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OCTOBER, 1986
Keeping in view the fact that nine-tenth of the Jains are concentrated in the six states listed above, the patterns of population redistribution of Jains since 1951 among these states only have been discussed here. It is seen from Table 3 that the number of Jains in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka has more than doubled during the last 30 years period. This growth has remained highest in Maharashtra (178 percent). In Gujarat, on the other hand, it remained very much slow (25 percent) followed by Uttar Pradesh (45 percent). The decadal percent change in the population of Jains, among the states, is noted to be considerably faster in Maharashtra during the earlier two decades of 1951-61 and 1961-71 which however, declined in the last decade (1971-81). A similar trend is also noted in Madhya Pradesh. As opposed to this, in Karnataka, it was comparatively faster in the last decade than the earlier two decades. In Gujarat, growth of Jains as stated earlier, remained quite slow during all the three decades as it varied from 9 percent in 195161 to 10 in 1961-71 and even less than 4 in 1971-81. In the remaining state of Uttar Pradesh, it declined from about 25 percent to just 2 and increased thereafter to approximately 13 during these three decades. As a result of this uneven pace of population growth of Jains, the percentage share of Jains of these states in the total population of Jains in India increased from approximately 21 to 29 in Maharashtra and from 11 to about 14 in Madhya Pradesh. Whereas, in the remaining four states it declined continuously during this period except for Karnataka where after a gradual decline in it during 1951-71, it increased at the 1981 Census. This decline again is more conspicuous in Gujarat where, it declined from 23 in 1951 to 20 in 1961, 17 in 1971 and approximately 15 in 1981. Thus, it may be discerned from the above analysis that, as a result of varying pace of population growth resulting largely from the inter-state migration, the population of Jains is gradually being redistributed among these states. For instance, Gujarat which ranked first with regard to the percentage of Jains in 1951 has lost its position to Maharashtra and Rajasthan in 1981.
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