Arihanta Institute is proud to announce that the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies has awarded a grant to Professor Christopher Jain Miller, Vice President of Academic Affairs, to lead and organize the 2026 initiative, “Engaged Anekāntavāda: Jainism Engaging Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism+.” Building on the success of the 2025 Compassion Studies Initiative funded by the Uberoi Foundation, this new project expands Arihanta Institute’s initiative to bring the wisdom of the dharma traditions to a global public audience through accessible online education, innovative scholarship, and interreligious engagement.

 

Rooted in the Jain philosophical principle of anekāntavāda, which recognizes that reality can be perceived from multiple viewpoints, the Engaged Anekāntavāda project seeks to help individuals navigate difference with compassion, curiosity, and respect. Through a series of public programs, research projects, and graduate-level courses, the initiative will demonstrate how Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism have long modeled peaceful coexistence alongside their doctrinal diversity. It will further highlight the relevance of these teachings for addressing social, political, and interpersonal challenges today.

 

Every year on Earth Day weekend, Arihanta Institute hosts the Engaged Jain Studies Conference, and a centerpiece of the Engaged Anekāntavāda project is a two-day online public conference scheduled on April 25-26, 2026. The conference will bring together leading scholars of the dharma traditions to explore how Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs have historically engaged one another in creative, ethical, and mutually enriching ways. The conference will also include contemporary applications of anekāntavāda, featuring scholars and community leaders who will discuss the role of anekāntavāda in business ethics, political participation, education, selfless service, environmental care, and daily life. The conference will be broadcast live on Arihanta Institute’s online platform, with all recordings made freely available for public access. Save the date and pre-register here.

 

Complementing the conference, Arihanta Institute will offer a four-part public speaker series, “Engaging Anekāntavāda in Everyday Life.” This series will feature influential figures from the dharma traditions including business professionals, policymakers, educators, and community leaders who will share real-world examples of how multi-perspectival thinking can foster more compassionate decision-making in both personal and professional settings.

 

The initiative also includes a significant research component as it will bring together scholars focusing on historical and contemporary instances of Jain engagement with Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh traditions whose research includes Jain yoga, interreligious dialogue, the evolution of ritual and yoga traditions, dharmic approaches to social ethics, and strategies for protecting human and non-human life. 

 

Professor Miller will also design and teach two new graduate seminars at Claremont School of Theology, a partner of Arihanta Institute, for the Masters Degree track in Engaged Jain Studies and for the new PhD in Engaged Jain Studies. The first course will examine how Jain yoga traditions have engaged with Hindu and Buddhist yogas, while the second explores how anekāntavāda can serve as a methodological tool for studying interreligious engagement more broadly. These courses will be offered on a recurring basis to train future scholars and thought leaders. Furthermore, research arising from these seminars will be presented at a major academic conference in 2026, further contributing to public and scholarly conversations on the dharma traditions.

 

Arihanta Institute warmly acknowledges the Uberoi Foundation’s generous grant, which allows this initiative to flourish. Their funding ensures that the educational content, public programs, and research generated through Engaged Anekāntavāda remain widely accessible and impactful.

 

Through this initiative, Arihanta Institute continues its commitment to promoting compassionate engagement across traditions and cultures, an urgent and necessary endeavor in today’s polarized world. We look forward to sharing these programs with our global community in 2026 and beyond!

 

Jai Jinendra!

 

 

Learn more about the Compassion Studies Initiative, the Master of Arts in Engaged Jain Studies, and Professor Christopher Jain Miller.