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For instance, assuming that most Hindi and Urdu speakers can communicate with each other because of language similarity, the chance that two random people from within Jammu and Kashmir can talk increases from 51% to 63%.

WHAT DRIVES MULTILINGUALISM?

Nagamese developed with the lack of a geographically widespread language, which means the need to learn additional languages is determined by the number of people who know that language.

“When people find that they can manage the affairs of normal existence by speaking only one language, they resist the idea of speaking another additional language,” Devy said.

“Thus, the larger the geographical expanse of a given language, smaller is the chance of its encouraging multilingual practices.”

The census data complements this notion. It shows that people who reported Hindi – the most widely spoken language in the country – to be their mother tongue were the least likely to know any other language.

Only about 12% of native Hindi speakers were multilingual. Bengali – the second most widely spoken language – had the second lowest share of multilingual population, only 18%. On the other hand, over 80% native speakers of smaller language groups such as Konkani and Ladakhi were multilingual.

This has two implications. One, Hindi-speaking states have a lower share of multilingual population.

Second, as non-Hindi speakers have picked up Hindi — it is the most common second language in the country — native Hindi speakers have a lesser need to know a second language to converse with fellow Indians.

English is ranked second among the secondary languages in the country.