I&#x27;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&#x2F;reading) weren&#x27;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&#x2F;or another local language.  English was also very common, but not among the poorest.