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the Young Jains of India in which about 250 youth between ages 18 and 40 had participated was held during December 23-25, 2005 at Indore. Based on the themes of Ahimsa, Aparigraha and Anekant, the motto of the Convention was "Progress through Jain Way of Life”.
The Jain community in North America has been slowly moving towards institutional completeness in terms of building temples, establishing socio-cultural associations, attempting to socialize the new generation in the Jaina way of life and increasingly continuing marriages within the community. More than 3,500 Jain youth regularly attend Jain Päthashäläs (schools) once a month on Sundays in about 70 Jain centres of North America. The Jaina education committee provides support to all the Päthashalas of North America in terms of text books and other logistics. The Jain Pathahalas at Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Jersey, Toronto, Washington DC, and Boston centres have 100 to 400 students. North American Jains have a great reputation for supporting humanitarian relief activities, Jivadaya activities, and temple construction. JAINA Education Committee also requests financial support to build the Temple of Knowledge (Jain Jnän Mandir) which can benefit every Jain family of North America and worldwide.
Canada Jains in Canada are often hyphenated with their US counterparts. Most Jain activities are also tied up with those of the US Jain communities. In the case of Canada it is difficult to say who migrated first to Canada and when. In all probability the first Jains must have migrated to Canada after India's independence, particularly from the 1950s onwards. Since then a large number of Jains have migrated to Canada first under the Quota system and subsequently under the Point system. These were joined by a small number of East African Jain refugees who were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin Dada in 1972. As per Canadian Census data, there were 1,410 Jains in 1991 and 2,455 in 2001. It is difficult to reconcile these figures with an estimate that suggested that in the early 1990s there were about 10,000 Jains in Canada (Kumar 1996). According to the same source, all Canadian provinces except Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and North West Territories, had Jain residents. Ontario was the host to the majority of Jains followed by Quebec and British
102 | Jains in India and Abroad
