BTW, I really, really enjoyed Goodfellas’ post Thanks for sharing it.

I heard the exact same sentiments from a good friend of mine as what Sri had to say. So I went & dug up wikipedia for the whole Hindi imposition thing that happened. There is plenty of angst there. Also, the whole division of the country thing is rather far-fetched, in my view, & I really wonder, even if it’s a rhetoric, just for the sake of an argument, if the whole division proposition is felt equally strongly across all the southern states.

It is interesting how all Hindi-speaking states are equally the subject of scorn, no matter how marginalized these states themselves are in national politics.

All this is very sad.

S!

By the way, anonymity smacks of cowardice. Why don’t you leave a name next time?

for all your rant against the moron, your impertinent stereotyping everything that is “south” as “tamil” shows. shame on you!!

suresh: Yes, the north-east is severely ignored and marginalized by the media. I know about the booklet. In fact, Anjulika who is a journalist there brought it to our notice on a common media network, which triggered this post.

I also saw similar issues in when I visited Jaigaon in north Bengal on the Bhutan border. The people there seem stuck in a no man’s land.

http://indiatogether.com/2007/aug/ksh-dont.htm

It’s remarkable for how insensitive it is, even though it comes with an introduction by an IPS officer from the Northeast, Robin Hibu.

As a tamilian, I am not in the least offended by the clown’s post. First of all , you clearly point out the fallacy of the north indian’s assumption of superiority. But I guess its fine becasue south indians believe the exact opposite, as strange as u may find this we think we’re superior. I am not saying this for the sake of argument but this is the general consensus. We think of northies as hindi speaking (totally lacking in english), unsophisticated, goondaish, uneducated brutes. And frankly if the 4 southern states were a country that would be a pretty fine economy would’nt it. Essentially the whole ITES industry. Truth be told we really would’nt mind not being in the same country as UP, Bihar, MP etc and other such lunatic asylums. You get my idea I guess. The real sad story is the North East, who get called chinkies in their own country and completely ignored by the so called mainstream media and the central government. I would’nt be surpised (and actually might support) if they joined China.

And spare a thought for the “Chinkies” from the north-east (as they are referred to in Delhi University circles). Not only are they made fun of, but very rarely do their troubles even get noticed. As it is, the north-east is almost totally absent in our national discourse. Even the recent ceasefire extended by the Naga groups on the tenth anniversary of talks between the NSCN and the Government of India has mostly gone unobserved in the Indian media and blogosphere – more important things like Sanjay Dutt’s incarceration to worry about, I presume.

VC: Interesting point

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“Yes, it is better than Delhi and north India – but then even the jungle is much better than Delhi and north India. That is no comparison. Delhi and north India have animals roaming the streets. Nothing is worse than living in those cities. But Mumbai is certainly not safe.”

This is very different from making fun of an entire community’s (race’s?) language and accent. It’s high time Mumbaikars realised their city is not perfect. Having been one for 21 years, I know that they tend to overreact as soon as anyone even hints at this.

Nithya: Yes, I agree with you about the “laughing with” versus “laughing at”. There is a sharp sense of otherness perpetrated about people from the south through multiple stereotypes (insidious and otherwise). Now that the south has grabbed attention by dint of economics (since the world understands money), it may be a good time to start yelling. Look how Britain kow-towed on the Shilpa Shetty matter when just 50 years back, they were calling us wogs. Same logic.