________________
JAINA GAZETTE.
87
This would show a diminution of 6.4% in the last decade and 5.8% in the period 1891-1901, whereas the whole popula; tion of India increased in the same periods liy 11.8% and 9% respectively.
The provincial figures are still worse. In the last 10 years we had a loss of 10-5% in the U. P., 6.4% in the Punjab, 8.6% in the Bombay Presidency, 22% in the C. P., and 10% in Baroda. Io the Gwalior state it is about 26% and in the neighbourhood of Gwalior city it has reached about 30%. If we go on to individual places we shall find several where instead of a hundred families that lived 10 years ago, we have now only 2 or 3. In the C. P. and Central India there are several subsections of the Jaina community whose numbers bave come down from thousands to hundreds and from hundreds to a few stray individuals.
But these are the figures as they stand in the census reports ; and we have to look bebind them if we really desire to have a true knowledge of the decrease. One fact at least must be specially noted. There was a very strong movement set on foot before the last census in which all Jainas were requested to be careful to return themselves as Jaipas and not as Hindus. The census authorities were also specially requested to remember this fact. This step was rendered necessary by the fact that in the previous census, many Jains had been counted as Hindus, and no accurate estimate could be made about the number of Jains in India. Thus it would appear that the number of Jainas in India in 1891 and 1901 was really greater than what is given in the report, the difference being greater in 1891 than in 1901. But there could not have been much discrepancy in the figures for 1911. So that most certainly, the decrease in Jaina population is greater than what these figures indicate. Still in the absence of anything better we will base our arguments on those figures.
Making all possible allowances, the average rate of decrease comes to over a lac every decade. It is easy to see that if this state of affairs continues it would not take more than a century
for the whole population to become extinct. This period would Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
