Why would you assume I am terming just North Indians as Indians here?
(Not an angry question, I suppose you genuinely misunderstood my post)
By Indians I mean exactly that: "the people of this country" (incl North+South+East+West).
I am not implying it is "only" North Indians who view people from the North East/South differently. I have seen enough South Indians make fun of people from NE.
Meanwhile people from the NE have better English (at least the ones studying in DU do), so they look down upon others in that aspect.
Infact, even South Indians have very strong opinions about North Indians.
Also, you must be aware of Shiv Sena's stance on people from South, UP/Bihar.
Sabko apne state ko country banana hai abhi
Yes absolutely. However there is a difference between systemic power and prejudice.
Do South Indians get to come to Delhi and dictate what is and isn't deshbhakti/Indianness? States do have their own regional politics and power plays but centre has immense immense power over the states. Comparing the two situations are a bit faulty.
No region out of north India gets to dictate pan-Indian rhetoric and politics. When Hindi is imposed as a national lingua franca, when Sanskrit terms are used as demonyms, they all north India centric views of the Indian nation.
So yeah, North Indians see their culture as default Indianness and expect rest of the country to conform to prove its Indianness.
Heck, north India ki khud ki plurality ki band baj chuki hai.
I do concede that different regions, communities have different prejudices or even hatred against other people but that doesn't have any pan-Indian impacts.
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