Truly Indian

(I don’t intend to make this blog a North-South debate. So I have tried my best to carefully choose my words. I have read this blog over and over again and have posted this only after making sure that there is no provoking content).

I have been living in North India for six consecutive years now. By using the word ‘Northern India’, I don’t intend to bring the states above the tropic of cancer under a single banner. ‘North India’ is only to be construed as an umbrella term to group the Northern states under a single name for the sake of simplicity in writing.

The first thing I have observed over these years is that the people* born and brought up in Northern India have no idea about the geography or the culture of the states located to the south of the tropic of cancer. We shall exclude Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa from the debate since they lie on both sides of the tropic of cancer.

I recently underwent Managerial training where I had the opportunity to meet experienced people from various industries, hailing predominantly from the regions constituting the Northern India. We went through a customary introduction session where everyone had to introduce themselves, speak about their educational background and hobbies. When my turn came, I informed them that I listen to Carnatic music. To my surprise, there came a question from a 40 year old: “You told us that you were from Tamilnadu. Why do you like Karnatik (sic) music then?”

I had no answer.

The second thing that I noticed when interacting with some of my colleagues at office is that they ostensibly had no inkling about the states that constituted ‘South India’. They had no idea about the language spoken in each of these states, their food habits and they lacked location sense completely. Otherwise, one of my North-Indian colleagues, who moved to Hyderabad, wouldn’t have told me this: “I guess we can meet when you come down to Chennai, since Chennai and Hyderabad are located in close proximity”.

The states termed as ‘The South’ have their own unique cultures and traditions and are as different among them as they are from the Northern states. Grouping them under a common name itself is doing grave injustice (unless grouping them under the umbrella term is for the sake of simplicity).

When in school, I was taught something called the Cultural diversity of India. I hope that chapter still remains an ideal part of the social sciences syllabus. I also had to read about the agricultural diversity of ‘North India’, had to mark where sugarcane and wheat was grown in the gangetic delta on a map, and study about the biodiversity in Uttaranchal. I remember reading about Akbar’s conquests in Northern India, the ascent and the descent of the Mughal dynasty, Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre and many historical events that have nothing to do with my place of upbringing. I still read and remembered them as events that constituted the history and geography of India. I felt that feeling of oneness when I read about Bhagat Singh revolting against the Britishers.

Today, the scene is different. I can bet that not many from the North of India* (unless the person is a history student) would have heard about Subramanya Bharathi or V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and their contribution to Indian freedom struggle. I doubt if they even know Tuticorin is a natural harbour. I doubt if they know Pondicherry for the French colonialization and not for its cheap liquor. To them, the whole of the south is a neglected region, something that they don’t consider a part of their own country, either due to racial differences or due the difference in languages that they speak or due to to plain prejudices based on other factors they don’t themselves realise.

I speak Tamil, a language that has a rich literary history and has been in practice ever before Hindi was spoken as a language in Northern India. Tamil is as old as Sanskrit, and has been spoken in Deccan region from 3^rd century BC. Hindi is India’s national language. But people in Tamilnadu still don’t regard Hindi as such. They don’t feel the need to learn Hindi, at the expense of learning their own language and contributing to its literature. Thus, the political parties used Tamil as their political weapon, waged the anti-Hindi war and promoted regionalism for their political exploits.

Still I was accommodative enough to learn Hindi, so that I will be able to strike a conversation and feel at ease with people who don’t speak my language. I still consider it the national language. But what irks me is the fact that the North Indians* never make an attempt to learn the south Indian languages, even if they stay permanently in Chennai, Hyderabad or Bangalore for a longer duration. They expect the whole of India to speak Hindi and criticise people when they don’t.

A point to be noted by all target audience (and especially the victims of auto rickshaw cheats):

“The auto rickshaw drivers will cheat anyone who doesn’t know the route to the destination. The person needn’t be a North Indian per se. Since the touring North Indians* have no location sense or grasp of the local language, it is inevitable that they are at the receiving end”.

The third thing is their attribution of Dosa, Idli and rice to South Indian food. South Indian dishes are as varied as North Indian dishes (if you accept that North Indian dishes are diverse). Commenting on the eating habits of South Indians will be as stupid to say that someone in North India has only roti all day.

This inherent negligence/dislike to South Indians is not a present-day fad. This hate has been passed on by generations, it is in the blood. If we go back in time and analyze where it all began, the only reason seems to be on racial grounds.

The whole idea behind introducing the Cultural diversity of India in history and geography books is to overcome these regional biases, superstitions and misinformation that have been passed to us by our forefathers. Despite the measures, if such an opinion lingers, one must say that the educational policy makers have failed in their attempt to promote regional co-operation.

*The “I” as mentioned in this blog denotes me. I am not putting forth the points here on behalf of Tamilians or South Indians, but myself. Secondly, the post is not targeted to North Indians in general. It is targeted to those North Indians that claim Chennai (substitute with Bangalore, Hyderabad, and South India) is not hospitable and auto rickshaw drivers cheat by displaying preferential treatment. So, ‘people’, ‘North Indians’ etc. are meant to denote that particular section of North Indians alone.