South India or Southern India

sep 11

 

interesting comment from a reader.

why do i say 'south india'? i have noticed my parents use this as part of their mailing addresses all along: eg. kollam, kerala, s. india. so i guess i have been using it as a habit.

 

there are some differences between north and south india, of course. south india is full of madrasis and north india is full of biharis :-)

 

i jest, no offence meant. but i found the best way to cure northies of their tendency to call all southies 'madrasis' was to call them all 'biharis'. very salutary, instant impact :-)

 

i will make an observation and a conjecture on the reasons for the difference. the difference may lie in the level of civilizational destruction. mohammedans did not make as much of an impact on the south, and therefore did not wound the civilization as much. for instance, it is remarkable that the classical dances of india are:

 

a) bharat natyam -- south

b) kathakali -- south

c) kuchipudi -- south

d) odissi -- southeast

e) kathak -- north

f) manipuri -- east

 

what this suggests is that in the entire area where the mohammedan impact was felt most strongly, ie. the indo-gangetic plain, dance ceased to exist under puritanical mohammedan rule. dance was pushed to the fringes, to areas where mohammedans were not so powerful. (kathak was entertainment for noblemen, so it was allowed to survive, i guess, like geishas in japan).

 

similarly all the other arts were extinguished; learning and erudition too. after the great universities of the north were decimated, indian sciences only flourished in vijayanagar and further south (eg. the kerala school of astronomy and mathematics).

 

the impact of vijayanagar in shielding the south for those crucial centuries during barbaric sultanate rule in the north has never been fully appreciated. in essence, vijayanagar allowed indic civilization to survive.

 

fast forward to the present. the survival of the civilization is the reason that the south is ahead on almost every parameter. again, note that the most backward parts of the south are those where mohammedan populations have the most impact: northern karnataka, parts of andhra pradesh, malabar in kerala.

 

this is not surprising, as mohammedanism forces one to eschew change and modernity. this is why the entire arab world has not created even one important idea since 700 CE. the only thing the arabs did that was worthwhile was to preserve and transmit indic and greek ideas eg. in mathematics and astronomy during the time that europe was (under the sway of mohammedanism's twin, christism) even more benighted, although that *is* hard to imagine. i cannot think of *one* original arab invention in the sciences or in art, if one neglects the art of belly-dancing.   
 

so is the south different? heck, yes. is the south different enough to secede? heck, no. although some neo-semitic 'dravidianists' in their imperial fantasies think they want to lead southerners to some sort of 'dravida-land'. unfortunately for them, no non-tamil has the slightest interest in this brain-dead idea of 'dravidianism', and even among tamils, only a small minority of christism-brainwashed people believe in this ('dravidianism' is a creation of christists intent on conversion and divide-and-rule). there is no such thing as 'dravidian' or 'aryan': this is a colonial invention.

 

On 9/7/05, Vijay A wrote:

Hi Rajiv,
 

I am a first time writer to you, but a long time reader of your writings. It is such a pleasure to read your articles and blogs. I came across this piece:

 

"You err, Mr. Kristof, when you casually equate Muslim and Hindu violence"

on http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/

 

Here, you refer to Marad as being in "Kerala, South India." I have been thinking about these terms "North India" and "South India" for a while. Would it be more accurate to use northern India and southern India instead? After all, these are not (yet!) separate countries like North Korea and South Korea. Do you think it could promote the feeling of unity and oneness of India, and make a geographical area seem just that - a part of the whole?

 

Keep up your "Shadow Warrior" project. I enjoy browsing through it.

 

Thanks for making lives of Hindus easier with your clear answers, explanations, retorts, and dismissals of misnomers and myths. Your work reminds me of Sitaram Goel of "Voice Of India" ( www.voi.org), who fought an intellectual battle with the 4 diseases afflicting India and Hindu society, namely Christianism, Islamism, Secularism/Macauleyism, and Marxism.

 

Sincerely,

 

Vijay

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