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A South Indian’s Perspective of North India

This is an opinion blog written during my trip to North India. I covered around 4 states (Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan) in 30 days in June 2019. It was my first extensive trip to the North after being in Tamil Nadu for almost my entire life. The places were so beautiful with amazing food and culture. Every state had its uniqueness. I got a chance to learn a lot about history, diaspora, religion and its impact on the region. At the end of the trip, some incidents kept coming back whenever I tried to reminisce. It had both good and somewhat uncomfortable situations that I came across. The good times were the most wonderful ones but I wanted to write about the disturbing ones to show what I went through during those moments.

Disclaimer:

Some people might find the article being unfair towards North India but that is not my intention. These issues happen everywhere in the world depending on the idea of each nation. Development needs to be given the first priority rather than religion, language or caste. When people unite leaving their differences aside for the welfare of one’s family, community, region – their surroundings will be a better place to live in. South India too has its own set of issues that needs to be solved like caste and minority discrimination, corruption, some religious and language fights, water crisis, quality of education, skill development, productive welfare measures, intensive environmental friendly measures, innovation, etc. to grow collectively.

• Religious animosity:

I’ve only heard in the news about the strong religious sentiments people have in North but it came quite as a shock when I could witness them in person. There was an incident in Jammu when after we checked into a hotel, we were intrigued to ask the hotel manager about the best locations in the region and state. He was nice enough to reply to us the best destinations in Jammu but when we asked him about Srinagar (which happens to be our next stop), all he had was disgust and warnings about the region. We knew Kashmir had a history of insurgency but that was not the response we were looking for, it had a lot to do with the religious differences that he had against the region. Most of his comments were targeted on the premise of the region which is predominantly Muslim dominated and nothing about the beauty of the region.

The next stop was Srinagar which was nothing like he mentioned, it was a calm state but with the military infusion. We asked the same question about J&K to a Kashmiri. He had an exact animosity but towards Jammu people which happens to be a predominantly Hindu populated. He also had a similar hatred but towards other north Indian regions for the treatment of Kashmiri people in their respective states. He didn’t have a sense of belongingness with the nation due to this reception.

My friends and I were walking down Dal lake when we happened to see an ice cream cart. We decided to have one when he was watching the India – Pakistan world cup match. We were intrigued to know the score and we started to have a conversation. He was a worker from some part of Uttar Pradesh. There was a shattering noise at a far distance, he noticed that and said that some people are happy because Pakistan hit a six. We were shocked and asked him if was being serious. He went on to say about the insurgency that going around the region, the militant’s distress, the majority religion, etc. It was then we understood that we have another version of India Pakistan at Jammu and Kashmir. What he said may or may not be true but it came as a surprise when that was the first reaction he had for the noise.

Another incident occurred in Agra. I was visiting the place for only a day and I wanted to spend most of the time at the Taj Mahal. So I booked a room near the Taj Mahal and boarded an auto. Halfway through the journey after a small chit chat with the driver, he suggested me not to stay at that area next time I visited Agra since it was Muslim dominated. I was baffled only wondering the significance of one of the greatest wonders. People from all across India and the World visit the unique monument every day and such a racist tag would ruin the beauty of the remarkable wonder.

As I started to openly talk about this issue to various people I could assume a root problem to this. The hatred might have come from the notorious rulers from the Islamic dynasties in the past. People have it in their history books or a random discussion about the religious fights that happened during the Islamic rule. Temples were destroyed, Hindu’s sentiments were tarnished. These incidents lie in their mind.

Opinion:

I guess forgiveness and looking at people individually instead of seeing their larger background ( religion, caste) is the way to move forward as a society. The religious identity should not be used too much to make decisions especially those who do not try to live the life of people whom they worship. I guess most people do not want to live a life like their gods whom they worship. The sense of tolerance is not there. Also, they love their god(s) and religion so much that they want to do something for them to show their true faith. But that should not be by discriminating and exploiting those who agree with them. It goes for all religions. We should try to move forward trying not to think too much with this identification.

We as a country have always been oppressed by anyone who ruled over us. Whether it may be the Mughals, Britishers or any other regime, we were being exploited one way or the other. So, we wanted to be free from all sorts of dictatorial and colonial ruling and start governing ourselves. There are still evil factors ruling over the society like corruption, discrimination, exploitation, etc; especially by the people who govern and have an influence on us like the Britishers. But we never were so angry at them and sometimes we go to the extent of voting for them. Maybe its because we see them as one of our people with a nationalistic or regionalist identity. Caste hatred comes in because of the same identification. We don’t see people individually. We see their closest circle that binds them, whether it might be their religion or caste or region. When a person in a different religion commits a crime, some people go against that whole community even though the crime was only done by an individual or a small group of people. But the same people won’t react similarly when it was someone from their respective religion for the same crime. This is the hypocrisy that comes along with too much blind identification and faith.

I’m not saying that these incidents don’t happen down south. They do take place. Extremists are everywhere in the world but its all about how prominent we keep them in society. As long as we respectfully disagree with their radical opinions and keep them on reality check, it’s alright. But once we start making them into powerful people who rule us or form a cult with radical ideologies, it’s very dangerous – whether it might be a Politician or a Godman.

• Ignorance about the national language:

My Hindi was a little weird but most people can understand the context of what I’m trying to convey but yet people were sort of advising me that it was Rashtra Basha (national language) and I had to learn it to be a true Indian.

Opinion:

The language debate is getting heated up these days mainly due to the lack of single language policy in the country. India being a union of states even before Independence had its own unique culture and language depending on the state. British rule made English spread all over India adding as a language widely used in higher education, high paying jobs, research & development, etc. It’s still the most widely spoken language in the world. On the other hand, Hindi is a widely spoken language in North India but when it comes to its usage in other fields like corporate jobs, R&D, etc, it is very limited. My opinion is that one should learn a language and master it only if it serves some purpose. With the FDI pouring into India and all the multinational jobs needing a good communication skill, English is the language that needs to be given importance to.

India being a diverse nation with 16 official languages, needs a link language to unite people from north to south. Many believe that it’s Hindi since its predominantly spoken. But one needs to look at the significance of a predominantly spoken language. When a unifying language is only a mere communication tool to converse and does not serve any other purpose is not the right language to be chosen. But when a language like English which is widely used in reading, writing but not as a spoken language is baffling. It’s also a language having international recognition but some people still want Hindi to be unifying language for the country without looking at the larger picture. If some people eagerly want to have a language originated from India, we can start calling English as Indian English like how other British occupied countries have Australian English, Canadian English, American English with its dialect.

• The fear among a certain section youth and intellectuals:

Elections in India are never fought based on the economy or employment. It’s mostly fought on religion, caste, language and regional identity. Politicians have grouped their vote banks based on those identities. I discussed with many youths living there regarding the trend of extreme conservative politics that is going all around the world. India has never seen such right-wing populism trending ever since Independence. When people don’t talk about the constitution as a holy article but rather think of it as a scrapbook that can be rewritten without total consensus is quite scary. Many liberal youths are threatened by the route that North India has taken. They fear their voice and opinion could go baseless when people start shifting far right.

• Attraction towards populism:

Since there are not many regional parties in the north, elections are usually fought between two major parties. End of the day, it comes down to which leader attracts the most with the speeches. I met a person who said he voted for a particular party since he was solely drawn by its leader’s speeches, charisma, and attitude. He said he was a huge fan of the leader which made him vote for the party. Maybe that’s the problem when someone looks at leaders as heroes rather than politicians. We may love a hero for their performance on screen for their sense of humor, dialogue delivery, attitude but an actor/hero’s job ends when the movie ends. We usually don’t judge an actor for what he does offscreen. No matter what he/she might have done in their personal life, a mass dialogue can render a million claps. A politician’s role should be judged for the offscreen performance where their actual job lies like the policies undertaken, rather than the polarized speech.

Some media publishers should be blamed for this scenario. Media needs to act as a medium to educate people and provide unbiased opinions but most mainstream media fail to do it these days. The main propaganda of media these days is gaining TRP through populism coverage instead of factual coverage.

We call media the Fifth pillar of democracy. Its called a pillar since it stands straight and strong holding onto the country’s holiness. When it tilts extreme right or left, the system is meant to fail and the idea of us being a nation will be questioned.