Jaina Community a Social Survey

Author(s): Vilas Sangve
Publisher: Popular Book Depot Bombay

Page 31

Population
Table 5
Year
Number per 10,000 of the population who are Jainas
48
1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971
From the above table it is clear that the Jaina community now stands at 0.47 per cent of the total population of India instead of 0.48 per cent in 1881 and 0.49 per cent in 1891. In other words per 10,000 of the total population of India, the proportion of Jainas was 48 in 1881, 49 in 1891 and 47 in 1971. It means that during the last 10 censuses the proportion of Jainas to the total population has not improved but has actually declined to some extent. In fact this total decline was more marked at the 4 censuses from 1911 to 1941. Taking into consideration the more or less settled nature of the Jaina community, the rate at which the Jaina population declined during this period was quite alarming. That is why the social demographers' and the census authorities of that period discussed the problem and tried to give some causes for it. “This (gradual decrease ) is probably due in part to the practice of child marriage and the prohibition of widow remarriage, and partly also to the small size of the community, which attracting as it does no adherents from outside, cannot increase at the same rate as much larger ones. Dr. Guha suggests with some force that the Jainas have a lowered fertility and an increased infant mortality rate on account of their division into small endogamous groups, some of which in Ahmedabad do not exceed 500 souls.''S The relative significance of these causes for the relative decline of Jaina population will be discussed at a greater length later on. But it can, however, be mentioned here that since many of these causes still hold good for the Jaina community even to the present