Why do North Indians remain aloof of South Indian culture and society despite living there for decades?

[Stan AF]

27 minutes ago, Gollum said:

More than temples, I will spell out regions since as you know there are so many temples in Tamil Nadu's towns and cities.

 

- Thanjavur/Kumbakonam....covered a lot including Brihadeeshwara temple, even explored a few village temples on the outskirts (like Uppiliyappan, Nachiyar Koil, huge Rahu Ketu temple in a village whose name I can't remember), must have gone to 20-30 temples

- Madurai...incl Meenakshi Amman

- Kanchipuram....one day stay, so visited just 5-6 temples

- Mahabalipuram's Pallava temples....visited many times almost every week when I was in Kalpakkam..nearby and along ECR, no good restaurant in the township so that was a reason

- Vaitheeswaran Koil...I got tonsured there 

- Kanyakumari...multiple temples main one being the Shakti Peeth

- Thiruvannamalai....incl walk around the hill

- Palani

- Chennai and outskirts...least visits here, Kaalikambal, Vadapalani Murugan temple (though purpose of visit was the Saravana Bhavan outlet there ), couple in Chengalpattu, few others but don't remember the names, just the parts of the city.

Can you believe it, me yet to visit Kapaleeswarar, Parthasarathy which are so iconic.

-Many others in isolated villages/towns, mostly during the trips from Chennai to other places, a few detours here and there.

 

 

Palani, Thiruvannamalai, Vaitheeswaran and Kanyakumari I visited during school days when family was on a tourist trip to TN. Even Thanjavur but I revisited it in 2016, all the other places post-2012-13. 

 

Eager to visit Srirangam, Rameswaram, Nagercoil, Chidambaram, Vellore etc. 

 

Me more or less an agnostic, cultural Hindu. Didn't visit these places for devotional reasons, but to appreciate the architectural beauty and cultural richness. I did some research before/during these visits including reading up about the Cholas, Pallavas, Nayanars, Alvars etc, a couple of classmate notebooks full of details, history, experience, pics, tradition, rituals somewhere in my store room. It was an educational experience for me. 

 

Your repertoire is more than eligible for a state level tourism minister. Wow, That's a lot of temples/places.

[BacktoCricaddict]

This whole discussion is based on anecdotal evidence, so here's another 2 naye paise worth of evidence: 

 

In my experience as a Tamil growing up in Bengaluru in the '80s, I noticed that Tamils didn't assimilate very well in Bengaluru either.  It seemed like, generally speaking, Tamils in Bengaluru had a bit of an uppity complex and showed no interest in learning Kannada and mingling with Kannadigas.  There were some areas (e.g., Ulsoor) where it was impossible to communicate in Kannada because everyone there spoke Tamil.  This caused quite a bit of resentment from the locals. 

[Trichromatic]

35 minutes ago, Gollum said:

More than temples, I will spell out regions since as you know there are so many temples in Tamil Nadu's towns and cities.

 

- Thanjavur/Kumbakonam....covered a lot including Brihadeeshwara temple, even explored a few village temples on the outskirts (like Uppiliyappan, Nachiyar Koil, huge Rahu Ketu temple in a village whose name I can't remember), must have gone to 20-30 temples

- Madurai...incl Meenakshi Amman

- Kanchipuram....one day stay, so visited just 5-6 temples

- Mahabalipuram's Pallava temples....visited many times almost every week when I was in Kalpakkam..nearby and along ECR, no good restaurant in the township so that was a reason

- Vaitheeswaran Koil...I got tonsured there 

- Kanyakumari...multiple temples main one being the Shakti Peeth

- Thiruvannamalai....incl walk around the hill

- Palani

- Chennai and outskirts...least visits here, Kaalikambal, Vadapalani Murugan temple (though purpose of visit was the Saravana Bhavan outlet there ), couple in Chengalpattu, few others but don't remember the names, just the parts of the city.

Can you believe it, me yet to visit Kapaleeswarar, Parthasarathy which are so iconic.

-Many others in isolated villages/towns, mostly during the trips from Chennai to other places, a few detours here and there.

 

 

Palani, Thiruvannamalai, Vaitheeswaran and Kanyakumari I visited during school days when family was on a tourist trip to TN. Even Thanjavur but I revisited it in 2016, all the other places post-2012-13. 

 

Eager to visit Srirangam, Rameswaram, Nagercoil, Chidambaram, Vellore etc. 

 

Me more or less an agnostic, cultural Hindu. Didn't visit these places for devotional reasons, but to appreciate the architectural beauty and cultural richness. I did some research before/during these visits including reading up about the Cholas, Pallavas, Nayanars, Alvars etc, a couple of classmate notebooks full of details, history, experience, pics, tradition, rituals somewhere in my store room. It was an educational experience for me. 

 

And you were surprised when I thought that you're in 40s? 

[zen]

I have not observed the phenomena of migrants’ behaviour in South (or many other places in India) to make specific comments. However, in general, the culture across the country is similar and the key factor that unites the country. There is nothing substantially new to learn whether you are from North or South. The temples that we visit for e.g. are of the same Gods. 

India over the years has remained fragmented into small regions to the extent of certain areas being city states so again can’t blame people for not being too involved with regional history whether of North or South. The regions were not a power in the realm of Britain, France, and Spain. Ancient India is considered powerful so people everywhere do know about it, along with the key events from Maurya, Harsha, Gupta, Mughal, and British Raj periods.  
 

The key variations occur in languages and food choices where a region could have its own cuisine. The inclination to get involved in it is a matter of choice. For e.g., people may live in Middle East for decades and not know a word of Arabic or in Lucknow and not know how to read Urdu (speaking Urdu is relatively easy) or in Assam to know Assamese. Some languages can be similar so people with those commonalities can grasp the other language relatively easier (At least the spoken element). Speaking of languages, English and Hindi are widely understood so that may take care of the language barriers for the most parts. 


PS I do not see the topic discussed as an issue. The issue for me is migrants or people visiting other states, irrespective of the region, to commit crime.

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by zen

[Gollum]

2 minutes ago, Stan AF said:

Your repertoire is more than eligible for a state level tourism minister. Wow, That's a lot of temples/places.

Credit to the state and history of the land, so many architectural marvels in TN that one can't imagine. I have visited more temples in Bengal covering 80% of districts but nowhere as impressive as in TN. Odisha, Karnataka, Andhra too have many marvels but the sheer scale and number of temples in TN is mindblowing, lucky to have almost uninterrupted dharmic rule and even Brits/Europeans never harmed our heritage places, sadly lot of cultural sites in other states have been lost at the hands of iconoclasts. All the outsiders based in Chennai who aren't exploring these temples are missing a big opportunity to enrich themselves culturally. 

[coffee_rules]

3 hours ago, randomGuy said:

You are a respectable poster. I mostly would agree with what you say without even reading...but Hindi is the defacto national language...not 1/3rd not 2/3rd....nearly 3/3rd meaning nearly entire country understands and speaks basic hindi ...

 

Modi (a gujju) addresses the entire nation in Hindi only. Everyone understands... except I think some Tamils.. nothing against them also obviously

I agree in spirit that practically Hindi is the language that binds us all. But, there is nothing that should hold Back a typical educated North Indian to assimilate with non-Hindi regional language and culture. This is mostly among private company employees esp from Delhi-Noida and Kolkata Bhadra like. The business class has to mingle and they wholeheartedly do.  Agree that Indians should stop mocking other regions with words like Bimaru, Chinki (NE) etc. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

20 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

I agree in spirit that practically Hindi is the language that binds us all. But, there is nothing that should hold Back a typical educated North Indian to assimilate with non-Hindi regional language and culture. This is mostly among private company employees esp from Delhi-Noida and Kolkata Bhadra like. The business class has to mingle and they wholeheartedly do.  Agree that Indians should stop mocking other regions with words like Bimaru, Chinki (NE) etc. 

My hypothesis is this:  If you move to place where the culture is very different from yours and have no one else from your own culture already there, then you have no choice but to assimilate.  But if you move to a place where there already are enough people of your own community, they form a buffer around you and you are less likely to assimilate.  

 

I'll bet that desis who moved to parts of the US where there were very few pre-existing Indians are much more assimilated than the ones who moved to the NJ/Bay Area/other IT-rich regions.  Even in the relatively small place where I live, desis were much more likely to assimilate in the early 2000s than the desis who showed up more recently and moved into sub-divisions that are now already teeming with desis.  

Edited June 8, 2020 by BacktoCricaddict

[MechEng]

@Trichromatic you need to understand the sacrifices we made as Naarth Indiannss..

 

Thousands of years ago we were pure Aryan race and looked like Pat Cummins but after inter marriage with Dravidian Lemurians we became brown people. Utna hi enough hai...no more assimilation..

 

[MechEng]

3 hours ago, randomGuy said:

 Wasn't Hyderabad state ruled by minority till even after independence, to be later liberated by the Indian(partly belongs to 'bimaru' states you should know) army? Yet calls fellow Indians bimaru etc. while claiming 'Delhi punjabi types' make fun of rest of the cultures. respect is given by calling fellow countrymen bimaru??

That's what I love about Hyderabad, it was never ruled by the British.

 

Hyderabad ki vibe hi alag hai, you can feel the unique dakhini muslim vibe there in air.

[Prakat]

12 hours ago, maniac said:

“natives” and “mission”??? I am assuming you work with indigenous scheduled tribes of India

No Bro. Am in the middle of the city. :D

[nikred]

That's what I love about Hyderabad, it was never ruled by the British.
 
Hyderabad ki vibe hi alag hai, you can feel the unique dakhini muslim vibe there in air.

Secunderabad was under brit control. If you are not familiar with the twin cities you would not even know you stepped out of Hyderabad and stepped into Secunderabad.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

[MechEng]

32 minutes ago, nikred said:

Secunderabad was under brit control. If you are not familiar with the twin cities you would not even know you stepped out of Hyderabad and stepped into Secunderabad.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
 

I lived in Hyderabad in early 2000s when I was around 11-12 years old, I remember Secunderabad very faintly.

 

But Hyderabad is unique, never seen British buildings there.

[raki05]

17 hours ago, Trichromatic said:

Even educated northies working in IT sector of South don't assimilate. Not necessarily poor people from Bihar UP. 

Because most of the people whether north indian or south indian they prefer english as an language whether work place or their society. There is no harm in learning local language but saying like they dont have interest is not correct. People learn things for need until someone is a great learner other than that most of the learning are done on need basis still. Even many of south indian families living  in any society speaks in english if you go to next generation kids most of them would speak english. So please don't generalize that north indian don't assimilate with south indian this kind of thread would always give negative thoughts in people mind . Gujjus ,Marwari and Sikhs learn local languages be it bhojpuri,tamil,telugu, english ,spanish coz they are in business and that is their need.  As long as we are respectable to others and don't enforce our thoughts or disrespect any one culture and language it's ok if we can't learn their language when need comes people will automatically learn it. Also when you said, south indian learn north indian dialect easily because in North india people prefer communicating in Hindi and most of them don't know english or not that fluent as many of south indian folks can/know. Hence south indian people has to forced to learn hindi which i think is not right if our North indian state would be more and more educated and start speaking english you will see many south indian people would feel more comfortable travelling to north and will not be forced to learn hindi. So it's all need base other than that it's about hobbies of learning different culture and language but you will find less people there be it North/South indian. So please stop generalizing that north indian dosn't assimilate with south indian in general just because they can't speak southern languages. 

Edited June 9, 2020 by raki05

[Trichromatic]

1 minute ago, raki05 said:

So please stop generalizing that north indian dosn't assimilate with south indian in general just because they can't speak southern languages. 

If you had read other posts, then you would have realized that this is not based just on language. 

[raki05]

19 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

If you had read other posts, then you would have realized that this is not based just on language. 

Well i was directly quoting to the statement which you made that educated IT folks don't  assimilate with South indian. If you go to any metropolitan like bangalore,chennai or hyderabad especially hyderababd and banglore it's all cosmo culture in societies or work place , you get weekends which we spent on malls or restaurants. Do you think any of these places have any specific culture/language tied to it. I see people more assimilated than how it was 20-30 years before , now more and more people working together even marrying to people different part of the countries and they dont' use words like i am in south or north india rather they say i am in bangaore,hyderabad,delhi or mumbai.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

19 hours ago, randomGuy said:

Arre bol de bhai....I agree hum dilli wale chewtiye hain...but things getting better (infact got better quite fast). .. when I was little, bihari was a gaali ..it's  not anymore. 

Bolenge kya, humein koi takleef thodi na hai, we just laugh it off. and we actually agree with some of what's said. its better to live in a society where people say what they think. I would never want india to be a politically-correct, overly-sensitive society. All that does, is create unnecessary division and segregation.

[rkt.india]

That's just your assumption. Don't know about decades but people who grow a family there certainly do that. If you are there temporarily, you won't do that.

Edited June 9, 2020 by rkt.india

[Trichromatic]

31 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

That's just your assumption. Don't know about decades but people who grow a family there certainly do that. If you are there temporarily, you won't do that.

1 decade should be long enough time. There is difference between observation and assumptions. 

[Austin 3:!6]

There is one of my friend from Bihar who could only speak Bhojpuri, knew all Hindi gaalis and some broken english. He moved to Bangalore in 2010 and learned Kannada so well in couple of years that he now works in low budget Kannada movies

Edited June 9, 2020 by Austin 3:!6

[someone]

What exactly is South Indian culture? There are variety of different languages, customs, food. In comparison, North India with just one language of Hindi, you won't be an outsider plus common main festivals and customs. It's wrong to compare both regions as South can't be grouped as one.