First of all can u Provide the source that English is spoken or understand by onlyyyy 2% Indians.
I never said people don't speak there local language at there home .but it is not necessarily that is Hindi. In my case I speak Punjabi at home
you acceptor like it or not English is more important than Hindi today in India
if you dont speak or understand English trust me u will be more likely to be isolated in Indian society
we are not discussing that how many people understand English or Hindi. Q is, Hindi has lost its charm and status in our society.
According to 2001 estimates by
Times only 226,449 Indians use English as first language, and 125,000,000 use it as an additional language. Going by these estimates 11.38% of Indians can communicate in English. But it doesn't take into account the proficiency and other social factors. Later studies have put the actual number at somewhere around 7-8%, some put it at as low as 2%, none go above 12%. You can find several sources on this topic over net.
In fact Hindi has expanded it's base in India and no part of India has been left untouched. I was astonished to hear several people in neighborhood speaking in Hindi, including people from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Hindi is not a language of business, its a language of masses.
Those who have spent their whole life in metros easily forget the fact that more than 70% of Indians still live in villages, where there is no craze to learn English and display the excellent grasp of the language of masters.
My personal experience at IIT Kharagpur, where the official language of communication is English and most of the masses are highly educated, is that if you don't know Hindi, you can kiss your social life and any potential to make friends goodbye. Two foreign students (One from Singapore, another one from Germany) in my department learned to speak fluently in Hindi because they wished to be a part of the whole bunch.
List of countries by English-speaking population
There is a distinction between speaking a language and using it. Most of the Indians who have at least a basic knowledge of English are English users, and not English speakers,
and that includes me.