Jainism in India


is India's sixth-largest religion. As per the census of 2011, there were 4,451,753 and counting Jains in the 1.35 billion population of India, the majority living in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and so on. However, the influence of Jainism has been far greater on Indian and the South Asian population than these numbers suggest. Jains can be found in every state and every union territories of India, varying from large societies to smaller. The state of Jharkhand, with a population of 16,301 and counting Jains also contains the most holy pilgrimage centre of Sammed Shikhar. Indian Jains can also be found in many other countries throughout the world.

History

Jain doctrine teaches that Jainism has always existed and will always exist. Like most ancient Indian religions, Jainism has its roots from the Indus Valley civilization, reflecting native spirituality prior to the Indo-Aryan migration into India. Other scholars suggested the Shramana traditions were separate and contemporaneous with Indo-Aryan religious practices of the historical Vedic religion. In August 2005, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Jainism, Sikhism are distinct religions but are inter-connected and inter-related to Hinduism, so these three are part of wider broader Hindu religion, based on the historic background on how the Constitution had come into existence after. However, in the 2006 verdict, the Supreme Court found that the "Jain Religion is indisputably not a part of the Hindu Religion".

Status in India

On January 20, 2014, the Government of India awarded the minority status to the Jain community in India, as per Section 2 of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. This made the Jain community, which makes for 9.5 million or 0.72 percent of the population as per 2011 census, the sixth community to be designated this status as a "national minority", after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis. Though Jains already had minority status in 11 states of India including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, in 2005 a petition was filed with Supreme Court of India, by community representatives, which was also backed by the National Minorities Commission. In its judgement the court left the decision to the Central government.

Jainism by state

Jainism as a religion exists throughout India. Jainism also varies from state to state, but the core values are the same.
State or union territoryJain populationTotal populationPercentage Jain
Maharashtra1,400,349112,374,3331.25
Rajasthan622,02368,548,4370.91
Gujarat579,65460,439,6920.96
Madhya Pradesh567,02872,626,8090.78
Karnataka440,28061,095,2970.72
Delhi166,23116,787,9410.99
Uttar Pradesh213,267199,812,3410.11
Tamil Nadu89,26572,147,0300.12
Chhattisgarh61,51025,545,1980.24
West Bengal60,14191,276,1150.07
Andhra Pradesh53,84949,577,1030.11
Haryana52,61325,351,4620.21
Punjab45,04027,743,3380.16
Assam25,94931,205,5760.08
Bihar18,914104,099,4520.02
Jharkhand14,97432,988,1340.05

Source: Data compiled from the Census of India 2011.

Census of India, 2011

DistrictStateJain Population Total populationJain Percentage
Mumbai City districtMaharashtra166,0003,085,4115.38%
Kolhapur districtMaharashtra154,8823,876,0014.00%
Mumbai Suburban districtMaharashtra343,6399,356,9623.67%
Sangli districtMaharashtra87,4532,822,1433.10%
Thane districtMaharashtra172,05211,060,1481.56%
Pune districtMaharashtra127,7869,429,4081.36%
Udaipur districtRajasthan78,6473,068,4202.56%
Ajmer districtRajasthan45,6142,583,0521.77%
Chittorgarh districtRajasthan25,8431,544,3381.67%
Tonk districtRajasthan22,4581,421,3261.58%
Bhilwara districtRajasthan35,1492,408,5231.46%
Kota districtRajasthan25,7421,951,0141.32%
Barmer districtRajasthan34,0102,603,7511.31%
Bikaner districtRajasthan30,8502,363,9371.31%
Rajsamand districtRajasthan14,9661,156,5971.29%
Banswara districtRajasthan22,6131,797,4851.26%
Jaipur districtRajasthan81,0796,626,1781.22%
Bundi districtRajasthan13,4551,110,9061.21%
Dungarpur districtRajasthan16,1411,388,5521.16%
Ahmedabad districtGujarat209,2877,214,2252.90%
Surat districtGujarat112,8356,081,3221.86%
Surendranagar districtGujarat22,9921,585,2681.31%
Kutch districtGujarat25,3122,092,3711.21%
Navsari districtGujarat13,3861,329,6721.01%
Sagar districtMadhya Pradesh62,9922,378,4582.65%
Indore districtMadhya Pradesh71,6673,276,6972.19%
Ratlam districtMadhya Pradesh29,3531,455,0692.02%
Damoh districtMadhya Pradesh25,0051,264,2191.98%
Ashoknagar districtMadhya Pradesh15,094845,0711.79%
Neemuch districtMadhya Pradesh14,165826,0671.71%
Mandsaur districtMadhya Pradesh19,0291,340,4111.42%
Jabalpur districtMadhya Pradesh33,7282,463,2891.37%
Vidisha districtMadhya Pradesh18,4901,458,8751.27%
Ujjain districtMadhya Pradesh24,6221,986,8641.24%
Bhind districtMadhya Pradesh19,9501,703,0051.17%
Bhopal districtMadhya Pradesh25,9502,371,0611.09%
Guna districtMadhya Pradesh13,4741,241,5191.09%
Tikamgarh districtMadhya Pradesh15,5691,445,1661.08%
Belagavi districtKarnataka178,3104,779,6613.73%
Dharwad districtKarnataka29,0371,847,0231.57%
Bagalkot districtKarnataka25,1981,889,7521.33%
Lalitpur districtUttar Pradesh20,3901,221,5921.67%
Bagpat districtUttar Pradesh16,1391,303,0481.24%
East DelhiDelhi46,9271,709,3462.75%
North DelhiDelhi13,049887,9781.47%
North West DelhiDelhi43,4603,656,5391.19%
North East DelhiDelhi24,6732,241,6241.10%
Central DelhiDelhi5,886582,3201.01%
Chennai districtTamil Nadu51,7084,646,7321.11%

ReligionLiteracy Rate
Jain94.9
Christian84.5
Buddhist81.3
Sikh75.4
Hindu73.3
Muslim68.5