Context:

Scholars argued that south India distinguishes from north India politically in its language of politics, its regional parties and their demand for more power to the States, its multiple languages and cultures.

Linguistic Nationality Movements:

• Distinguishing Feature: It is the most important distinguishing factor between the two regions, which imagined India as a federation of nationalities. 
• Homogenisation: While the north imagined India as a homogenous nation that resonates with the Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan slogan, the south aspired to build India as a federation of nationalities. 

Reasons for Formation & Consolidation of Linguistic Nationalist Movements:

• The Print and Publishing Culture: It led to the formation of distinct linguistic public spheres in the south, which were further consolidated by cinema. 
• Claiming Nationality: By the early 20th century, different linguistic communities in the south began to claim nationality status for themselves. 
• European Inspiration: The leaders were inspired by the political developments in Europe where, in the aftermath of major revolutions, new nations were founded based on linguistic identity with the political objective of achieving ‘popular sovereignty.’
• Identity: Linguistic identity has proven to be secular, flexible and more inclusive than religious or racial identities.
• The middle-class intelligentsia: They from the south recognised the crucial connection between language and liberal democracy. 

Other Distinguishing Factors between the two Regions:

• Geographical: Generally, Vindhyas range marks a distinction between the two regions. 
  • The regions of Uttar Pradesh, Madya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana are under the heartland of North India, while Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala are categorized mainly as South India.
• Constitutional: Centralization of Power in the union is one of the major contentions.
  • President’s rule: Since south Indian states (unlike north Indian states) are historically dominated by regional parties and President’s rule has been used arbitrarily against South Indian states. 
  • Article 351: It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language which is not favored by the south Indians.
• Political: At Political scenario, the representation of leaders from the South is very less in comparison with the North. 
• Economical: In the economic scenario, the contribution from the South is very high in comparison with the North. 
  • This contention became deeper after the 15th Finance Commission distribution criteria.
• Religion: Religion plays a dominant role in the North, while the South witnessed movements against the caste order. 

Issues that need to be Taken Care of: 

• Increasing Gap: The north-south gap is increasing on all fronts. 
• Economic migration: It is causing a serious divide. 
• Deepening in Differences: Cultural and Political differences are deepening further. 
• Fallacy: The idea that Hindi could keep India together is a fallacy which emanates from the gross misunderstanding that it could bind people who do not speak it. 

Way Forward:

• People- Centricity: For a democracy to function, it is essential to employ the language of the common people in the domains of education, administration and judiciary, without which equality and justice cannot be realized. 
• Modernization: People’s languages needed to be modernized adequately. 
• Participation: India is not a nation but a subcontinent of multiple nationalities and a unitary India would be unsuitable for democracy, which required the sovereign-citizens to participate in the decision-making processes of the nation-state actively. 

News Source: The Hindu

DOWNLOAD PDF