63 Students to attend ISJS Summer School this year

Students of 2017 Summer School with Union Minister Smt. Maneka Gandhi

This year, some 63 students have enrolled for the four Summer Programmes offered by the International School for Jain Studies (ISJS) starting June 22. The ISJS Summer program is intended to provide students the opportunity to pursue Jain studies in India. The course includes daily lectures, travel to places of historical significance, interaction with Jain communities and participation in cultural activities. Read More

The summer school programms include two courses of four and six weeks respectively, a course on Jain Yoga and a teachers training programme. This year, 19 students from the US, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and India applied for four and six weeks programs, while 16 from the US and Zimbabwe applied for Teaching for Peace. For the teachers training, 15 from the US applied for the course.

The four weeks intermediate level program is designed to cater to the needs of third and fourth year undergraduate, graduate students, degree holders, PhD Candidates, Professors and faculty of Religion, Philosophy, South Asian Studies and Anthropology and other related subjects who desire to learn about Jainism as a part of their higher education. The four weeks program will last from June 12 to July 12 and will take place in Delhi, Jaipur and Aligarh.

The ISJS provides full lodging (twin shared air cooled rooms) (AC rooms in Delhi), boarding (Jain vegetarian wholesome food) and inland travel in India to students attending the programme.

The six weeks advance program, on the other hand, is designed for serious and motivated Graduate and PhD students, Post Doctoral scholars and full-time teaching-cum-research faculty involved in teaching religion, South Asian religions, languages, anthropology, theology and allied subjects. The program will last from June 12 to July 21, 2018, and will operate in Delhi and Jaipur.

The Teaching for Peace program is designed for K-12 teachers who wish to integrate practical nonviolence into their lives, classrooms and schools. It provides practical teachings on nonviolence and its applications. The course offers opportunity to study the ethics as practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and the influence of Jainism on him. Students attending the programme are exposed to discussion and debate on concepts such as tolerance, equanimity, forgiveness, harmony, self-discipline etc. Starting July 8, the course will conclude on July 29 with classes at Delhi, Jaipur, Jalgaon and Pune.

The training program for the US teachers are run by Uberoi Teacher Training Institute (UTTI) which was set up after Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies commissioned Loyola Marymount University and ISJS to run the program. The three-week residential program in India aims to provide an engaged learning experience to teachers in the four dharmic traditions of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. The course will run from July 4 to July 25, 2018 in Delhi, Amritsar, Haridwar and Sarnath

Survey Reports of Hauz Khas Tehsil and New Delhi District Released

Presentation of survey reports of Hauz Khas Tehsil and New Delhi District

The International School for Jain Studies recently released its survey reports on Jain communities of Delhi. These surveys were carried out in Hauz Khas Tehsil and New Delhi District. The surveys were part of a larger study on Jain population in India. The data for the two surveys were collected between August 2017 and January 2018. Read More

The findings of the two surveys were presented to a gathering of the Delhi Jain community at Shri Jin Kushal Suri Jain Dadabadi, South Ext. Part-I on March 25, 2018. The function was presided over by Shri Sunil Kumar Jain, Deputy Director General, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Govt. of India. Dr. Shugan C Jain, Founder-Chairman of the ISJS, addressed the audience, while Prof Prakash C Jain, Project Director, Jain Population and Community Studies, presented the two survey reports.

It should be noted that in 1881 the total Jain population, as per census records was only 12 lakhs, which after 130 years has now increased to about 45 lakh. Many Jains believe that their population presently is not less than one crore. Some even claim it to be two crores. They believe that a considerable number of Jains are enumerated as Hindus in each census, resulting in consistently low population enumeration of the Jains.

It is against this background that the present project was carried out. The foremost idea was to check the veracity of census data in a limited area of Delhi NCR, Hauz Khas tehsil and New Delhi district.

Findings of the Survey

Both surveys clearly bring out the fact that Jain population in Delhi was under-estimated in 2011 census in the range of 60% to 100%.

The surveys of Jains in Hauz Khas tehsil and New Delhi district revealed that the Jain population is very well educated, with about 58.4% to 82.10% of them having graduate or post-graduate educational qualifications. The Jain women too happen to be almost equally qualified. About 22% of the total Jain population in New Delhi district are engaged in their own businesses, and another 14% in numerous professions and services. About 38% of the Jain population is that of students. Unfortunately, a significant number of Jains (6%) were also found to be illiterate, which should be a matter of great concern for the community.

It is to be noted that co-education and co-working were suggested by our respondents (51.4%) to be the main cause of inter-religious marriage. In Hauz Khas study about one-third of our respondents further admit the non-availability of suitable match within the community as the second important cause of inter-marriage. These two causes underline the acceptability of “love marriage” or marriage by choice as the preferred mode of marriage which leads us to conclude that the majority of Jains are not very rigid about their Jain values and the way of life. Similarly, the great majority of respondents (99.2%) are supportive of widow/divorcee remarriage. Again, a good majority of respondents were found to be flexible about temple/sthanak visit, eating before sunset, and liberal about occasional drinking.

Delhi population surveys are truly path-breaking studies. Their major objective was to check the veracity of census data regarding the total population of Jains and their characteristics in small census areas, i. e., a tehsil and a district. While the survey positively validate some major population characteristics of the Jain community such as age and gender structure, family size, sex and child rearing, literacy and educational levels, occupational structure etc., they raise serious doubts about the correct head-count of the members of the community.

For number of reasons, some Jains, particularly those who write other than "Jain" surnames are often registered as Hindus by census enumerators resulting in under-enumeration of the Jain community in census figures. In our studies, this under-enumeration is in the range of 60% to 100%. In view of this, such studies need to be replicated at a number of places in India with a sizeable Jain population. The studies also require a wider publicity through media as well as extension lectures. Showless