The ‘world’ has more Malayalam and Tamil speakers ‘than India’: Diaspora study explains why

Ahmedabad, August 14 (PTI): More people speak Malayalam or Tamil outside India than reside outside Kerala or Tamil Nadu within the country, according to a study by Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) faculty member Chinmay Tumbe.

Punjabi most dispersed, Bengali least

The research, published in the Sociological Bulletin, analysed internal and international Indian diasporas along linguistic lines. It found that while Punjabi-speaking people were the most "dispersed" within India as per the 2011 census, the Indian Bengali diaspora—both internal and international—was the least dispersed.

Internal diaspora larger than international, mostly

The study mapped internal and international diaspora numbers and found that more than 60 million Indians belonged to the 'internal' diaspora in 2010—nearly three times the size of the 'international' diaspora. Tumbe explained, "The internal diaspora is larger than the international counterpart for all major linguistic groups except for Malayalam and Tamil. A third of the internal diaspora is dispersed across ten largest Indian cities."

Malayalam and Tamil diaspora larger abroad

Of the total 4.6 million Malayali diaspora, nearly three million live outside India, while 1.6 million are part of the internal diaspora in other Indian states. "The international (Malayali) diaspora is nearly 1.8 times larger than the internal diaspora," noted the study.

Similarly, the Indian Tamil diaspora comprises more than 8.4 million people, with 4.5 million living abroad and nearly 3.9 million within India, showing the international diaspora is almost 1.2 times larger than the internal one.

Hindi and Telugu diaspora figures

With nearly 40 million people, Hindi speakers form the largest diaspora in India, followed by the 8.4 million-strong Tamil diaspora. The Telugu diaspora, linked to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, comprises 8 million people, of which 7 million belong to the internal diaspora. "It (Telugu) is the third largest Indian linguistic diaspora after Hindi and Tamil. As a ratio of international to internal diaspora, it is among the lowest out of the major linguistic groups of India," the study said.

Dispersal percentages among major linguistic groups

In terms of dispersion relative to their core region populations: Punjabi-speaking diaspora was most dispersed at 12.4 per cent, followed by Malayalis at 12.2 per cent and Tamilians at 11.5 per cent. They were followed by Telugu (9.7 per cent), Gujarati (8.7 per cent), Hindi (7.5 per cent), Marathi (6.6 per cent), Kannada (4.6 per cent) and Bengali (3.7 per cent).

The Bengali diaspora remained least dispersed in 2010, with only 3.6 million people from a total of 97 million Bengali speakers living outside West Bengal or abroad.

Tamil diaspora spread across cities

The Tamil internal diaspora is spread across India’s largest cities, with nearly one million in the nine biggest cities, Mumbai being the most prominent. "In Madhya Pradesh in central India, there were nearly 10,000 Tamil speakers in Bhopal in 2001, 6,000 in Jabalpur and 3,000 in Indore, reflecting their spread beyond the big cities," Tumbe highlighted.

The study also noted that the Tamil international diaspora likely formed before the internal one: "Migration of Tamilians to southeast Asia and southern Africa was prominent since the 19th century whereas migration towards north India was more of a phenomenon in the 20th century."