While states in the Hindi-speaking belt, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, had the highest net outflow of migrants, Tamil Nadu and Kerala recorded the highest migrant inflow during the period.
New Delhi: Tamil Nadu is known for anti-Hindi agitations both before and after India’s independence. Yet, according to census data, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest increase in the number of people reporting Hindi as their mother tongue between 2001 and 2011, among all southern states, Gujarat and Maharashtra. This one statistic captures the phenomenon of India’s changing linguistic landscape, the result of migration for economic reasons.
Cultural barriers do not seemingly inhibit economic integration in India. The 2016-17 Economic Survey published by the ministry of finance contained estimates of migration in the 20-29 year age group between 2001 and 2011.
While states in the Hindi-speaking belt, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, had the highest net outflow of migrants, Tamil Nadu and Kerala recorded the highest migrant inflow during the period. The survey says that in absolute terms, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had a net migrant outflow of 5.83 million and 2.63 million people (in the 20-29 age-group) respectively, while Tamil Nadu saw the largest net inflow at 1 million.
Reading these numbers with per capita income level of states shows that inter-state migration in India primarily takes place from poor to rich states. These migration trends find a striking parallel in the changing composition of the languages spoken across states, according to the recently released language data from Census 2011. The percentage of people reporting Hindi as their mother tongue increased across 30 of 36 states and Union Territories in the period 2001-2011.
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