What is the mother tongue of Parsis? Is it different from their first language? This is a question that an article in The Times of India (ToI) of July 8 put to readers in trying to determine who in the 2011 census termed English their mother tongue. According to the article, 41% (or 1,06,656 persons) of 2,59,678 Indians who listed English as their mother tongue in the 2011 census live in Maharashtra. In the 2001 census, 2,26,449 persons had noted English as their mother tongue.
"The number of Parsis who can read and write Gujarati has dwindled,” Parsi Times editor Anahita......