ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 86

The second problem with which the Jainas have to come to terms is their slow growth rate which had come down to as low as about 4% in the 1991 census and was expected to come down further. Unfortunately, the 2001 census data with over 26% decadal growth rate do not confirm this trend. It is widely believed that this high growth rate of Jains in the 2001 census was due to ethnic revivalism and not due to any change in their fertility behavior. Therefore only the next census report would be able to confirm the slow growth rate trend decisively. Logically, the affluent minorities of the world such as the Jews and the Parsees share the predicament of demographic stagnation and decline in the long run and the Jains appear to follow the same trend.
1.4 Economic Status
The relative affluence among the Jainas has been noted by a number of scholars (Weber 1958; Hardiman 1996; Stevenson 1915). This is so due to the fact that they are mainly engaged in trade, commerce, and professional occupations. Thus according to the 2001 Census, only 18.3% of the Jain population is engaged in "working class" jobs (11.7% cultivators, 3.3% agricultural laborers, 3.3% household industry workers); the rest, that is, 81.7% are in "other" occupations. Not surprisingly, the Jainas have varyingly been described by various scholars as "the Jews of India", "the middlemen minority", "the marginal trading community", "the capitalist without capitalism", etc. Two contradictory explanations can be offered in this regard. One is the Weberian in terms of the Protestant ethic thesis. Weber maintains that there is "a positive relationship between Jainism and economic motivation". Weber seems to suggest that although Jainism is spiritualized in the direction of "World renunciation", some features of inner worldly asceticism are also present in it. These are reflected in such virtues as thriftiness, self-discipline, frugality, abstention, economy of time etc, which eventually promotes savings and accumulation of wealth. The other is the Marxist explanation in which the historicallyevolved predominantly petty bourgeois class position of the Jainas vis-a-vis the dependant, impoverished mass of the Indian peasantry and its exploitation by the former can account for the prosperity of the Jainas. Unfortunately hardly any work has been done along these lines although both the perspectives offer a number of hypotheses for systematic studies.
1.5 Social Organization
In spite of being a small community, contestations and confrontations have not been lacking among the Jainas. Thus the Digambara sect displays individualistic prophet-derived and sect-like character in contrast to the vet mbaras Jainism that shows the group-bound, priest-derived and Church-like ambience. Although Jainism does not sanction caste system, for more than a millennium the Jainas have been divided into a number of sects and sub-sects and castes and sub-castes. However, the caste system is not as rigid as among the Hindus. The caste system among the Jainas has been transmuted into competitive endogamous status groups.
Social organization of Jainism has also been characterized by the duality of ethic or dual value system (e.g., ascetics and householders, individualism and families, absolutism and relativism, in-group and out-group etc.) and its integration into a single continuum. This duality can be seen at many levels of Jaina philosophy, religion and social life which perhaps helps them in adjusting with the majority community on the one hand and in maintaining their own separate identity on the other. Segmental orientation characterized by out-group conflict is another feature of the Jaina community that obtained over the centuries in order to maintain its distinct religious identity. Although essentially a patriarchal religion, ironically women play an important role in the social reproduction of the Jaina community and its constituent institutions.
Jainas sense of tolerance and peaceful co-existence with other communities can be related to their epistemological doctrine of relative pluralism (nayavada) and which states the manifoldness (anek nta) of reality and knowledge. It states that reality can be comprehended from a number of standpoints, which have been classified into seven types known as saptabhangi naya (sevenfold standpoints). This doctrine is known as sy dav da (doctrine of "may be"). In short, the doctrines of anek nta and sy dav da constitute the distinguishing features of Jainism. These doctrines are very well reflected in the Jainas' definition and perception of social reality. Not surprisingly, in relation to the wider Hindu society the attitude of the Jainas has been characterized by "unobtrusiveness" and even assimilation.
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0