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THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF JAINISM
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insignificant. In Rajasthan it is in all 13.8% (total Jain population 409.5 thousand), in Gujarat 9.3% (total Jain population 409.8 thousand). In the remaining States Jains are most numerous in Maharashtra (485.7 thousand), Madhya Pradesh (248 thousand) and Mysore (174.4 thousand). In other States their number does not exceed 40-50 thousand.
Evidently, a sharp increase in the community in the abovementioned regions can be explained by the fact that the Jain bourgeoise seeks and finds a sphere for investing its capital precisely in those regions, where intensive capitalist development has started.
In their own times, the leaders of the community started taking measures to eliminate the reasons for the fall in the number of members of their community. There were two tendencies, differently interpreting these reasons and taking different measures to overcome them.
One of the tendencies can be called conservative. The representatives of this tendency argue this out by saying that the community as a whole has forgotten the ancient rules of conduct, that the standard of being exacting and strict has fallen down and that the community is having more faith in western type of education. First and foremost, they appeal to the laymen to give more of their time and energy to the teachings of canonic books. They also appeal with equal force to the monks to give more attention to expounding and propagating the canonic texts. The advocates of this tendency demand new rules of conduct, which will prohibit marriages of Jains with Hindus and will also restrict all except business connections with them. They also demand that journeys to foreign countries should not be allowed and especially Jain students should not be sent abroad for education.
Other tendency is represented by those who demand softening of caste restrictions, fusion of numerous small sects into a stronger unit, spread of education and assigning more extensive rights to women in social life.
The leading personalities of the community with affiliation to this tendency often raised the question as to how to fight against the failings of the community. They saw biggest evil in the caste system with its restricted rules regarding marriages and called upon the community to return to the ancient form
