LANGUAGE IN INDIA

URDU IN GUJARAT

A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.

Area	1,96,024 sq. km.
Population	413.1 lacs
Capital	Gandhinagar
Principal Languages	Gujarati

Historical, Geographical and Linguistic Sketch of the State

Gujarat is situated on the west coast of India. Arabian Sea lies on the west, Pakistan and Rajasthan in the north and north-east respectively, Madhya Pradesh in the south-east, and Maharashtra in the south. The history of Gujarat goes back to 2000 BC. It is believed that Lord Krishna left Mathura to settle on the west coast of Saurashtra, which later came to be known as Dwarka, the gateway. Gujarat saw various kingdoms: Mauryans, Guptas, Pratiharas and others. The present State of Gujarat came into being on 1 May 1960.

Gujarat is the main producer of tobacco, cotton, and groundnut in the country and itn provides inputs for important industries like textiles, oil, and soap.

The total length of roads in Gujarat is 72,950 km. The main airport of Gujarat at Ahmadabad is connected with Mumbai. It has 40 ports, of which Kandla is a major one. Places of religious importance inlcude Dwarka, Somnath, Palitana, Pavagadh, etc.

The State has a population of 4,13,09,582 persons. Gujarati is the regional language, whose speakers constitute 90.41 per cent of the population.

The other major linguistic groups in the State include the speakers of Sindhi (2.19%), Hindi (2.19%), Urdu (1.89%), Bhili/Bhilodi (1.20%), and Marathi (1.21%). The minority language speakers who constitute less than 1 per cent of the total population are the speakers of Punjabi (0.11%), Malayalam (0.10%), Telugu (0.10%) and Khandeshi (0.25%).

The speakers of minority languages who constitute less than 0.09 per cent are the speakers Bengali (0.03%), Kannada (0.03%), Oriya (0.03%), Tamil (0.08%), Konkani (0.08%), and Gorkhali/Nepali (0.02%).

The names of the Districts along with the actual percentage of the population, districts headquarters and the total Urdu population are given below Table 1

Table 1: Area, Population and Headquarters of Districts

District	Area in sq km	Population (Lacs)	Headquarters	Total Urdu Population   (Lacs)	%age (Between 3 & 5)	Muslim Population (Lacs)	%age (Between 3 & 6)	%age (Between 5 & 6)
1	2	3	4	5		6
Ahmadabad	8707	48.0	Ahmadabad	2.6	5.4	5.2	10.7	50.3
Amreli	6760	12.5	Amreli	0.03	0.2	0.7	5.5	3.7
Banas Kantha	12703	21.6	Banas Kantha	0.06	0.3	1.6	7.2	3.7
Bharuch	9038	15.5	Bharuch	0.2	1.2	2.6	16.6	7.2
Bhavnagar	11155	22.9	Bhavnagar	0.006	0.02	1.5	6.6	0.4
Gandhinagar	649	4.1	Gandhinagar	0.008	0.2	0.1	3.0	6.4
Jamnagar	14125	15.6	Jamnagar	0.001	0.01	2.0	13.0	0.0
Junagadh	10607	23.9	Junagadh	0.2	0.8	2.3	9.6	8.6
Kachchh	45652	12.6	Bhuj	0.01	0.1	2.5	19.6	0.5
Kheda	7194	34.4	Nadiad	0.5	1.6	3.6	10.3	15.2
Mehsana	9027	29.4	Mehsana	0.1	0.3	1.9	6.6	4.9
Panch Mahal	8866	29.6	Godhara	0.2	0.7	1.4	4.6	15.0
Rajkot	11203	25.1	Rajkot	0.1	0.4	2.3	9.2	4.6
Sabar Kantha	7390	17.6	Himatnagar	0.1	0.7	1.0	5.5	13.4
Surat	7657	34.0	Surat	0.9	2.6	3.1	9.2	27.9
Surendranagar	10489	12.1	Surendranagar	0.008	0.1	0.8	6.5	1.0
The Dang	1764	1.4	Ahwa	0.001	0.1	0.0	1.5	5.2
Vadodara	7794	30.9	Vadodara	0.4	1.2	2.6	8.3	13.9
Valsad	5244	21.7	Valsad	0.08	0.4	1.0	4.6	7.7
Total		413.1		5.5	1.3	36.1	8.7	15.2

Urdu in Gujarat

Gujarati is the major official language of the state. However, the official languages of the State are Gujarati, and Hindi written in the Devnagari script. The State Government has formed a Translation Bureau that is functioning under the Directorate of Languages to translate the important rules, regulations, notices, etc. in minority languages.

The State Government has also notified the areas, where the linguistic minorities constitute 15 per cent or more of the local population. Such districts of different languages are as follows:

1. Urdu Pranty (16.72) and Modasa (26.58) talukas in Sabarkantha district
2. Borsad (21.27) and Balasinor (21.42) talukas in Kheda district
3. Godhara (15.80) taluka in Panchmahals district
4. Hansat (36.96) taluka in Bharuch district

A detailed district wise break-up of the total Urdu population in Gujarat is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: District -wise Break-up of Urdu Population in Gujarat

S. No.	Districts	Total Population (Lacs)	Total Urdu Population (Lacs)	Total Male (Lacs)	Total Female (Lacs)	Rural (Lacs)	Urban (Lacs)
1.	Ahmadabad	48.0	2.6	1.35	1.24	0.023	2.57
2.	Amreli	12.5	0.03	0.01	0.01	0.008	0.02
3.	Banas Kantha	21.6	0.06	0.03	0.03	0.004	0.05
4.	Bharuch	15.5	0.2	0.10	0.09	0.027	0.16
5.	Bhavnagar	22.9	0.006	0.0032	0.002	0.0007	0.005
6.	Gandhinagar	4.1	0.008	0.0042	0.004	0.001	0.006
7.	Jamnagar	15.6	0.001	0.0004	0.0004	0	0.0008
8.	Junagadh	23.9	0.2	0.1	0.10	0.04	0.2
9.	Kachchh	12.6	0.01	0.006	0.005	0.007	0.004
10.	Kheda	34.4	0.5	0.28	0.26	0.20	0.33
11.	Mahesana	29.4	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.01	0.08
12.	Panch Mahals	29.6	0.2	0.11	0.10	0.05	0.16
13.	Rajkot	25.1	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.003	0.10
14.	Sabar Kantha	17.6	0.1	0.07	0.06	0.01	0.12
15.	Surat	34.0	0.9	0.45	0.42	0.05	0.82
16.	Surendranagar	12.1	0.008	0.004	0.004	0.006	0.002
17.	The Dangs	1.4	0.001	0.0006	0.0005	0.0002	0.0009
18.	Vadodara	30.9	0.4	0.18	0.17	0.03	0.33
19.	Valsad	21.7	0.08	0.04	0.04	0.02	0.06
	Total	413.1	5.5	2.84	2.64	0.5	5.0

In the light of the figures given above, we may draw the conclusion that Urdu is basically an urban-based language in Gujarat. The Urban-Rural division of Urdu-speaking population is presented diagrammatically below. The graph presented below exhibits the rural/urban division of Urdu population in Gujarat.

Chart 1: Rural and Urban Division of Urdu Population

The numerical strength of the speakers of Urdu shows an uneven distribution over different districts in Gujarat. The difference in numerical strength of Urdu speakers varies from a few hundred to thousands.

Top Ten Districts of Urdu Population in Gujarat

On the basis of the variation in the numerical strength of the Urdu speakers, top ten districts have been identified and presented below in the table.

Table 3: Top Ten Districts

S.No.	District	Population (Lacs)	Total Urdu Population (Lacs)	%age
1.	Ahmadabad	48.0	2.6	5.4
2.	Bharuch	15.5	0.2	1.2
3.	Junagadh	23.9	0.2	0.8
4.	Kheda	34.4	0.5	1.6
5.	Panch Mahal	29.6	0.2	0.7
6.	Rajkot	25.1	0.1	0.4
7.	Sabar Kantha	17.6	0.1	0.7
8.	Surat	34.0	0.9	2.6
9.	Vadodara	30.9	0.4	1.2
10.	Valsad	21.7	0.08	0.4

On the basis of the figures presented in the table above the following observations can be made.

1. All the districts have a concentration of Urdu speakers of below 10% of the total population.
2. The District Panch Mahal has below one lac of Urdu speakers, which is 0.7% of the total population.
3. Sabar Kantha and Rajkot occupy Ninth and Tenth positions with 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.

The graph given below presents the gap between Urdu population in Gujarat and Total population in Gujarat in the top ten districts of Urdu population in Gujarat.

As shown in the graph, the difference between the Urdu population and total population is maximum in Kheda and minimum in Ahmadabad.

Chart 2: Total Population and Total Urdu Population in Urdu Populated Areas

Urdu as An Icon of Muslim Identification

To assess the validity of the claim "Urdu is an icon of Muslim identification," this section provides a distribution of Muslim and Urdu population in Gujarat.

The table given below provides a district-wise distribution of Muslim and Urdu population.

Table 4: District-wise Break-up of Muslim/Urdu Population Ratio

S. No.	Districts	Muslim Population	Urdu Population	%age
1.	Ahmadabad	5.2	2.6	50.32
2.	Amreli	0.7	0.03	3.70
3.	Banas Kantha	1.6	0.06	3.66
4.	Bharuch	2.6	0.2	7.19
5.	Bhavnagar	1.5	0.006	0.37
6.	Gandhinagar	0.1	0.008	6.36
7.	Jamnagar	2.0	0.001	0.04
8.	Junagadh	2.3	0.2	8.61
9.	Kachchh	2.5	0.01	0.46
10.	Kheda	3.6	0.5	15.18
11.	Mahesana	1.9	0.1	4.91
12.	Panch Mahals	1.4	0.2	14.99
13.	Rajkot	2.3	0.1	4.56
14.	Sabar Kantha	1.0	0.1	13.37
15.	Surat	3.1	0.9	27.94
16.	Surendranagar	0.8	0.008	1.03
17.	The Dangs	0.0	0.001	5.20
18.	Vadodara	2.6	0.4	13.91
19.	Valsad	1.0	0.08	7.71
	Total	36.1	5.5	15.2

The figures presented in the table indicate that not all Muslims claim Urdu as their mother tongue.

Decennial growth of Muslims and Urdu Speakers

Self-Identification using a language (Linguistic Identification) is very much a matter of social awareness on the part of an individual. Change in Linguistic Identification does not signify change in linguistic behaviour. Oscillation in mother-tongue declaration reveals a shift in social identification under changed circumstances. The table given below presents the decennial growth of Muslims and Urdu speakers reported in 1971, 1981 and 1991 census reports.

Table 5: Decadal growth

S.No.		1971	%age	1981		%age	1991
1.	Muslims	2249055	22.65	2907744		19.38	3,606,920
2.	Urdu	581508	4.52		609056	-11.56	545969

The table indicates a considerable fall ranging between 4 to -11 per cent among Urdu speakers in the state during 1971 to 1981 and 1981 to 1991. In other words, Urdu Population falls from 4% in 71-81 to -11% in 81-91.

The decennial growth of Muslims in Gujarat shows a slightly slow decrease from 22 to 19 per cent during 1971 to 1981 and 1981 to 1991. The graph given below displays a steep fall in case of Urdu. However, the figures of Muslim decennial growth have shown a steady decreases.

Chart 3: Decadal growth in Muslim and Urdu

Bilingualism Among Urdu Speakers

The Urdu population is mostly scattered throughout the country, hence a large proportion of Urdu speakers in many regions tend to have bilingual control over the respective language of the region along with Urdu. The table below presents figures of bilingualism among Urdu speakers.

Table 6: Bilingualism among Urdu Population

			Total	%age	Male	%age	Female	%age	Rural	Urban
Total No. of Urdu speakers			5.5	(1.3) 1.2	2.8	51.7	2.6	48.2	0.5  (10%)	5.0 (90%)
Monolinguals			2.5	44.8	1.1	46.2	1.3	53.7
Bilinguals			3.0	55.1	1.7	56.3	1.3	43.6
S. No.	Languages	Speakers	%age	Male	%age	Female	%age	Rural	%age
1.	English	0.08	1.5	0.06	68.2	0.03	31.7
2.	Gujarati	2.0	36.1	1.1	55.9	0.9	44
3.	Hindi	1.0	17.5	0.5	56	0.4	43.9

The figures presented in the table indicate that bilingualism among Urdu speakers is much higher than the State average. 55.1% of the total Urdu population is bilingual; Gujarati is the most preferred language among the Urdu speakers of Gujarat. 36% of the total Urdu population has bilingualism in Gujarati.

Literacy in Urdu Populated Areas

Despite the progress of literacy programmes in India, there are more illiterate adults in India today than there were in 1951. However, we may not ignore the fact that the literacy rates in the country have shown a steady increase of about eight per cent every decade since 1951, from a national average of 19.74% in 1951.

The literacy level is linked with the urban/rural factor in a significant way.A big chunk of illiterates lives in the rural areas. They have no access to information through the written word. According to the 1991 census, 74.30 per cent of the total Indian population lives in the rural areas and 25.7 per cent in urban areas. On the other hand, the literacy rate in urban areas is 61.72 while in the rural areas it is 36.31 per cent.

The male/female parameter is also very significant in literacy. Males show a higher literacy rate than females. The table given below presents the figures of literacy among Urdu population.

Table 7: Literacy

S. No.	Districts	Total Population	Total Literates	Male	Female	Rural	Urban
1.	Ahmadabad	48.0 Lacs	29.6 Lacs (61.7%)	17.7 Lacs (59.5%)	12.0 Lacs (40.4%)	5.6 Lacs (18.8%)	24.0 Lacs (81.1%)
2.	Bharuch	15.5 Lacs	8.0 Lacs (51.8%)	4.9 Lacs (61.4%)	3.1 Lacs (38.5%)	5.8 Lacs (72.5%)	2.2 Lacs (27.4%)
3.	Junagadh	23.9 Lacs	12.2 Lacs (50.8%)	7.4 Lacs (61.0%)	4.7 Lacs (38.9%)	7.5 Lacs (61.3%)	4.7 Lacs (38.6%)
4.	Kheda	34.4 Lacs	19.1 Lacs (55.5%)	12.2 Lacs (63.6%)	7.0 Lacs (36.4%)	13.9 Lacs (72.5%)	5.2 Lacs (27.4%)
5.	Panch Mahals	29.6 Lacs	10.4 Lacs (35.3%)	7.3 Lacs (69.7%)	3.2 Lacs (30.2%)	8.5 Lacs (81.0%)	2.0 Lacs (18.9%)
6.	Rajkot	25.1 Lacs	14.2 Lacs (56.4%)	8.3 Lacs (58.7%)	8.9 Lacs (62.4%)	6.5 Lacs (45.9%)	7.7 Lacs (54.0%)
7.	Sabar Kantha	17.6 Lacs	8.7 Lacs (49.4%)	5.6 Lacs (64.0%)	3.1 Lacs (35.9%)	7.5 Lacs (86.0%)	1.2 Lacs (13.9%)
8.	Surat	34.0 Lacs	18.3 Lacs (53.8%)	10.9 Lacs (59.6%)	7.4 Lacs (40.3%)	7.4 Lacs (40.5%)	10.9 Lacs (59.4%)
9.	Vadodara	30.9 Lacs	16.7 Lacs (54.0%)	10.2 Lacs (61.0%)	6.5 Lacs (38.9%)	7.4 Lacs (44.6%)	9.2 Lacs (55.3%)
10.	Valsad	21.7 Lacs	11.9 Lacs (54.5%)	6.9 Lacs (58.3%)	4.9 Lacs (41.61%)	8.2 Lacs (69.0%)	3.7 Lacs (30.9%)

Chart 4: Total Population and Total Literates in Urdu Populated Areas

The graph presented above indicates that the language issue is impacted by the urban and rural factor in a significant way. The rural districts of Gujarat show a high degree of illiteracy in comparison with Ahmadabad.

Level of Education Among Urdu Population

In late nineties, India adopted a series of policies and programmes to improve its quantity and quality of the education system. These included the approval and adoption of the scheme called EDUCATION FOR ALL. Most of these policies aimed at improving Primary Education especially in the rural areas. In response to wide-spread concerns over the deteriorating standards of the education system on the one hand, and the importance of education in national and global development, the need to strengthen the educational system has been recognized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The table given below presents the level of education in Urdu populated areas of the state.

Table 8: Level of Education among Urdu Population Districts

Districts	Total Literates	Literate without any formal Schooling	Primary	Middle	Matric	10+2	Non-technical diploma	Technical diploma	Graduate & above
Ahmadabad	29.6 Lacs	0.05 Lacs (0.1%)	15.5 Lacs (52.4%)	3.9 Lacs (13.2%)	5.2 Lacs (17.5%)	1.8 Lacs (6.0%)	0.17 Lacs (0.5%)	0.17 Lacs (0.5%)	2.8 Lacs (9.4%)
Bharuch	8.0 Lacs	0.007 Lacs (0.08%)	5.2 Lacs (65.0%)	1.1 Lacs (13.2%)	1.1 Lacs (13.4%)	0.3 Lacs (3.4%)	0.05 Lacs (0.6%)	0.05 Lacs (0.6%)	0.3 Lacs (3.5%)
Junagadh	12.2 Lacs	0.02 Lacs (0.1%)	7.9 Lacs (64.8%)	1.9 Lacs (15.7%)	1.4 Lacs (11.3%)	0.5 Lacs (3.8%)	0.08 Lacs (0.6%)	0.03 Lacs (0.2%)	0.4 Lacs (2.9%)
Kheda	19.1 Lacs	0.04 Lacs (0.1%)	11.4 Lacs (59.7%)	3.1 Lacs (15.9%)	2.8 Lacs (14.7%)	0.8 Lacs (4.4%)	0.10 Lacs (0.5%)	0.11 Lacs (0.5%)	0.8 Lacs (3.9%)
Panch Mahals	10.4 Lacs	0.03 Lacs (0.2%)	6.7 Lacs (64.4%)	1.4 Lacs (13.3%)	1.5 Lacs (13.9%)	0.4 Lacs (3.6%)	0.05 Lacs (0.5%)	0.04 Lacs (0.3%)	0.4 Lacs (3.6%)
Rajkot	14.2 Lacs	0.03 Lacs (0.1%)	8.0 Lacs (56.3%)	2.8 Lacs (19.3%)	2.0 Lacs (14.1%)	0.6 Lacs (4.38%)	0.04 Lacs (0.2%)	0.05 Lacs (0.3%)	0.7 Lacs (4.6%)
Sabar Kantha	8.7 Lacs	0.01 Lacs (0.1%)	5.3 Lacs (60.9%)	1.2 Lacs (14.3%)	1.3 Lacs (14.4%)	0.4 Lacs (4.9%)	0.11 Lacs (1.2%)	0.03 Lacs (0.3%)	0.3 Lacs (3.2%)
Surat	18.3 Lacs	0.03 Lacs (0.1%)	11.1 Lacs (60.7%)	2.5 Lacs (13.8%)	2.8 Lacs (15.2%)	0.8 Lacs (4.3%)	0.11 Lacs (0.6%)	0.09 Lacs (0.5%)	0.9 Lacs (4.6%)
Vadodara	16.7 Lacs	0.06 Lacs (0.3%)	9.2 Lacs (55.1%)	2.3 Lacs (13.5%)	2.8 Lacs (16.8%)	0.8 Lacs (4.9%)	0.10 Lacs (0.6%)	0.16 Lacs (0.9%)	1.3 Lacs (7.5%)
Valsad	11.9 Lacs	0.008 Lacs (0.06%)	6.9 Lacs (58.0%)	1.7 Lacs (14.4%)	2.0 Lacs (17.2%)	0.5 Lacs (4.4%)	0.02 Lacs (0.1%)	0.07 Lacs (0.6%)	0.6 Lacs (4.6%)

Chart 5: Level of Education in Urdu Populated Areas

Medium of Instruction

The State Government has issued orders to impart instruction through mother tongue at the Primary stage of education, provided 10 students in a class and 40 students in a school opt to study the language.

Gujarati, Marathi, Sindhi, Urdu, English, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam are actually the media of instruction at the Primary stage of education.

Gujarati, the regional language, is taught from III standard onward to the linguistic minority students.

Statistical Analysis of Educational Facilities

The State Government has not furnished any statistics pertaining to educational facilities provided through mother-tongue at the Primary stage of education for the period 1992-93. However, the statistics furnished for the earlier year is given below:

Marathi

The number of students increased from 25540 to 31,300, while the number of linguistic minority schools and teachers came down from 77 and 753 to 76 and 701 respectively. The reasons for decrease are not given by the State Government.

Sindhi

The number of linguistic minority schools, students and teachers came down from 95, 29,082, and 844 to 66, 13,696, and 485 respectively. The reasons for such a steep fall are not given by the State Government.

Hindi

The number of linguistic minority schools remained 151 as in the previous year but there was a slight increase in the number of students and teachers, viz., 207 and 8 respectively.

English

The number of linguistic minority schools, students, and teachers came down from 313, 100145, and 3139 to 218, 92711, and 2440 respectively. The reasons for decrease are not given by the State Government.

Urdu

The number of students receiving instruction through Urdu language rose to 52172 from 48527 in the previous year, while the number of schools and teachers came down to 160 and 1186 from 161 and 1227 respectively.

Tamil

The number of schools remained at 8 as in the previous year, while the number of students and teachers came down to 2328 and 68 from 2433 and 72 respectively.

Telugu

The number of schools, students and teachers rose to 9, 4235 and 69 from 5, 1010 and 40 of previous year respectively.

Malayalam

The number of schools remained stationary at 1 as in the previous year. The number of students and teachers came down to 160 and 5 from 175 and 7 respectively.

Oriya

The number of schools, pupils and teachers rose to 4, 962 and 10 from 1, 110 and 2 of the previous year respectively.

Arabic

The number of schools, students and teachers remained constant at 2, 160 and 7 as in the previous year.

Table 9: Total Number of Languages used as Media of Instruction in Gujarat

	Primary	Upper Primary	Secondary	Higher
NCERT Third Survey	9	N.A.	6	N. A.
NCERT Fifth Survey	8	8	7	5

The State Government has adopted the simplified three-language formula, which entails the study of languages as under :

1. Mother-tongue as the first language.
2. Hindi or Gujarati as the second language.
3. English or Gujarati as the third language.

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