Re: Being poor in Pakistan…
Yes, but not as much as it used to be in the 60s and 70s. Then, congress used to win by default in the South as people still remembered independence struggle leaders. There was a feeling of Hindi belt domination especially when Southern leaders would always bow down to diktats from Congress HQ in New Delhi. That led to riots and a political change.
Today in the South, you have regional groups that dominate the states and one or another usually wins big majority. For any government to come to power in New Delhi, it needs coalition with Southern parties. So they have to give them BIG representation in the power structure or they vote you out.
The NDA had Telugu Desam party as its main partner. The current UPA coalition has the DMK party from Tamil Nadu etc. These guys have key ministries as well.
Yes. This is because Southern states took faster action on literacy and population growth. But its all relative, India is still pretty poor.
In the army when you talk of jawans - Punjabis are #1 - both Sikhs and Hindus, mostly Jats. And yes they occupy a dispoportionate %. You then have Rajputs from the Hindi belt from Rajasthan to Bihar. Then you have Gorkhas who comprise 7 out of 27 Infantry regiments and many companies in other regiments in the Indian Army. After that you have people from other places like Ladakhis, Nagas, Dogras, Paharis, Marathis, Assamese etc. The officer cadre comes from all over and we have had many South Indian and Bengali Brahmins lead the IA!