Jains in India and Abroad

Author(s): Prakash C Jain
Publisher: International Summer School for Jain Studies

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A large number of Jains are either ignorant about the size of their community and its other demographic aspects, or have serious misgivings about it. They often seem to nurse grievances against the Census of India authorities for under-estimating the Jain population. Many of them suggest at the same time that there are no less than 10 million Jains in India. Notwithstanding such a wild claim, the census data clearly point towards a figure of no more than 4.5 million Jains in India. The 1991 and the 2001 Census data also underline the fact of low fertility behaviour among the Jains.
The 2001 Census data further underlined the fact of ethnic revivalism that got intensified among them during the 1990s, as a result of which about 600,000 Jains "lost” to the Hindus returned back to the community. The rise of the Hindu fundamentalism in India since the late 1980s, demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, and the growing ethnocentrism among other communities might have been responsible for this phenomenon among the Jains, who otherwise have been very well integrated into the mainstream of the Indian society. It would be interesting to note the outcomes of the 2011 Census that might tell us whether the process is over or there is more to it.
Having been engaged in the field of Indian diaspora in general for the past three decades, it was natural for me to pay some attention to the Jain diaspora, which currently is estimated at around quarter of a million, and is growing steadily. Not only numerous socio-cultural associations have sprung up within the Jain diaspora, a number of Jain temples have been constructed in those countries where there is a sizeable Jain community. Lately, Jain diaspora has been in the process of projecting Jainism and the Jain way of life as rational and scientific. Towards this goal some literature is being produced that put emphasis on the Jainist principles of ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (non-possession) and anekant (relativism). Promotion of vegetarianism as well as Jainism as an area of serious academic research appears to be the twin goals of diasporic Jain activism.
The Jain diaspora has begun to exert its influence on the Jains in India. In the process the Jains in India are also trying to reach out to their counterparts abroad. These mutually reinforcing linkages can best be seen in the activities of such associations as the Federation of the Jaina Associations in North America, the Jain International Trade Organisation, Mumbai and Shree Bharatvarshiya Digambara Jain Mahasabha, Delhi. They have been active in the fields of not only trade and commerce but have also been propagating Jainism around the world. The Jain Diaspora and some of its activities are highlighted in Chapter 4. An earlier version of this paper was presented at Bangalore at a conference on the “Diversity in Indian Diaspora" (Jain 2011).