Part I

PRESS NOTE CLARIFYING THE CONSTITUTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN THE JAIN MINORITY MATTER

The press and media reports on the recent Supreme Court Judgment of the Three-Judge Bench of the Chief Justice, R.C. Lahoti, Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyam are misleading. The reports were headlined stating that “SC.declares Sikhs, Jains part of broader Hindu religion”. Such reports appeared in leading English dailies like the Hindustan Times, The Tribune, The Times of India, and the local language newspapers.

A LIST OF AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCES ON JAINISM AND
JAIN COMMUNITY

1. STUDIES IN JAINISM : by Dr. Hermann Jacobi, an eminent German scholar and Indologist. A collection of three original , important and informative essays on Jainism.

2. JAINA COMMUNITY : by Dr. Vilas A. Sangave, a unique and authoritative study on Jain sociology . Prof. Sangave has been honoured by the Cambridge University in 1985 for his distinctive contribution to the study of Jainology. Excerts contain detailed Tables on Jain population and a Retrospect on Jain Community and its historic, cultural , religious and social heritage from ancient times to present.

A CONSPECTUS ON JAINISM

By BAL PATIL

1. JAIN MINORITY STATUS: HISORICAL REVIEW
2. JAIN MINORITY STATUS: CONSTITUTIONAL LEGAL AND JUDICIAL GROUNDS
3. OPINIONS ON JAINSIM BY SCHOLARS: INDIAN AND FOREIGN
4. A LIST OF AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCES ON JAINISM AND JAIN COMMUNITY

JAIN MINORITY STATUS : HISTORICAL REVIEW

MEMORANDA BY OTHER INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS
TO THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

(a) Memorandum by the Representative of the Jain Community
March/April-1947.

The Jains are an ancient community of India with its own distinctive religion and philosophy, worship and ritual, social customs and manner. It is now recognized amongst oriental scholars that Jainism is essentially a non-Vedic religion and philosophy and in this connection attention may be invited to the views of Prof. Dasgupta and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The relevant extracts are reproduced below for ready reference:

A CONSPECTUS ON JAINISM
& JAIN MINORITY

BAL PATIL

CONTENTS

1. Minority Recognition For Jain Community 2

2. Memorandum by the Representatives of the Jain