Thread by @shrikanth_krish

On the whole language issue, I have a rather basic question

Why is lingual diversity in North India lower than in South?

Roughly 450MM people from Bikaner to Jamshedpur speak similar tongues

Yet 60MM people in Karnataka can barely follow the 70MM people in TN

The reason Khariboli in my view established itself as the prime lingua franca is because the differences across the various languages spoken from Panipat to Gaya were not as massive to start with

Clearly smaller than the differences between say Telugu and Tamil

I dont have ready answers...

One can argue -

South had regional polities unlike North where Empires spanned the whole Indo-Gangetic plain

But why was that

I think the Northern terrain is more uniform

Unlike South which is a plateau...

E.g. Tamil Nadu is clearly a plain...While neighboring Kerala is hill country...Karnataka is an elevated plateau

This perhaps limited social intercourse of people in ancient times

Plus, in the North we have the great Ganges river

Ganga, Jamuna in one sense unite the land...linking the whole expanse of land through maritime commerce

South has no such single river system but separate provincial rivers -

Krishna, Godavari in AP, Kaveri in Karnataka and TN

The difference in terrain and the absence of a single river system sort of makes the South distinct from the North

Glad to hear more reasons on why cultural and more particularly lingual heterogeneity is lower up North

Another reason is the incredible density of the Gangetic plain

UP's density is over 800 per sq km
Bihar is at 1100

So the whole expanse of land is uniformly dense

Though that leaves us with the question - why didn't MP and Raj break away and evolve v distinct lingual culture

In the South the density is markedly different in every state...

Karnataka and AP at roughly 300 per sq km

Tamil Nadu at 555

Kerala at 800+

Deep down this fundamental difference in lingual diversity explains much of modern Indian politics around language

The average North Indian tends to underrate the differences among Southern languages. The attitude is - Hey...we are Braj, Avadhi, Bhojpuri speakers..we dont mind our differences, and embrace Khariboli.

Why can't you do as well?

The average Southerner in contrast, overstates the lingual diversity up north, based on his own limited southern experience

The argument goes...Hey..why are you guys adopting Khariboli without resistance...Why have you guys given up on Braj, Avadhi, Bhojpuri?

Get a spine!

Both sides in my view get it wrong

Northerners understate lingual diversity down south
Southerners overstate lingual diversity up north

This is at the root of most culture wars around language