India

To which language should you translate to localize in India?

There is an old Hindi saying about India and the languages spoken here, “Kos-Kos Par Paani Badle, Char Kos Par Vaani”, which means “After every 18 miles, water changes its characteristics, and Language is different at every 72 miles”. This stands very true for India, here the demography of languages is not linear, but dynamic. Due to the diversity here, the multi-lingual population is vast. 
Hindi is one of the official languages (often dubbed as national, but it is not). According to 2011 Census (the latest one), the native Hindi speakers are 528 million, which was 43.63% of the population in 2011. 139 million people in the survey confirmed Hindi as their second language, and 24 million said Hindi is their third language. This essentially means 691 million people (57%) confirmed Hindi as their first, second, or third language. Considering the consistent rise of Hindi as a language — thanks to Bollywood movies — this percentage must have increased since 2011. In the Census 1971, there were 36.99% native Hindi speakers, which rose to 43.63% in 2011.

Official languages

Hindi in Devanagari script (40%; 571 mln), English (3.2%; 45.7 mln).

Actual languages

Hindi in Devanagari script (40%; 571 mln), Bengali (8%; 114.2 mln), Telugu (7.2%; 102.8 mln), Marathi (6.7%; 95.7 mln), Tamil (5.8%; 82.8 mln), Urdu (5%; 71.4 mln), Gujarati (4.4%; 62.8 mln), Kannada (3.6%; 51.4 mln), English (3.2%; 45.7 mln), Malayalam (3.2%; 45.7 mln), Odia (3.2%; 45.7 mln), Punjabi (2.8%; 40 mln), Bhojpuri (2.2%; 31.4 mln), Assamese (1.3%; 18.5 mln), Maithili (1.2%; 17.1 mln), other (2.2%; 31.4 mln).

What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in India

(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)

• 113/150 localize by translating into English.
• 6/150 localize by translating both into English and Hindi.
• 2/150 localize by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Urdu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi and Urdu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Odia, Punjabi and Urdu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, and Marathi.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Odia, Punjabi and Urdu.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Odia, Punjabi, Urdu and Indian Sign Language.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Hindi.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Korean and Japanese.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French and Simplified Chinese.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and German.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Thai, Ukraine, Polish, Hungarian, Bahasa Indonesian, Romanian and Turkish.
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English and Simplified Chinese.