This story is from July 19, 2018

Surat is Gujarat’s most linguistically diverse district

Surat is Gujarat’s most linguistically diverse district
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AHMEDABAD: The diamond and textiles hub of India, Surat, is the most linguistically diverse city in Gujarat, with its residents speaking as many as 54 of India’s 124 languages. Almost half the residents of Surat city declared that their mother tongue was a language other than Gujarati.
According to data released by the Census of India 2011, of the 33 districts of Gujarat, Surat boasts of having speakers of the highest number of Indian languages — 57.
In Surat city, this number is 54, with the city’s industrialization of the last few decades drawing people from across the country. The population in Surat city is so diverse that Gujarati is the mother tongue of just 54.80% of its population. The census data revealed that 90 different Indian languages are spoken in Gujarat, including all of India’s 22 scheduled languages.
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The second most diverse population is in the border district of Kutch, with its residents speaking 53 different Indian languages. With the government treating Kutchi as a dialect of Sindhi, Gujarati is the mother tongue of only 54.90% of the population of Kutch. The tribal district of Dang on the western slope of Sahiyadris has the smallest proportion of native Gujarati speakers, just 32.50%. The majority of Dang residents speak Dangli, a dialect of the Khandeshi language.
Amreli district is state’s least diverse
Vadodara district is the thirdmost linguistically diverse, with it being home to speakers of 52 Indian languages. Ahmedabad is fourth with 49.
About 73.90% of the population of Vadodara city are native speakers of Gujarati. In Ahmedabad city, this figure is 68.30%. While there are native speakers of 49 different Indian languages in Ahmedabad city, the Detroj-Rampura block of the district has native speakers of only six Indian languages.

A few rural areas are almost bereft of linguistic diversity. Jambughoda block of Panchmahal district has only three languages spoken – Gujarati, Hindi and Telugu. Just 11 individuals speak Telugu as their mother tongue. In Amreli district, the Liliya block has four languages and Khambha five.
Saurashtra, on the other hand, is a picture of homogeneity, with 99% of people in Amreli district declaring Gujarati their mother tongue. The other districts of the region are not far behind.
As many as 96.04% of the people in Rajkot are native speakers of Gujarati. This number was 98.84 in Surendranagar, 96.84% in Junagadh and 96.76% in Porbandar.
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About the Author
Saeed Khan

Saeed Khan is special corespondent at The Times of India, Ahmedabad. He reports on courts and legal issues. He also covers the income tax and customs departments. He loves spending time at roadside tea stalls, chatting up friends and getting news at the same time.

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