Some gentleman here have written that we are Indians first. Unfortunately, that is not and never will be the case. When I go to TN, I will be a NIndians. When I go to NI, I will be a Goan. When I go to Karnataka, I will be a pavallah, to WB, I will again become a north indian. Only when I leave India will I become an Indian. As long as we are in India, we will always be seen as outsiders in every state where we either do not speak the mother tongue of the state or speak it in a way which shows we are not natives.
A Maharashtrian in Bengal will always be seen as an outsider, beyond a point no one will trust him. So also for a Bengali in Tamil Nadu or a Tamil in GUjarat. Local people everywhere mistrust others from other states. Try not knowing Bengali in WB or Gujarati in Gujarat. We are Indians when we leave India.
Actually, our regional identity is a concomittant to our Indian one. We cannot be Indians first, we can be Kannadigas and Indians first, both going hand in hand. ONce we are Indians, the regional identity will always accompany us-if I'm an Indian first, I will always be a Keralite, Bengali, Telugu first also. One cannot be ahead of the other.
These problems of regionalism also keep cropping up because of the lack of decentralization in our country. We have states as big and populous as European countries, being ruled by Delhi. What we need is decentralization of a lot of powers,; and at least 50 % of the Central taxes to be kept with the state governm
