>>Most Indians I meet get by in Hindi, English and often a third local dialect.>>
The phrase is generally used by people who don't really know "who are most of the Indian" :-). Please do not be offended. I take you were either a tourist in India or met Indians abroad who were either travelling or working there.
And whatever people you met in India go by "English" for the very reason in mentioned in OC and Hindi is like mother tongue for around half of India and also because of the way lives of Indians are intertwined but have different language they communicate either in English or Hindi. I am sure how many languages we Indians speak in various parts(states) of the country and it is spoken as in you speak German in Germany and Spanish in Spain and Portuguese in Portugal and I didn't even count dialects.
The phrase is generally used by people who don't really know "who are most of the Indian" :-). Please do not be offended. I take you were either a tourist in India or met Indians abroad who were either travelling or working there.
And whatever people you met in India go by "English" for the very reason in mentioned in OC and Hindi is like mother tongue for around half of India and also because of the way lives of Indians are intertwined but have different language they communicate either in English or Hindi. I am sure how many languages we Indians speak in various parts(states) of the country and it is spoken as in you speak German in Germany and Spanish in Spain and Portuguese in Portugal and I didn't even count dialects.