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The Working Model
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of India and as they were scattered over practically all parts of India, it appears that much attention was not paid to note down and discuss their various institutions and customs and manners. Naturally little information is available on all these points. It has already been stated that formerly many Jainas regarded themselves as Hindus and hence it is likely that, in spite of instructions to the contrary, Jainas might have been included among Hindus by the census enumerators. Further, in the census operations of 1931, the Jainas, being more involved in the non-co-operation movement, did not purposefully furnish information about them. As the names of authorities from which the information was collected for the District Gazetteers are not mentioned, it is difficult to say anything about the authenticity of the sources of their information. Apart from these facts we have to rely upon the Census Reports and District Gazetteers, for at no cther place such a type of information is available and that is why they have been profusely refer. red to in previous chapters.
In recent years --- and especially after the compilation of District Gazetteers -- the Jainas have commenced to take more interest in their various social problems. With a view to tackle these problems and to suggest their solutions, they have written some books based on the information collected by them. Such books are mainly concerned with the problems of marriage and of giving rights to certain sections of the community which are considered low born and degraded by other sections. It must, however, be borne in mind that these books have been written with a particular aim in view. Leaving aside the propagandist aspect of them such books provide a fund of information on the social problems concerned. Moreover, the Jaina authors, especially the Jaina ascetics, have recently put in black and white the traditions and different sorts of available information regarding several castes and sub-castes found in the Jaina community. It is needless to add that these books furnish us with valuable information because these have been written by disinterested persons and that too without any ulterior motive. Further, with the rise of caste consciousness and the development of loyalty to the caste, many Jaina castes, in imitation of Hindu castes, arranged to get their histories written down either through the committees specially constituted for the purpose or by individual persons. Their
