Somewhere in a housing society in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area, a strip of white paint was applied to the floor of a shared pathway. It was not a wall. It was not a gate. It did not lock anyone out, redirect anyone's route, or alter anyone's access to any common area. It was painted on the floor, put there so that Jain monks visiting the complex could walk more comfortably on hot summer pavement without burning their bare feet.
Within days, a social media influencer had called it Jain Jihad, posted about it on X and Facebook, the video had gone viral, a BJP corporator had filed a complaint with the police seeking criminal action against him for inciting communal disharmony, the Jain community was furious, the influencer himself claimed he was receiving threats, and the housing society had quietly repainted the strip in its original colour to end the row. The controversy was over in under a week. The confusion that fed it, however, is worth taking seriously, because it says something about how little most people understand about one of the world's oldest and most genuinely radical religions.
Why the monks walk barefoot
Jain monks and nuns, known as sadhus and sadhvis, live according to one of the most austere ethical codes that any religious tradition has ever produced. When a person takes diksha, the formal initiation into Jain monastic life, they renounce everything: property, family, food preferences, clothing in certain sects, vehicle travel, and footwear, permanently. They walk barefoot, everywhere, for the rest of their lives.
This is not an aesthetic choice or a symbolic gesture. It is a direct expression of Ahimsa, non-violence, which is the cornerstone of Jain philosophy and the first and foremost of the five Mahavrata, or great vows, that every Jain monk takes upon initiation. In Jainism, Ahimsa does not merely mean not killing people. It means not harming any living being, and the category of living beings in Jain thought is extraordinarily broad, encompassing insects, microbes, plants, and even the organisms that grow in still water or on damp surfaces.
Jain monks walk barefoot precisely because wearing shoes can inadvertently crush insects underfoot that a bare foot might feel and avoid. They carry a small broom, a morpichhi, to gently sweep the ground ahead of them before each step, clearing away any living creature that might otherwise be harmed. Mahatma Gandhi, who was deeply influenced by Jain thought, once wrote that no religion in the world has explained the principle of Ahimsa as deeply and systematically as Jainism. This is the tradition that was being accommodated by a strip of white paint.
What the paint actually does, and why it matters in monsoon
During the summer months, concrete and asphalt in cities like Mumbai absorb and retain significant heat. Barefoot walking on uncoated urban pavement in peak summer is genuinely uncomfortable and potentially injurious. The white coating, a lime or chemical-based whitewash, reflects sunlight and keeps the surface temperature measurably cooler. That is the practical reason for the summer application. Hindu temples across India use identical white pathways for devotees, a point that BJP corporator Pravin Chheda made explicitly in his complaint to police.
The coating also serves a second, distinctly theological purpose during the monsoon season. When rains arrive, green algae rapidly colonises damp concrete surfaces. To most people, algae is a cosmetic nuisance. To a Jain monk observing Ahimsa at the level prescribed by the Mahavrata, that algae is a living community of organisms, one-sensed beings, in the Jain classification of life, that must not be harmed. Walking on algae-covered concrete without a protective white coating means killing living organisms with every step. The paint prevents the algae from growing, which means the monk can walk without inadvertently violating the foundational vow of his entire monastic life.
This is why such coatings are particularly common during Chaturmas, the four-month monsoon period observed by Jain ascetics, during which monks remain in one location rather than travelling, specifically to avoid stepping on the increased number of insects and small creatures that emerge in the rains. The Ghatkopar housing society was preparing for exactly this kind of visit. The white strip was not a territorial claim. It was a practical act of consideration for people who will not harm a fly, literally.
The word that turned a pavement into a battlefield
The term Jain Jihad did a specific kind of damage. It took something that had a clear, documentable, centuries-old explanation and reframed it as something sinister, aggressive, and expansionist. The word jihad, whatever its theological meaning in Islamic tradition, carries an unmistakable charge in Indian public discourse. Attaching it to Jainism, a religion that practises non-violence to a degree that most people find difficult to fully comprehend, is not merely factually wrong. It is almost comically inverted. Jihad implies the use of force. Jainism is the tradition in which monks will not eat root vegetables like potatoes or onions because the act of pulling them from the ground kills the plant entirely, whereas plucking a fruit leaves the tree alive.
X user Rachit Jain responded to the original post directly, explaining the practice and pointing out that the question itself, whether residents should have been consulted before common areas were altered, was a legitimate one that could have been raised calmly. The issue, as he and others noted, was not the question but the framing. The influencer had chosen a phrase engineered to provoke outrage before he had taken any steps to understand what he was looking at.
The broader community dynamics that the controversy surfaced are real and worth acknowledging. The Print, in its coverage of the episode, noted that the white pathways brought to the surface accumulated tensions between Marathi and Gujarati-speaking residents in parts of Mumbai, disputes over housing access, employment, cultural space, and perceived influence. Jains make up just 0.4 per cent of India's population nationally, though their presence in Maharashtra is proportionally higher, at around 1. 24 per cent of the state. In Mumbai's Gujarati-Marwari community, estimates suggest Jains comprise nearly 30 to 40 per cent. These are real demographic and social dynamics that are worth discussing in their own right, through their own honest framing.
The controversy that resolved itself
Within days of the video going viral, the housing society repainted the strip. The issue, according to activists involved in brokering the resolution, was settled. No one was evicted, no community was displaced, no rights were violated. A strip of white paint that had been applied as a courteous accommodation was removed when it became a flashpoint, and the monks presumably made other arrangements. The controversy lasted less than a week.
What lasted longer was the conversation about what the phrase Jain Jihad revealed — not about Jainism, but about the speed with which social media can attach a loaded phrase to something ordinary and set it alight before anyone stops to ask what they are actually looking at. The influencer, who received threats he described as frightening, subsequently posted about his experience, claiming that the compassion the Jain community claims to uphold was not extended to him. It was a fair personal grievance, even if it did not change the substance of what he had said.
Jainism is a religion that asks its most devout practitioners to sweep the ground before they walk on it, so that an ant might live that would otherwise have died under a sandalled foot. The monks who visited that Ghatkopar housing society were following a code of conduct so painstakingly non-violent that it shapes every meal they eat, every step they take, and every word they speak. The white strip on the pavement was the lightest possible accommodation of that code. What it was called, in the end, said far more about the person doing the calling than it ever said about Jainism.
References:
- Free Press Journal – 'Jain Jihad' Remark Triggers Backlash, X Users Clash Over White Pathway For Jain Monks: https://www.freepressjournal.in
- Free Press Journal – Mumbai Society Repaints White Pathway After Online Row Over Jain Monks' Route: https://www.freepressjournal.in
- Free Press Journal – Mumbai: Politician Pravin Chheda Demands Police Action Over 'Jain Jihad' Defamation Controversy: https://www.freepressjournal.in
- OneIndia – Jain Jihad Remark Row: BJP Councillor Seeks Police Case Against Influencer: https://www.oneindia.com
- The Print – Mumbai: Of White (Fault)Lines & Identity Politics: https://theprint.in
- Wikipedia – Ahimsa in Jainism: https://en.wikipedia.org
- Britannica – Ahimsa: https://www.britannica.com
- SociologyInstitute – Core Religious Practices of Jainism Explained: https://sociology.institute
- Arthprakash – A Line in the Dust: How a Mumbai Pavement Sparked a Digital Holy War: https://www.arthprakash.com
- JainWorld – Implementation of Ahimsa: https://jainworld.com
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