LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:7 July 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Linguistic Demography of Costal Karnataka
(A Habitat of Maximum Speakers of Unspecified Mother Tongues)

Prof. B. Mallikarjun

The 1971 Census of India splits the Karnataka State into four geographical reigns: Coastal, Malnad, Southern Maidan and Northern Maidan. The districts are grouped in these regions are: 1. Coastal (South Kanara) 2. Malnad (North Kanara, Shimoga, Chikmagalur and Coorg) 3. Northern Maidan (Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bellary, Bijapur, Belgaum and Dharwar) and 4. Southern Maidan (Chitradurga, Tumkur, Hassan, Mysore, Mandya, Bangalore and Kolar).

In order to study of linguistic demography, by looking into the contact of the districts with the sea line of the state, the present-day Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts are considered as Coastal Districts of the State. The state has a coastline of around 370 kilometres. According to the 2011 Census Dakshina Kannada has 44.420%, Uttara Kannada 30.550% and Udupi 25.08% of the population of the Costal Karnataka.

During the British rule, Kannada speaking regions of today’s Karnataka were under the administration of 20 kingdoms (samsthanas)/district (jille)/ regions (prantyas) etc. The present-day coastal Karnataka was part of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. Since 1947 and till 1956, Dakshina Kannada district was with the Madras Province. It became part of Karnataka in 1956 in the process of the reorganisation of the states on linguistic lines. The Uttara Kannada district though was with the Bombay Presidency under the British has undergone many changes in its composition of talukas etc., and it became part of Karnataka in 1960. The South Canara district was split into Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in 1997.

While discussing the Linguistic Ecology of India, Mallikarjun (2019) had said that “…in the context of the Census of India, a ‘mother tongue’ is a concrete entity/unit and ‘language’ is an abstract entity /unit. Hence from the time census enumeration is undertaken in India, it elicits information on ‘mother tongue’ from the people. Once such data is gathered on mother tongue of the individuals…” languages are arrived at applying genetic or/and functional criteria. So, all Indian languages are mother tongues but all mother tongues of India are not languages. The decision of the Census of India (2011) that “…an inventory of mother tongues returned by 10,000 or more mother tongue speakers are grouped under appropriate languages at the all-India level… others are placed in ‘other’ mother tongue category”. In this background it is fascinating to note that out of 3,86,552 ‘other’ mother tongue speakers in Karnataka, coastal Karnataka has a unique distinction of having ‘other’ unspecified (US) mother tongue speakers numbering - Dakshina Kannada:3,35,775, Udupi: 23,712 and Uttara Kannada 1,220. I shall discuss the details in the following paragraphs about this category of mother tongues and their distribution. I think that this particular linguistic demographic situation has no parallel in the country.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Prof. B. Mallikarjun
Former Director
Centre for Classical Kannada
Central University of Karnataka
Kadaganchi, Aland Road
Kalaburagi District – 585311, Karnataka, India
mallikarjun56@gmail.com
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