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criteria of language and ethnic background that define a minority do not apply to them for they speak practically every language of India and cannot be isolated ethnically from other Indian people.
An analysis of Jaina population distribution shows their concentration in western India including central India. The Jainas show their preference for urban as opposed to rural areas. They occupy a preeminent position in trade and commerce and much of India's wealth passes through their hands who compose barely 1/2% of India's population. Their honesty, reliability, loyalty, integrity and religiosity has won them immense wealth and influence in India. They compare favourably with the peaceloving and pious Quakers and successful and conservative Jews in the West. Their ethic is largely given the credit for this success and senee of loyalty.
Jainism, though preached and propagated by warrior princes (Ksatriyas), has come to have an entirely merchant (Vaisya) following. Most scholars have taken this to mean a downward social mobility of the Jainas, i e., they became nearer to the Śūdras and farther away from the Brahmaņas. Yet in the Indian past birth (jäti) alone was never the sole criterion of social status. Wealth, education, life-style, humility and social concern also contributed to social status apart from the criterion of birth. The Jainas, the second most educated people in India after the Parsis, were good and loyal subjects to all governments, largely urban in character and given to many social concerns and philanthropic works. They were proverbially famous for their honesty, humility, wealth and piety. An historical analysis of the ideal qualities and characteristics of each of the four social classes (varnas) would indicate a close relationship of the Jaina Vaisyas with the Brahmanas.10
When scholars assign a lower status to the Jainas than the Ksatriyas they seem to be repeating what traditional writers had written milleniums ago. They have neglected to consider the changing reality of Indian society and have ignored the multiplicity of factors that contributed towards social mobility. If interpreted in this light, Indian records furnish sufficient evidence to show that the Vaisya Jainas have achieved an upward social mobility by most closely paralleling the
10 I am not thinking here of M. N. Srinivasa's concept of "Sanskritization" but stating an observation gathered in the study of Indian history during the past fifteen years and following the social movements of classes, especially the Vaisyas, in historical perspective.
232/JAINTHOLOGY
