In this episode of the Engaged Jain Studies Podcast, Arihanta Institute professor and lead organizer of the Vegan Studies Initiative, Jonathan Dickstein, PhD, speaks with political science scholar Jishnu Guha-Majumdar, PhD about his forthcoming course with Arihanta Institute, 1020 | Foundations of Animal Ethics. Drawing on years of research and a deep commitment to justice for animals, Dr. Guha-Majumdar reflects on his own ethical journey, the interplay between theory and praxis, and why it matters that we understand why animals deserve moral consideration—not just how to act on their behalf.

Together, they explore key ethical frameworks—from utilitarianism to rights-based and care ethics—and discuss the evolving landscape of animal advocacy, including how our rhetoric and conceptual vocabulary shape public discourse and political action. The episode also previews what students can expect in the course, including a rigorous engagement with foundational theories, weekly readings, and live Q&A sessions throughout August 2025.

📚 1020 | Foundations of Animal Ethics launches August 4, 2025, through Arihanta Institute’s Vegan Studies Initiative and will remain available for self-paced study. All live Zoom sessions will be recorded and accessible, whether you join at launch or enroll at a later date. Whether you're an activist, student, or lifelong learner, this course invites you to rethink your assumptions about animals, ethics, and action.

Learn more and enroll:

https://www.arihantainstitute.org/course/1020-foundations-of-animal-ethics

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS

• 1020 | Foundations of Animal Ethics - Arihanta Institute
• CNS Journal | "Veganism as Left Praxis"
• VOX | "Vegans are radical. That’s why we need them."
• Vegan Studies Initiative @ Arihanta Institute | Courses, Speaker Series, Research & More!

**********

ABOUT OUR PODCAST GUESTS

Jishnu Guha-Majumdar is an assistant professor of political theory in the political science department at Butler University. His academic research considers the relationships between animal advocacy, ecological advocacy, and antiracism.

ABOUT OUR PODCAST HOST

Dr. Jonathan Dickstein specializes in South Asian Religions, Religion and Ecology, and Comparative Religious Ethics. He received his doctoral degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he wrote his dissertation on ancient Indian animal taxonomies and their relevance for religious ritual and dietary practice. Jonathan’s current work focuses on Jainism and contemporary ecological issues, and accordingly extends into Critical Animal Studies, Food Studies, and Diaspora Studies.

Jonathan has published in a wide array of interdisciplinary journals on topics such as veganism and politics, yoga and diet, Jain veganism, and the ethic of nonviolence (ahiṃsa). Jonathan considers himself a scholar-practitioner, having spent many years not only in libraries but also in public advocating for justice for both humans and nonhumans...

In this episode of the Engaged Jain Studies Podcast, Professor Christopher Jain Miller interviews Dr. Sailesh Rao, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers. Listen as Dr. Rao describes the contours of a compassionate global food system, and understand why that food system must be plant-based in order to solve some of society's most pressing concerns including poverty, food insecurity, and climate change. See how the compassionate food system Dr. Rao describes is in alignment with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how it can help the UN meet several of these SDGs. Leave inspired to help the planet transition toward a compassionate, plant-based food system. Finally, learn about Dr. Rao's upcoming Compassion Studies Initiative course, 2020 | Compassionate Food Systems for Planetary Healing.

👉🏽✨ Pre-register now and unlock unlimited access to 50+ courses with a 14-day free trial to Arihanta's Institute's Course Membership! Join a global community of lifelong learners dedicated to positive change and a more compassionate, purposeful life.

Start your free trial!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS

• Climate Healers | Transform yourself; transform our world.
• 2020 | Compassionate Food Systems for Planetary Healing
• Course Membership - Start Your 14-Day Free Trial
• Compassion Studies Initiative @Arihanta Institute
• Arihanta Institute | Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living

**********

ABOUT OUR PODCAST GUEST

Dr. Sailesh Rao is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated towards healing the Earth's climate. He is an environmentalist by occupation and systems engineer by profession. He invented the protocol for transforming early analog internet connections to more robust digital connections, while accelerating their speed ten-fold. Still today, any data accessed on the internet likely passed through a device implementing this protocol.

He is also a Human, Earth and Animal Liberation (HEAL) activist, husband, dad and since 2010, a star-struck grandfather. He has promised his granddaughter, Kimaya, that the world will be largely Vegan before she turns 16 in 2026, so that people will stop eating her relatives, the animals. He has faith that humanity will transform to keep this pinky promise to Kimaya's generation, not just for ethical reasons, but also out of sheer ecological necessity. He has been championing the Vegan Rewilding solution to our global environmental, health and ethical crises since 2009.

ABOUT OUR PODCAST HOST

Christopher Jain Miller is the co-founder, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute. He completed his PhD in the study of Religion at the University of California, Davis and is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut and Visiting Professor at Claremont School of Theology where he...

Can Jainism be radical? In this special live-recorded episode of the Engaged Jain Studies Podcast, Arihanta Institute professor and lead organizer of the Vegan Studies Initiative, Jonathan Dickstein, PhD sits down with three emerging voices in the Jain community—Anjli Shah, Sahana Mehta, and Mohit Mookim—for an honest and thought-provoking dialogue about the intersections of Jain identity, social justice, and civic engagement.

Together, they explore questions: What does it mean to be a young Indian American Jain in the U.S. today? How are Jain values like non-violence, non-possession, and pluralism applied—or challenged—when confronting systemic inequality, racism, gender oppression, and climate collapse? Can Jainism, a tradition rooted in spiritual restraint, inspire the kind of structural change radical politics demands?

Tune in for a bold conversation on the future of Jain ethics, the role of intergenerational dialogue, and what it means to imagine a Jainism responsive to the moral urgencies of the 21st century.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS

• Arihanta Institute | Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living
• Vegan Studies Initiative @ Arihanta Institute | Courses, Speaker Series, Research & More!

**********

ABOUT OUR PODCAST GUESTS

Anjli Shah (she/her) is Relationships & Grants Manager at One Project, a nonprofit committed to nurturing a just transition to an regenerative democratic economy, where she helps develop grantee cohort programming and organize donors interested in shifting wealth and power to communities. Her work at the International Rescue Committee, Prevention Research Center, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have shaped her commitment to philanthropy that is accountable to social movements, and to a world beyond philanthropy. Grounded in the Jain axiom “Parasparopagraho jivanam” (“All life is bound together by mutual support & interdependence”), Anjli co-founded and led Jains for Justice, an informal collective that organized the Jain community around racial justice, gender justice, and civic engagement between 2019-2020. She is a former board member of the South Asian American Digital Archive. Anjli holds a BA in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University, and is currently based in Los Angeles.

Sahana Mehta (she/her) is a South Asian organizer living in NYC. She is the High Net Wealth Program Manager at Resource Generation, a network of young people with wealth & class privilege working towards the equitable redistribution of land, wealth, and power. Politicized in 2013 through racial justice movements in the US and educational equity initiatives in India, Sahana has engaged with a number of intersecting social justice movements. Her work in South Asian communities has focused on challenging the rise of Hindu Nationalism, advocating for caste equity, and supporting diasporic gender justice infrastructure like South Asian SOAR. Sahana has worked with transnational gender justice organizations including MADRE, Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance to resource movements and challenge dominant philanthropic paradigms. Sahana is one of the creators of the archives for Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers, a domestic worker-led organization in NYC.

Mohit Mookim (they/them) is a land and housing justice lawyer at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit collective based in Oakland, California. Moh is also a member-leader with Resource Generation, organizing with other young people with class privilege redistributing wealth and power to social...