* English speakers are richer, more educated and more likely to be upper caste, data from the Lok Foundation survey shows
* Hindi is both the most widely spoken first language and second language in India
English speakers are very much India’s elite, and their proportion may be shrinking, new data on the demographic profile of English language speakers in India suggests.
The 2011 Census showed English is the primary language—mother tongue—of 256,000 people, the second language of 83 million people, and the third language of another 46 million people, making it the second-most widely spoken language after Hindi (which includes more than 50 so-called dialects like Bhojpuri which is spoken by more than 50 million Indians).
528 million speak Hindi as a first language. It is both the most widely spoken first as well as second language in India, while English is just the 44th most widely spoken first language even though it is the second-most widely spoken second language.
It is also the only language which more speakers use as their second language than first language, pointing to its growing value in work environments and its role as a bridge language.
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