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Jaina Community—A Social Survey
figures as per Census Reports of India from 1881 to 1971 are given in Table 2.
Table 2
Census Year
Total Jaina Population in India
1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971
12,21,896 14,16,177 13,34,039 12,48,182 11,78,596 12,52,105 14,49,286 16,18,406 20,27,248 26,04,646
From the above table it could be seen that even though the Jaina population of 1971 shows a considerable increase over the Jaina population of 1881, still the increase has not been continuous throughout these years. On the contrary we find that during the decade of 1881 to 1891 there was a slight increase in Jaina population followed by a decline in Jaina population from 1891 to 1921 and that in general there has been a steady and continuous increase in Jaina population from 1931 to 1971. These variations in terms of percentage increase or decrease during each decade over the last 90 years are given in Table 3.
Table 3
Decade
Percentage Increase or Decrease in
Jaina Population
1881 – 1891 1891 - 1901 1901 – 1911 1911 — 1921 1921 – 1931 1931 -- 1941 1941 - 1951 1951 — 1961 1961 - 1971
+ 15.9 - 5.8 - 6.4 - 5.6 + 6.2 + 15.8 + 11.7 + 25.3 + 28.5
