#not sure where exactly i was going with this but. word dump 👍🏾

[meteorherd]

i briefly mentioned this while talking about languages with my friend last night but i feel like something a lot of people don't understand is why south indians specifically usually don't like being lumped into this "indian" monolith. and most of the time north indians are included in not fully understanding this. the reason is language imperialism. india's had a violent history of the government impressing hindi onto any place that doesn't speak it as a means of cultural centralization, and it's actively led to some languages going extinct. that's why we usually address ourselves by our linguistic identity first (tamil, telugu, malayali, etc) rather than what place we are from or simply "indian," but it's more commonly misinterpreted as arrogance and isolationism. like...linguistic pride is a form of solidarity that south indians have bonded over for nearly 80 years at this point, at least in the modern-day indian democracy's context. it can arguably be traced back before independence as well (british imperialism definitely played a role in "choosing" hindi as the language for centralization). just important to consider any time hindi is used as an indian monolith!

#வார்த்தைகள் #like it's a clearly nuanced situation but north indians nearly always get the first word on what defines indian culture 💔 #not sure where exactly i was going with this but. word dump 👍🏾