Karnataka ethnic groups - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

is a state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

in the southern part of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It was created

Unification of Karnataka

The Unification of Karnataka refers to the formation of the Indian state of Karnataka, then called as Mysore State, in 1956 when several Indian states were created by redrawing borders based on linguistic demographics...

on November 1, 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act

States Reorganisation Act

The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries and governance of India's states and territories. The act reorganised the boundaries of India's states along linguistic lines, and amended the Indian Constitution to replace the three types of states, known as Parts A, B,...

. Karnataka is bordered by the Arabian Sea

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...

to the west, Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

to the northwest, Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

to the north, Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

to the east, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

to the southeast, and Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

to the southwest. The state covers an area of 74,122 sq mi (191,976 km²), or 5.83% of the total geographical area of India

India

. It comprises 29 districts

Districts of India

A district is an administrative division of an Indian state or territory. Districts are further subdivided, in some cases into Sub-Divisions, and otherwise directly into tehsils or talukas.District officials include:...

. Kannada

Kannada language

Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...

is the official language of Karnataka and spoken as a native language by about 64.75% of the people. Various ethnic groups with origins in other parts of India have unique customs and use languages at home other than Kannada, adding to the rich cultural diversity of the state.Other ethnic minorities in the state as of 1991 are Urdu people

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

(9.72%), Telugu people

Telugu people

The Telugu people or Telugu Prajalu are an ethnic group of India. They are the native speakers of the Telugu language, the most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali...

(8.34%), Tamil people

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

(5.46%), Marathi people

Marathi people

The Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...

(3.95%), Tuluva

Tuluva

The Tuluva -Geographic Distribution :Though most of the Tuluva population is found in the Tulu Nadu region, migrant poplulations are found the world over. In recent times, the first period of migration started at the beginning of the 20th century to places such as Mumbai and Chennai and other...

s (3.38%), Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

(1.87%), Konkani people

Konkani people

Konkani people , form a group of people mainly found in the Konkan Coast of western India whose mother-tongue is the Konkani language....

(1.78%), Malayali

Malayali

Malayali is the term used to refer to the native speakers of Malayalam, originating from the Indian state of Kerala...

s (1.69%), Kodava

Kodava

The Kodavas are a patrilineal ethno-lingual group from the region of Kodagu, in Karnataka state of southern India who traditionally were land-owning agriculturists with martial traditions and natively speak Kodava takk...

s (0.25%) and Gujarati people

Gujarati people

Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...

(0.10%). The Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Tulu and Konkani languagues spoken in the state are highly influenced by Kannada language and have many words borrowed from Kannada.

Kannadiga

Kannadigas form the dominant ethnic group in Karnataka, making up to 64.75%
(As per 1991 census) of the total population of the state. They are the native speakers of the Kannada language. Kannada is one of the official languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. Based on the recommendations of the Committee of Linguistic Experts, appointed by the Ministry of Culture, the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

officially recognised Kannada as a classical language

Classical language

A classical language is a language with a literature that is classical. According to UC Berkeley linguist George L. Hart, it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich...

.

Except for Dakshina Kannada

Dakshina Kannada

- Geography :The district geography consists of sea shore in the west and Western Ghats in the east. The major rivers are Netravathi, Kumaradhara, Phalguni, Shambhavi, Nandini or Pavanje and Payaswini which all join Arabian sea. Vast areas of evergreen forests which once covered this district, have...

and Udupi

Udupi district

Udupi district , ಉಡುಪಿ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ) in the Karnataka state of India was created in August 1997. The three northern taluks, Udupi, Kundapur and Karkal, were separated from Dakshina Kannada District to form Udupi district. Udupi district is surrounded by Uttara Kannada district in north, Dakshina Kannada...

districts Kannada-speakers are in a majority all over Karnataka.

Urdu

	Kannada	Other languages	Total
Hindu	63.9%	20%	83.9%
Muslim	1.2%	11%	12.2%
Christian	1%	0.9%	1.9%
Other religions	1%	1%	2%
Total	66%	34%	100%
mainly Telugu mainly Urdu mainly Konkani

People speaking Urdu as their mothertongue form the second largest ethnic group in Karnataka (9.72% of the total population as per 1991 census), majority of whom are Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s (constituting 85.6% of Muslim population in Karnataka). The concentration of speakers of Urdu shows an uneven distribution over different districts in Karnataka. The difference in the numerical strength of Urdu speakers varies from a few hundreds to thousands. Almost 57.5% of the total Urdu population in Karnataka are bilingual. Kannada is the most preferred language among the Urdu speakers of Karnataka. About 43.5% of the total Urdu population has bilingualism in Kannada.

Telugu people

As per 1991 census, speakers of Telugu language

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

formed the third largest ethnic group in Karnataka (8.34% of the total population), but according to the latest sources, there are approximately 1.35 crore Telugu-speaking people in Karnataka. The speakers of Telegu language form the native ethnic group of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

, the neighbouring state of Karnataka.
Telugu

Telugu language

is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, spoken by 88.5% of the population. Telugu is the third most spoken language in India. The Indian government designated Telugu as a classical and ancient language on November 1, 2008. Most Telugu speaking people from Karnataka are fluent in Kannada, in fact the Telugu spoken here is greatly influenced by Kannada.

There are significant populations of Telugu speakers in the eastern districts of Kolar

Kolar district

Kolar district is a district in Karnataka state of India. The town of Kolar is the district headquarters. Kolar district is located in the southern region of the State and is the eastern-most district of the Karnataka State...

, Bellary, Raichur

Raichur district

Raichur District is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district in the west, Bellary district in the south, Anantapur...

, Chitradurga

Chitradurga district

Chitradurga district is an administrative district of Karnataka state in southern India. The city of Chitradurga is the district headquarters. Chitradurga gets its name from Chitrakaldurga, an umbrella-shaped lofty hill found there. Tradition dates Chitradurga District to the period of the...

, and Tumkur

Tumkur district

Tumkur district is an administrative district in the state of Karnataka in India. The district headquarters are located at Tumkur. The district occupies an area of 10,598 km² and had a population of 2,584,711, of which 19.62% were urban as of 2001...

. As of 1991, Telugu-speakers constituted 16% of the total population of Bangalore

Bangalore

Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

city.

Tamil people

Tamil people are the native speakers of the Tamil language

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, which is spoken predominantly in the adjoining state of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

. The language has official status

Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...

in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

and Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of India and the first Indian language to be declared as a classical language by the government of India

Government of India

in 2004. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

and Réunion

Réunion

Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...

as well as emigrant communities around the world.

In Karnataka however, Tamils form 5.46% of the total population of the state. There has been a recorded presence of Tamil-speaking people in Southern Karnataka since the 10th century. During the eleventh century AD, the areas in and around Bangalore were a bone of contention between the Tamil-speaking Cholas

Chola Dynasty

The Chola dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which was one of the longest-ruling in some parts of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BC left by Asoka, of Maurya Empire; the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until...

and the Kannada-speaking Western Chalukyas

Western Chalukyas

The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This dynasty is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in Karnataka and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical...

. The Vaishnavite Brahmins of Southern Karnataka use the Tamil surname "Iyengar" and are believed to have migrated during the time of the 12th century Vaishnavite saint Ramanujacharya. Most Iyengars in Karnataka use sub-dialects of Iyengar Tamil. Some believe that Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bangalore city, was a Vanniyakula Kshatriya

Vanniyar

Vanniyar , refers to a very large social group of people spread all across South India. Vanniyars primarily live in modern Tamil Nadu where they speak Tamil, while in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala they speak their native South Indian Dravidian languages namely, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam...

from Kanchipuram district

Kanchipuram district

Kanchipuram district is a district in the northeast of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is bounded in the west by Vellore and Thiruvannamalai districts, in the north by Thiruvallur District and Chennai District, in the south by Viluppuram District and in the east by the Bay of Bengal. It lies...

.

After the fall of Tipu

Tipu

Tipu may refer to:*Tipu Sultan, person in Indian history*Tipu, Belize, Mayan archaeological site near the Belize–Guatemala border*Tipu, Estonia, village in Kõpu Parish, Viljandi County, Estonia...

Sulthan, a large British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

presence in the Cantonment area (Bangalore) attracted speakers of Tamil, who either were attached to the military or were military suppliers.In fact, the area was administered directly by the Madras Presidency, and was handed over to the Mysore State only in 1949. Today, the erstwhile Cantonment area of Bangalore comprising Ulsoor, Shivajinagar, Benson Town, Richard’s Town, Frazer Town, Austin Town, Richmond Town, Cox Town, Murphy Town and others still boast a large Tamil populace. The boom in the textile industry in the early part of 20th Century also witnessed migration from the Madras Presidency. Some of the very well known mills of the time employed Tamil-speaking people in large numbers, who settled down in areas in and around Bangalore

Tamil-speaking people are largely found in the districts of Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural

Bangalore Rural district

Bangalore Rural District is one of the 30 districts in Karnataka. It was formed in 1986, when Bangalore district was divided into Bangalore Rural and Bangalore . Presently in Bangalore Rural district, there are 2 divisions, 4 Talukas, 35 Hoblis , 1,713 inhabited and 177 uninhabited villages, 9...

, Ramanagaram, Mysore

Mysore district

Mysore District is an administrative district located in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. The district is bounded by Mandya district to the northeast, Chamrajanagar district to the southeast, Kerala state to the south, Kodagu district to the west, and Hassan district to the north...

, Kolar

Kolar district

, Hassan

Hassan district

Hassan is a district in Karnataka state, India. The district headquarters are Hassan.Hassan district was the seat of the Hoysala Empire which at its peak ruled large parts of south India from Belur as its early capital and Halebidu as its later capital during the period 1000 - 1334 CE...

, Mandya and Chamarajanagar

Chamarajanagar district

Chamarajanagara is the southern-most district in the state of Karnataka, India. It was carved out of the original larger Mysore District in the year 1998...

in southern Karnataka and Bellary in northern Karnataka. Recent migrants speak Tamil while older migrants are bilingual in Kannada and Tamil. Some who have resided in Karnataka for generations have even adopted Kannada as their mother tongue. In 1991, Tamils constituted the largest ethnolinguistic minority in Bangalore city making up 21.38% of the total population. Today, Tamil speakers form an estimated 25-30 percent of the population of Bangalore city. As of 1971, Tamil formed the second-largest mother tongue in Bangalore

Bangalore

and Bhadravathi

Bhadravathi

Bhadravathi is an industrial town and taluk in the Shivamogga District of Karnataka state, India. It is situated at a distance of about from the state capital Bangalore and at about from the district headquarters, Shivamogga...

, third in Mysore and Shimoga, fourth in Bellary

Bellary

Bellary is a historic city in Bellary District in Karnataka state, India.-Origins of the city's name:There are several legends about how Bellary got its name....

, fifth in Davanagere

Davanagere

Davangere or Davanagere is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Davangere district which lies at the centre of the state of Karnataka. The city is located on National Highway 4 at a distance of about 265 km from the state capital, Bangalore...

and sixth in Mangalore

Mangalore

Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...

Marathi people

Marathi people are the native speakers of the Marathi language

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, which serves as the official language of the adjoining state of Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

.

Marathi speakers are mostly found in the districts of Belgaum

Belgaum district

Belgaum district is a district in the state of Karnataka, India. The city of Belgaum is the district headquarters in North Karnataka. By the 2011 Census of India, it had a population of 4778439...

, Dharwad

Dharwad District

Dharwad District is an administrative district of the state of Karnataka in southern India. Dharwad is the cultural headquarters of North Karnataka....

and Bidar

Bidar District

Bidar is a district of Karnataka state in southern India. The historic city of Bidar is the administrative centre of the district. The district is located in the northeastern corner of the state, near the borders with Andhra Pradesh to the east and Maharashtra to the north and west...

and as per 1991 census form 3.95% of the total population of the state. Belgaum district was incorporated into the newly formed Mysore state

Mysore State

The Kingdom of Mysore was one of the three largest princely states within the erstwhile British Empire of India. Upon India gaining its independence in 1947, the Maharaja of Mysore merged his realm with the Union of India...

(now Karnataka) with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act
States Reorganisation Act
The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries and governance of India's states and territories. The act reorganised the boundaries of India's states along linguistic lines, and amended the Indian Constitution to replace the three types of states, known as Parts A, B,...

(1956), which reorganised India's states along linguistic

Natural language

In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...

lines, despite having a large Marathi-speaking population; about three-fourths of the total population. There are also considerable number of Marathi-speakers in Bangalore city.

The migration of Marathi-speakers to Karnataka date from the 17th century when the Maratha Empire

Maratha Empire

The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....

was established. Chattrapathi Shivaji's father Shahaji

Shahaji

Shahaji Raje Bhosle was an early exponent of guerilla warfare. He was the eldest son of Maloji Bhosale of Verul . He brought the house of Bhosle into prominence. The princely states of Tanjore, Kolhapur and Satara are Bhosle legacies...

was a feudal chieftain in the Bangalore region. Shivaji's half-brother Venkoji, who succeeded him, conquered Thanjavur and relocated his seat to the city, thereby laying the foundations of the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom. Even after the Marathas lost their hold over Bangalore, Marathis occupied high positions as administrators and bureaucrats in the courts of Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born Hyder Naik, he distinguished himself militarily, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's rulers...

and Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...

as well as the Nizam of Hyderabad.

Tuluva/Tulu people

Tuluvas are the native speakers of Tulu language

Tulu language

The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...

. They form the dominant linguistic group in the districts of Dakshina Kannada

Dakshina Kannada

and Udupi

Udupi district

, which together is often termed as a single region called as Tulu Nadu

Tulu Nadu

Tulu Nadu is a Tulu-speaking region spread over to parts of present Karnataka and Kerala States of India. It consists of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka and the northern parts of the Kasaragod district of Kerala up to the Payaswini River...

. As per 1991 census, Tuluvas form 3.38% of the total population of the state. Even so, Tulu does not have the official language status in India

India

and so do not appear in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution. But efforts are being taken to include the language in the Eighth Schedule. At present the language is written using Kannada script

Kannada script

The Kannada script is an alphasyllabary of the Brahmic family, used primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages of southern India and also Sanskrit in the past. The Telugu script is derived from Old Kannada, and resembles Kannada script...

, although historically it was written using the Tulu script

Tulu Script

The Tulu script The Tulu script The Tulu script (Tulu: —written in Tulu script, is the original script of the Tulu language. It evolved from the Grantha script. It bears partial similarity to the Malayalam script, which also evolved from the Grantha....

which had partial resemblance with the Malayalam script

Malayalam script

The Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language—which is the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala, spoken by 36 million people in the world. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, or a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and...

. As a matter of fact, both Tulu and Malayalam script evolved from an ancient script known as Grantha. Tulu activists have been demanding a separate Tulu Nadu state since the 1990s, considering language and culture as the basis for their demand.
However, most Tulu speaking people of state are bilingual in Kannada due to inter-marriages between the two communities.

Konkani people

Konkani people are the native speakers of Konkani language

Konkani language

KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

, which has official status in the state of Goa

Goa

. The speakers of Konkani language are widely settled in the districts of Uttara Kannada

Uttara Kannada

Uttara Kannada also known as North Canara or North Kanara, is a district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is bordered by the state of Goa and Belgaum District to the north, Dharwad District and Haveri District to the east, Shimoga District and Udupi District to the south and the...

, Udupi

Udupi district

and Dakshina Kannada

Dakshina Kannada

(Udupi and Dakshina Kannada was the erstwhile South Canara district). In Karwar

Karwar

Karwar is the administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka, India. It is a seaside town situated on the banks of the Kali river which is on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. The town lies about 15 kilometres south of the Karnataka–Goa border and 519 km north-west...

Taluk (Uttara Kannada district) majority of the people speaks konkani language. Signifiant population of Konkani people has also settled in Belgaum

Belgaum

Belgaum is a city and a municipal corporation in Belgaum district in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the fourth largest city of the state of Karnataka, the first three being Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad....

, Sirsi

Sirsi

-Geography:Sirsi is located at . It has an average elevation of 590 metres , and is situated in the heart of the Western Ghats. Sirsi is about 425 km from Bangalore. The nearest airport is located in Hubli, about 102 km from Sirsi....

and Bangalore

Bangalore

. As per 1991 census, the speakers of Konkani form 1.78% of the total population of the state. Konkani has no script of its own.The decision to use Devanagari as official script has met with opposition as Devanagari is used very little as compared to Roman script in Goa or Kannada script in coastal Karnataka. In Karnataka, which has the largest number of Konkanis, leading organizations and activists have similarly demanded that Kannada script be made the medium of instruction for Konkani in local schools instead of Devanagari. Most Konkani speaking people of the state are bilingual in Kannada.

Malayalikal/Malayali people

Malayalikal are the native speakers of Malayalam language

Malayalam language

Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

, which has official status in the state of Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, Lakshadweep

Lakshadweep

Lakshadweep , formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala...

and Pondicherry.

As per 1991 census, Malayalikal form 1.69% of the total population of the state Native Malayalam-speaking people are found in large numbers in the districts of Dakshina Kannada

Dakshina Kannada

and Kodagu

Kodagu

Kodagu , also known by its anglicised former name of Coorg, is an administrative district in Karnataka, India. It occupies an area of in the Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka. As of 2001, the population was 548,561, 13.74% of which resided in the district's urban centres, making it the least...

. Malayalam is one of the major languages spoken in the city of Mangalore

Mangalore

.In the early part of the 20th century, a large number of traders from the Malabar

Malabar District

Malabar District was an administrative district of Madras Presidency in British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad , and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District in the northern part of...

region settled in Bangalore

Bangalore

for business reasons. The number of migrants increased with the establishment of public sector undertakings in the 1950s.improving educational standards of Bangalore also brought a large number of students from Kerala. Even though Kodagu is known for its native Kodavas, the district also has a thriving population of Malayalikal and not all of them are recent economic migrants. The ancestry of the people go a long way back and have developed their own distinct identity. It is also evident that Kodagu-Kerala association is ancient by the fact that people of Kodagu worshiped gods and goddesses common to the Malayali people.

Kodava/Kodava people

Kodava people are the native speakers of Kodava language

Kodava Takk

Kodava Takk or Kodava takka, is the original language of the south Karnataka district of Kodagu. The language is often called Kodava or Coorg language in English. The number of speakers is estimated at up to about 500,000. It is the primary language of Kodavas, but a large portion of other...

and are mainly settled in the district of Kodagu. As per 1991 census, the speakers of Kodava Takk make up to 0.25% of the total population of the state. According to Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy, apart from Kodavas, 18 other ethnic groups speak Kodava Takk in and outside the district including Heggade, Iri, Koyava, Banna, Madivala, Hajama, Kembatti, and Meda. Though the language has no script, recently a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

linguist by name Gregg M. Cox developed a new writing system for the language known as the Coorgi-Cox alphabet, used by a number of individuals within Kodagu. Lately, some organizations including the Codava National Council (CNC) and Kodava Rashtriya Samiti are demanding Kodava homeland status and autonomy to Kodagu district.

Others

Other ethnic groups settled in Karnataka includes Gujarati people(0.10%), Bengali people

Bengali people

The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...

(0.03%), Punjabi people

Punjabi people

The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...

(0.03%), Sindhi (0.03%), Oriya people

Oriya people

The Oriya, known classically by various names , are an ethnic group of eastern India and of eastern Indo-Aryan stock...

(0.01%), Arbi

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, (0.01%) Nepali

Nepali people

Nepali people can refer to:*People of Nepal*Ethnic Nepalis of Indian citizenry residing in Gorkhaland area of West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and other parts of India.* Indian Gorkhas*Lhotshampas of Bhutan.*Nepali diaspora the world over....

(0.01%) and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

an (0.05%). Another minor ethnic group which needs to be mentioned here are the Beary

Beary

The Beary is a small Muslim community concentrated mostly in coastal South Kanara , in the district of Karnataka, a south Indian state. It is an ethnic society, having its own unique traditions and distinct cultural identity...

s. They follow Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

religion and are mainly settled in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. They are the native speakers of Beary bashe

Beary bashe

Beary bashe is a dialect mainly spoken by the Muslim communities of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka known as Bearys and a small number of Hindus in the District of Kasargod in Kerala state....

, a language made of Malayalam idioms with Tulu phonology and grammar. This dialect was traditionally known as Mappila Malayalam because of Bearys' close contact with Mappilas. Due to vast influence of Tulu for centuries, it is today considered as a language, close to both Malayalam and Tulu. The word 'Beary' is said to be derived from the Tulu

Tulu language

word 'Byara' which means trade or business, as this community were primarily traders. Since the major portion of this community people were involved in business activities, the local Tulu

Tulu language

speaking majority called them as Beary or Byari. There is also a small Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe

Bylakuppe

Bylakuppe kannada:ಬೈಲಕುಪ್ಪೆ, Tibetian:བལཀུཔེ is the location of "Lugsum Samdupling" and "Dickyi Larsoe" , two adjacent Tibetan refugee settlements, as well as a number of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. The area is located in the west of the Mysore district in the Indian state of Karnataka...

, in Mysore district

Mysore district

. This was the first and largest of the intentional Tibetan settlements in India, and was created in response to accommodate fleeing Tibetans due to the Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

occupation of their homeland. The camp is home to some 14,000 Tibetans. Another ethnic group that needs special mention is the Siddis

Siddis of Karnataka

The Siddis of Karnataka are a tribe of African descent that has made Karnataka their home for the last 400 years. There is a 50,000 strong Siddhi population across India, of which more than a third live in Karnataka...

. They are found in the ghat

Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...

area of Uttara Kannada

Uttara Kannada

district, Dharwad district

Dharwad District

Dharwad District is an administrative district of the state of Karnataka in southern India. Dharwad is the cultural headquarters of North Karnataka....

and Belgaum district

Belgaum district

Belgaum district is a district in the state of Karnataka, India. The city of Belgaum is the district headquarters in North Karnataka. By the 2011 Census of India, it had a population of 4778439...

.These people have Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n ancestry as majority of these people were said to have come from Goa

Goa

, where they were imported from East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

(mainly Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

) by Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

as slaves. They speak Are Marathi, a mixture of Marathi, Konkani and Kannada language.

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