Being Tamilian

To start with I like to give a short repertoire of my genealogy. There was a letter “D” to my initials, which my mom decided to discard it when I went to school. The “D” means “Desampettai”, which is supposed to be in Andhra Pradesh (I didn't find it online). It is believed that my great grandfather had come from Desampettai to Krishnagiri. 

It is very typical of the places in the border of Tamil Nadu (or any state) to have family ties with the nearby state. The Tamil which is spoken there is distinct as always, because of sharing the border between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This is the only district ( Krishnagiri ) in Tamil Nadu to share border between two states ( Niligiri- Shares border between Kerala and Karnataka ). The dialects and words used will have origins in Kannada and Telugu. My first language is Kannada. 

Let us come to the subject, we all know who the Dravidians are, loosely presumed to be people living in south of India. Let me ask “Who Tamilian is and what makes one a Tamilian”. ? 

Few questions I have, 

1. People who live (proof of address\ration card) in Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? [Very naïve question] 
2. People who speak Tamil are Tamilians? 
3. People who speak different First Language, but born and live in Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? 
4. People who speak Tamil, but are not in Tamil Nadu now are Tamilians? 
5. People who speak Tamil, live outside India- who got ancestral roots to Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? 

The more I probe into these questions the more it alienates my selves from the secular concept of being Indian.

**To be Continued** PART II READ HERE