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File:Southindiaregionsweb.gif
A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies.

South India is a geographic and linguistic-cultural region of India. Geographically, South India traditionally includes the entire Indian Peninsula south of the Satpura and Vindhya ranges and Narmada River, encompassing the Deccan plateau (from the Sanskrit word dakshina, meaning south), the Eastern and Western Ghats, and the coasts between the Ghats and the sea.

As a linguistic-cultural and political region, South India consists of the four south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry & Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Natives of these states are referred to as South Indians.

South India is also called Dakshina Nad (Dakshina = South + Nad = land), Dravida Nad (Dravida = Dravidian + Nad = land), or simply Dravida. Culturally and linguistically South India is distinguished as the home of the Dravidians, but not exclusively so; ethnic Dravidians also live in parts of eastern and central India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, and some non-Dravidian peoples (for example the Konkani people and other Indo-Aryans) also make their home in South India and have adopted the local language.

The land

South India is a vast triangular peninsula, bounded on the west by the Arabian Sea, and on the east by the Bay of Bengal. The Vindhya and Satpura ranges and the Narmada River are the traditional boundary between northern and southern India. South of the Satpuras, at the center of the peninsula, is the Deccan plateau, defined by the Western Ghats mountain range, which runs along the western edge of the peninsula, and the Eastern Ghats along the eastern edge. The great rivers of south India, the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery), rise in the Western Ghats and flow across the Deccan and through gaps in the Eastern Ghats to empty into the Bay of Bengal.

Regions of South India

NASA satellite photo of South India, snapped on January 31, 2003.

The four states of South India generally follow linguistic boundaries. In addition to these linguistic regions, South India has a number of distinct geographic regions:

The Malabar Coast lies along the western shore of the peninsula, between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats catch the monsoon winds, and the region is rainy and densely forested. The South Western Ghats montane rain forests, which lie in the southern portion of the range, is the most species-abundant ecoregion of the Indian peninsula.

Along the east coast between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal lies the Coromandel Coast (Cholamandalam). Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast, separated from India by the Palk Strait and the chain of low sandbars and islands known as Rama's Bridge. The low coral islands of Lakshadweep and the Maldives lie off the southwest coast. The southernmost tip of India is Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) on the Indian Ocean.

The southeastern peninsula, south of the Krishna river and its tributary the Tungabhadra, was known to Europeans as the Carnatic. It was the scene of colonial rivalries between the British, French, and Dutch in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in what is now called the Carnatic wars. The European name for the region is likely derived from the proto-Dravidian words kar and nadu, which may mean "Hilly forest land". The word Carnatic is sometimes used to denote the entirety of southern India.

The people

South Indians are primarily united by the Dravidian language family. It is a distinct language family which includes Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu, among many others. Tamil is considered to be closest to the Proto-South Dravidian and one of the classical languages of the world. Telugu, derived from Proto-Central Dravidian and Kannada, derived from Proto-South Dravidian , show a greater admixture of words derived from Sanskrit. Malayalam was derived from Proto-Tamil-Malayalam(branch of Proto-South-Dravidian) in the late 13th century, with much less Sanskrit than Telugu and Kannada (although written Malayalam employs liberal amounts of Sanskrit) in the derived form(tatbhava).

Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, is widely spoken in Goa and coastal Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra, where it has drawn heavy influences from Kannada and Malayalam. Most of Maharasthra, which includes the northern Deccan and Konkan regions of South India, is predominantly Marathi-speaking. Marathi and Konkani are part of the Southern Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages.

The south Indian people have a world view which is organic and celebrates the generative ethos of the natural world. The conception of femininity-motherhood is central to the South Indian worldview. They have a distinct and unique concept of beauty that is reflected through the traditional clothing of South Indian women, the sari. South Indian men traditionally wear a kind of sarong, which could be either a white dhoti or a colourful lungi with typical batik patterns. South Indians are generally fiercely proud of their origins, traditions and heritage, and their culture is quite different from other parts of India.

Rice is the staple diet, with fish being an integral component of coastal South Indian meals. Coconut is an important ingredient in some parts of South India, such as Kerala, whereas the cuisine in Andhra Pradesh is characterized by the abundance of fiery red and green chillies. South Indian coffee is generally quite robust, and coffee is a preferred drink throughout the region.

The economy

Comparison between North India and South India
North India South India
Per capita income Rs. 8433 Rs. 13629
Literacy 59% 74%
Per capita expenditure on public health Rs.92 Rs.127
Proportion of households with electricity 49% 74%
Source: Business Today, January 2005

The people are largely agrarian, dependent on monsoons, as are most people in India. Some of the main crops cultivated in South India include paddy, sorghum, millet, pulses, cotton, chilli, and ragi. South India was and still is the "promised land" as far as spice cultivation is concerned. Areca, coffee, pepper, tapioca, and cardamom are widely cultivated on the Nilgiri Hills and Kodagu. But frequent droughts in Northern Karnataka, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions are leaving farmers debt-ridden, forcing them to sell their livestock and sometimes even to suicides. Scarcity of water has been a major problem for past few years in these regions along with cities like Chennai and Hyderabad.

Education is highly valued in the south Indian community, and is seen as a gateway to a better livelihood. Many of the nation's most prominent physicists and mathematicians have been South Indians. Kerala, while possessing a literacy rate above 98% also has the highest unemployment rates in India. The population growth rate of these states is also beginning to decline rapidly relative to North India.

Information Technology is a growing field in South India. Bangalore is India's Information Technology hub, and is home to over 200 software companies. It is often referred to as the "Silicon Valley of India".

Chennai, Tamil Nadu ranks next only to Bangalore in the software exports in India and grossed over Rs 100,000,000,000 in 2005 .

Chennai houses the automobile manufacturing giants in the country. More than 50% of heavy vehicles produced in the country, such as cars, buses, lorries, trains and bicycles, are produced in Chennai, and it is referred to as the Detroit of South Asia. The manufacturing units of BMW, Flextronics, Ford, Hyundai, Nokia and Saint Gobain are housed in Chennai.

There is also a large amount of disparity within Southern India. As IT companies have entered the economic arena, their high level of pay has raised the economic standing of young and educated proffesionals, while the poor has become less and less able to afford basic neccesities. It is not uncommon to see the shacks of homless people propped up against the buildings of large multinationals. The poor, unable to afford sending their children to school, remain in a cycle of life completed seperated from that of this more affluent upper class.

Andhra Pradesh

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Information Technology industry in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. Two important rivers of India, the Godavari and Krishna, flow through the state. Rice, tobacco, cotton, mirchi, and sugarcane are the local crops. The state has also started to focus on the fields of information technology and biotechnology.

Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, is the fifth largest cosmopolitan city in India, rich in culture, enduring history and industrial growth.

The advent of Information Technology growth in India, the so called "Blue Chip Revolution", has fostered the growth of Hyderabad's economy. The city is sometimes referred to as "Cyberabad" because of the large number of IT firms in the city. Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a major jump in software exports. Hyderabad's IT export revenue was Rs. 81,450,000,000, an increaes of 62% from fiscal 2004. For Andhra, fiscal 2004 is particularly significant as the 62% growth in exports in fiscal 2005, was almost double the 37% it grew in 2003-2004. Other cities such as Vizag and Vijayawada have shown growths in IT exports on an annual basis. Vizag's contribution was Rs 700,000,000, while it was Rs 240,000,000 from Vijayawada.

More information on the economy of Hyderabad can be found here.

Karnataka

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Information Technology industry in Bangalore, Karnataka

Karnataka's net state domestic product of $22.6 billion is the fifth largest in India. Between 1992-2002, Karnataka attracted the fourth highest total Foreign Direct Investment approvals in India, to the tune of Rs. 21,566 million. Agriculture in Karnataka, like most of India, employs 80% of the population. Agriculture and its allied activities account for 49% of the state's income. The coastal plains of Karnataka, which include Uttara Kanara and Dakshina Kanara are cultivated with rice and sugarcane. Coffee and Tea are also grown on the slopes of the Western Ghats in the district of Kodagu. Karnataka produces 70% of India's coffee, of which about 50% is exported. . The black soil in the northwest of the state, is hospitable for the growth of cotton, onion, course cereal, sunflower and peanuts.

The forests of the Malnad region produce timber, bamboo and sandalwood. Karnataka is the only exporter of sandalwood in the country. Most of the world's sandalwood oil is produced in Karnataka.

All of India's gold comes from the Kolar district of Karnataka. Karnataka is also rich in minerals which form the bulk of the raw materials for iron and steel industries in the state such as the one at Bhadravati.

The first power station in Asia was set up in Karnataka at Shivanasamudra in 1902 to produce hydroelectric power. Karnataka has 18 power stations which generate annually 16,513 million units. The state, however generates insufficient power and is forced to buy electricity from neighboring states.

Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, is home to several public sector undertaking aircraft companies, such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL),HMT Hindustan Machine Tools , Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL), National Aeronautics Limited and also Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Bangalore, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India has the largest number of international and local Information Technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the country. A number of "IT Parks" have been set up by the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KEONICS) including Bangalore's "Electronics City", and IT parks in Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli. Bangalore is also home to prestigious higher institutes of learning such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Bangalore). More information on the economy of Bangalore can be found here.

Kerala

Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi

Kerala's economy is predominantly agrarian. In terms of per capita income and production, Kerala lags behind many of the Indian states, but in terms of Human Development Index and life standard of the people, Kerala is ahead of most other states in India. In fact, in certain development indices it is on a par with some of the developed countries. This peculiar paradox is often termed as the "Kerala Phenomenon" or Kerala model of development by experts.

Kerala follows a socialist welfare economy. Kerala's emphasis on social welfare also resulted in slow economic progress. There are few major industries in Kerala, and the per capita GDP is lower than the national average. Remittances from Keralites working abroad, mainly in the Middle East, make up over 60% of the state's gross domestic product.

However, today, the state is emerging as a future IT center of India, owing to its high internet connectivity (undersea cable landing points), along with skilled labour. The government has established two IT Parks in the state at Trivandrum and Kochi. Kochi is also the safest natural harbour in India, and hence on the most important ports of India. A container transhipment terminal has been proposed in Kochi.

File:Kadhara.jpg
Kalarippayattu Martial art form in Kerala.

Agriculture is still the most predominant economic activity in the state. Coconut, tea and coffee are grown extensively, along with rubber, cashew and spices. Spices commonly cultivated in Kerala include pepper, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Much of Kerala's agriculture is in the form of home gardens.

Unemployment is typically high in Kerala. Traditional low-wage cottage industries such as the processing of coconut fiber and cashew or weaving employ most workers. More than a fourth of Kerala's workers provide services.

Kerala boasts an Indian Institute of Management at Kozhikode. One of the two ship building yards of India is in Kerala at Kochi. The Southern Naval Command of India has its headquarters also in Kochi.

Kerala is also one of the tourist hot-spots of India. It was proclaimed as one of the ten paradises on earth by the National Geographic traveller. The state has also won a large number of awards for its tourism initiatives. Its tourism logo and slogan have global superbrand status.

More information on the economy of Kerala can be found here.

Tamil Nadu

Tidel Park in Chennai hosts a number of IT companies.

Tamil Nadu's net state domestic product is the largest in South India and third largest in India. It is one of the most industrialised states in India. It ranks third in the country in total foreign direct investment (FDI) (Rs. 220,582,640,000). The State's investment constitutes 9.12 per cent of the total FDI in the country . According to the 2001 Census, Tamil Nadu has the highest level of urbanization (43.86 percent) in India, which accounts for 6% of India’s total population and 9.6% of the urban population. Chennai is refered as the Gate way of South India. Chennai is the Second leading Software exporter in India. Companies such as Cognizant, Covansys, Xansa, Verizon, iSoft and many others are Chennai based companies in India. Infosys has set up India's largest software development centre to house 25,000 software professionals at an estimated investment of Rs 1,250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion) in Chennai. India's largest IT park is housed at Chennai. Unlike other States in India the state has many software tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and Hosur. Chennai has become the most preferred BPO hub in India and South Asia . Chennai is sometimes referred to as the "Health Capital of India" or the "Banking Capital of India", having attracted investments from International corporations and the World Bank.

Tamil Nadu has a network of about 110 industrial parks/estates that offer developed plots with supporting infrastructure. Also, the Government is promoting other industrial parks like Rubber Park, Apparel Parks, Floriculture Park, TICEL Park for Biotechnology , Siruseri IT Park, Agro Export Zones among others. 56% of India's total knitwear exports come from Tirupur, Tamilnadu.

The heavy engineering manufacturing companies are centered around the suburbs of Chennai. Chennai boasts presence of global car manufacturing giants like Ford, Hyundai, BMW and Mitsubishi as well as home grown companies like MRF, TI Cycles of India, Ashok Leyland and TVS. Chennai is also home to one of the Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT Madras.

Kalpakkam nuclear power plant, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, and the Narimanam natural gas plants provide sources of fuel and energy for the nation. 55% of electricity from wind power produced in India from wind mills comes from Tamil Nadu. The town of Sivakasi is the leader for Printing, Fireworks, Safety matches Production in India. It contributes to 80% of India's total Safety Matches Production ,90% of India's Total Fireworks Production and 60% of India's Total Offset Printing Solutions and ranks as one of the highest Tax payer towns in India. Sivakasi and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu are 100% employed towns, among a few towns in India.

Tamilnadu is leading producer of kambu ,cholam, ground nut, oil seeds and sugarcane in India. At present Tamil Nadu is second biggest producer of Rice in India, next to Punjab where there is perennial source of irrigation..

Biovalleys in Tamil Nadu include Biotechnology Incubator Park Near Chennai, , Women's Biotechnology Park Kelambakkam, Medicinal Plants Biotechnology Park, Madurai, Marine Biotechnology Park, Madapam and Bioinformatics and Genomics Centre (BGC), Chennai

More information on the economy of Tamil Nadu can be found here.

South Indian worldview and culture

South Indians are linguistically and culturally different from their North Indian compatriots although their cultures have influenced each other at various points in history.

Whether or not the existing proto Dravidian culture was supplanted by invading Aryan nomads during the twilight of the Indus Valley Civilization or whether they simply coexisted and eventually merged to form another culture is a subject of heated debate to this day. See The Aryan Invasion Theory.

The South Indian world view is essentially, the celebration of the eternal universe through the celebration of the beauty of the body, and motherhood. It is exemplified through its dance, clothing, and sculptures.

South Indian dance

The South Indian weltanschauung is celebrated in the elaborate dance forms of South India, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniaattam which literally translates as ‘the dance of the enchantress’. The Bharatanatyam expresses the celebration of beauty and the universe, through its tenets of having a perfectly erect posture, a straight and pout curving stomach, a well rounded and proportionate body mass- to the body structure, very long hair and curvaceous hips. These tenets bring to life the philosophy of Natyashastra (the treatise on Dance by the sage Bharata), ‘Angikam bhuvanam yasya’ ((whose) body is the world). This is elaborated in the araimandi posture, wherein the performer assumes a half sitting position with the knees turned sideways, with a very erect posture. In this fundamental posture of the Bharatanatyam dance, the distance between the head and the navel becomes equal to that between the earth and the navel. In a similar way the distance between the outstretched right arm to the outstretched left arm becomes equal to the distance between the head and the feet, thus representing the "Natyapurusha", the embodiment of life and creation.

Traditional clothing

The saree, being an unstitched drape, enhances the shape of the wearer while only partially covering the midriff. In Indian philosophy, the navel of the Supreme Being is considered as the source of life and creativity. Hence by tradition, the stomach and the navel is to be left unconcealed, though the philosophy behind the costume has largely been forgotten and only the sensuality of the garment noticed. This makes the realization of sharira-mandala, where in Angikam bhuvanam yasya (the body as the world) unites with the sharira-mandala ( the whole universe), as expressed in the Natyashastra. These principles of the sari, also hold for other forms of drapes, like the lungi or mund worn by men.

Sculptures and figurine

Sculptures became one of the finest medium of South Indian expression after the human form of dance. In this medium it was possible to etch the three dimensional form in time.

The traditional South Indian sculptor starts his sculpture of the divinities from the navel which is always represented unclothed by the saree. A koshta or grid of the sculpture would show the navel to be right at the centre of the sculpture, representing the source of the union of the finite body and the infinite universe.

Sculptures adorn many of the temples around the complexes and also inside them. They are also depiction of dance steps of various stylizations and have served to preserve dance forms and revive it.

South Indian history

South India has been at the crossroads of the ancient world, linking the Mediterranean world and the far-east. The Southern coastline from Karwar to Kodungalloor was the most important trading shore in the Indian sub-continent. This brought about a lot of intermingling of the natives with the traders.

The South Indian coast of Malabar and the tamil people of the Sangam age had trade with the Graeco Roman world. They were in contact with the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and the Chinese.

There were several rulers and dynasties significant in South Indian history. These included the Chola Empire, Pandyas, Pallavas, Gangas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Cheras, Wodeyars, Chalukyan Empire and the Vijayanagar Empire.

See History of South India, Middle kingdoms of India, History of India.

South Indian heritage

South Indian music

Main article: Carnatic music

The sophisticated Indian Classical Music of South India is known as Carnatic music. It includes sensuous rhythmic and structured music by composers like Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Tyagaraja, Mysore Vasudevachari and Swathi Thirunal.

Carnatic music is named after the Southern region of the Indian subcontinent named by western colonists as Carnatic. This name was used to refer to the region between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast encompassing much of what is called today as South India. Thus the term carnatic music was used to denote South Indian music.

Literature and philosophy

South India has an independent literary tradition going back over 2000 years. The first known literature of South India are the poetic Sangams, which were written in Tamil from 2000 to 1500 years ago. The 850AD Kannada classic Kavirajamarga written by King Amoghavarsha I (Rashtrakuta dynasty) makes references to Kannada literature of King Durvinita in early 6th centuary AD. Distinct Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada literary traditions developed in the following centuries. The artistic expressions of the South Indian people shows their admiration of the magnificence of nature and its rhythms, as in the epic Silappadhikaram by Ilango Adigal, also called as the Cilappatikaram. Other works include the "Tholkappiam" written by Tholkappiar, and Thiruvalluvar’s Thirukural. In South Indian literature and philosophy, women are considered very powerful. A married woman is regarded as auspicious, her shakti or mother-feminine power, protects and empowers her husband and their children. The female form is highly regarded.

See also: Kannada literature, Malayalam literature, Tamil literature and Telugu literature, scholars from Karnataka Karnataka Literature

Architecture and paintings

South India boasts of two enchanting styles of rock architecture, the pure dravida style of Tamil Nadu and the Vesara style (also called Karnata dravida style) present in Karnataka. The inspirational temple sculptures of Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, Belur, Halebidu,Lakkundi, Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram, Tanjore, Madhuri and the mural paintings of Travancore and Lepakshi temples, also stand as a testament to south Indian culture. The paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are considered classic renditions of many a scenes of South Indian life and mythology. There are several examples of Dravidian mural paintings in the mattancherry palace and the Shiva kshetram in Ettamanoor.

See also Dravidian mural painting.

South Indian diversity

Knanaya- Jewish Nasrani temple in Kottayam, in Kerala containing ancient Mar Thoma cross and Sassanid Pahlavi inscriptions.

The main spiritual traditions of South Indians have included both Shaivism or Shaivite philosophy, and Vaishnavism, which are both branches of Hinduism, although Jain philosophy had been influential in Southern India several centuries earlier. Shravanabelagola in Karnataka is a popular pilgrim center for Jains.

Kodagu, in Karnataka is home to one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the country and provides sanctuary to Tibetan Buddhist monks that fled Tibet fearing percecution from communist China.

There is also a large Muslim community in South India, particularly in the Malabar coast. The community's roots can be traced back to the ancient maritime trade between Kerala and Omanis and other Arabs. Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh is an historic center of Muslim culture in South India, and the Hyderabad region has a large Muslim population. Besides Ayyavazhi was also a fast spreading religion especially in southern districts of Tamil Nadu and in some parts of Kerala from the mid-nineteenth century.

Christianity has also flourished in coastal South India from the earliest times. St. Thomas the Apostle is believed to have come to Kerala and established the church, from which came Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Nasranis, Syrian Christians, Roman Catholics with Syrian-rite which is a combination of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church).

The oldest Jewish synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations is the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, in South India.

These two Eastern Catholic Churches, Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, both having communion with Roman Catholic Church, have their Holy-See in Kerala. Knanaya community which exists as part of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.

Goa and Kerala are home to a significant Roman Catholic Latin Rite population. The Church of South India is an autonomous Protestant church, formed in 1947 through the merger of several Protestant denominations.

See also

Selected bibliography

  • Beck, Brenda. 1976. “The Symbolic Merger of Body, Space, and Cosmos in Hindu Tamil Nadu." Contributions to Indian Sociology 10(2): 213-43.
  • Bharata (1967). The Natyashastra , 2 vols., 2nd. ed. Trans. by Manomohan Ghosh. Calcutta: Manisha Granthalaya.
  • Boulanger, Chantal; (1997) Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping, Shakti Press International, New York.
  • Craddock, Norma. 1994. Anthills, Split Mothers, and Sacrifice: Conceptions of Female Power in the Mariyamman Tradition. Dissertation, U. of California, Berkeley.
  • Danielou, Alain, trans. 1965. Shilappadikaram (The Ankle Bracelet) By Prince Ilango Adigal. New York: New Directions.
  • Dehejia, Vidya, Richard H. Davis, R. Nagaswamy, Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2002) The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India.
  • Hart, George, ed. and trans. 1979. Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War. Princeton: Princeton U. Press
  • Gover, Charles. 1983 (1871). Folk-songs of Southern India. Madras: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society.
  • Nagaraju, S. 1990. “Prehistory of South India.” In South Indian Studies, H. M. Nayak and B. R. Gopal, eds., Mysore: Geetha Book House, pp. 35-52.
  • Trawick, Margaret. 1990a. Notes on Love in a Tamil Family. Berkeley: U. of California Press.
  • Wadley, Susan, ed. 1980. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse: Syracuse U. Press.
  • Zvelebil, Kamil. 1975. Tamil Literature. Leiden: Brill.
  • Economy referenced from the encyclopedia Britannica online.
  • Some economic statistics from http://indiabudget.nic.in

External links

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