What is ‘South India’ according to North Indians?

 I have few assumptions about South India and I think all North Indian have same assumptions who haven't been in South India .

1 . FOOD

I think they eat idli sambar, dosa atleast once everyday .

2 . Education

They all are highly educated and well mannered .

3 . Names

All goons have name” Surya “

common natives have very long names like chinnapa, sonnapa, satyamurthi etc .

They have middle name ,this I learned through quota.

4 . Girls wear small black bindi on every dress .

That looks really very beautiful, unmarried north Indian girls don't wear bindi, I recently saw a video of two doctors dancing on Rasputin song, later I saw their interview in which girl was wearing a western dress still she was wearing a bindi and she was looking very beautiful.

5 . They eat rice on banana leaf 🍃 everyday.

6 . Rajnikant is their favorite hero like Amitabh Bachchan is favorite of almost every North Indian.

7 . They marry in the morning and on every special occasion they wear that special white silk screen with golden borders .

8 . Married or unmarried girls wear gajra of white flowers.

9 . Every house has a middle angan ( left space ) , they don't put many furniture in house .

10 . Common words

Aaiyaaai yoo ( aah )

Actually it means oh no .

illle( no)

rascala ( rascal)

machi ( best friend)

anna

( I use to think it means father but now I know it means brother )

pora

( I don't know but I have listened it many times)

Actually it is por just por and pronounced as pora , which means not enough in malyalam.

Kanna ( dear)

What is something that a South Indian wants to convey to a North Indian?

 1.

They:- Where are you from?

Me:- Karnataka

They:- You're a South Indian? Then how come you are so fair?

Me:- Yeah, okay dude! I'll just get my face coloured black or dark brown so that you could believe me.😑

FIRST THING FIRST, NOT ALL SOUTH INDIANS ARE DARK-SKINNED!

2.

You eat Idli-wada-Dosa for breakfast everyday?

Now listen, first of all, Idli and Wada and Dosa are three different dishes, ik everyone is aware of, hence they are not eaten together. (Unless you order all of them together in a restaurant lol…. I know it's a bad joke, anyway…😬)

One of my North Indian friend be like why don't you eat all three together?

Boy, do you ever eat pohe, sheera and bhakri together??

Second of all, there is a vast diversity of cuisine in South India other than Idli-wada-Dosa.

3.

*When they get to know I'm a South Indian:-

Are you from Kerala? Do you speak Tamil?

No, not every South Indian is from Kerala. We can be from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra pradesh and Telangana also. And everyone does not just speak Tamil. We speak Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu, Telugu and other local languages also.

4.

Hey, you can speak marathi fluently. You don't have that South Indian accent?

Yes I can speak Marathi, Hindi and English fluently without any freaking accent.

(Kaha se sunte ho itni bokwaas baatein)

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Most of the people stereotype South Indians to be dark-skinned accented people who eat Idli-Dosa for breakfast everyday.These may not generally be asked to everyone but I've been asked these que many times and I don't see any good logic behind those theories.

Should North Indians realize that South India is better?

 First of all, I would like to say that Southern India is a much better term than South India. I am from patna (Bihar), Yeah, you may also call me a North Indian, living in Bangalore since couple of years.

Before coming here, I was like - I will never go in southern part of India. South Indians are very rude, they don't know even hindi, North Indians are always neglected there, they don't consider themselves as a part of India. (thanks to media for those irrelevant assumptions)

2 years back, during my first visit, while coming out from Bengaluru airport (Kempegowda International Airport), the first thing which I noticed was our Indian Tricolor.

I was out of my emotions and I was like- at least I am in India. If I had to know about some place, instead of asking directly by some people, I used to prefer Google maps. But every time you can't depend on Google maps. One day, I was asking something to an auto driver (of course in my broken english). He didn't understand properly and said- kidhar ko jaane ka bhaia (where you have to go). I immediately asked- aapko hindi aati hai? (do you know hindi ?). He replied - Ha bhaia, thori bahut to aati h. (yeah, I know a little bit).

Earlier in our class, we had a group of some 10–12 North Indians and generally avoid South Indians mainly because of that english barrier. Later, I realized that almost everyone here knows hindi. Also I try to communicate in kannada (I am still a beginner), they understand my intentions and reply me in their best possible way to ease my comfort. Soon that communication gap vanished and now, I can share my every thought and joke with each and everyone.

Not only bangalore, I have visited Chennai, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Ooty, Coimbatore, Coorg and Pondicherry and I can't find any difference anywhere. Here, people are so polite and ground to earth. Last year, one of my friend had fallen at chennai railway station due to heat stroke and people around us helped him in best possible way. In just two years, my hollow assumptions completely changed about the southern part.

North Indians thought that their festival is not celebrated in Southern India, but we have to realize that Onam, Pongal, Ugadi, Varmahalakshmi puja and along with them, there are many festivals which are not flourished in many part of Northern India. India is a land of immense diversity and we should respect the tradition of every particular part.

Southern India is surrounded mainly by water, which is one of the reason for its development. Here, the infrastructure and road connectivity are much better than many parts of Northern India. GDP per capita is also high and the chief reason is less population density, here crime rate is also low. But every place has certain pros and cons. Here, water for cultivation and drinking is a major issue due to presence of only seasonal rivers, growing infrastructure has also its own consequence, people are running behind money without realizing the true meaning of happiness.

If Northern India constitutes the head and both hand of our motherland without which it looses its identity, then Southern India constitutes its feet without which we can't think about its progress.

image source :- google image.

As a North Indian, have you ever felt bad about your place after seeing developments in South India?

 So, I have been a Barodian since a decade.

Though, a city in western India, in this popular North-South divide which I am not a big fan of, they consider anything above Vindhyas as North.

I never felt Vadodara is underdeveloped city.

It is the third biggest city in Gujarat and 20th biggest city in the country.

• We have smooth roads where vehicles can race, just beware not to be caught by speed guns otherwise be ready to pay fine.

• Traffic though has increased over the past few years but it is still not bad as in some South Indian cities. We have a good network of city buses, along with auto rickshaws and cabs.
• CCTV cameras across the city takes care of you follow traffic rules or not otherwise you may get a challan at your home.
• Vadodara stands at one end of National expressway-1 and NH-48 also passes by, apart from state highways to nearby towns.

• We have one of the most beautiful bus stations in the country.

This image has been removed for violating Quora's policy.

• We have only the second green airport in the country.

PM Modi inaugurates country's second green airport in Vadodara

• And Vadodara Railway station is very clean has all modern facilities and has been the busiest junction in Gujarat. Not to forget, in a few years we will be having bullet trains too.

• Talk of safety, it has been counted among the safest cities with low crime rate, and women safety has never been an issue.

I could not get the latest data, but this one is from a few years back when Vadodara was declared the safest city.

• Talk about cleanliness, Vadodara has been clean even before the Clean India Campaign was launched, and has performed well in the Rankings of Clean cities with the best being 10th position in 2017.

cleanest city in India: Vadodara makes it in top 10 cleanest cities of India | Vadodara News - Times of India

• Industries, we have L&T, Apollo, Reliance, Siemens, GSFC, Bombardier and many more big and small industries.This image has been removed for violating Quora's policy.

• Malls, we have many Inorbit, 7 seas, Vadodara Central, Centre Square Mall, Taksh Galaxy Mall, Eva Mall, Bansal Mall, Reliance Malls, D-Marts and many more.

• Education, we have many reputed schools and universities here. MSU is a very reputed university. Parul University has also built some reputation recently. There are many foreigner students studying here.

• Medical, we have many reputed hospitals. Even the government hospital SSGH, is a very good hospital in terms of facilities.

• And Bonus, we have amazing food culture, grand celebrations of festivals especially Navratri, Ganpati and Uttrayan, many hangout, heritage and tourist places and warm people.

So, I have no reason to feel bad.

History of South India: How is it that South India remained untouched by the Mughals?

 Interesting that this question is there in many places.

South India was very much "touched" by the Mughals, especially Aurangazeb, who made it a point to expand his empire to the logical boundary of India.

After he conquered Bijapur, Aurangazeb set up two Subahs in the deep south. Nawab of Sira in Karnataka oversaw the South-Western possessions and the Nawab of Arcot in Tamilnadu oversaw the South-Eastern possessions. In addition there were smaller Nawabs of Adoni, Gutti, etc

One person who fought Aurangazeb was the queen of Keladi on the Western Ghats, Chennamma. She is famous for giving shelter to the fleeing Rajaram, son of Shivaji and ensure his passage to Jinji. The Alamgir had to sue for peace, which he normally never did.

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Remarkably, Rajaram and the Marathas withstood a siege of Auragazeb in Jinji (Gingee) in Tamilandu for 8 years, but ultimately had to quit the fort in 1698. After this fall there was very little resistance.

The shrewd Chikka Deva Raja of Mysore courted Aurangazeb and got his seal of approval from the Mughal overlord. Below was this throne with ivory presented from Aurangazeb.

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Maratha Kingdom of Tanjore, founded by Shivaji's brother, also had to accept Mughal Suzerainty in the early 1700s. Below is a Mughal Tanjore painting.

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Lastly, Madurai Nayaka dynasty also had to accept Mughal overlordship.

Mughals thus changed the course of South India permanently.

What is ‘South India’ according to North Indians?

 I am not a North Indian, but as a Bangalee, this is what I view South India as:

My very first acquaintance with South India began through Dosa, the apparently South Indian but actually pan Indian dish.

TEMPLES: I just can't get over the marvellous architectures of the beautiful temples.

The mystery surrounding the Vault B of Padmanabhaswamy Temple still intrigues me. At a point I was so enamoured by it that I spent hours checking about news and updates.

CINEMA: Steadily proliferating with innovative concepts and unique content. It all started with the movie Dhruva and I grew indispensibly fond of regional movies. My affinity towards South movies (thrillers particularly) is profound and probably unmatched. Baahubali became a pan-Indian success. Ratsasan was marvellous.

FOOD: Healthy and Tasty. Dosa, Idli, Sambhar and Chettinand Biryani!

PEOPLE: Reforming, extremely intelligent and utterly laborious.

NATURE: Breathe-taking and mesmerising! Beautifully decked in hues of resplendent and natural chromes.

LITERACY: See for yourself.

PAINTERS: I would not elaborate.

AUTHORS: I would not elaborate. Juxtaposition of Bengal and South India. She was of Bengali origin.

FESTIVALS: There are many festivals I feel. But Pongal and Onam are the ones I have mostly heard of.

I could not find any apt picture to describe Pongal.

The below picture is of Attukal Pongala.

CULTURE: Bharatnatyam and Kathakali. Beautiful brides and simple lifestyle. Loyal towards culture! Proud of their language. Never unnecessarily brag with their fluency in English. Westernisation has not overshadowed their ethnicity. Traditions and customs are visibly persisting till date and flourishing with time.

This is my perception of South India.

My perception is purely based on the movies I have seen, articles and stories I read and two of my friends who hail from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I have personally never visited South India but I wish to.

Edit:- I got to know from two nice people Srinivasa Adiga and Shilamine that Pongal (celebrated on Sankranthi) and Attukal Pongala are two different festivals. So I have corrected it accordingly.

I received another suggestion from User-10385664813308778284 for adding Sudha Murthy to the list of authors. I did not know about her. But after this suggestion, I went to read her biography and it was quite inspiring. So I have added her name as well.

My heartfelt thanks to these aforementioned people for their kind contribution.

Picture Source: Google.