NewsJain Americans adapt Thanksgiving by applying an ethic of nonviolence even to...

Jain Americans adapt Thanksgiving by applying an ethic of nonviolence even to the turkey

(RNS) — When Ami Doshi was invited as a new migrant from India to friends’ Thanksgiving Day festivities, it shocked the then-middle schooler to hear the meat of a rare, elaborately feathered bird would be on the menu.

“I actually had no idea what a turkey was,” said Doshi, now in her early 40s. But her bigger question was a moral one. “When you kill a bird, they can feel it, they can see it, you know, with all of the five senses, they can experience it,” she said. “Why is a pet’s life more important than a bird’s life?”

Doshi, who was raised in the Jain faith, has been a vegetarian her whole life. Committing to their fundamental tenet of ahimsa, or nonviolence, Jains avoid causing harm to all living beings, whether in thought, word or action. Many avoid eating root vegetables, like onion and garlic, out of reverence for every form of life, including the insects uprooted when the plants are harvested.

It seemed odd to Doshi, she said, that the centerpiece of a holiday dedicated to gratitude would be a roasted and stuffed creature. 

For Jain Americans who want to participate in this most American of holidays, an alternative was needed. Jains in the U.S., who number about 200,000, have made the day their own by forging a tradition of attending temple services to pray for the millions of lives lost, serving meals to the needy and cooking up an all-vegan feast.

“We figured out a place for us,” said Nirva Patel, a second-generation Jain American and executive director of the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School. “We believe that Thanksgiving is about gratitude, about being present, about family. We kind of pulled the good from that holiday, and we’re doing it in our own curated way.”

Guests enjoy the 2023 Thanksgiving potluck hosted by Nirva Patel. (Photo courtesy of Nirva Patel)

Patel, who executive produced a well-received 2018 vegan lifestyle documentary “The Game Changers,” hosts a plant-based potluck every year, complete with a plastic turkey centerpiece as a conversation starter.

Growing up as a Jain in suburban Massachusetts was complicated this time of year, she said. “It was very, very foreign concept and a very strange thing to see the kids and teachers celebrating a turkey and talking about a turkey’s gobble and coloring printouts of turkeys, but then literally talking about how they carve them up and eat them,” she said. “You just kind of stayed silent in the back of the classroom.”

A former chair of the animal advocacy group Farm Sanctuary, Patel gained a newfound appreciation for the bird when the organization held its own “Celebration for the Turkeys”: a feast of turkey-friendly foods prepared for the rescued guests of honor. “It really makes you think about this beautiful creature that is being so exploited,” she said.

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