I've only been to India once, so obviously anything I say should be treated as purely anecdotal. In rural Karnataka, I did notice, that although literacy rates

I've only been to India once, so obviously anything I say should be treated as purely anecdotal. In rural Karnataka, I did notice, that although literacy rates (writing/reading) weren't nearly as high among the poorest population, it seemed to be the norm that they knew Kannada along with at least one of Konkani, Tamil, Urdu and/or another local language. English was also very common, but not among the poorest.