diff --git a/acceptance_tests/inputs-format.sh b/acceptance_tests/inputs-format.sh
index 51bd207e..acb1c3d3 100755
--- a/acceptance_tests/inputs-format.sh
+++ b/acceptance_tests/inputs-format.sh
@@ -58,6 +58,27 @@ EOM
   assertEquals "$expected" "$X"
 }
 
+testInputXmlNamespaces() {
+  cat >test.yml <<EOL
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<map xmlns="some-namespace" xmlns:xsi="some-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="some-url">
+</map>
+EOL
+
+  read -r -d '' expected << EOM
+map:
+  +xmlns: some-namespace
+  +xmlns:xsi: some-instance
+  +xsi:schemaLocation: some-url
+EOM
+
+  X=$(./yq e -p=xml test.yml)
+  assertEquals "$expected" "$X"
+
+  X=$(./yq ea -p=xml test.yml)
+  assertEquals "$expected" "$X"
+}
+
 
 testInputXmlStrict() {
   cat >test.yml <<EOL
diff --git a/cmd/constant.go b/cmd/constant.go
index 90f957d3..a152e12a 100644
--- a/cmd/constant.go
+++ b/cmd/constant.go
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ var inputFormat = "yaml"
 var xmlAttributePrefix = "+"
 var xmlContentName = "+content"
 var xmlStrictMode = false
-var xmlKeepNamespace = false
-var xmlUseRawToken = false
+var xmlKeepNamespace = true
+var xmlUseRawToken = true
 
 var exitStatus = false
 var forceColor = false
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index a3452884..eec0d4d3 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@ yq -P sample.json
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&xmlAttributePrefix, "xml-attribute-prefix", "+", "prefix for xml attributes")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&xmlContentName, "xml-content-name", "+content", "name for xml content (if no attribute name is present).")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&xmlStrictMode, "xml-strict-mode", false, "enables strict parsing of XML. See https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/xml for more details.")
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&xmlKeepNamespace, "xml-keep-namespace", false, "enables keeping namespace after parsing attributes")
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&xmlUseRawToken, "xml-raw-token", false, "enables using RawToken method instead Token. Commonly disables namespace translations. See https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/xml#Decoder.RawToken for details.")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&xmlKeepNamespace, "xml-keep-namespace", true, "enables keeping namespace after parsing attributes")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&xmlUseRawToken, "xml-raw-token", true, "enables using RawToken method instead Token. Commonly disables namespace translations. See https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/xml#Decoder.RawToken for details.")
 
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&nullInput, "null-input", "n", false, "Don't read input, simply evaluate the expression given. Useful for creating docs from scratch.")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&noDocSeparators, "no-doc", "N", false, "Don't print document separators (---)")