Many south Indian students who are a part of Delhi University colleges complain of facing contemptuous comments from their fellow north Indians who discriminate them as madrasis. It becomes a matter of integrity and identity as they are victimized for no fault of theirs. Hence, the innocence of a new and fresh mind is lost, and their minds are framed in circumstances that give rise to a certain kind of dislike for the ‘other’- North Indians. Many students express their sentiments on the ‘Confessions’ pages on Facebook that are slowly gaining momentum nowadays. They complain of being sidelined, treated badly for having a darker complexion, frequently being referred to as a ‘mallu’ or ‘madrasi’, and poking fun at their cuisine that consists of dosa, idli, and sambar that become synonymous with insulting words. So in this act of dismissing their culture, the perpetuators invite a similar dislike from the victims. However, one must not be biased to blame it entirely on the North Indians for their unnatural treatment. This is because there are instances (even though they are comparatively low in number) where students from the north who are studying in Manipal and Vellore have complained of being subjected to similar discrimination. However, Vishnu Verma, a second year student from Manipal University, insists that the institution is free from any kind of discrimination given the population of the students who come from all over the country.
I mean it's the same as Paki. If you're throwing that at all random brown people with contempt then it was inevitable it would become a cuss word even though the literal meaning is rather nice.
But if they use Pakistani instead of Paki, then its not offending. If here we can call a person from 'Lahore' as Lahori, Chinyot as Chinyot, Hyderabad as Hyderabadi, then why do people from Madras consider it offending when they are called Madrasi. Is there a hidden (not known t outsiders) meaning in term Madrasi. Apart from that we commonly hear Mumbaya in bollywood, why its not considered offending like Madrasi?
For north Indians anybody who is south Indian is called Madrasi may be due to Madras Presidency of British times, anybody who lived in Madras presidency was called Madrasi. It is out of ignorance and being Madrasi in delhi is better than vice versa :)
Chennai, the gateway to South India, has a lot of important historical sites and temples. One of the interesting sites is Bairagi Mutt (called as Bairagi Madam in Tamil language, the language spoken in Chennai). It is interesting to know that the Bairagi Mutt temple, located in the congested Sowcarpet area, the original Chennai (Madras) city, was built in the current form by a saint from Lahore in Pakistan.
I wouldn’t call “Madrasi” a discriminatory term but it can expose people’s ignorance when they use it for people from all five southern states of India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana & Seemandhra).
It was not too long ago South Indians were the target of Shiv Sena. Now some of the same South Indian Hindus are joined at the hip with Shiv Sena. For Shiv Sena has a new enemy.
