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The Census data shows that more than half of the population in all 24 states speaks the dominant language; and in 15 of them, more than 90% people speak the dominant language
In Maharashtra, 81.26 per cent of the population speaks Marathi — the dominant language of the state. (Image: PTI)
Amid the raging ‘Marathi vs Hindi’ controversy in Maharashtra, a quick look at the Census data will give you an idea of the percentage of population in the state that speaks the dominant language.
According to the data, in India, more than half of the population in all 24 states speaks the dominant language of that state; and in at least 15 of them, more than 90 per cent of the population speaks the dominant language.
By definition, a dominant language is the one that a person uses most frequently and proficiently. It is often their native language, or the language with the most social and institutional power in a particular context. It can also refer to the language that a multilingual individual uses most often and with the greatest ease.
Examined by News18, the 2011 Census data gives an idea of what percentage of a state’s population can or cannot speak in that state’s dominant language.
The Census data shows that when it comes to dominant languages spoken overall, the most widely used is Hindi in at least 10 states – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand – all located, more or less, in the northern and central parts of India.
There are, however, two northern states where the dominant language is not Hindi – Kashmiri spoken by 54.77 per cent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjabi spoken by 92.8 per cent people in Punjab.
This data has been sourced from the language tables of the Census. In it, knowledge of the dominant language has been calculated as the sum of people who have listed that language as either their mother tongue, or as their first or second subsidiary languages.
The difference between this sum and the total population of the state has been assumed to be the percentage of the population that cannot speak in the dominant language.
In recent memory, language wars have dominated the political narrative in different parts of the country — be it Karnataka down south or, more recently, Maharashtra in the west.
Looking at Maharashtra, which is in the news at present for the MNS protests, 81.26 per cent of the population speaks the dominant language of the state — Marathi. Out of the total population, 68.93 per cent has listed Marathi as their first language, followed by 10.11 per cent as their second language, and 2.21 per cent as their third.
In Karnataka, the dominant language is Kannada, which is spoken by 87.37 per cent of the total population (66.54% as first, 19.21% as second, and 1.62% as third).
Data shows the states where 95 per cent and more of the total population speaks the dominant language, are Haryana (Hindi — 95.34%), Himachal Pradesh (Hindi — 96.57%), Kerala (Malayalam — 98.11%), Madhya Pradesh (Hindi — 95.74%), NCT of Delhi (Hindi — 96.75%), Rajasthan (Hindi — 95.04%), Tamil Nadu (Tamil — 96.2%), Uttar Pradesh (Hindi — 97.3%), and Uttarakhand (Hindi — 97.19%).
Oindrila Mukherjee is a senior sub-editor who works for the rewrite and breaking news desks. Her nine years of experience in print and digital journalism range from editing and reporting to writing impactful st…Read More
Oindrila Mukherjee is a senior sub-editor who works for the rewrite and breaking news desks. Her nine years of experience in print and digital journalism range from editing and reporting to writing impactful st… Read More
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