CENSUS 1981: LANGUAGES OF GUJARAT

Today I read K. S. Singh’s book on Gujarat and he gave interesting language information.

In 1981, the state’s population was 340,85,799 (3.4 crore). The following is the languages and speakers according to that decade. Gujarat is the largest language in the state.

LANGUAGES	POPULATION
Gujarati	30,817,185
Hindi	746,659
Sindhi	745,182
Urdu	643,926
Marathi	413,697
Khandeshi/Ahirani	85,557
Konkani	28,662
Bhili	NA
Nepali	5,542
English	3,581
Total	33,489,991

Another note was the bilingual ability of each language in other languages. Good analysis as it gives the overall picture, which language/s is learnt most, after the mother tongue.

	GUJARATI	HINDI	SINDHI	MARATHI	SANSKRIT	BHILI	URDU
Gujarati	x	4,823,788	53,924	20,789	6,173	1,606	NA
Hindi	246,936	x	NA	3,053	1,283	NA	NA
Sindhi	2,666,202	72,329	X	NA	NA	NA	4,987
Urdu	229,420	73,492	NA	NA	NA	NA	X
Marathi	107,937	91,876	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Khandeshi/Ahirani	19,084		NA	4,003	NA	NA	NA
Konkani	8,367	1,564	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Bhili	130,189	3,922	NA	6,429	NA	NA	NA
Nepali	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
English	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Total	3,408,135	5,066,971	53,924	34,274	7,456	1,606	4,987
Percentage	10.18%	15.13%	0.16%	0.10%	0.02%	0.00%	0.01%

Information on particular language can be looked at. For example, Gujarati speakers are bilingual in Hindi, Sindhi, then Marathi and so on.

This also give overall bilingual information on the state. At the end of the table an overall percentage of bilingual people are given. In that most people are bilingual are in Hindi (15.13%) and followed by Gujarati (10.18%).

Source: Singh, K.S. 2003. Gujarat Part 3 (People of India series, Volume xxii). Mumbai: Anthropological Survey of India and Popular Prakashan PVT. LTD. Page: Forward xvii.