The Saga of South India & North India
North India versus South India.
It is a highly debated topic
from political debates to comedy shows.
It’s another issue that most of the debates on it, is anchored on pride.
North Indians and South Indians often mock each other.
And make stereotypes.
North Indians mock South Indians due to their skin colour.
And claiming that their languages are difficult.
Mocking the way they talk.
On the other hand, South Indians mock North Indians
claiming that they are misbehaved, reckless,
and that they use foul language in each and every sentence.
But in today’s article, let’s carry out a factual and logical analysis
of North India and South India.
It is interesting to know about the differences
in their history and culture.
Because of which these regions contrast each other now.
And what are the reasons that South Indian region
is considered to be much more developed than North India?
Come, let’s find out.
[Mocking South Indian Languages by speaking gibberish]
See, I’m driving while intoxicated.
You don’t chew pan? What kind of a Bihari are you?
North Indians and South Indians, Stop it!
Kerala has yet again emerged as the most literate state.
Uttar Pradesh has ranked the lowest in Niti Aayog’s Health Index.
Whether it’s South India or North India,
East India, or West India,
It’s a part of India!
Friends, the very first question here is
when you use words like North India and South India,
which are the exact regions we’re referring to?
Where does the boundary between North India and South India lie?
Is there an official definition?
Well, there is a definition,
but UP, do forgive me for saying this, is not included in North India.
Yup, that’s right, as per the division by the Ministry of Home Affairs,
India is divided into 6 zonal councils.
Uttar Pradesh comes under Central Council.
I know, that the people in UP will ask to be included in North India after hearing this.
Since you’re asking so sweetly,
let’s include UP in North India for this article.
For this article, the North Indian States would be
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir,
Ladakh, Chandigarh, and Delhi.
And for this article, the definition of South Indian will be
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
Anyway, when the media talks about North India and South India,
these are the states referred.
Moving on, what are the differences between these two regions?
Let’s look at the history.
Before the British Raj in India,
there were several dynasties ruling over North India.
The Delhi Sultanate included the Tughlaq and Lodhi Dynasties.
There were several Rajput clans,
such as the ones under the leadership of Maharana Pratap.
And the Maratha Empire under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Although this was mainly in Central India,
but for a while, some major parts of North India
were under the rule of the Maratha Empire.
On the other hand, if we’re to talk about South India,
The South Indian region was ruled over by various dynasties as well.
They coexisted during the Sangam Age.
At this point, you might think that the story of both regions is quite similar.
Whether it was North India or South India,
multiple kings and emperors ruled over the regions.
Multiple dynasties were fighting each other to expand their kingdoms.
But there’s a major difference here.
The fight amidst the South Indian monarchs
was similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.
And the fighting between the North Indian monarchs
was akin to the T20 World Cup.
In the World Cup, teams from foreign countries come to battle each other.
Several countries compete with each other.
While in the IPL, only the Indian states are competing with each other.
There were more foreign invasions in North India,
and there’s a logical reason for that.
South India is surrounded by oceans on all three sides,
whereas, by land, North India is connected to the rest of Asia,
Europe, and Africa.
It’s not that South India did not have any contact with foreign dynasties and kingdoms.
There were obviously,
But the difference being that invading through oceans is quite difficult.
It is easier to trade peacefully via oceans.
Sumerian records show that
Kerala has been a spice exporter since 3,000 BC.
Kerala’s spices attracted the ancient Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians.
There are famous silk route sites in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
2,000 years ago, Roman traders visited the Malabar coast.
Additionally, the religious contacts were much more peaceful.
It is said that about 2,000 years ago,
Jews visited South India for the first time, on the ships of King Solomon.
Thomas Christians of Kerala believe
that St Thomas the Apostle came to Kerala in 52 AD,
Quite close to the year Christianity was born.
It’s the same story with Islam.
Trades since before the time of Prophet Mohammad has been discovered
between Malabar Coast and the Middle East.
The first mosque was built in South India in 629 AD, by an Arab trader.
You’ll find this in Kodungallur.
Perhaps, this is why people from so many religions
peacefully coexist in states like Kerala.
In terms of actual foreign invasions,
actual foreign invasions,
there have been hardly any in South India.
The first recorded invasion was in the year 1500 AD,
when the Portuguese invaded Calicut.
The French came later, and in 1674,
the Governor of the French East India Company, Francois Martin,
set up a trading centre in Pondicherry.
Coming to North India, there are various trade links in North India as well.
Ever since the Indus Valley Civilisations,
we have seen trade relationships with foreign dynasties and kingdoms.
We have unearthed proof from 2600 BC,
of trade relationships of Indus Valley Civilisations with
Mesopotamia, Persia, and Turkmenistan as well.
Of the 12 Silk routes found in India, 7 were in North India.
With it, we witnessed foreign invasions.
Numerous foreign invasions.
Persian invasion by the Cyrus II of Achaemenid, in 535 BC,
later his son Darius carried out further expansions.
Then the Greek invasion by Alexandre III.
Though Alexandre had passed away,
his general Seleucus Nicator took charge,
and was later defeated by Chandragupta Maurya.
400 years later, in 180 BC, an invasion by Demetrius I,
laid the foundation of the Indo-Greek kingdom.
The invasions by Scythians, Parthians, and Kushans,
who hailed from various parts of central Asia.
Friends, we need to remember one thing,
when we call something a ’foreign invasion’
we mean in terms of the present-day boundaries.
Back then, these invasions by the emperors, was regular expansion of kingdoms.
To them, countries and boundaries didn’t exist in the same sense.
The definition of foreign invasion is quite weird.
Suppose a kingdom was founded in present-day Pakistan,
and it extended to the present-day Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh,
we’d call it foreign invasion in reference to the current boundaries,
but when India and Pakistan was a united country,
this wasn’t considered a foreign invasion.
These aspects are arbitrary.
But since we’re analysing North India and South India in this article,
I’ll be using the term foreign invasion,
when any outside kingdoms were introduced in these areas.
Moving forward, in 712 AD
Mohammad bin Qasim was the first Islamic ruler, he was an Arab.
There were several others after this.
There are numerous examples.
Broadly speaking, both North India and South India had contact with the outside,
but there were more invasions in North India, repeatedly, year after year.
What were the effects?
The implications of these invasions?
Friends, we see the effects on the culture.
Let me use an example.
If we look at the 9 classical dances of India,
they’re vastly different from each other,
of these 9, only 1 originated in North India, Kathak.
Whereas 4 out of the 9 originated in South India.
Kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh,
Bharatnatyam in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,
and Mohiniattam and Kathakali in Kerala.
These are the recognised classical dance.
In addition to these,
there are numerous folk dances and folk theatre forms in South India.
We see the same thing in languages as well.
The four main states of South India have distinct languages.
Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil.
These languages have different scripts,
distinct vocabulary, independent film industry,
and you can find a tonne of literature ranging from newspapers to magazines.
When the Indian Constitution was framed in 1950,
the Eighth Schedule included merely 14 languages.
4 out of the 14 were these languages.
Apart from this, only 6 languages are recognised as classical languages in India.
As you can guess, 4 among these 6 are these languages that I mentioned,
the remaining two are Odia and Sanskrit.
Amazingly, apart from these 4, various other languages are spoken in South India.
You can think of these as the Minority languages.
A community on the Kerala-Karnataka border speaks Beary language.
The tribal people in the Tamil Nadu hills, speak the Badaga, Toda, and Koda languages.
In the Kodagu district in Karnataka, Kodava language is spoken.
In Karnataka's Udupi district, Tulu language is spoken.
Dhivehi is spoken in Lakshadweep.
Dakhni Urdu is spoken in
some areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.
Compare this with North India.
North India’s culture is more syncretic.
i.e A culture born from the fusion of various cultures.
Let’s see the languages first,
The official languages of North India that are included in the Eighth Schedule
are Kashmiri and Dogri, mainly in Kashmir.
Punjabi in Punjab,
Urdu in some parts of Uttar Pradesh,
Sindhi spoken by some people in parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
And Hindi, spoken in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
These are the 6 official languages,
apart from these, Ladakhi is spoken in Ladakh,
and Hindi has various dialects.
Such as Haryanvi in Haryana,
Pahadi in Himachal Pradesh,
Braj Bhasa and Awadhi in Uttar Pradesh,
Marwari and Mewari in Rajasthan,
Garhwali and Kumaoni in Uttarakhand.
These cannot be considered as different languages,
because of their similarities to Hindi.
In the 2011 census, 57 such dialects were counted
that are a part of Hindi language.
Additionally, people living in Kashmir and Punjab understand Hindi.
If you look at the map of languages,
a clear-cut difference between North India and South India can be seen.
And history reflects this difference very clearly.
The turbulence of various dynasties in North India,
foreign invaders from so many places,
there was a fusion of their culture in North India.
Sauraseni Prakrit, Khadi Boli, Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic,
when these languages met each other,
the Hindustani language formed out of it.
From this Hindustani language, Hindi and Urdu evolved.
The dances that I mentioned earlier,
the North Indian classical dance Kathak,
has many similarities with the Spanish dance form Flamenco.
It’s believed that there were some gypsies that started travelling from Rajasthan,
and through Romania, Hungary, and Central Europe,
they finally reached Southern Spain,
and introduced this dance form in Spain.
In Haryana, Folk Theater is known as Saang,
it’s known as Nautanki in UP,
and Kariyala in Himachal Pradesh.
If you watch these on YouTube, you will spot many obvious similarities.
Satyawadi Harish Chandra is a famous tale from Nautanki,
originating from Indian religious stories.
Another famous story is of Layla and Majnun,
originating from an Arabic story.
Written by a 12th Century Persian poet.
Talking about religion, did you know that the Greeks were the first
to make a statue of Buddha?
Gandhara Art, which began in the Indo-Greek Kingdom
has evident Greek influences on it.
In their statues, the Greek depicted the Gods in human form.
They created realistic statues,
When you go to Greece and see the Greek sculptures,
you’ll find realistic statues.
The oldest surviving statues of Buddha,
you’d see that the curly hair matches that of Apollo.
We witness this fusion culture in North Indian clothes as well.
Salwar Kameez, that has now become a major traditional dress for women in North India,
especially in Haryana and Punjab, had originated from the Mughal costumes.
You can see the influence on food too.
Punjabi samosa is a popular snack consumed by so many people,
was introduced in India by Middle Eastern chefs during the Delhi Sultanate rule.
It’s mentioned in the writings of Amir Khusro and Ibn Battuta.
It was referred to as Sambusak back then.
Sambusak contained meat, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.
Later it started to be made with potato fillings.
After potato was introduced in India by the Portuguese, known as Batata.
Yup, that’s right,
the potato in the samosa was brought in by the Portuguese.
Before that, samosa used to be sambusak.
North India’s culture is like a rainbow.
With colours overlapping one another.
All because, throughout history, the cultures heavily interacted with each other.
On the other hand, South Indian culture had the chance to grow independently.
Since there weren’t many fusions,
various languages, dance forms, and cultures could emerge.
But let’s talk about the development now.
Why is South India more developed than North India now?
Before we figure this out, we’ll have to define the meaning of development.
GDP Per Capita is often considered an indicator of development.
The Per Person GDP of a region.
So let’s look at the data analysis of the states
by the National Statistical Office published on RBI’s website,
for the years 2020-2021.
But we cannot use this year’s data,
because the data from Uttarakhand, Kerala, and Chandigarh isn’t available,
let’s see the previous year’s data.
In this analysis, you can clearly see that
Uttar Pradesh is at the bottommost rank, with only ₹65,431.
And if you see the lowest ranking state among the South Indian states,
it’s Andhra Pradesh at ₹170,000.
Much higher than that of Uttar Pradesh.
In terms of individual analysis,
Goa and Sikkim have the topmost ranks.
Why is Sikkim a rich state? Let’s discuss that in some other article.
Delhi and Chandigarh are among the top rankers.
But then if you reach the ₹200,000-₹250,000 figures,
most of the South Indian states fall in this category.
GDP Per Capita is a measurement of wealth.
Additionally, we can see the poverty measurements.
Measured by the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index.
According to the report by Niti Aayog,
the least number of multi-dimensionally poor people are in Kerala.
Only 0.71% of Kerala’s total population.
And then there’s Puducherry and Lakshadweep,
with numbers around that of Kerala’s.
And you’d find almost every South Indian state in the top 10.
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu.
While Telangana is in 11th place.
There are some North Indian states in the top 10 too.
Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana.
But UP and Rajasthan rank at the bottom.
With 38% multi-dimensional poor people in UP
and 30% in Rajasthan.
On top of it, one draws a similar conclusion with the literacy rates.
The South Indian states are much ahead in terms of literacy.
So once again, we need to ask,
why are the South Indian states more developed in these indicators?
Are the kings and emperors of the past eras to be thanked for this?
Absolutely not.
Because at the time of independence,
South Indian states weren’t more developed than the North Indian states.
They were almost equals,
The developments came in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
The governments of the South Indian states implemented their policies,
that could bring about this change.
Data scientist RS Nilakantan tells us,
that the population growth of South Indian states is lower.
Infant mortality rate is lower.
If a girl is born there, she has higher chances of
being vaccinated, getting good education,
adequate nutrition, and healthcare.
She has a higher chance of going to college and getting a job.
As well as better political representation.
What did the governments of the South Indian states do?
You can find numerous examples of this.
In India, Mid Day Meal Scheme was launched for the first time in Tamil Nadu.
This led to an increase in school admissions in TN.
In the country, one of the highest school enrollments can be seen in TN.
Second, today, we call Bangalore as the IT capital of India.
Do you know why?
Because Karnataka was the first state in India to introduce an IT policy in 1997.
This enabled the development of an IT ecosystem in Bangalore.
Third: Similarly, in 1997, Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu,
met Bill Gates in Delhi and persuaded him
to start a Microsoft Development Centre in Hyderabad.
Bill Gates had said that if such a centre had to be founded outside Seattle,
it would be in Hyderabad.
Today, not only does Hyderabad have such a centre,
but Microsoft’s CEO himself, Satya Nadella is from Andhra Pradesh.
Fourth: In a 2018 study by RBI, it was revealed that
Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh,
account for 46% of the total remittances that come into India.
Form the Indian citizens working abroad.
Almost half of the remittances to India comes
from the residents of these four states.
They could be educated enough to work abroad.
Fifth, today, Kerala is the first state
to have completed the National Optic Fibre Network Project.
More than 35,000km of Fibre Optic Network
is laid out in the state to provide high-speed internet
to gram panchayats and remote areas.
More than 2 million BPL families were given free connectivity.
So that children from poor families get to access high-speed internet to study.
In a 2021 study by Centre for New Economics Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University
access to 5 basic things was measured.
Education, Healthcare, Basic amenities,
Socio-economic security, and Justice.
They found that the five South Indian states,
are in the top 10 states in India.
The richest states, Goa and Sikkim, rank at the top,
at the bottom, we see states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
There’s a clear-cut connection here.
South Indian state governments are spending more on welfare,
education, healthcare, and providing free basic amenities to residents.
2019’s World Bank Niti Aayog report shows that
Kerala and TN are at the highest rank in terms of overall health performance.
While UP, Rajasthan, and Bihar are at the bottom.
One thing that needs to be considered is;
Why are the South Indian political parties and their governments
so interested in working for the people?
Friends, there’s an interesting reason for this.
Political Competition.
If any political party remains in power for a long time in a state or at the centre,
it starts taking its power for granted.
Meaning that the incentive to work for the people dies down.
After the independence, in the first 5 decades,
Congress had an uninterrupted dominance in the North Indian states.
The same political party kept on winning the elections,
and started getting lethargic.
The other examples are
the Left’s rule in Bengal for over 3 decades.
The 27 years long BJP rule in Gujarat.
When such a political monopoly is seen,
the common people get disconnected from politics.
And the government policies stop working for the common people.
Compare this with the South Indian States.
No party had a monopoly in most of the South Indian states.
Rather, we saw strong political competition.
In Kerala, Left party alliance LDF, and Congress party alliance UDF,
alternately come into power and went out of power.
The communist party CPI(M) faced competition in Kerala from the other parties.
Whereas, in Bengal, they maintained a monopoly.
That’s why their performance in Kerala was much better than in Bengal.
Take TN for example.
AIADMK and DMK parties were in power alternately.
There was healthy competition.
The same thing happened in Karnataka.
There were Congress governments, JDU governments,
and even BJP governments.
Due to political competition, the governments were forced
to work for the benefit of the people.
Additionally, the people were educated and participated in the governance,
demanding basic rights such as education and healthcare for themselves.
The groups of civil societies in the South Indian states are quite strong.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad are often known for their diverse citizen activist groups.
Hyderabad was the backbone in the agitation for Telangana’s statehood.
On top of this, the social revolutions
that were seen in the South Indian states throughout history,
have contributed as well.
Reformers such as Kerala’s Narayan Guru and TN’s Periyar.
They empowered the citizens to work for themselves.
To take up the real issues.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that South India has reached perfection,
while North Indian states are still a lump of clay.
Whether it’s South India or North India,
they’re India.
Several problems that are seen all across the nation.
Are seen even in South India.
To reach the level of the developed countries,
even the South Indian states have a lot of work to do.
And this division between North India and South India in this article,
was only for logical analysis, for a healthy discussion.
Obviously, India is one.
And all Indians are equal.
And all of us Indians have to unite to come up with solutions to these problems.
But by understanding the history,
culture and development of various regions in India,
like this, we can learn a lot.
North India versus South India.
It is a highly debated topic
from political debates to comedy shows.
It’s another issue that most of the debates on it, is anchored on pride.
North Indians and South Indians often mock each other.
And make stereotypes.
North Indians mock South Indians due to their skin colour.
And claiming that their languages are difficult.
Mocking the way they talk.
On the other hand, South Indians mock North Indians
claiming that they are misbehaved, reckless,
and that they use foul language in each and every sentence.
But in today’s article, let’s carry out a factual and logical analysis
of North India and South India.
It is interesting to know about the differences
in their history and culture.
Because of which these regions contrast each other now.
And what are the reasons that South Indian region
is considered to be much more developed than North India?
Come, let’s find out.
[Mocking South Indian Languages by speaking gibberish]
See, I’m driving while intoxicated.
You don’t chew pan? What kind of a Bihari are you?
North Indians and South Indians, Stop it!
Kerala has yet again emerged as the most literate state.
Uttar Pradesh has ranked the lowest in Niti Aayog’s Health Index.
Whether it’s South India or North India,
East India, or West India,
It’s a part of India!
Friends, the very first question here is
when you use words like North India and South India,
which are the exact regions we’re referring to?
Where does the boundary between North India and South India lie?
Is there an official definition?
Well, there is a definition,
but UP, do forgive me for saying this, is not included in North India.
Yup, that’s right, as per the division by the Ministry of Home Affairs,
India is divided into 6 zonal councils.
Uttar Pradesh comes under Central Council.
I know, that the people in UP will ask to be included in North India after hearing this.
Since you’re asking so sweetly,
let’s include UP in North India for this article.
For this article, the North Indian States would be
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir,
Ladakh, Chandigarh, and Delhi.
And for this article, the definition of South Indian will be
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
Anyway, when the media talks about North India and South India,
these are the states referred.
Moving on, what are the differences between these two regions?
Let’s look at the history.
Before the British Raj in India,
there were several dynasties ruling over North India.
The Delhi Sultanate included the Tughlaq and Lodhi Dynasties.
There were several Rajput clans,
such as the ones under the leadership of Maharana Pratap.
And the Maratha Empire under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Although this was mainly in Central India,
but for a while, some major parts of North India
were under the rule of the Maratha Empire.
On the other hand, if we’re to talk about South India,
The South Indian region was ruled over by various dynasties as well.
They coexisted during the Sangam Age.
At this point, you might think that the story of both regions is quite similar.
Whether it was North India or South India,
multiple kings and emperors ruled over the regions.
Multiple dynasties were fighting each other to expand their kingdoms.
But there’s a major difference here.
The fight amidst the South Indian monarchs
was similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.
And the fighting between the North Indian monarchs
was akin to the T20 World Cup.
In the World Cup, teams from foreign countries come to battle each other.
Several countries compete with each other.
While in the IPL, only the Indian states are competing with each other.
There were more foreign invasions in North India,
and there’s a logical reason for that.
South India is surrounded by oceans on all three sides,
whereas, by land, North India is connected to the rest of Asia,
Europe, and Africa.
It’s not that South India did not have any contact with foreign dynasties and kingdoms.
There were obviously,
But the difference being that invading through oceans is quite difficult.
It is easier to trade peacefully via oceans.
Sumerian records show that
Kerala has been a spice exporter since 3,000 BC.
Kerala’s spices attracted the ancient Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians.
There are famous silk route sites in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
2,000 years ago, Roman traders visited the Malabar coast.
Additionally, the religious contacts were much more peaceful.
It is said that about 2,000 years ago,
Jews visited South India for the first time, on the ships of King Solomon.
Thomas Christians of Kerala believe
that St Thomas the Apostle came to Kerala in 52 AD,
Quite close to the year Christianity was born.
It’s the same story with Islam.
Trades since before the time of Prophet Mohammad has been discovered
between Malabar Coast and the Middle East.
The first mosque was built in South India in 629 AD, by an Arab trader.
You’ll find this in Kodungallur.
Perhaps, this is why people from so many religions
peacefully coexist in states like Kerala.
In terms of actual foreign invasions,
actual foreign invasions,
there have been hardly any in South India.
The first recorded invasion was in the year 1500 AD,
when the Portuguese invaded Calicut.
The French came later, and in 1674,
the Governor of the French East India Company, Francois Martin,
set up a trading centre in Pondicherry.
Coming to North India, there are various trade links in North India as well.
Ever since the Indus Valley Civilisations,
we have seen trade relationships with foreign dynasties and kingdoms.
We have unearthed proof from 2600 BC,
of trade relationships of Indus Valley Civilisations with
Mesopotamia, Persia, and Turkmenistan as well.
Of the 12 Silk routes found in India, 7 were in North India.
With it, we witnessed foreign invasions.
Numerous foreign invasions.
Persian invasion by the Cyrus II of Achaemenid, in 535 BC,
later his son Darius carried out further expansions.
Then the Greek invasion by Alexandre III.
Though Alexandre had passed away,
his general Seleucus Nicator took charge,
and was later defeated by Chandragupta Maurya.
400 years later, in 180 BC, an invasion by Demetrius I,
laid the foundation of the Indo-Greek kingdom.
The invasions by Scythians, Parthians, and Kushans,
who hailed from various parts of central Asia.
Friends, we need to remember one thing,
when we call something a ’foreign invasion’
we mean in terms of the present-day boundaries.
Back then, these invasions by the emperors, was regular expansion of kingdoms.
To them, countries and boundaries didn’t exist in the same sense.
The definition of foreign invasion is quite weird.
Suppose a kingdom was founded in present-day Pakistan,
and it extended to the present-day Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh,
we’d call it foreign invasion in reference to the current boundaries,
but when India and Pakistan was a united country,
this wasn’t considered a foreign invasion.
These aspects are arbitrary.
But since we’re analysing North India and South India in this article,
I’ll be using the term foreign invasion,
when any outside kingdoms were introduced in these areas.
Moving forward, in 712 AD
Mohammad bin Qasim was the first Islamic ruler, he was an Arab.
There were several others after this.
There are numerous examples.
Broadly speaking, both North India and South India had contact with the outside,
but there were more invasions in North India, repeatedly, year after year.
What were the effects?
The implications of these invasions?
Friends, we see the effects on the culture.
Let me use an example.
If we look at the 9 classical dances of India,
they’re vastly different from each other,
of these 9, only 1 originated in North India, Kathak.
Whereas 4 out of the 9 originated in South India.
Kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh,
Bharatnatyam in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,
and Mohiniattam and Kathakali in Kerala.
These are the recognised classical dance.
In addition to these,
there are numerous folk dances and folk theatre forms in South India.
We see the same thing in languages as well.
The four main states of South India have distinct languages.
Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil.
These languages have different scripts,
distinct vocabulary, independent film industry,
and you can find a tonne of literature ranging from newspapers to magazines.
When the Indian Constitution was framed in 1950,
the Eighth Schedule included merely 14 languages.
4 out of the 14 were these languages.
Apart from this, only 6 languages are recognised as classical languages in India.
As you can guess, 4 among these 6 are these languages that I mentioned,
the remaining two are Odia and Sanskrit.
Amazingly, apart from these 4, various other languages are spoken in South India.
You can think of these as the Minority languages.
A community on the Kerala-Karnataka border speaks Beary language.
The tribal people in the Tamil Nadu hills, speak the Badaga, Toda, and Koda languages.
In the Kodagu district in Karnataka, Kodava language is spoken.
In Karnataka's Udupi district, Tulu language is spoken.
Dhivehi is spoken in Lakshadweep.
Dakhni Urdu is spoken in
some areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.
Compare this with North India.
North India’s culture is more syncretic.
i.e A culture born from the fusion of various cultures.
Let’s see the languages first,
The official languages of North India that are included in the Eighth Schedule
are Kashmiri and Dogri, mainly in Kashmir.
Punjabi in Punjab,
Urdu in some parts of Uttar Pradesh,
Sindhi spoken by some people in parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
And Hindi, spoken in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
These are the 6 official languages,
apart from these, Ladakhi is spoken in Ladakh,
and Hindi has various dialects.
Such as Haryanvi in Haryana,
Pahadi in Himachal Pradesh,
Braj Bhasa and Awadhi in Uttar Pradesh,
Marwari and Mewari in Rajasthan,
Garhwali and Kumaoni in Uttarakhand.
These cannot be considered as different languages,
because of their similarities to Hindi.
In the 2011 census, 57 such dialects were counted
that are a part of Hindi language.
Additionally, people living in Kashmir and Punjab understand Hindi.
If you look at the map of languages,
a clear-cut difference between North India and South India can be seen.
And history reflects this difference very clearly.
The turbulence of various dynasties in North India,
foreign invaders from so many places,
there was a fusion of their culture in North India.
Sauraseni Prakrit, Khadi Boli, Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic,
when these languages met each other,
the Hindustani language formed out of it.
From this Hindustani language, Hindi and Urdu evolved.
The dances that I mentioned earlier,
the North Indian classical dance Kathak,
has many similarities with the Spanish dance form Flamenco.
It’s believed that there were some gypsies that started travelling from Rajasthan,
and through Romania, Hungary, and Central Europe,
they finally reached Southern Spain,
and introduced this dance form in Spain.
In Haryana, Folk Theater is known as Saang,
it’s known as Nautanki in UP,
and Kariyala in Himachal Pradesh.
If you watch these on YouTube, you will spot many obvious similarities.
Satyawadi Harish Chandra is a famous tale from Nautanki,
originating from Indian religious stories.
Another famous story is of Layla and Majnun,
originating from an Arabic story.
Written by a 12th Century Persian poet.
Talking about religion, did you know that the Greeks were the first
to make a statue of Buddha?
Gandhara Art, which began in the Indo-Greek Kingdom
has evident Greek influences on it.
In their statues, the Greek depicted the Gods in human form.
They created realistic statues,
When you go to Greece and see the Greek sculptures,
you’ll find realistic statues.
The oldest surviving statues of Buddha,
you’d see that the curly hair matches that of Apollo.
We witness this fusion culture in North Indian clothes as well.
Salwar Kameez, that has now become a major traditional dress for women in North India,
especially in Haryana and Punjab, had originated from the Mughal costumes.
You can see the influence on food too.
Punjabi samosa is a popular snack consumed by so many people,
was introduced in India by Middle Eastern chefs during the Delhi Sultanate rule.
It’s mentioned in the writings of Amir Khusro and Ibn Battuta.
It was referred to as Sambusak back then.
Sambusak contained meat, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.
Later it started to be made with potato fillings.
After potato was introduced in India by the Portuguese, known as Batata.
Yup, that’s right,
the potato in the samosa was brought in by the Portuguese.
Before that, samosa used to be sambusak.
North India’s culture is like a rainbow.
With colours overlapping one another.
All because, throughout history, the cultures heavily interacted with each other.
On the other hand, South Indian culture had the chance to grow independently.
Since there weren’t many fusions,
various languages, dance forms, and cultures could emerge.
But let’s talk about the development now.
Why is South India more developed than North India now?
Before we figure this out, we’ll have to define the meaning of development.
GDP Per Capita is often considered an indicator of development.
The Per Person GDP of a region.
So let’s look at the data analysis of the states
by the National Statistical Office published on RBI’s website,
for the years 2020-2021.
But we cannot use this year’s data,
because the data from Uttarakhand, Kerala, and Chandigarh isn’t available,
let’s see the previous year’s data.
In this analysis, you can clearly see that
Uttar Pradesh is at the bottommost rank, with only ₹65,431.
And if you see the lowest ranking state among the South Indian states,
it’s Andhra Pradesh at ₹170,000.
Much higher than that of Uttar Pradesh.
In terms of individual analysis,
Goa and Sikkim have the topmost ranks.
Why is Sikkim a rich state? Let’s discuss that in some other article.
Delhi and Chandigarh are among the top rankers.
But then if you reach the ₹200,000-₹250,000 figures,
most of the South Indian states fall in this category.
GDP Per Capita is a measurement of wealth.
Additionally, we can see the poverty measurements.
Measured by the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index.
According to the report by Niti Aayog,
the least number of multi-dimensionally poor people are in Kerala.
Only 0.71% of Kerala’s total population.
And then there’s Puducherry and Lakshadweep,
with numbers around that of Kerala’s.
And you’d find almost every South Indian state in the top 10.
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu.
While Telangana is in 11th place.
There are some North Indian states in the top 10 too.
Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana.
But UP and Rajasthan rank at the bottom.
With 38% multi-dimensional poor people in UP
and 30% in Rajasthan.
On top of it, one draws a similar conclusion with the literacy rates.
The South Indian states are much ahead in terms of literacy.
So once again, we need to ask,
why are the South Indian states more developed in these indicators?
Are the kings and emperors of the past eras to be thanked for this?
Absolutely not.
Because at the time of independence,
South Indian states weren’t more developed than the North Indian states.
They were almost equals,
The developments came in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
The governments of the South Indian states implemented their policies,
that could bring about this change.
Data scientist RS Nilakantan tells us,
that the population growth of South Indian states is lower.
Infant mortality rate is lower.
If a girl is born there, she has higher chances of
being vaccinated, getting good education,
adequate nutrition, and healthcare.
She has a higher chance of going to college and getting a job.
As well as better political representation.
What did the governments of the South Indian states do?
You can find numerous examples of this.
In India, Mid Day Meal Scheme was launched for the first time in Tamil Nadu.
This led to an increase in school admissions in TN.
In the country, one of the highest school enrollments can be seen in TN.
Second, today, we call Bangalore as the IT capital of India.
Do you know why?
Because Karnataka was the first state in India to introduce an IT policy in 1997.
This enabled the development of an IT ecosystem in Bangalore.
Third: Similarly, in 1997, Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu,
met Bill Gates in Delhi and persuaded him
to start a Microsoft Development Centre in Hyderabad.
Bill Gates had said that if such a centre had to be founded outside Seattle,
it would be in Hyderabad.
Today, not only does Hyderabad have such a centre,
but Microsoft’s CEO himself, Satya Nadella is from Andhra Pradesh.
Fourth: In a 2018 study by RBI, it was revealed that
Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh,
account for 46% of the total remittances that come into India.
Form the Indian citizens working abroad.
Almost half of the remittances to India comes
from the residents of these four states.
They could be educated enough to work abroad.
Fifth, today, Kerala is the first state
to have completed the National Optic Fibre Network Project.
More than 35,000km of Fibre Optic Network
is laid out in the state to provide high-speed internet
to gram panchayats and remote areas.
More than 2 million BPL families were given free connectivity.
So that children from poor families get to access high-speed internet to study.
In a 2021 study by Centre for New Economics Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University
access to 5 basic things was measured.
Education, Healthcare, Basic amenities,
Socio-economic security, and Justice.
They found that the five South Indian states,
are in the top 10 states in India.
The richest states, Goa and Sikkim, rank at the top,
at the bottom, we see states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
There’s a clear-cut connection here.
South Indian state governments are spending more on welfare,
education, healthcare, and providing free basic amenities to residents.
2019’s World Bank Niti Aayog report shows that
Kerala and TN are at the highest rank in terms of overall health performance.
While UP, Rajasthan, and Bihar are at the bottom.
One thing that needs to be considered is;
Why are the South Indian political parties and their governments
so interested in working for the people?
Friends, there’s an interesting reason for this.
Political Competition.
If any political party remains in power for a long time in a state or at the centre,
it starts taking its power for granted.
Meaning that the incentive to work for the people dies down.
After the independence, in the first 5 decades,
Congress had an uninterrupted dominance in the North Indian states.
The same political party kept on winning the elections,
and started getting lethargic.
The other examples are
the Left’s rule in Bengal for over 3 decades.
The 27 years long BJP rule in Gujarat.
When such a political monopoly is seen,
the common people get disconnected from politics.
And the government policies stop working for the common people.
Compare this with the South Indian States.
No party had a monopoly in most of the South Indian states.
Rather, we saw strong political competition.
In Kerala, Left party alliance LDF, and Congress party alliance UDF,
alternately come into power and went out of power.
The communist party CPI(M) faced competition in Kerala from the other parties.
Whereas, in Bengal, they maintained a monopoly.
That’s why their performance in Kerala was much better than in Bengal.
Take TN for example.
AIADMK and DMK parties were in power alternately.
There was healthy competition.
The same thing happened in Karnataka.
There were Congress governments, JDU governments,
and even BJP governments.
Due to political competition, the governments were forced
to work for the benefit of the people.
Additionally, the people were educated and participated in the governance,
demanding basic rights such as education and healthcare for themselves.
The groups of civil societies in the South Indian states are quite strong.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad are often known for their diverse citizen activist groups.
Hyderabad was the backbone in the agitation for Telangana’s statehood.
On top of this, the social revolutions
that were seen in the South Indian states throughout history,
have contributed as well.
Reformers such as Kerala’s Narayan Guru and TN’s Periyar.
They empowered the citizens to work for themselves.
To take up the real issues.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that South India has reached perfection,
while North Indian states are still a lump of clay.
Whether it’s South India or North India,
they’re India.
Several problems that are seen all across the nation.
Are seen even in South India.
To reach the level of the developed countries,
even the South Indian states have a lot of work to do.
And this division between North India and South India in this article,
was only for logical analysis, for a healthy discussion.
Obviously, India is one.
And all Indians are equal.
And all of us Indians have to unite to come up with solutions to these problems.
But by understanding the history,
culture and development of various regions in India,
like this, we can learn a lot.
 Disparity Between North India & South India){kind=link}
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