Yes this is true. For me English is my third language whereas in the south, many people speak more than three. I have a friend from the south who speaks Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, in addition to English and Hindi.

Personally I think every should learn Hindi as their first language so that our country can more more nationalistic and then very on can understand government messages for example. The BJP would have a lot more support in the south if we required all schoolchildren to learn Hindi.