction of a Jain self. For some second-generation Jains, the Jain tradition also provides resources to enact a non-instrumental, apophatic reflexivity; a calm equanimous state that enables them to create ontological security in the face of risks and uncertainty in late modernity.