Skip to main content

India’s Top 6 Bilingual Minority Speakers; Bishnupriya Manipuri is 6th in India and 2nd in NE India


News and Views
RK Rishikesh Sinha

Bishnupriya Manipuri language speakers hold the sixth position in India and second in Northeast India after Deori language speakers to know two or more languages. In a list of 96 non-scheduled languages of India, Coorgi / Kodagu language speakers top the list with 86.46 per cent knowing two or more languages. This was stated in a paper published byParis-based Evalautions and Language resources Distribution Agency (ELDA) on the basis of 1991 census.

If you are not able be see the below table, click India Top 6 Bilingual Minority Speakers


Coorgi / Kodagu Speakers

According to 2001 Census of India, Coorgi / Kodagu Speakers are mostly concentrated in Karnataka with 164,403 persons. They top the list knowing two or more languages.

Tulu language Speakers

With native state Karnataka, Tulu speakers are in sizable population in Karnataka (1,495,273 persons, 2001 Census),   Kerala (122,995), and Maharashtra (99,729). 68.89 per cent of Tulu speakers know two or more languages.

Deori language Speakers

Mostly concentrated in Assam (23,366 persons; 2001 Census) and Arunachal Pradesh (4,504 persons; 2001 census), Deori language speakers (68.83) top the list in Northeast to know two or more languages.

Sherpa Language Speakers

According to 2001 Census, 13,922 Sherpas are in Sikkim. Out of 16,105 (1991 Census) Sherpas, 10,979 know two or more languages.

Lahauli Language Speakers

The 2001 Census depicts 20,339 persons of Lahauli language in Himachal Pradesh. 67.85 per cent of persons have command over two or more languages.

Bishnupriya Manipuri Language Speakers

Mostly concentrated in Assam and Tripura, Bishnupriya Manipuri language speakers know two or more languages. The 2001 Census of India states there are 53,812 Bishnupriya Manipuri persons in Assam and 21,716 persons in Tripura. However, the apex body of the community, the Mahasabha puts the figure 2.95 lakh in Assam alone. 

In the Indian scenario, there has been paradigm shift unlike the 19th and the 20th century where multilingualism was taken as a ‘problem’; however in the 21st century the multilingual population is considered as an asset for language and social development, the paper states.


Links used: 

  1. http://www.elda.org/en/proj/scalla/SCALLA2004/mallikarjunv3.pdf
  2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AsndGRRg5LsHdEZoUlB1S1F5MW04a2lHRGJIRXFRVkE&single=true&gid=0&output=html
  3. http://bishnupriyamanipuri.blogspot.in/2009/07/mahasabha-census-indicates-416-lakh.html
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown4 August 2012 at 12:36

    We are organising a national level seminar on the issue of socioeconomic status of Bishnupriya Manipuri on January 2013.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rebati4 August 2012 at 15:02

    Who are organising a national seminar on the issue of Socio-economic status of BM ? How could Mr. Harendra arrive at the tentative month ie Jan.2013 for the seminar? At what capacity,he could announce it? Can he explain?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all love comments. It is moderated

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Sadhu Thakur

By Ranita Sinha, Kolkata Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Thakur, the great saint of the Bishnupriya Manipuri Community was born on 26th October, 1871, in a remote village of Cachar district called Baropua in the state of Assam. He was born to a Xatriya Manipuri family. His father Sri Sanatan Pandit was a Sanskrit teacher and mother Srimati Malati Devi, a house wife. Sadhu Baba from his childhood was indifferent to all worldly happenings. He was engrossed in chanting the name of Lord Krishna. Along with other students of his age, Sadhu Baba started taking lessons of grammar and other spiritual literature from his father. At a very young age he lost his mother but he was brought up with utmost love and care by his step mother. At the age of eighteen, Sadhu baba lost his father, so, to continue his spiritual education under the guidance of Rajpandit Mineshwas Swarbabhwam Bhattacherjee, he went to Tripura. But within one year he made up his mind to visit all the holy places and as such he took permis
9 comments
Read more

Assam Search Engine: Bisarok

Exclusive search engine on Assam Manash Pratim Gohain, TNN Jun 16, 2012, 01.46PM IST NEW DELHI: Assam got its own search engine ' Bisarok '. The search engine has been launched to get results exclusively on queries and information related to Assam. 'Bisarok', means 'to search' in Assamese language, has been launched and has been linked to various websites of the Government of Assam and departments, educational institutions and media. The search engine is likely to give a new online experience related to searches on Assam. Built on Google custom search engine, the search engine would be collating and building a database of web properties exclusively of the state in the North East region. 'Bisarok' has been developed by RK Rishikesh Sinha, who had earlier created a similar custom search engine ('Bisarei') on Bishnupriya Manipuri. According to Sinha, apart from Google there was no link to get results particularly on Assam. Any web entity related
5 comments
Read more

The 'Star' Krishankant Sinha of Space City Sigma

By RK Rishikesh Sinha, New Delhi It is a myth that the all-knowing Internet knows everything. One such myth relates to old television stuff aired on Doordarshan before 1990. Search in Google “Space City Sigma”, the search engine would throw up reminiscent results from the people who still long for those days. Those days were really golden days. Krishankant Sinha in the role of Captain Tara in Space City Singma For those who have watched Doordarshan some 15 to 20 years back, am sure they will have nostalgic memories of it. The days when possessing a now ubiquitous looking television set was a luxury. It was a neighbour’s envy product. It was a visual product to showoff, to flaunt that we have a television set . Those were the days when black and white, locked television was rarely found in homes. The days became immortal for teleserials like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Swami’s Malgudi Days (Ta-Na-Na-Na…), Ek-Do-Teen-Char (Title song: Ek do teen char, chaaro mil ke saath chale to
26 comments
Read more