Weber and the Jains

Abstract:Although Max Weber is best known to non-specialists for The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, a work as controversial as it is famous, he also wrote extensively on the world's other major religions, and this included the religions of India. In what follows, I examine what he had say about Jainism and some of the issues to which it gives rise. I begin with some Jain basics followed by a brief account of what Weber himself had to say about the Jains. I then discuss the Jains as traders and as traders among other traders, after which I consider the issue of Weber's relevance to an understanding of the Jains.