India, do you speak English?

How relevant can English-only content be in a multilingual India? Multi-awarded author and journalist Luca de Biase is a professor at Pisa University, innovation editor at Sole 24Ore newspaper and a Member of the Mission Assembly for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, amongst many other roles and achievements. 

Of course India speaks English, but it’s a bit more complicated than that…More than 19,500 languages are spoken in India

First, Second, and Third languages by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)

	First language speakers		Second language speakers	Third language speakers	Total speakers
Language	Figure	% of total			Figure	% of total*
HINDI	528,347,193	43.63%	139,207,180	24,160,696	691,347,193	57.09%
ENGLISH	259,678	0.02%	83,125,221	45,993,066	129,259,678	10.67%
BENGALI	97,237,669	8.03%	9,037,222	1,008,088	107,237,669	8.85%
MARATHI	83,026,680	6.86%	12,923,626	2,966,019	99,026,680	8.18%
TELUGU	81,127,740	6.70%	11,946,414	1,001,498	94,127,740	7.77%
TAMIL	69,026,881	5.70%	6,992,253	956,335	77,026,881	6.36%
GUJARATI	55,492,554	4.58%	4,035,489	1,007,912	60,492,554	4.99%
URDU	50,772,631	4.19%	11,055,287	1,096,428	62,772,631	5.18%
KANNADA	43,706,512	3.61%	14,076,355	993,989	58,706,512	4.84%
ODIA	37,521,324	3.10%	4,972,151	31,525	42,551,324	3.51%
MALAYALAM	34,838,819	2.88%	499,188	195,885	35,538,819	2.93%
PUNJABI	33,124,726	2.74%	2,300,000	720,000	36,074,726	2.97%
SANSKRIT	24,821	0.00185%	1,234,931	1,196,223	2,360,821	0.19%

*sum of percentages takes into account the fact that many people speak more languages

English is shrinking in the media.

Share in growth rate of publication volumes across India in 2019, by region

Source: KPMG, Nielsen 2016

Number of Indian and English language Internet users across India from 2011 to 2021

(in millions)

Source: KPMG; Nielsen 2016

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So, in which language is it worth translating in India?

English is spoken in cities but not in the country: it’s a problem.

Share of English speakers in India in 2019, by region

Sources: CMIE; Oxford University Press, Website (Lok Foundation), 2019

Challenges faced by non-English internet users across India

Sources: KPMG; Nielsen, 2016

Tamil is big online. Of course, Bengali is bigger and Hindi is the biggest.

Share of internet adoption levels among non-English users across India in 2016, by language

Sources: KPMG; Nielsen, 2016

Number one Hindi, then Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada.

Estimate of the share of non-English internet users across India in 2021, by language

Sources: KPMG; Google, 2016

Most common languages in India in 2011, by number of speakers

Sources: KPMG; Nielsen, 2016

Anyway, take a look at Tamil.

Share of online advertisement response readiness among non-English users across India in 2016, by language

Sources: KPMG; Nielsen, 2016

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Media and languages in India

Share of advertising volumes in Indian newspaper in 2019, by language

Sources: EY; FICCI; TAM Media Research

Television viewership across India in 2017 by preferred languages

(in million impressions)

Sources: BARC; Wweek 2016-2017

Distribution of the Indian box office in 2019, based on language

Sources: BARC; Wweek 2016-2017

Distribution of film produced in India in FY 2019, by language

Sources: BARC; Wweek 2016-2017

News about Indian languages

• Today is International Mother Language Day. Of the 4,000 endangered languages globally, India’s share is 10%. Since independence, India already lost 250 languages

• Saving the language is saving the community

• Creativity and diversity

• Awareness

• Discovery Plus in eight languages in India

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Photo credits: Pop & Zebra, Unsplash / Zekeriya Sen, Unsplash / Nikita S, Unsplash

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