It is my personal observation that North Indians, especially from UP or Bihar, think that they constitute the whole of India. There is no doubt that UP has been the cultural heart of India and Hinduism from a long time. But that should not be the justification for arrogance. Many Bhayyas and behans from North India think that if a person does not know Hindi, he or she is not fit to remain in India. As a South Indian from AP, I agree that Hindi is a beautiful language and is the mother tongue of 40% of Indians (yes, only 40%, not the majority). But that does not mean Hindi should be forced on everyone. Some of the North Indian Hindi teachers have a very very arrogant attitude. When I first took up Hindi as a kid, I found it very difficult to understand it. These Hindi teachers used to narrate stories in Hindi. When I asked them to translate it into English because I found it difficult to understand, they refused to do that because they said - Hindi is "our" language and we should be able to understand it. But how exactly are we supposed to understand Hindi, if people refuse to translate the words into a language that we knew? Even though I am not a Hindi-hater, I sometimes feel that Hindi-hating Tamilians are the best answer to these arrogant North Indians.
