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JAIN JOURNAL
Table 1 :
Variations in the number of Jains since, 1891
Number of Jains (in 000s)
Census year
Percentage of
total population
Decadal
percent change in the number of Jains
1881 1891 1901 1911
1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981*
1,222 1,417 1,334 1,248 1,177 1,251 1,440 1,618 2,027 2,605 3,193
0.49 0.51 0.47 0.41 0.39 0.37 0.37 0.45 0.46 0.47 0.48
15.94 --5.83 -6.47 -5.26
6.28 15.81 11.67 25.17 28.48 23.17
* Excluding Assam where, census was not held in 1981 owing to disturbed conditions.
Source : (1) Kingsley Davis, Population of India & Pakistan, Russell & Russell, New
York, 1951, pp. 178-179.
(2) Census of India, 1961, Paper No. 1 of 1963, Religion, R.G. Office, New
Delhi, 1963, pp. ii-vii.
(3) Census of India, 1971, Paper No. 2 of 1972, Religion, R. G. Office,
New Delhi, 1972, pp. 2-5.
(4) Census of India, 1981, Paper No. 4 of 1984, Household Population by
Religion of Head of Household, R. G. Office, New Delhi, 1984, p. 26 (figures amended as per Errata issued subsequently by this office).
The decline in the number of Jains in the earlier decades of the present century and a slower growth in it during 1921-41, according to Davis was due to several factors such as (a) higher incidence of widowhood occupied with a taboo on widow remarriage, (b) low fertility within the marital relations, (c) loss of members of this community due to drift into Hinduism because of misstatement of religion, and (d) no population growth through conversion, because the religion is not of proslyti
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