UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 11 of 150

Correct — B, Jain. At the 2011 Census the Jain community was the most urbanised religious group in India by a wide margin: 79.7 per cent of Jains lived in urban areas — of roughly 44.5 lakh Jains counted in 2011, about 35.5 lakh were town or city dwellers. Set that against 31.1 per cent for India as a whole and 29.2 per cent for Hindus and the gap is not marginal, it is a different order of magnitude. Read the stem carefully, because it is loosely worded: 'highest urban population' taken literally as a head count would point to Hindus, who are about four-fifths of all Indians and therefore supply the largest absolute number of urban residents. The commission's key marks Jain, which tells you the examiner means the highest urban SHARE — the proportion of the community itself that is urban. That is the standard textbook fact about Jains, and it follows from their historic concentration in trade, banking and commerce, occupations that are city-based by nature.

• (a)Bauddh — Buddhists are more urbanised than Hindus, but not close to four-fifths. A large part of the community counted in 2011 was rural and semi-rural, and no reading of the Census religion tables puts Buddhists ahead of Jains on urban share.
• (c)Hindu — This is the intended trap. Hindus supply by far the largest absolute urban head count simply because they are the largest community — but only 29.2 per cent of Hindus were urban in 2011, which is BELOW the all-India figure of 31.1 per cent. On the proportion the examiner is asking about, Hindus are near the bottom, not the top.
• (d)Christian — Christians are more urbanised than Hindus, but their urban share is well short of the Jain figure. Large Christian populations in Kerala, the North-East and tribal central India are substantially rural, which holds the community's overall urban proportion far below 79.7 per cent.

The Census of India records religion and rural/urban residence separately, so every community has both an absolute urban head count and an urban SHARE (the percentage of that community living in towns and cities). These two measures rank communities in almost opposite orders. Hindus dominate every absolute count because they are about 79.8 per cent of the population; Jains, who are under half a per cent of Indians, dominate the share tables. The 2011 religion tables were released by the Registrar General of India in August 2015.

The route to the answer is to notice that the question cannot mean absolute numbers — if it did, the answer would be trivially Hindu and there would be no question worth asking. Once you read it as 'most urbanised community', the Jain figure of 79.7 per cent is the standard fact every source repeats, and nothing else on the list is remotely near it. The deeper reason is occupational: Jain communities have historically clustered in mercantile, financial and professional work in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and those livelihoods live in towns.

• Census 2011: 79.7 per cent of Jains lived in urban areas — of about 44.5 lakh Jains, roughly 35.5 lakh were urban.
• India's overall urbanisation level at the 2011 Census was 31.1 per cent; the Hindu figure was 29.2 per cent, i.e. below the national average.
• Jains are the smallest of the six religious communities separately enumerated by the Census, at well under one per cent of India's population — so their large urban SHARE goes with a small absolute urban number.
• The Census 2011 religion data were released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in August 2015, four years after enumeration.

• Reading 'highest urban population' as an absolute head count. On that reading the answer is Hindu; the key shows the examiner wants the highest PROPORTION urban.
• Assuming the largest community tops every Census table. Hindus are below the national average on urban share.
• Confusing 'share of a community that is urban' with 'share of urban India that belongs to a community' — two different fractions with two different denominators.

Both UPPSC and UPSC mine the Census religion and urbanisation tables for 'which is highest / lowest / arrange in order' items; the recurring test is whether you notice when the question wants a percentage and when it wants a count.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As per Census 2011, what was the level of urbanisation in India (percentage of the total population living in urban areas)?

  • (a)27.8 per cent
  • (b)31.1 per cent
  • (c)35.4 per cent
  • (d)38.6 per cent

  Answer(b) 31.1 per cent — up from 27.8 per cent in 2001; India crossed the 30 per cent mark for the first time at the 2011 Census.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The high urban share of the Jain community recorded by the Census is best explained by which of the following?

  • (a)A government policy of resettling the community in cities
  • (b)Its historic concentration in trade, banking and commercial occupations
  • (c)Its confinement to a single metropolitan State
  • (d)A higher rate of natural increase than other communities

  Answer(b) Its historic concentration in trade, banking and commercial occupations — livelihoods that are town- and city-based, which is why the community's urban share far exceeds the national average.