Jain Gazette 1905 10

Author(s): Jain Student Institute Kolhapur
Publisher: Jain Student Institute Kolhapur

Page 3

A MISLEADING COMBINATION OF STATISTICS.
The figures of convicts in British Indian Jaols as given, in the Jaol Administration Reports are a very good index of the moral condition of the several communities of India. They enable us to compare one community with another with reference to the character of men following different religious faiths. I have been studying these figures with this view for many years past and I find, as I hope every one will find on a study of the same, that the Jains as a class are the strictest adherents of ethical principles in India. But the way in which these figure are given in the Reports are so misleading that a superfici observer may jump from them to just the opposite conclusio / This is due to the combination of Jains and Budhists003 tables showing the number of convicts according to their rema Attempts are being made to call the attention of the Gover. of India to the mischievous results of this unnecessary amalg tion of two entirely independent communities: I wish the attempts to be on a larger scale and hence I shall briefly explain to the readers of the Jain Gazette the true position of the question.
According to the Roport of Jaol Administration for the year 1901, the number of convicts, Jain and Budhists together in British India is 13,307. The number of followers of the two religions in the same year, according to the Census Report of 1901, is 98,90,149 in British India. This obviously gives one convict to 743 persons, Jains and Budhists together. This proportion would bring down the Jains to the bottom of the ladder, as will be seen from the following table in which the Jains and Budhists are grouped together.