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Gujarati ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati (1100 - 1500 AD) which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its chief language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. There are about 65.5 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world. Along with Romany and Sindhi, it is among the most western of Indo-Aryan languages. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the " Father of the Nation of India", Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "Father of the Nation of Pakistan" and Vallabhbhai Patel, the "Iron Man of India." Other prominent personalities whose first language is or was Gujarati include Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Morarji Desai, Narsinh Mehta, Dhirubhai Ambani and J. R. D. Tata. |