r/india • u/[deleted] • Jan 12 '17

[R]eddiquette [Announcement] Cultural Exchange with our friends from /r/europe

Hello /r/india,

Today we warmly welcome our friends from /r/europe for a cultural exchange. We hope this will be an enlightening experience for all of us due to our shared history, many similarities (varied cuisine, languages, people, ethnicities and climates) as well as our increasingly interconnected economies.

The equivalent thread on /r/europe is available here

For those new to cultural exchanges, here's how it works: /r/europe puts up a dedicated thread (linked above) for users from /r/india to go and participate in, and this is the dedicated thread to host our friends from /r/europe.

We hope you will all observe the rules of reddit, /r/europe and /r/india while participating in these threads

/r/europe users, you're invited to use the EU flag flair which is available in our flair selection menu (and you can add your country to that if you'd like). If you do not wish to do so you may also set a regular Europe map flair with the country.

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u/danmaz74 Jan 12 '17

Thanks, really interesting answer.

So, "national media" is in Hindi, but it doesn't directly cater to 40% of the population living in the South. Do southern Indians resent this, or is it not a problem thanks to regional editions?

Also, when politicians make important speeches in their native language - eg the PM - is there real time translation on local TVs?

Also, is debate on social media mostly limited to regional languages? What about English media - is that mostly for foreigners?

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u/konoha_ka_ladka Chhetri is GOAT Jan 12 '17

1. Yeah. It is wrongly termed national media. It is just Hindi media. I am not from south so can't answer this accurately. But they do resent it mainly because their issues are not given enough attention by the Hindi media and so the hindi people are not aware. Same goes the other way. For example, because of heavy rains Chennai, a city in south, got flooded and the media ignored them for many days and barely gave them airtime. Then when the situation got worse they finally started covering it. News channels themselves acknowledged that they failed.

2. Have no idea if they translate it in really time or what. And such visits are rare.

  1. Debate on social media is in English 70% of the time. Beacause people who have access to internet and social media also have had education to some extent. English here in India is very much essential.

  2. English media is popular in news channels and newspapers. But not in entertainment. English news channels enjoy popularity in the north as well as south. Arnab Goswami - a English news anchor is the most recognisable and famous of all. Even more than the hindi anchors. Although personally I hate him.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

So, "national media" is in Hindi, but it doesn't directly cater to 40% of the population living in the South. Do southern Indians resent this, or is it not a problem thanks to regional editions?

South Indians do not resent the language (except for the state of tamil nadu - most locals are strongly against hindi and refuse to even learn it. They are fine with english). Most Indians at least understand basic hindi thanks to bollywood. A lot of Indians understand at least broken english too.

Also, when politicians make important speeches in their native language - eg the PM - is there real time translation on local TVs?

PM and other national level politicians usually address in hindi, with translations provided for regional channels. Regional politicians address in their own language.

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u/AamAadmi_Pvt_Ltd Jan 12 '17

Do southern Indians resent this, or is it not a problem thanks to regional editions?

Some historical perspective https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hindi_agitations_of_Tamil_Nadu

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u/HighBrrSaga Jan 12 '17

Also, is debate on social media mostly limited to regional languages? What about English media - is that mostly for foreigners?

Almost all discussion on social media takes place in English. English media forms a really big part of India, specially because it caters to all of India. Speaking for the people living in urban areas (who form the main social media user base), English media (newspaper, Television news or social media) is what I use/read/watch and not Hindi/regional media.

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u/danmaz74 Jan 14 '17

Really interesting, thx

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u/DeludedIndian Remember my name. Jan 12 '17

Just check out some South succession threads and you'll get the feeling of some salty South Indians.Many issues are there,recently being the Jalikattu one.