I thought the Sinhalese would have been more “Aryan looking” than the Tamilians

The Sinhalese have tried this theory too 😛

I thought the Sinhalese would have been more “Aryan looking” than the Tamilians since the former speak an Indo-European Gujarati/Bengali language (it’s very confusing which is which)..

Siddarth
To the Sinhalese, all Indians are Tamils so therefore they (think) are lighter skinned than any Indian North or South. Obviously, despite the evidence to the contrary.

You missed the Obviously, despite the evidence to the contrary.

It is mostly (all) about perception and belief, regardless of evidence .

The Sinhalese would be eager to practice their Hindi on me, and would actually be disappointed on finding out that I was a Tamil

Think of Sinhalese as Tamils, Keralites or (Bengalis) who have become West Indians/Jamaicans in the past and Americans in the recent past.

Similarly, many people of South India, Europe and SE Asia have intermarried into Sri Lanka. Once one buys into the Sinhalese identity you can claim to a 2,500 written history. Not much different from being “American”.

The term cowbelt is often synonymous with BIMARU, and represents peculiar defining features of the indo-gengetic plain; this includes, an overbearing concern regarding caste; high fertility; low educational and other HDI attainments; in my mind, a move to industrial revolution needs a discard of caste mores as workers are of different castes, and supervisors can be a lower caste than workers. In my experience with BIMARU workers, caste constraints overwhelm work culture; workers seek white color jobs, which is viewed to equivalent of caste structure. As such, Punjab and jat-dominant Haryana cannot be considered as extensions of Bimaru, as both, the Sikhs and Jats do not consider field work as something that impinges on caste-given dignity. On the other hand, some features of Gangetic West Bengal represent the cow belt in: lack of irrigation; use of tenant farmers extensively in agriculture; seeking rent seeking white color occupations. The cowbelt can be considered to extend from western UP to Gangetic WB including swathes of Jharkand; and includes MP, Rajasthan and riverine Uttarakhand. Gujarat cannot be included in cowbelt, as large numbers of Patidars are strong workers in fields; the caste domination does not start at Brahmin level. The Gujaratis are sympathetic to cowbelt values though, but are not practical exponents.

“So what states do indians think is part of the cowbelt, beyond BIMARU? Jharkhand? Punjab? West Bengal? Uttarkhand?”

Haryana, Uttarkhand would be part of it. Gujarat, Maharastra , Jharkhand, Orisa are mixed areas but i would say the dominant discourse is still N-Indian Hinduism which is a definitive characteristic of Cow belt. Even though these states have dormant to sub active sub nationalism , they still get subsumed by Hindu politics

*out of respect to our other commentators*
lol

I think the Majhi are is part of the “Hindustani” belt (I’m not using Urdu out of respect to our other commentators)..

Yes I think Punjabi is a Hindustani incursion into the Lahnda sphere. It would be interesting to see if historical Punjabi texts (pre RAJ) are in the Majhi dialect or Lahnda..

So what states do indians think is part of the cowbelt, beyond BIMARU? Jharkhand? Punjab? West Bengal? Uttarkhand? Would Bangladesh and Pakistani Punjab be part of the “cowbelt” in a united India?

phylogenetically punjabi is much closer to the hindi dialect continuum than bengali. i don’t think anyone would include bengal, assam or odisha as part of that broader cultural grouping.

Is it like the American south — a clear core and disputed periphery (TX? MO? FL?).

(I have heard the term ” Madrasi” sometimes in Karachi, and more often among Pakistanis in Dubai — where they actually encounter south Indians in person).