India, June 23 -- The Hindi Belt Claims the Right to Define the Nation's Cultural Identity for the Whole of India The other day, Thiagarajan and P. Rajeeve voiced the grievances of the southern states. They were eloquent. They condemned the Centre for taking away more and more power from the states, complained against partisan distribution of funds, and hoped that delimitation would not be rushed through in haste.

The seriousness of their grievance must be examined in the context of the Hindu majority living in the Indo-Gangetic plains, a region comprising states often described as BIMARU, which considers itself 'Real India.' Certainly, they have population weight, but their obscurantist ideas should not be allowed to misshape the future...