We’ve heard about India’s north-south divide. Discussions on it often degenerate into cock-fights. Other discussions operate by making the whole topic a taboo and bashing anyone who brings up the issue as unpatriotic. But I believe we can talk about it by taking a high ground. Let me attempt to do that.
The divide started when two ethnolinguistic groups settled in two parts of India and built two civilizations which coexisted with a degree of independence. The Indo-European language speakers settled in northern India and the Dravidian language speakers settled in southern India.
The northern civilization was embellished by dynasties like the Mauryas and the Guptas. They established centres of learning like Nalanda University, cities like Pataliputra, and places of spirituality like Varanasi. The northern culture changed markedly when the Mughals entered India. The languages, clothes and food of northern India absorbed Persian and Arabic influences. Some of the more aggressive invaders destroyed temples and learning centres, and this was obviously detrimental to the civilization.
The southern civilization had dynasties like the Cholas, Pallavas, Hoysalas and Chalukyas. Surrounded by the ocean on three sides, South India faced fewer threats from invaders. The Vijayanagar Empire acted as a bulwark for the other southern kingdoms, repelling the Mughal invasions repeatedly. With this environment of relative stability, culture and intelligentsia flourished uninterrupted. They built the world’s first dams. They exported the Zen school of thought and the Shaolin martial arts to the far east.
Due to differing selection pressures, northern and southern Indians evolved with two different mindsets. The north developed a culture which respected aggressiveness and opportunism. The south developed a culture which respected intelligence and hard work. Several other subtle dichotomies emerged. The north became wheat-eating while the south became rice-eating. The north drank more tea, the south drank more coffee. The north became entrepreneurial, the south became intellectual. The north acquired aspects of shared culture with Persia, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Central Asia. The south established cultural links with Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, China and Japan.
In spite of this dichotomy, spirituality brought north and south together. Holy men from all parts of the Indian subcontinent convened in their pursuit of knowledge. The Vedas, Upanishads, Hindu gods and the Sanskrit language belonged equally to all parts of India. This was the time a concept of India emerged in the minds of the subcontinent’s dwellers, long before India was a single political entity.
The multitude of kingdoms that constituted India finally became one country when the British arrived. Not only was India politically united, they had a common enemy for the first time in their history. The Indian freedom movement gave an unprecedented unity to the subcontinent. When India finally achieved independence, it did so amidst a sea of euphoric Indian pride.
But when an independent India tried to resolve its national question, the north-south dichotomy reared its head again. The north acquired a position which looked suspiciously like the position of a ruling race. The Bimaru lobby, a large group of politicians from the Hindi belt, started controlling national politics. They were influential enough to make Hindi the national language, Delhi the national capital, and Nehru the first Prime Minister. Until 1991, every single Prime Minister of India was from the Hindi belt (with the exception of a brief period when Morarji Desai held the office).
The status of Hindi as national language did not help north south relations. It became a discriminatory burden that South Indians had to learn 3 languages whereas North Indians had to learn only 2. In the social context, North Indians often ridiculed South Indians who did not speak the “national” language. A section of the North Indian population migrated to other regions (including the South) and imposed Hindi in their everyday interactions with the locals, while feeling no need to learn the local language. This factor is still a bone of contention in north south relations.
To compound the general perception that the north was ruling the country, Delhi and Mumbai became the centres of government and finance respectively. Mumbai may have been geographically in the west, but in terms of culture, mindset and acceptance of Hindi, it was very much North India. It’s a bit like Australia being a western country despite being geographically situated in the east.
It became inevitable for South Indians to migrate to the north for career progression. The north was where central government agencies were situated. The north was where MNCs had their Indian headquarters. The north was where most of the tourists to India were heading. The world knew India through Bombay and Delhi, not through Madras or Bangalore. The south became peripheral in its own country. Migrating to the north was a step up. Those were the days Messrs Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani were taking the train from Matunga to Nariman Point.
In 1991, the pendulum started swinging southwards. India’s economy was liberalized (coincidentally by the country’s first South Indian Prime Minister) and foreign investment was courted. The south, with its better law and order, education, and stability, started attracting a disproportionate share of the foreign investment. Electronics, automobile, textile and biotechnology companies flocked to southern cities and towns. Kerala’s tourism industry enjoyed an astonishing rise, and the state became No 1 in terms of the number of tourists visiting it every year.
And then, there was Bangalore. Bangalore enjoyed a meteoric rise as the IT capital of India, and became the first world-famous South Indian city. By building an image of cosmopolitanism (justified or otherwise) and attracting migrants from all over the country, Bangalore became the south’s answer to Bombay. World famous IT companies set up their India headquarters in Bangalore. A breed of foreigners emerged who respected Bangalore but did not care much for Delhi or Bombay.
Today, 70% of the foreign investment to India takes place in the four southern states. Giants like Google, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Accenture, Hyundai, Nissan-Renault, BMW, Nokia and Samsung have established their Indian headquarters in southern cities. Local giants like Infosys and Wipro are also headquartered in the south. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that corporate headquarters are usually in Delhi or Bombay, southern IT firms like Cognizant and MindTree have their top brass in southern cities, but employ thousands of developers and call centre operators in northern cities. South Indians no longer think of going to the north as a step up. For career growth, today’s South Indian migrates either to the three major southern cities, or to other countries altogether.
The economic self-sufficiency of the south was followed by an upsurge in cultural pride. Kannadigas in Bangalore started opposing Hindi for the first time, and came out onto the internet to express their views. There was an unexpected upsurge in the demand for Kannada entertainment, and several radio channels which started off in Bangalore by playing mainly Hindi songs have now switched to playing mainly Kannada songs. Over in Hyderabad, the burgeoning industries attracted talent from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, causing an “invasion of coastal Andhra immigrants” that Telugu-ised an erstwhile Urdu-speaking city. The flourishing Telugu movie industry took root in Hyderabad. The powerful entrepreneurs of Hyderabad today are coastal Andhra immigrants such as Ramoji Rao and Anji Reddy. Telugu has become the language of choice in a city which was once India’s pre-eminent seat of Urdu.
The future of the north south divide depends largely on the population growth and economic growth of various parts of India. Alarming population growth and insufficient economic development in the Bimaru states are presently causing a wave of Hindi-speakers going to other parts of the country, including the south. It’s now common to find unskilled Bihari workers in southern cities like Chennai, Bangalore and Coimbatore, and this trend is likely to increase. The unpleasant paradigm of the Hindi speaking migrant vs the son of the soil has already reared its ugly head in Maharashtra and Assam. There’s always a possibility that something similar could happen in the south.
Another ticking time bomb in north south relations is that all four southern states pay a share of taxes which is above the national average, simply because they are more successful than the national average. With this tax money being pumped into the bottomless pit comprising of the Bimaru states, the south is not deriving much benefit by being part of India. Who knows, this may sow the seeds of secession one day. Once again, the root cause is the population growth and backwardness of the Bimaru states.
The persistent insertion of Hindi into every aspect of India’s functioning is not going to help. There is still a discriminatory burden on South Indians to learn an additional language, and that factor is very much a bone of contention.
The north south divide is a real dichotomy which is not going to disappear. It is like the French-German-Italian divide of Switzerland or the French-Dutch divide of Belgium. This dichotomy needs to be handled sensitively to ensure that it does not eventually threaten the very unity of the nation. As mentioned above, there are time bombs that can worsen the north south divide. These need to be identified and addressed early. But whether India is doing that is another matter.
