Kattie Iwanski - Jainism

During our in-class discussion, we examined the idea of specific groups of individuals turning the I relationship between humans and food into an I and You complex. The religious following of Jainism, which is based in the country of India, has strict diet regulations that follow the concepts of modern veganism, but with even more constraints. These rules include banning actions such as not consuming honey, not eating food stored overnight, not eating raw vegetables, and not eating food after dark. They participate in these kinds of practices because it is believed that causing harm to other creatures is a violent act. However, the only way in which individuals are released from the reincarnation cycle, which is the main goal of following these restrictions, is to live passively among all creatures. Therefore, honey collection violently diatribes the bees, large amounts of microorganisms grow on food overnight, raw vegetables are still considered to be alive, and the light from the fire used to cook food at night attracts bugs thus killing them. In addition, during the fasting period of Tithis there are certain days in a week where Jains are not supposed to eat green vegetables, called Panchang, restricting their diets further. Their schedule is so complicated that a phone app was invented in order to keep track of their dietary restrictions for each day of the week.