Of Populations, Percentage Distributions, and Prosperity.

Story 1:

Vientiane, 9:30 a.m.

It was a cloudy, but hot and sultry morning when we were driving down from Vientiane to Nam Ngum Lake. Phovrong was telling me how Buddhism had got introduced in Laos.

He suddenly asked me “Sourav! Buddhism originated in your country. Are there a lot of Buddhists in your country now?”

Me: “Well! Hindus form the majority of the country – around 80%. Muslims constitute around 12 % of the country’s population. Other religions would make up the remaining 8 %. Though, I am not sure but my guess is that Buddhists would constitute at the maximum 5% of India’s population.”

Phovrong: “Oh! That’s not too high a number!”

I wonder what Phovrong would have commented if he had heard what I found out later – that Buddhishts probably constitute less than 1 % of India’s population – different estimates place the figure in the range of 0.8 % - 3.25 %.

But percentages don’t give a comprehensive picture. We would have to dig deeper.

India’s population is 1.2 billion.

10 % of that figure is 120 million – only 10 countries in the world (including India) have a population of greater than 120 million.

1 % of 1.2 billion is 12 million. 123 of the 195 countries in the world have a population lesser than 12 million.

The number of Buddhists in India is atleast around 12 million (the figure might even stand close to 38 million)!

The countries with the largest Buddhist population in the world are China, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

India supposedly has the 8^th largest Buddhist population in the world if you were to consider a conservative figure of close to 1 % (it could well be 6^th, as Buddhist populations in Cambodia and Sri Lanka are around 13-14 million), and the 5^th largest Buddhist population in the world if you were to take a figure of 3.25 %.

A similar pattern emerges when it comes to the number of Muslims in India. Muslims in India constitute around 12 % of the country’s population. In absolute numbers that accounts for around 160 million people, and makes India the country with the 3^rd largest number of Muslims in the world. Indonesia and Pakistan have the highest Muslim populations in the world (202 million and 174 million respsectively). Bangladesh is 4^th in the list with a figure of around 145 million. Strangely the only Middle Eastern or Northern African country to make it to the top 5 list is Egypt (with a Muslim population of 78 million).

But I wonder as to why do the statistics on the total number of Buddhists in the world vary so widely from study to study? Some studies estimate the total Buddhist population in the world around 300-500 million, while others estimate the figure to be around 1.2-1.6 billion. That’s a high variation!

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Story 2

Istanbul, 8. 30 am.

It was our 3^rd day in Istanbul. An icily cold and windy, but strangely sunny, morning!

We were crossing the imposing Bosphorus bridge from the European to the Asian side, on our way to Prince Island.

Neil, our Russian born guide who was emotionally attached to the Asian side of Istanbul and talked longingly of his days in New York, spoke in his heavy Russian accent about the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (the 2 monuments look imposing from the Bosphorus bridge).

It was a Saturday morning, yet there was a lot of traffic on the road.

Neil: “Istanbul is very crowded, especially the European side. Life’s too fast here!”

Me: “Really! What’s the population of Istanbul?”

Neil: “Around 15 million but frankly it is difficult to estimate as so many people come and go.”

Me: “ 15 million of the 73 million people in Turkey live in Istanbul? Around 20% of the country’s population in one city? That’s incredible!”

Neil: “Yes! Even the other large cities in Turkey are much smaller in comparison. Ankara (the capital) has the 2^nd largest population (around 4 million) while Izmir has the 3^rd largest population (around 3 million).”

Me (to myself): “Mumbai has a population of around 15 million (that’s around 1.2 % of India’s population). Hmmm! Which would be the other cities in the world, besides Istanbul, that house the majority population of their country? Which are the most populous cities in the world?”

Here is what I found. The 5 most populous cities in the world are:

1) Shanghai – 17.83 million, (around 1.3 % of China’s population)

2) Karachi – 13 million (around 7 % of Pakistan’s population)

3) Istanbul – 12.95 million,

4) Delhi – 12.57 million

5) Mumbai – 12.48 million

Other big cities in the list include:

• Seoul (10.57 million; 21.6% of South Korea’s population) ;
• Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam (around 7 million each – 16% of Vietnam’s population).
• Bangkok (7 million; 10.45% of Thailand’s population) ;
• Moscow (11.55 million; 8 % of Russia’s poluation) ;
• Tokyo (8.88 million; 6.94 % of Japan’s population);
• Dhaka (7 million; 4.26% of Bangladesh’s population);
• Jakarta (9.59 million; 4% of Indonesia’s population);

The above numbers don’t consider the surrounding areas of these cities where a significant number of the mobile labour population of these cities stay. The percentages would go up even significantly for some of these cities if were to consider these numbers , viz- Tokyo, Mumbai, London, etc.

What does it mean when large percentage of a country’s population lives in or around one or a few major cities? Does it bode well for the country or is it a sign of unbalanced development?

I don’t have an answer as of now!

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It was our last day in Istanbul. Doruk said “Everyone in Istanbul wants to have a car. A recent study has found that there are 15 million cars in Istanbul. A car for every person literally!”

Me (to myself): “I have no idea about any such comparison study across the world. But I can vouch for one thing. The traffic snarls around Taksim Square (central Istanbul) or Bosphorus bridge during office hours don’t seem worse than the snarls on the Mumbai roads during office hours. You stay stuck in traffic and you listen to FM! J”

Story 3

Bangkok, 6: 00 p.m.

It was the evening of the last day of our trip to Thailand. Deepak was driving us back from Sukhumvit (Central Bangkok) to Suvarnabhumi airport.

Yes, you heard that right – the name is Deepak. Deepak’s originally from Mumbai. He has lived in the South East Asian region since the early 1980s – around 8 years in China, 2-3 years in Vietnam, and over 20 years in Bangkok. He was telling us interesting snippets about Thailand, Thai people and their way of life.

Deepak: “Thailand is a large country. It has around 67 million people.”

Me (to myself): “67 million, that’s large?”

Deepak noticed the expression on my face and said “Being from India you might feel that 67 million is not a large population but not many countries in the world, certainly not most countries in South East Asia, have that large a population.”

Deepak was right!

Which are the 2 most populous countries in the world? China and India, obviously! Everyone knows it!

Which are the other most populous countries in the world? What are their populations ? Does any other country have a population of close to 1 billion?

The 3^rd to 7^th most populous countries in the world are:

• 3^rd - USA - 311 million people
• 4^th – Indonesia - 238 million people
• 5^th – Brazil – 195 million people
• 6^th – Pakistan – 176 million people
• 7^th – Bangladesh – 164 million people

Thailand is the 19^th while Turkey is the 18^th most populous country in the world.

Notice the “yawning” difference in population between the 2^nd and 3^rd most populous countries in the world.

What is also interesting is that there are only 11 countries in the world with a population of greater than 100 million.

Do you see the domination of the Asian continent in the population list?

Would we see a similar pattern in terms of contribution to world’s GDP?

Take a look at the table below.

	Percentage of World’s Population	Percentage of World’s GDP (nominal)*
Asia	60 %	30.66%**
Europe	11.5 %	32.42%
Africa	14 %	1.93%
North America	8 %	26.49%+
South America	6 %	7.32%***
Oceania	0.5 %	1.17%

*The size of the world economy is around 62 trillion US dollars.

** China, Japan, India, and South Korea contribute to around 74 % of Asia’s GDP. The remaining approx. 40+ countries in Asia contribute to the remaining 26%.

*** Brazil contributes to around 46% of South America’s GDP. The remaining 18 countries collectively contribute the remaining 54%.

⁺USA contributes to around 89 % of North America’s and 24% of world’s GDP. The next largest contributors to the world economy are China (9.5% of world’s GDP) and Japan (9% of world’s GDP).

The figures in the table above perhaps explain why wherever I travel I see a lot of tourists from Western Europe, USA, and Japan.

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Sourav

Of widely spoken languages, Bengali, linguistic diversity, and hope for a more integrated world

A few weeks back a friend and I were exchanging notes on our recent travels. He asked "Do you know which are the most widely spoken languages in the world?".  He added "You would be surprised to find out the answer. Even i could not believe it when an American ex-colleague told me about this".

I pondered.   Languages spoken by majority citizens in most populous countries of the world should figure in the list – Mandarin and Hindi should be in. National languages of countries which have ruled different parts of the world for significant period of time should also figure in the list – Spanish, English, and Portuguese (to a lesser extent) should also be in. Arabic should be in too.

I wikied for the information.  This is what i found (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers):

• ·         Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, English, and Portuguese do figure in the list.

• ·         But so do Bengali and Punjabi! :)

I was surprised!

Bengali is the 6^th most spoken language in the world but has only around 181 million native speakers (people from West Bengal and Bangladesh).

I thought  "Is the world so diverse linguistically?"

I found that the number of languages in the world spoken by more than 100 million people is around 10. People who speak these languages number to around 2.9 billion – that is around 42 % of world's population (6.93 billion).The composition of the remaining 58% is where the linguistic diversity shows.

It seems there are around 6000 living languages in the world. This data by itself may not reveal too much as we would have to look for languages in active use by large enough groups.

It seems around 48% of these 6000 languages are spoken by more than 10,000 people – that's close to 3000 languages which are spoken by a significant number of people.

That's a mind boggling number when you consider there are only 195 countries in the world!

If we were to use diversity in language as a representation of diversity in world views, the present world citizens are doing a good job of bringing the world closer together.

But I am left with a question at the end – "What aids this 'across cultures' integration?". I am not sure of the answer. A first thought which comes to mind is something i had read in an article written by  P. Chidambaram (the current Home Minister of India). He had said that economic development is the common tide which lifts all boats and brings them closer together.

 

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Sourav

 

Of traditional scripts and transitions to Latin script

I remember reading in a Lonely Planet guide for Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that once you travel to these countries it becomes obvious why this region is called Indo-China. It had added that the physical boundary between Laos and Cambodia on one side and Vietnam on the other acts almost like a social boundary between India and China. Traditionally there has been a lot of Indian influence in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, and Chinese influence in Vietnam.

The first signs of this influence are seen in the scripts of these countries.

Take a look at the script of Lao, Cambodia ,and Thailand – they are derived from the Pali script. The first time I landed in Thailand and saw the signboards, I thought I was reading a South Indian language.

Now take a look at the traditional Vietnamese script (Chu-nom script ). Do you see the Chinese influence?

But wait. I am getting carried away. I recently traveled from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) to Vientiane (Laos) by Vietnam Airlines. When I picked up the in-flight magazine, I realized that Vietnamese in the magazine was written in the Latin script. I was initially taken back. My Japanese co-passenger helped clear my confusion. The Vietnamese have abandoned their traditional script and adopted the Latin script. I found this interesting.

I remember picking up an “about Malaysia” booklet in the Changi airport last year. I was intrigued by the fact that Malaysian in the booklet was written in the Latin script. My friends in Singapore told me that Malaysia had supposedly adopted the Latin script to come closer to the world community.

Turkey has moved on the same path, albeit earlier. Back in the 1920s they moved away from Arabic script to the Latin script.

Indonesia seems to have adopted the Latin script too. They speak the Bahasa language, but use the Latin script for writing.

What do other countries, where English is not necessarily widely spoken, do to come closer to the world community?

China is an economic powerhouse and you need to know Mandarin to work there (probably except in Hongkong). Brazil is a growing economy and Portuguese is the official language there - I hear even at work Portuguese is widely used.

Different countries seem to have approached “coming closer to the world community” differently.

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Sourav

Travel and Living

The other day i was sharing observations, over a cup of tea,  with a friend of my recent travel experiences. She commented "Sourav, Why don't you start writing a travel blog?". 

 

I paused for a second, took in a deep breath, sipped a bit of tea, and looked at her. I felt she had verbalized what had been on my mind since a few weeks. 

 

I said "Yes, you are right. I do feel the urge to write and share about my travel experiences."

 

While i travel I observe, hear, feel, and discover aspects of the world which stay with me. These include:

• differences from and similarities with my world view.
• artifacts and other demonstrations i see and stories i hear behind their existence.

Most of these stories get weaved out from conversations i pick up with people i encounter during these visits - people i normally would not come across in day to day life.  

 

These stories leave me at times intrigued and at other times surprised, but i feel alive and enriched by the end of a day filled with such stories.

 

Here's my humble and initial attempt to share some of these stories with you.

 

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Sourav