The Gazetteers Department

The following table gives the 1961 [1971 Census statistics are not available.] Census statistics of the major mother-tongues (nine languages) in the rural and urban areas as also in the towns in the district.

TABLE No. 9

Distribution of Population by Mother-tongue in Akola District, 1961

District/Tahsil	Total	Banjari		Gujarati		Hindi
	Rural	Banjari		Gujarati		Hindi
	Urban	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
District Total	Total	24,111	23,600	5,272	4,761	36,327	29,232
	Rural	24,068	23,589	935	855	14,715	12,219
	Urban	43	11	4,337	3,906	21,612	17,013
Akot Tahsil	Total	9	7	752	638	6,524	5,741
	Rural	9	7	264	246	3,549	3,091
	Urban	—	—	488	392	2,975	2,650
Balapur Tahsil	Total	1,766	1,699	434	374	2,021	1,577
	Rural	1,762	1,699	111	87	1,401	1,027
	Urban	4	—	323	287	620	550
Akola Tahsil	Total	3,793	3,702	3,125	2,896	14,528	10,502
	Rural	3,780	3,698	308	260	2,635	2,037
	Urban	13	4	2,817	2,636	11,893	8,465
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	2,188	2,260	633	544	5,683	4,757
	Rural	2,172	2,254	86	84	2,375	1,953
	Urban	16	6	547	460	3,308	2,804
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	13,469	13,028	102	119	1,756	1,605
	Rural	13,466	13,028	62	74	1,142	1,030
	Urban	3	—	40	45	614	575
Washim Tahsil	Total	2,886	2,904	226	190	5,815	5,050
	Rural	2,879	2,903	104	104	3,613	3,081
	Urban	7	1	122	86	2,202	1,969
Municipal Towns
Telhara	—	—	—	73	53	995	835
Akot	—	—	—	415	339	1,980	1,815
Balapur	—	—	—	299	261	463	403
Patur	—	4	—	24	26	157	147
Akola	—	13	4	2,817	2,636	11,893	8,465
Murtazapur	—	4	1	256	237	1,955	1,638
Karanja	—	12	5	291	226	1,353	1,166
Mangrulpir	—	3	—	40	45	614	575
Washim	—	7	1	122	86	2,202	1,969

TABLE No. 9—Cont.

District/Tahsil	Total	Korku		Marathi
	Rural	Korku		Marathi
	Urban	Males	Females	Males	Females
1	2	9	10	11	12
District Total	Total	1,588	1,571	4,66,567	4,44,274
	Rural	1,588	1,571	3,94,315	3,79,399
	Urban	—	—	72,252	64,875
Akot Tahsil	Total	1,588	1,571	77,997	73,343
	Rural	1,588	1,571	65,869	62,381
	Urban	—	—	12,128	10,962
Balapur Tahsil	Total	—	—	59,671	57,631
	Rural	—	—	54,509	52,836
	Urban	—	—	5,162	4,795
Akola Tahsil	Total	—	—	1,08,314	1,01,434
	Rural	—	—	76,044	72,642
	Urban	—	—	32,270	28,792
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	—	—	66,602	62,892
	Rural	—	—	54,595	51,909
	Urban	—	—	12,007	10,983
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	—	—	47,771	46,004
	Rural	—	—	45,399	43,873
	Urban	—	—	2,372	2,131
Washim Tahsil	Total	—	—	1,06,212	1,02,970
	Rural	—	—	97,899	95,758
	Urban	—	—	8,313	7,212
Municipal Towns
Telhara	—	—	—	2,650	2,445
Akot	—	—	—	9,478	8,517
Balapur	—	—	—	2,622	2,485
Patur	—	—	—	2,540	2,310
Akola	—	—	—	32,270	28,792
Murtazapur	—	—	—	5,336	4,810
Karanja	—	—	—	6,671	6,173
Mangrulpir	—	—	—	2,372	2,131
Washim	—	—	—	8,313	7,212

TABLE No. 9—Cont.

District/Tahsil	Total	Pardhi		Sindhi		Telugu
	Rural	Pardhi		Sindhi		Telugu
	Urban	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
1	2	13	14	15	16	17	18
District Total	Total	618	499	3,563	3,206	4,137	3,787
	Rural	579	498	105	12	2,108	2,073
	Urban	39	1	3,458	3,194	2,029	1,714
Akot Tahsil	Total	41	41	274	246	197	157
	Rural	41	41	4	2	113	84
	Urban	--	--	270	244	84	73
Balapur Tahsil	Total	4	1	14	15	115	96
	Rural	4	1	8	--	104	96
	Urban	--	--	6	15	11	--
Akola Tahsil	Total	112	64	2,121	1,884	1,405	1,205
	Rural	73	63	30	8	318	322
	Urban	39	1	2,091	1,876	1,087	883
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	253	203	893	820	504	533
	Rural	253	203	52	2	302	314
	Urban	--	--	841	818	202	219
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	82	59	19	6	724	742
	Rural	82	59	4	--	677	692
	Urban	--	--	15	6	47	50
Washim Tahsil	Total	126	131	242	235	1,192	1,054
	Rural	126	131	7	--	594	565
	Urban	--	--	235	235	598	489
Municipal Towns
Telhara		--	--	--	--	9	3
Akot		--	--	270	244	75	70
Balapur		--	--	6	15	9	--
Patur		--	--	--	--	2	--
Akola		39	1	2,091	1,876	1,087	883
Murtazapur		--	--	463	456	161	177
Karanja		--	--	378	362	41	42
Mangrulpir		--	--	15	6	47	50
Washim		--	--	235	235	598	489

TABLE No. 9—Cont.

District / Tahsil	Total	Urdu		Others
	Rural	Urdu		Others
	Urban	Males	Females	Males	Females
1	2	19	20	21	22
District Total	Total	68,602	62,051	3,047	2,541
	Rural	33,929	30,802	1,762	1,399
	Urban	34,673	31,249	1,285	1,142
Akot Tahsil	Total	11,805	10,703	361	317
	Rural	7,197	6,613	318	282
	Urban	4,608	4,090	43	35
Balapur Tahsil	Total	12,133	10,854	319	206
	Rural	4,763	4,276	279	178
	Urban	7,370	6,578	40	28
Akola Tahsil	Total	17,760	15,705	1,073	911
	Rural	6,218	5,631	386	321
	Urban	11,542	10,074	687	590
Murtazapur Tahsil	Total	12,824	11,777	586	536
	Rural	6,162	5,801	193	155
	Urban	6,662	5,976	393	381
Mangrulpir Tahsil	Total	4,958	4,570	248	196
	Rural	2,815	2,488	246	196
	Urban	2,143	2,082	2	—
Washim Tahsil	Total	9,122	8,442	460	375
	Rural	6,774	5,993	340	267
	Urban	2,348	2,449	120	108
Municipal Towns
Telhara		291	217	11	1
Akot		4,317	3,873	32	34
Balapur		5,233	4,783	22	17
Patur		2,137	1,795	18	11
Akola		11,542	10,074	687	590
Murtazapur		1,815	1,548	174	152
Karanja		4,847	4,428	219	229
Mangrulpir		2,143	2,082	2	—
Washim		2,348	2,449	120	108

Percentage distribution of languages in rural and urban areas of the district in 1961 is given below.

	Percentage to total Population			Percentage of each Language
	Total	Rural	Urban	Rural	Urban
Banjari	4.01	5.14	0.02	99.89	0.11
Gujarati	0.85	0.19	3.14	17.84	82.16
Hindi	5.51	2.91	14.69	41.09	58.91
Korku	0.27	0.34	—	100.00	—
Marathi	76.58	83.51	52.18	84.94	15.06
Sindhi	0.57	0.01	2.53	1.73	98.27
Pardhi	0.09	0.12	0.02	96.42	3.58
Telugu	0.67	0.45	1.42	52.76	47.24
Urdu	10.98	6.99	25.08	49.54	50.46
Others	0.47	0.34	0.92	56.63	43.37
All Languages	100.00	100.00	100.00	77.90	22.10

Marathi, the principal language spoken and understood by the majority of the people, was the mother-tongue of 76.6 per cent of the population in 1961. In rural areas, Marathi speakers accounted for 83.5 per cent. They formed 52.2 per cent of population in urban areas. Urdu had the second largest number of speakers. It was spoken by about 11 per cent of the total population in the district. It was spoken more in urban areas where its speakers were as much as 25.1 per cent against 7 per cent in rural areas. Hindi was numerically the third important language. It was the mother-tongue of 5.5 per cent of the total population and was spoken more in urban areas where its speakers were as much as 14.7 per cent against nearly 3 per cent in rural areas. The speakers of Banjari were more than 4 per cent of the total population. The speakers of Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and Sindhi were largely concentrated in urban areas.

The percentages of population by mother-tongue in 1901, 1951 and 1961 are given below.

Language	Percentage to total population
	1901	1951	1961
Banjari	—	2.99	4.01
Gujarati	0.97	0.88	0.85
Hindi	3.84	5.14	5.51
Korku	0.03	0.32	0.27
Marathi	83.30	78.89	76.58
Sindhi	—	0.49	0.57
Pardhi	—	0.08	0.09
Telugu	0.61	0.58	0.67
Urdu	8.57	9.89	10.98
Others	2.68	0.74	0.47
All Languages	100.00	100.00	100.00

The proportion of Marathi speakers decreased from 83.3 per cent in 1901 to 78.9 per cent in 1951 and to 76.58 per cent in 1961. It may be partly due to more and more persons from among the Muslims and Banjaras who might have mentioned Urdu and Banjari as their mother-tongue in their returns in the 1961 Census. The percentage of Urdu speakers increased from 8.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent during 1901 to 1951 and to 10.98 per cent in 1961. The proportion of Hindi speakers increased from 3.8 per cent to 5.1 per cent from 1901 to 1951 and remained somewhat constant in 1961. Banjari, Sindhi and Pardhi languages were not reported in 1901. The proportion of Banjari speakers had however increased from 3 per cent in 1951 to 4 per cent in 1961.

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