LANGUAGE IN INDIA

URDU IN MAHARASHTRA

A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.

1. HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, AND LINGUISTIC SKETCH OF THE STATE

Maharashtra is located in the north centre of Peninsular India. It is a plateau and its slopes gently descend towards the east and south-east. Satpuda ranges cover the northern part of the State. Arabian Sea guards the western boundary of Maharashtra, while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are on the northern side. Madhya Pradesh also covers the eastern boundary of the State.

The first well-known rulers of Maharashtra were the Satavahanas who were the founders of Maharashtra, and have left a plethora of literary, epigraphic, artistic, and archaeological evidence.

The State has a population of 7,89,37,187 persons. The regional language of the State is Marathi, whose speakers constitute 72.37 per cent of the total population.

The major linguistic minority groups in the State consist of speakers of Urdu (7.30%), Hindi (6.87%), Gujarati (2.72%), Khandeshi (1.76%), Telugu (1.57%), Kannada (1.59%), and Bhili/Bhilodi (1.33%).

The speakers of minority languages who constitute less than 1 per cent are the speakers of Sindhi (0.89%), Gondi (0.67%), Tamil (0.51%), Malayalam (0.39%), Konkani (0.37%), Punjabi (0.31%), Halabi (0.18%), Korku (0.15%), Kolami (0.11%), and Bengali (0.16%).

The speakers of minority languages who constitute less than 0.09 per cent are the speakers of Tulu (0.09%), Gorkhali/Nepali (0.04%), Korwa (0.04%), and Oriya (0.02%).

2. MAHARASHTRA POPULATION

In Table 1 given below, a detailed account of the area, population, and the headquarters of the districts of Maharashtra is presented.

Districts	Area   (sq km)	Population	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
Ahmadnagar	17048	33.7	Ahmadnagar	1.2	3.6	2.1	6.4	56.0
Akola	5429	22.1	Akola	2.8	12.7	3.2	14.4	88.1
Amravati	12210	22.0	Amravati	2.4	10.9	2.7	12.3	88.5
Aurangabad	10107	22.1	Aurangabad	3.7	16.7	4.1	18.5	90.7
Bhandara	3895	21.1	Bhandara	0.1	0.5	0.4	1.9	25.1
Bid	10693	18.2	Bid	1.8	9.9	2.0	11.0	90.1
Buldana	9661	18.9	Buldana	1.9	10.1	2.2	11.7	86.2
Chandrapur	11443	17.7	Chandrapur	0.2	1.1	0.6	3.3	34.0
Dhule	8063	25.4	Dhule	1.2	4.7	1.3	5.2	91.6
Gadchiroli	14412	7.9	Gadchiroli	0.1	1.3	0.1	1.7	74.2
Greater Bombay		99.3	Greater Bombay	12.0	12.1	16.7	16.8	71.8
Jalgaon	11765	31.9	Jalgaon	2.4	7.5	3.5	11.0	68.4
Jalna	7718	13.6	Jalna	1.5	11.0	1.7	12.4	89.1
Kolahapur	7685	29.9	Kolahapur	1.2	4.0	1.8	6.2	64.9
Latur	7157	16.8	Latur	1.7	10.1	2.2	13.1	77.3
Nagpur	9892	32.9	Nagpur	1.5	4.6	2.3	7.0	65.5
Nanded	10528	23.3	Nanded	2.6	11.2	2.8	12.2	91.5
Nashik	15530	38.5	Nashik	3.4	8.8	3.9	10.2	86.7
Osmanabad	7569	12.8	Osmanabad	0.9	7.0	1.2	9.6	73.5
Parbhani	6517	21.2	Parbhani	2.3	10.8	2.7	12.6	85.9
Pune	15643	55.3	Pune	1.6	2.9	3.2	5.8	49.9
Raigarh	7152	18.2	Alibag	1.1	6.0	1.3	7.2	83.7
Ratnagiri	8208	15.4	Ratnagiri	1.1	7.1	1.5	9.8	72.6
Sangli	8572	22.1	Sangli	1.1	5.0