Driven by migration to the more industrialised states, bilingualism in the country increased to a little over 26% of the population in 2011 from nearly 24.8% in 2001, according to data from the 2011 census.Statistics on Hindi speakers shows Urdu is the most spoken second language among them, followed by Marathi and Maithili. More than 77 lakh native Hindi speakers could speak Urdu in 2011 compared to 37 lakh in 2001.As for native speakers of Hindi who also speak Marathi, their numbers increased from 39 lakh to 60 lakh between the two population counts a decade apart; and Hindi speakers learning Gujarati rose by 9 lakh in 2011.Sociologists and population experts said about the 2011 census data on bilingual Indians that it was only due to migration to Maharashtra and Gujarat that many Hindi speakers were able to speak Marathi and Gujarati.“People who have not migrated from their native place are not bothered to learn another language as it is of no use to them,” sociologist G K Karanth said. Curiously, the number of native Hindi speakers able to converse in English declined by 1.17% in the last decade.Asked about the lack of interest among Hindi speakers in learning English, the sociologist said it was about immediate survival. “If a Hindi native migrates to Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu, he or she will be interested in knowing the local language, that is, Marathi or Tamil,” Karanth said. “This is enough for them to survive in their new place. Learning English is of no use to them.”The data shows those who migrate go through localisation. “If a blue- or white-collar worker is employed by a local person it is better to learn that language which the employer knows,” Karanth said.International population expert P Arokiasamy said the high number of Hindi-speaking people not learning English was a surprise, but at the same time it showed that it was the poorer Hindi-speaking classes who migrated to the state, Tamil Nadu or Gujarat in search of employment.“Mostly labourers and informal workers have migrated from Hindi-speaking states with knowledge of only Hindi,” Arokiasamy said. He also said that after migrating, Hindi speakers would like their children to learn the local language.He said migrants’ children learnt the local language either on their own or as a result of compulsion in the states they had migrated to for better opportunities.