Fight of narratives

I am mostly a passive reader in Quora.  But something kept cropping up again and again under the topic of "Tamil Nadu, India", or "Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India".  It is that why do Tamils hate North Indians.

http://www.quora.com/Chennai-Tamil-Nadu-India/Why-tamil-people-have-hatered-feelings-for-out-siders-Why-they-hate-north-indians-specially-Why-outsiders-cant-feel-homely-in-chennai-which-they-feel-in-Banglore-Mumbai-Hyderabad-and-rest-of-the-cities

http://www.quora.com/Tamil-Nadu-India/Why-do-Tamils-hate-Hindi-and-the-people-in-Tamil-Nadu-reluctant-to-learn-Hindi

I was totally surprised because I have been totally indifferent about the person's place or origin.  Most of the people who I know do not harbour any hatred for North Indians.  So, why do people ask these questions?  I had been thinking about these questions for a while now.  And these are the results of my reasoning.

India as a narrative

Traditional nations are made up of people who were almost homogeneous - almost all Germans speak German and are Christians and are white, almost all of the US is White, Christian, and speak English.  Think of it this way, there is a majority who get to frame the rules of the land and live happily - and minority fight for equal rights, and nowadays have succeeded quiet a bit.

India, on the other hand, is a minority-majority country.  The language spoken by the the largest numbers is Hindi which is a mother-tongue for just 40% of the population.  India is 80% Hindu - but there are multiple streams of Hinduism.  You can practically find all shades of skin color in India.  Ramachandra Guha, says it beautifully - India is like a salad bowl.  We have many sub-cultures living amongst us.  So, how did India manage to stay together, given there is so much of differences?

The answer, I feel, is narratives.  I come from deep-south of India.  Here, the idea of India is that we have four southern states - where we (Tamils) and other Indians live in; then there are some regions in north - where people speak Hindi - and where a few other Indians live.  The narrative in the north India is, we have a bunch of Hindi-speaking states, bordered with Hindi-speakable states.  There are a few people in the fringe regions in the South.  There is another narrative in West India (by Thackreys) - which is not gaining ground.

These narratives are very powerful.  They put the people holding the narratives at the center of Indian nation (in their minds).  Thus they feel India is "theirs".  But then, there are multiple narratives - each of which puts different peoples as the backbone of India.  So, almost all Indians live in their respective thought-bubbles - thinking that they are Indians.

Pakistan separated from India because in their narrative, they did not see India as "theirs" - so they separated.

Narrative-bust

These narratives get busted when an Indian step out into a region that does not comply to their narrative.  The way s/he reacts to narrative-bust is unique to the sub-culture that s/he belongs to.

It seems North Indians are more active on Quora than South Indians - which explains these rant-like questions about Tamils.