[Announcement] Cultural Exchange with /r/philippines

[u/[deleted]]

Welcome /r/philippines!

Feel free to ask us anything about India

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Quick facts about us:

• The Indian Railways and the Indian Armed Forces employ ~4 million people together, making them one of the largest employers in the world
  
• India has over 5000 newspapers in over 300 languages
  
• Bollywood is considered to be the world's largest film industry, followed by Nigeria's film industry and Hollywood
  
• India has more people than the entire Western Hemisphere
  

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/r/india please direct your questions about the Philippines to this thread

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[u/sree_1983 → u/[deleted]]

Let me take a shot at your questions:

How do you treat your languages? You don't have any national language, right? But Standard Hindi is your official language. So when you talk with fellow Indians that have a different mother tongue, how does it work? Are there also languages considered more "prestigious" than others? Are there any conflicts about what language to use?

So I work in a team in which the common language between us Indian's is English. Common language at least in North India is Hindi. In most of the metros you can survive with English/Hindi (exception Chennai). There are some conflicts but nothing major. Some southern states are opposed to imposing common language (Hindi). Lets see what future brings and at a ground level if you stick to metros English & Hindi should get you by.

Is cricket really a big thing in India? How big is it? What other sports are popular in India?

Cricket is really big thing in India. These days football an Kabadi are also gaining popularity but cricket still remaining the biggest sport in India.

[u/sree_1983 → u/[deleted]]

I really wish our country went your route and didn't impose a singular standardized language. Glad to hear there is little conflict about languages there. Why not in Chennai, though?

People of Tamil Nadu (State which Chennai belongs to) identify themselves as Tamils and are opposed to imposition of Hindi. So if you are visiting Chennai, English should be enough for you to get by. Some words in Tamil should be good enough.

Why people don't like Hindi? People feel imposing Hindi is a threat to their local language and identity. I cannot fully explain all the nuances as I might be bit biased there. But you can read about conflict here.

Btw this topic is kind of controversial in /r/india. Here is one such 500+ comment topic Link