Nice column by FK.
Our foreparents were not illiterates. They brought with them the Ramayan, Bhagvat Gita and the Vedas. They know how to read Hindi and count in Hindi. But to survive, they learned to speak a fusion of Hindi with english and gave the children English "call names" and registered their Hindi names at birth. My grandparents had a stall in the New Amstedam market. They were able to manage their money and make change by adding, substracting, dividing and multiplying numbers in their heads in Hindi.
Namaste.