Economic Vision of Lord Mahaveera: Building Blocks of Relative Economics

The central themes of Jainism are ahimsa (non-violence), anekant (nonabsolutism) and aprigraha (non-possession). Non-violence strengthens the autonomy of life of every being and if one believes that every soul is autonomous then one will never trample on its right to live. Non-absolutism strengthens the autonomy of thought of every individual and if one believes that every person is a thinking person then one will not trample on his thoughts and allows diverse views to prevail. Non-possession strengthens the interdependence of every soul and if one believes that one’s own existence is interdependent one will think twice before trampling on this planet1. These core elements have been the building blocks of economics of Mahaveera.