1991 Census - Sourashtra Population - misguiding nomenclature.

1991 Language atlas of India – Languages specified in the 8th Schedule.

3. GUJARATI ... 40,673,814

1. Gujarati … 40,335,889
2. Gujrao/Gujrau … 46,339
3. Saurashtra/Saurashtri … 220,126
Others 71,460

16. TAMIL … 53,006,368

1. Kaikadi 21,848
2. Tamil 52,886,931
3. Yerukala/Yerukula 63,133
Others 34,456

District-wise Data Sheet of Language. [vide Page 232 Census of India, Language Atlas of India, 1991] Jayant Kumar Panthia, IAS, Registrar
General & Census Commissioner, India. Govt. of India, June 2004.

Tamil Nadu Gujarati
Total Population 55,858,946 244,921

1. Madras 25,985
2. Chengalpattu 7,467
3. North Arcot 4,082
4. Dharmapuri 324
5. Thiruvannamalai 2,609
6. South Arcot 1,132
7. Salem 22,002
8. Periyar 1,090
9. Nilgiri 373
10. Coimbatore 5,464
11. Dindigul 13,690
12. Tiruchi 7,637
13. Thanjavur 26,945
14. Pudukottai 3,951
15. P.M.Thevar 368
16. Madurai 92,381
17. Kamarajar 312
18. Ramanathapuram 19,236
19. Chidambaranar 1,079
20. Tirunelveli 6,970
21. Kanyakumari 1,824


Note on Page 30: Two mother tongues which returned 10,000 or more
Speakers at all India level are grouped under Gujarati in 1991 Census.
They are Gujarao/Gujarau and Saurashtra/Saurashtri.

Gujarati Script which is used in writing Gujarati is a cursive form of
Devanagari which was known as MAHAJANI.


CENSUS OF INDIA 1971 – CENSUS CENTENARY MONOGRAPH NO. 10
LANGUAGE HANDBOOK ON MOTHER TONGUES IN CENSUS

By R.C. Nigam,

Office of the Registrar General, India Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi. Published in 1972.

p. 334 Appendix II Mother Tongues – 1971 Census (Provisional Figures)

showing numerically important mother tongues at Country level as of
1971 with strength of speakers of 5000 and above arranged in descending order of population.

Sl.No. Mother tongue Persons Males Females

68. Saurashtra 181,289 91,080 90,209




CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOL I PART II (c) LANGUAGE TABLES
A.MITRA of Indian Civil Service, Registrar General and ex-officio
Census Commissioner of India Published in 1967.

page ccxvi

INDO-ARYAN BRANCH
Inner Sub-Branch
Central Group
GUJARATI

Sl.No. Name of mother tongue speakers.

21. Saurashtra 157,570




page ccxvii

Saurashtra has been returned by 157,570 speakers of which the largest returns are from the State of Madras. (155,392) Equivalent of Saurashtra
in Linguistic Survey has been recorded as Saurashtri which is yet another name of Patanuli dialect of Gujarati spoken by the silk weaving community of Madras who are considered to have migrated from Gujarat to the South several centuries ago. On the basis of current preference for the name of their mother tongue we have, however, adopted the name ‘Saurashtra’ and not Saurashtri. On account of several generations of association in the Dravidian Language area, the speech is supposed to have been strongly affected by Dravidian traits. We preferred to call that dialect of Gujarati with such traits as Saurashtra.

Regarding Saurashtra, however, some interest has been shown, of late, on the technical aspects of this variety while inclination to affiliate it with Marathi is also visible among some scholars. In any case, some authoritative work on this variety of language remains to be done.

Pending the same, however, we have to keep it under Gujarati according to
the Linguistic Survey.





Question: Whether any authoritative work on Saurashtra language has
been done?

Question: If no authoritative work was done, then on what basis,
Saurashtra is classified as a dialect of Gujarati ? Why it is
removed from the list of languages whose speakers are more
than 10,000?

Saurashtra Language is to be treated as a separate Language only.
[The spelling used by the speakers is ‘SOURASHTRA’]

In the list of languages whose speakers are more than 10,000
SOURASHTRA Language is to be included. [The present omission of this language in 1991 census returns is to be rectified]

In the State of Tamil Nadu, the districtwise population of Saurashtrans is stated as ‘Gujarati’ a wrong and misguiding nomenclature which should
be rectified. They should be stated as SOURASHTRA.

When the speakers of Saurashtra (Sourashtra) cannot understand Gujarati,
it is not proper to include it as a dialect of Gujarati. Moreover SOURASHTRA language is written in its own script.

So Census Returns should state ‘Sourashtra’ as a separate language spoken in Tamil Nadu. It has got its own script different from that of Gujarati. It should not be included as a dialect under ‘Gujarati’.

Misguiding information in 1991 Census Report is to be rectified and accordingly 2001 Census figures are to be published with the correct spelling “SOURASHTRA”.

SOURASHTRA LANGUAGE IS A LITERARY LANGUAGE WHEREIN
the translation of the world famous ‘Sanskrit Bhagavath Gita’ and
‘Tamil Thirukkural’ are available. This information is not known to
many Sourashtrans!



O.S.Subramanian,
Secretary,
Sourashtra Vidya Peetam,
21-A, Pacharisikara No.2 Lane,
MADURAI-625001.

E-Mail upamanyuoss@yahoo.co.in