Latest census figure reveals increase in Sanskrit speakers in India

According to latest census figure of 2011, the ancient Sanskrit language has earned 10,000 new speakers in a span of 10 years in the country marking a growth of 71 per cent.

Hindi-speaking population in the country has increased by more than 10 crore between 2001-11, thus remaining India's most spoken language, followed by Bengali, which added more than 1.10 crore speakers in the 2011 census in comparison to 2001.

According to the 2011 data, released recently, 24,821 people have registered Sanskrit as their mother tongue, in comparison to 14,135 people who had said Sanskrit was their mother tongue in 2001.

The ancient language speaking population is just 0.00198 per cent of India's total population of 121 crore.

Hindi-speaking people, as per the 2011 census, is 52.83 crore, which is 43.63 per cent of the country's total population. In 2001, India's Hindi-speaking population was 42.20 crore.

India's second most speaking language is Bengali, which is spoken by 9.72 crore citizens — 8.03 per cent of the total population. The Bengali speaking population was 8.33 crore 10 years ago.

(Featured Image – Fluenc)

(Source – PTI)