Violence denied

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The treatments of violence in the history of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) range from Jain ascetics wearing face masks and sweeping the ground in front of them to avoid killing any manner of life to Krishna's advice (while revealing himself as Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita ) to his cousin Arjuna that the killing of his other cousins in war was a just part of his karma. Yet the Jain tradition has resulted in conqueror kings and Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi has argued that the Bhagavad is the strongest statement for nonviolence that exists. Twelve essays explore these and other tensions about the use of violence in the Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions on the Indian subcontinent. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)