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Jaina Community-A Social Survey
population of Ahmedabad City alone is 86,318 out of 1,04,047 Jaina population of Ahmedabad District. The districts of Kolhapur (11:57 per sq. km.), Belgaum (8.21 per sq. km.) and Sangli (6.94 per sq. km.) come next in the districtwise density of Jaina population but they stand out very prominently compared to the other districts in India. The districts of Greater Bombay and Ahmedabad could not be compared with these three districts as the former districts are essentially urban in character. The districts of Kolhapur, Belgaum and Sangli are not urban-dominated districts but still the density of Jaina population is very high compared to the other districts which show more concentration of Jaina population and especially to the districts of Kutch, Jalor and Pali which show more percentage of the Jaina population to the total population of the district concerned.13 In fact there is a difference of only 0.38 in the density of the Jaina population between Ahmedabad district (11.95 per sq. km.) and Kolhapur district (11:57 per sq. km.). The combined - density of the Jaina population in the three districts of Kolhapur, Belgaum and Sangli works out as 8.75 per sq. km. and this is practically double the density of the Jaina population in Udaipur district which comes next to Sangli district in this respect. Thus the intense concentration of the Jaina population in the Southern Pocket consisting of the three districts of Kolhapur, Sangli and Belgaum is a unique feature in the distribution of the Jaina population in India.
The various features of the distribution of the Jaina population in India will be evident from the accompanying map of India.
3. RURAL-URBAN DISTRIBUTION OF JAINA POPULATION
The Jainas are essentially urban dwellers. This is the only religious community in India whose total numbers in urban areas exceeds their number in rural areas.14 Out of 26,04,646 total population of Jainas in India as per 1971 Census, 15,58,240 Jainas reside in urban areas and 10,46,406 Jainas reside in rural areas. It means that the percentage of urban and rural population among the Jainas is 59.83 and 40.17 respectively. These figures for all religions in India are 19.90 and 80.10 respectively.
The urban character of the Jaina population can be noticed
