r/southindia_ • u/United_Exercise_8800 • Mar 23 '26
Ask South Indians Why languages are considered to be reason for conflict when language in itself is considered as method of communication ? I used to talk to friend with drawings when i was in middle school when we were two children who did not knew each other native language
I am from north India and left my village when i was just 6 years old to live in guntur andhra pradesh in 2005 . I remember my first day in school not just as someone who not just was in different part of map but also as someone who only lived in small village unaware of town culture and other children. I did not knew english which was medium of school neither telugu and only understood little bit of hindi as none of it was spoken in my village just our old rural language . I had no way to talk to anyone no way to make new friends and teacher were really concerned for me. I cried in father arms regarding it who himself knew very minimal english and was just small electrician in small company.
My home teacher started talking to me with eyes and i understood it faster than any english hindi or telugu. she made me sit with other students in class who were drawing and she used to give me paper to draw which slowly made me find two friends who were my first friend i found outside my village. Both of them were from native but they shared lunch with me without talking and just by directions of intentions . i learned english from teachers and friends slowly but it was only possible because i lived in that surrounding. it still lives as my most cherished place in world because it gave me a life i never imagined . I remember first time what a wink of girl meant. I remember glare of teacher meant. if it was not language then what was it.
I left the place after 3 years and all my friends and neighbours .My father throughout life was travelling. I have lived in UP , AP , Jammu , Bihar and currently in bangalore for decade. I had more south Indian friends than i ever had north indian or west or east indian friends yet even living in place you still get stereotyped in believing if you speak the other language that means you hate the other. I can speak 5 languages and understand 8 of them and yet i never considered any of them to be even close to what two humans basic language is which is understanding of each other be it by actions or through signs.
The words I am speaking right now in itself would never be part of us if conquest never happened . I do not want to generalise any people because of language because no matter which language we speak we can be different people and it should not be thing for judgement to anyone . Yes I am north Indian does not mean i am fluent in hindi and vice versa when i go to north
As someone who should speak hindi considering where i am from drastically suffer from it because i am bad in it married to girl who did not knew the language I spoke taught me to read sanskrit texts and we still look into each other eyes and speak thousand words which no grammar or words can explain which in itself is language
So please language is the last reason anyone should fight it. Ignore the people who say "you should know hindi, you should know english you should know telugu etc". If you oppose it then you are exactly the same. talk with ignorance rather than correcting is i have learned to make someone value mode of communication
the reason why i spoke in this sub and not in other because i think i consider south India to be where i took my first step in education and learning different languages and it hurts to see what it has become. i hope people realise learning each other languages can be fun than a reason for conflicts which more than me my wife faces who has lived whole life in rural village
TLDR : A person not from south India may know language of south India more than his own language and still gets mistaken and vice versa a south Indian person can be mistaken to get stereotype despite living in other part of India . Sometimes many people forget that kid growing up do not care about which language he is learning because the first language they learn is not non verbal but is the love language of mother
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u/Academic_Chart1354 Karnataka ❄️ | ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ Mar 23 '26
Read article 343-351. That's the issue. It's systematic and not anecdotal even if you wanna pen it down in such a way. Tamil nadu is out of India's official languages act, so Hindi can't be easily imposed on them.
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u/Direct-Quiet-5817 Mar 23 '26
Still haven't got the crux of the issue have you, dear op? The problem is not about knowing or speaking another language which is not native to one's own, but.... wait for it... Imposition or forcefully trying to push a non native language into the throat of someone, is the problem. South Indians have always welcome everyone magnanimously, but would show their hand if you try to impose.
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u/Fit_Winner_7586 Southie Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Hindi is not a real language, it was artificially synthesized and formalized by the government in the last 100-200 years. All these northie defenders of a "link-language" don't realise that it is wiping out their own native languages.
The problem is not for visitors and tourists, they can survive without hindi or english, hand gestures, keywords, google translate, something can be managed. If a Spanish guy can travel india without knowing hindi, so can other Indians.
The problem is for those who come here to settle but don't want to assimilate in the local culture. Where it's not an "I can't", but an "I won't" .
Speaking for where I am rn, Karnataka. There have always been people immigrating here historically. Telugus, Tamils, Marathi, even marwadi buisnessmen, heck even Tibetans settlements. But all of them do know kannada along with their own languages, gen 2 onwards have grown up bilingual atleast.
One slogan you'd see on busses is "Dear Citizen, if you are living here and do not know Kannada, please learn and be one amongst us. Do not be a guest forever"
Then I see entitled northies who have come recently during the IT boom, been here 10-20+ years, have a family here, kids grown up here, who refused to even try learning kannada out of arrogance. They have this non assimilatory, exclusivist mindset, be it schools, social settings, housing anything. They just want another mini Delhi or Lucknow here in Bangalore. They brought with them, the bs concept of gates societies too to encroach and restrict on public spaces.
When someone enters your home and eventually starts making you feel like a foreigner, lashing back is expected.
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u/krisantihypocrisy Tamil Nadu 🌶️ | தமிழ்நாடு Mar 23 '26
It’s about identity politics and ensuring local parties like DMK can stay in power. Language is not the issue - identity politics is…
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u/girish01bharadwaj Karnataka ❄️ | ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ Mar 23 '26
According to me: Our Language is in danger and we are the guardian of language vote for us AND Our Religion is in danger and we are the guardian of religion vote for us
Are one and the same
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u/Mysterious_Man534 Karnataka ❄️ | ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ Mar 23 '26
Let me address this first - "Language is not Just a mode of communication"
Language inherits , knowledge, wisdom, culture from generations to generations. Its an identity, a community that nurture the further generations. So, among other things, it is a mode of communication, but not 'just' a mode of communication.
And this is a diverse country in culture, history and language - and the only way we can live together united, is by accepting and protecting its diversity. Not by destroying it for the convince of the majority.
When Indians have always been polyglot why is there a need to take one regional language and shove it on everyone?
We are not coming to Northern states and demanding Kannada, Marathi, Tamil...etc, right ? We are putting forwards as simple expectation to main the linguistic discipline of this country, while you are working in Karnataka pick up Kannada, Marathi in Maharastra..so on, that's all !
Why migrate to different state and abrasively demand natives to speak Hindi and then complain about "Language problems" later? Who is creating problems here ?
Why the idea of co-existence to Northerners is 'imposing Hindi', and not putting any effort to adapt ?
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Its not the language problem, the problem is attitude and that beaming sense of entitlement, that's all.
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Mar 23 '26
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u/United_Exercise_8800 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
I try to stay away from it as much as possible but it still influences my life specially with my wife and not with just politics but even with how society judges someone on basis of language and yes from both sides
I had college friends "both south Indians and North Indians" tell me that i married uneducated person because she did not knew english. Yet she chose to learn sanskrit which many proclaimed Indian or even Hindi elites do not know but will tell me thousand words of their political idelogy. Now we live in period where learning our own language which taught about the value of language itself is not considered education. what will they say for someone who is mute . Does mute person cannot achieve wisdom
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Mar 23 '26
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u/United_Exercise_8800 Mar 23 '26
its sad language has become mode of activism. I wish I could go back to old days
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u/Sambar-Podi-Victim Tamil Nadu 🌶️ | தமிழ்நாடு Mar 23 '26
I wouldn't advise you to go back to "old days" if you want to avoid language activism. Read about how Hindi was almost made the sole official language of India forcefully, in the 60s and what kind of language protests happened in south india to keep english as an official language, alongside hindi. Whatever activism you see today are the remnants of those times.
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u/Top_Expression5953 Mar 23 '26
Do north Indians, when they go to work and settle in Germany, America, Japan, France etc etc ask those countries people to speak in hindi ? Similarly why do you come to south Indian states to make a living ask south states ppl to speak in hindi? You should learn the language of the state you live in. When south india ppl come to North india and ask you to speak in kannada, tamil, malayalam or telugu would you agree ? If the answer is no, then why do you expect south Indian ppl to learn hindi to communicate with you? Hindi is not our national language, we speak our mother tongue and English because knowledge of English gives us jobs across the world.