In my school and college days up in UP and Delhi, one of the common beliefs was that north Indians were aggressive, feudal and backward whereas south Indians were progressive, educated and law abiding. However, when I moved to Kerala for my PG, I realized the fallacy of such generalizations.
In my 21 years (from birth to uni) in the north, caste was immaterial. It was money, status, the car your parents drove, the neighborhood where you lived and who you knew that mattered. Caste was so peripheral to life in the north that in DU first year when I had to fill in my caste name, I wrote "Kshatriya." I just assumed that because I belonged to a family of chekavars (warriors), we must be Kshatriya.
The friendly clerk at the Hansraj College office had an amused look on his face and said, "Take the form home with you and ask your parents to fill in; they will know your caste."
Kerala was a rude awakening to the medieval orthodoxy that still prevails there. It was your caste that defined you. Even a beggar would feel superior to you if he knew that he was from a higher caste than yours. The college professors were casteist. The boys would casually ask, "***** aano?" (Are you from the ***** caste?") To use the words of Joseph Salinger in 'The Catcher In The Rye', these boys would be more happy if I was from their caste. (For those interested, Salinger's quote is in the thread below).
And I have not even gone into the religious angle, where the Christian college professors and students had this perverse hatred for Hindus and a strong affinity with the Vatican and Washington. I'm talking 1990s so the Hindu phobia must be on a different level today.
The caste and religious divide is the same in all the southern states (with the exception of Karnataka).
Elections have destroyed the myth that south Indians are smarter. In 1977, when the entire country was disgusted by the corruption and dictatorial policies of Indira Gandhi and voted her out, the south gave her around 180 seats. Again, in the 1989 elections, in which the Congress's corruption was the leading issue, the south voted overwhelmingly for the Gandhi family. Smart people don't vote like this.
During my PG years in Kerala I also discovered that there is a lot of ignorance down south. Everyone in Kerala for instance seems to think that if you are Singh you must be Sikh. So in the 1989 elections when Dinesh Singh (a Thiyya) was a candidate from Vadakara, 100% certified idiots were cracking jokes that Sikhs were migrating to Kerala. This ignorance is the reason that Kerala Hindus so easily swallow the secularism pill.
One can safely conclude that most south Indians:
1. Don't care about corruption and in fact welcome it.
2. Are still rooted in the feudal era and therefore vote along caste lines.
3. Don't care that India faces a major threat from Islamic terrorism and Christian fundamentalism.
In my 21 years (from birth to uni) in the north, caste was immaterial. It was money, status, the car your parents drove, the neighborhood where you lived and who you knew that mattered. Caste was so peripheral to life in the north that in DU first year when I had to fill in my caste name, I wrote "Kshatriya." I just assumed that because I belonged to a family of chekavars (warriors), we must be Kshatriya.
The friendly clerk at the Hansraj College office had an amused look on his face and said, "Take the form home with you and ask your parents to fill in; they will know your caste."
Kerala was a rude awakening to the medieval orthodoxy that still prevails there. It was your caste that defined you. Even a beggar would feel superior to you if he knew that he was from a higher caste than yours. The college professors were casteist. The boys would casually ask, "***** aano?" (Are you from the ***** caste?") To use the words of Joseph Salinger in 'The Catcher In The Rye', these boys would be more happy if I was from their caste. (For those interested, Salinger's quote is in the thread below).
And I have not even gone into the religious angle, where the Christian college professors and students had this perverse hatred for Hindus and a strong affinity with the Vatican and Washington. I'm talking 1990s so the Hindu phobia must be on a different level today.
The caste and religious divide is the same in all the southern states (with the exception of Karnataka).
Elections have destroyed the myth that south Indians are smarter. In 1977, when the entire country was disgusted by the corruption and dictatorial policies of Indira Gandhi and voted her out, the south gave her around 180 seats. Again, in the 1989 elections, in which the Congress's corruption was the leading issue, the south voted overwhelmingly for the Gandhi family. Smart people don't vote like this.
During my PG years in Kerala I also discovered that there is a lot of ignorance down south. Everyone in Kerala for instance seems to think that if you are Singh you must be Sikh. So in the 1989 elections when Dinesh Singh (a Thiyya) was a candidate from Vadakara, 100% certified idiots were cracking jokes that Sikhs were migrating to Kerala. This ignorance is the reason that Kerala Hindus so easily swallow the secularism pill.
One can safely conclude that most south Indians:
1. Don't care about corruption and in fact welcome it.
2. Are still rooted in the feudal era and therefore vote along caste lines.
3. Don't care that India faces a major threat from Islamic terrorism and Christian fundamentalism.
βI knew this one Catholic boy, Louis Shaney, when I was at the Whooton School. Then, after a while, right in the middle of the goddam conversation, he asked me, "Did you happen to notice where the Catholic church is in town, by any chance?" The thing was, you could tell by the way he asked me that he was trying to find out if I was a Catholic. He really was. Not that he was prejudiced or anything, but he just wanted to know. He was enjoying the conversation about tennis and all, but you could tell he would've enjoyed it more if I was a Catholic and all. That kind of stuff drives me crazy. I'm not saying it ruined our conversation or anythingβit didn'tβbut it sure as hell didn't do it any good. That's why I was glad those two nuns didn't ask me if I was a Catholic. It wouldn't have spoiled the conversation if they had, but it would've been different, probably. I'm not saying I blame Catholics. I don't. I'd be the same way, probably, if I was a Catholic. It's just like those suitcases I was telling you about, in a way. All I'm saying is that it's no good for a nice conversation. That's all I'm saying.β β J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
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