There's no Madrasi: A public service message for the clueless North Indian

“Are you a Madrasi?” is a question many a south Indian anywhere north of the Vindhyas has perhaps faced at some point in their lives. And violent protests that “No, there is no such thing as a Madrasi” and “There are four states in South India” have fallen on stubbornly ignorant and deaf ears. Maybe this video will help. Made by ‘Enna da Rascalas’, the video ‘South of India’ is set to the tune of Billy Joel’s 90s anthem ‘We didn’t start the fire’ seeking to explain the difference between the four biggest states in south India. Maybe the fact that it’s set to music, will make it it easier to understand. Or so we hope. This is, for what it’s worth though, perhaps the best Indian adaptation of the anthem  after Mulayam Singh Yadav used it with disastrous effect during the 2014 elections. [caption id=“attachment_1786913” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A screengrab from the video.[/caption] From taking on the stereotypes projected due to Bollywood films like Chennai Express and 2 States, the song is an entertaining guide to everything popular in the four states (Like Rajini in Chennai, impending prohibition in Kerala, Vizag in Andhra and Infosys in Karnataka), with a chorus of: “We are south of India. This is not a single state, we’re here to clear the slate. We are south of India. There is no Madrasi, we are all padosi (neighbours)” There have been notable songs in the past affirming the south Indian identity (remember I am a Malayalee?) but this one perhaps is the first one that deals with all four south Indian states in one go very nicely. Will the ’northies’ be responding in kind any time soon given most south Indians believe everyone north of the Vindhyas in considered North Indian? We hope so. For now, here’s the South of India video: