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JAINA CONVENTION 2011
Can Jainism Survive in 21st Century?
Dr. Sulekh C. Jain, Dr. Yashwant K. Malaiya
Dr. Sulekh C. Jain, a mechanical engineer by profession, is a recipient of the JAINA Ratna Award and served as the president of Jain Centers (Cincinnati-Dayton, Houston) and JAINA (2 terms). He is the founder and chairman of International School for Jain Studies USA and secretary of Mahavir Vision Inc. USA. Contact: scjain@earthlink.net (281-494-7656)
Dr. Yashwant K. Malaiya, a professor of Computer Science, has published a number of technical articles and has served as a chair person of technical conferences. He is the coordinator for office of Alumni Affairs. Dr. Malaiya has published Jain history articles, started the very first web-site on Hindi language and maintains a web site on Jainism. Contact: Malaiya@cs.colostate.edu (970-491-7031)
"Live and Help Live"
This article identifies some disturbing trends after considering the state of Jain demography today. We cannot take the survival of Jainism for granted. We analyze the data, identify the main concerns and summarize potential actions for both the Jain society and leaders. We need to go beyond the conventional beliefs and practices to address this issue.
Introduction
A few religious communities like Parsees and Jews have identified the threat to their existence. The Parsis have managed to survive after arriving in India. However today they are raising very few children. and are on the verge of extinction.1 Half the Jews in USA marry outside. Studies show that most grandchildren of Jewishnon-Jewish marriage do not identify with Judaism2. But they have at least recognized the problem. Jain community appears to be completely oblivious of the future it faces. There are no debates or discussions.
Many Jains today discount the census count (4,225,053 in 2001) and claim that the actual number of Jains is much higher, although without any supporting data. The only reason given is that during the
1 India's Zoroastrians dying out for lack of Parsi clergy, Samanth Subramanian, The National, Australia, Jan 28, 2011 2 Will Your Grandchildren Be Jews, A. Gordon and R. Horowitz, http://www.aish.com/jw/s/48910307.html
census, many Jains either do not identify themselves as Jains or the census takers on their own put them in the Hindu category.
Even if we assume that there is a significant undercount of the Jains, trends show that actual number of Jains is going down as a percentage of total India's population, and this decline will accelerate. Survival of Jainism overseas is also threatened.
Let us examine the current status and the trends.
Jains in India
Before independence, the Jain population of India dropped from 0.49% in 1881 to 0.37% in 19413. For three decades after the partition, the Jain population had a healthy growth about equal to the rest of India. Jain were 0.47% in 1981. But the
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Dr. V. A. Sangave, Jaina Community: A Social Survey, 1959.
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