Map-crazy about Mumbai

A map of India shows the density of native Marathi speakers across states

Kos kos par badle paani, chaar kos par bani. This writer was recently reminded of the famous adage that we learnt and repeated till it was etched in our brain as a fifth-grade student in Hindi class. The words that beautifully capture the multilingualism of the country can now be found in an illustrated form in Sagar Shinde's new map series - Languages spoken in MMR.

Sagar Shinde

The fourth-year engineering student from Vikhroli, also known as the Map Nerd, has been a Geography enthusiast since the day he was introduced to the subject in school. "You show me any border, and I'll be able to tell you what city or country that is. I have been obsessed with such data since I was 13 years old. The histories and geographies of the world have always fascinated me. I love to club these and present them as data in the form of maps," Shinde shares.

A region-based pie chart released by Shinde before illustrating his findings on maps

Two years ago, he began posting the maps he had created for his passion, and was overwhelmed by the love he received. "The first map I created was one which highlighted the poverty rate across regions in India. While that one was based on a simple Wikimedia search, and was created on Map Chart, my research now only revolves around credible sites. The primary source is the Census of India (2011), followed by reading up various news articles. It is never just one source now. I spend a lot of time reading data and illustrating them on maps, or graphs," he reveals.

Shinde's latest map series sheds light on the most spoken languages across cities in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

His latest series begins as colourful pie charts collating data. It features cities of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) namely Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Badlapur, Ambernath, Thane, Bhiwandi and Panvel. They cover Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, and other languages. This was later translated into maps which highlighted only the most spoken language across different regions of MMR. "Now, I use Datawrapper for creating these maps. All you need to do is write down the data in Excel or Google sheet and upload it on this website. It will showcase the data as maps within minutes. However, countless modifications are required in terms of presentation and border accuracy. I had to visit multiple [municipal] sites to reshape the borders of the municipalities in my maps so that they look close to how the regions are divided. I also re-paint and enhance the maps so that they are better presented," he elaborates.

While Marathi is widely spoken across MMR, Shinde notes that Mumbai city has a considerably large number of Hindi and Urdu speakers

While Marathi is mostly spoken across these regions, Shinde notes that Hindi and Urdu are also commonly spoken in Mumbai city, while if one moves northward, Gujarati becomes a prominent language. "Marathi is still widely spoken, especially in regions like Ulhasnagar and Badlapur," he reveals.

Kalyan-Dombivli: According to Census of India 2011, Kalyan-Dombivli regions have a whopping 59.5% Marathi speaking population

Some of Shinde's most viewed maps were part of the series called Lok Sabha Elections Contesting Parties, where according to regions across states in the country, he broke down which party is contesting whom for the seat. These informative maps always use vibrant, eye-catching colours to demarcate borders and data. "Not everyone is fond of reading data to understand their surroundings politically, geographically and historically. Maps are an efficient way of learning for people across age groups. The colours are attractive, and often they carry a lot of information in the smallest numbers illustrated on them. I'm working on releasing more such maps soon," he signs off.

Kalyan-Dombivli regions have a whopping 59.5% Marathi speaking population

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