I must say the views expressed are interesting. I do not think this article in anyways tries to create a rift b/w north or south but merely an observation why the author thinks south is doing considerably well than north.
Though I am from Souh, I would like to know what measure do you have to claim this... any statistics...what parameters have you employed...did you consider population density, gender ratio, socio-cultural matters etc..
Being from such a progressive Southern state why don't not attempt to provide a scientific insight to the problem(possibily with some external help in case you are not an expert of that particular area)to find solution if you feel so that other states are not progresssing compared to Southern states...rather than just highlighting the issue
The title Why is the South doing well? appears to be provocative.I am a South Indian and have spend most of my life in different cities in western, eastern and northern part of India.
If author is boasting about the progress of South India, he has not defined what he means by progress..yes to ceratin degree I agree that Southies have more evolved and progressive mindset..though the disparities are marginal and this could be due to soio-economic reasons. If so then we would expect the author who is an Indian first and then a Southie,to provide solutions to reduce the disparities of this "uneven" progress. Rather an article which subtly highlights the reasons for the progress of South (which of course the author claims)in a more educative way to help the "weaker" states in Union to evolve in a better way would have been appreciated. If one of family member is lagging behind,don't you think it is the responsibilty of the other members of the same family to help the weaker one to comeup.
Come on Rajeev, stop harping over these petty matters. Suggest solutions for progress of India, considering sociological, geographical and economic status of a particular state
thanks that northies ..dint enter too much into IT boom...otherwise they would create interview questions in hindi..claiming hindi stands for patriotism and take away all jobs... chennai-telegu songs ..bglre---hindi songs..hyd---hindi songs,cochin-tamil songs.. can be heard
delhi, bombay,nagpur,etc etc etc etc---hindi hindi hindi??? tell who are flexibale..which is patriotric? ..who are brilliant?
RE:fact..
by Indian_Analyst on Nov 17, 2006 10:10 PM Permalink
Dharma is crazy. I am not a South Indian. Yet I yearn to see good South Indian Films (hopefully, more south indian films will be released in the north with good subtitles). I have heard that malayalam films are exceptionally good.
I have a lot of south Indian Friends. Life would not be worth living without them. Just as India would not be worth living without our Muslim, christian ... brothers. Most of our rich culture has been maintained by muslims (specially in music, arts, films...)
Rajeev's point is that economically: south has the potential to leave the north way behind. This can be dangerous as the people in south will be burdened by a lagging north. This can be one more issue that can affect India's unity (besides religion, language...)
RE:fact..
by indian on Nov 15, 2006 09:00 PM Permalink
dharma, ur funny dude!! regd maharshtra,delhi not playing south movies, thats because they dont understand those languages, if it makes you feel better, they dont even listen to non-south languages like bengali or oriya songs because people over there dont understand it. Hindi is a language which is known and understood by many (not all) people in india be it any state, thats y you see hindi movies over there. But in a place like delhi, Up, MP where people only know hindi, why would they listen to some language they dont understand?? hope u get it!!
I feel Southern states have managed to infiltrate in Central Govt. Machinery to derive max. for their states. They are further helped by Regional Parties like AIDMK,DMK,TDP who have extracted max. by giving support to Coaliation Govt. At centre.
Southern Ministers in Central Govt. openly use their Power to Help their states. This is best shown by Present Health Min. Mr. Ambumani who Declared that A Medical Facility on Lines of AIIMS will be set up in South when other parts of india are also equally Crying. This is difficult to Digest because BMC hospitals in MUMBAI are Treating Patients from all parts of INDIA & Central Minister Mr. Ambumani never thought it fit to Help BMC Hospitals.
I recollect one story about Resolution in Madrad University for Granting First Class to max. Students because that is Pre-condition in any Prestigious Govt. Organisation like NPCIL,BARC.
More than the reasons you had cited, the actual reason IMO is because of the changing political landscape in India. Till the late 80s, we had the Congress making it to the center with a thumping majority. They also ruled most of the states. All policies were dictated from Delhi and needless to say, with most MPs from UP and Bihar the congress decision always mirrored these two states' MPs' opinions. All investments were made in the North and South struggled. The only means of livelihood for the people in the South was to go North in search of jobs or go abroad.
But now with coalition politics, and with regional parties especially from the South having a bigger say in policy making, the South is getting a larger share of the pie. And hence more progress in the South. Unfortunately, with the opening of the economy in the 1990s, the rate of progress has been lot quicker. So South with its political clout has cashed in on this while the North languished behind.
This will continue till such time when another NI based party comes to power with an absolute majority at the center. but alas, those days seem like a distant dream.
RE:How do you explain USA with the continuous civilization theory?
by VAIBHAV on Nov 15, 2006 01:52 AM Permalink
US is a modern country. There, the thinking of people is different. They do not try to give reasons of everything in terms of history, religion, etc. They attribute their success to just one thing - hard work (and their smartness, of course!).
I am a regular reader of Rajeev's columns and a big fan too...However I disagree with the writer on this article completely. I do not agree that the south is doing better than the rest of the country. Tamil Nadu along with Gujarat and Maharashtra has always been a driver of the economy. This is not the case with Karnataka, my home state. Karnataka's growth has revolved around the Bangalore-Mysore region. The northern parts of Karnataka still suffer from severe water & food shortage, lack of access to education and healthcare and has seen a spate of farmer suicides of late.. the typical problems faced by BIMARU states. The writer's claim that Bangalore and Hyderabad have surged ahead of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi & Chennai is also not very accurate...Once major cities get saturated it's always the turn of the next rung of big cities to see growth. Soon a time will come when cities like Pune, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Cochin, Vishakapatnam, Nagpur etc.. will grow faster than Bangalore and Hyderabad. This is just plain economics. I hope Rajeev's forthcoming articles will not be so biased and will be better researched.
Cool down. There is actually little advancement in southern and western region of this nation bze some kind of desire for education, economy and likeness for family planning exists in this region. (Pl check the recent statistics for this both. Too many technical institutions and less population growth rate is clear witness...)
But as states like UP and Bihar are somehow overpopulated (comparing to other regions) and been ruled by self-centric politicians it hasn't gained the charm of other regions sofar. Hope a time will come for itself.
This same once existed with Europe to be as industrialized and non-industrialized regions. Even the near china has same in it, Eastern (costal) region seeing massive growth whereas the same is not it the rest of its region.
People instead digging inside can watch our neighbors whom actually dont want us to be a power. We sustained bze of enchanting peace.
RE:No more digging self!
by madrasmachaan on Dec 03, 2006 07:32 PM Permalink
<iskool> hahaha funny! North Indians really think they don't have an 'accent' or they speak 'correct' english as opposed to people from the south. Case of calling the pot black.
Shane on author remarks! The author has wrong imagination of North. I thing this type of topic creates a North-South divide.For God-Sake pls stop this type of topic in rediff .
RE:Shame!
by vikas on Nov 14, 2006 10:53 PM Permalink
Regarding "H" when S.Indians spell names => Just imagine that someone asked you to write down "Rita" and "Gita" in Hindi => Note that the only letter change is from "R" to "G". Check it out... Now write down Githa or Geetha in Hindi... Which one would give the correct word in Hindi? (R/G)ita or Geetha... Have Fai(th) buddy... Or go back to school or should I say like northies ischool...
