Hello all.
I was not sure if it is correct to make this thread here or in the sociology section.
Recently I have been engaged in matrimonial search both for myself and my brother as well as some cousins, all are in their 30s.
I thought I was an exceptional case of a Tamil Brahmin family that got "group displaced" into central India (Maharashtra) and never went back to south India since it has been 70+ years since anyone worked or lived in south India. Due to some twist of fate, either our family members went abroad or settled in the cities of Central and North/East India like Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, etc.
Now all of us in this generation face a severe and exceptional challenge - it appears that 3-4 generations away from South India has actually changed us in the sense that we are not following the Tamil culture or speaking the Tamil language in the way the actual south Indians do. Personally I can tell my Tamil dialect is an older dialect that is not used in any modern Tamil discussion or media of Tamil Nadu.
Regardless of matrimonial consequences, I found that there is a huge number of "Tamil" Brahmins like us especially in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The more north I go in my search, the more I find Tamil Brahmin boys and girls who do not even speak Tamil.
There are people who list themselves as Hindi/Marathi/Telugu/Kannada speaking in all matrimonial portals although they are Tamil Brahmins.
When I asked these families, they said it is convenient because stating your mother tongue as Tamil indicates you are Tamil to the app's algorithm, and it is not consonant with the reality of their children where they converse mostly in Hindi/Marathi/Telugu/Kannada and follow those customs and trends.
I personally have cousins who do not speak Tamil, although on paper they are Iyer. Their language is Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu and Sindhi.
Personally I spent my whole adult life in Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP and now Delhi NCR. This means that naturally due to affinity, my "Brahmin culture" is much more aligned to the local practices of the communities of these states.
This issue further creates a rift between the grandparents who originally migrated from south India and the children who no longer know what that culture or society means.
I have seen the common complaint on all matrimonial discussions between Tamil Brahmins in-person or online: That boys and girls who live in south India are OK to migrate between the states but not to Maharashtra, Gujarat and MP. The Central Indian clustered group of MH-GJ-MP more or less wants to remain confined in this region and the North India-based ones also desire to stay within North India.
Personally I faced this problem also, I frankly don't have any Tamil Brahmin (or Tamil NB) friends today who still think of themselves as Tamil except those I made in childhood during school. The population is too low and the migrant Tamil population working in Delhi or Indore, Ahmedabad somehow feel I am not Tamil enough for them due to 3 generations of Marathi and MP influence.
I found that, TB boys/girls raised in northern India + Maharashtra + Gujarat are not keen on marrying any Tamil Brahmin and instead prefer non-Tamil outright. However, because of racist, classist and linguistically divided society most of them accept whatever they can get, usually they settle for another northern-born TB person or a northern born Tamil speaking NB match.
I often have to declare my "mother tongue" as Tamil although almost everyone in my family is multilingual. For example, my father - Tamil + Kannada, my mother - Tamil + Marathi, myself - Hindi + Tamil + Gujarati + Marathi, my brother - Tamil + Hindi, some cousins - Malayalam + Marathi or Tamil + Marathi
Much of my generation born in Northern parts tends to prefer worship and rituals in the fashion of the Central Indian people/Western Indian people. I know outright preference some people have for Punjabi and Haryanvi culture.
Ethnicity, language were never rigid. As it is well known at least some Brahmins in all states were migrants or descendants of migrants. So it is not necessary that a Tamil Brahmin remains that forever.
The thought has struck my head, whether it is time to divide the Tamil Brahmin community into North Indian Tamil Brahmin and South Indian Tamil Brahmin. I imagine differences (cultural, linguistic and otherwise) are going to get worse over time.
I would like the esteemed forum members' thoughts on this issue.
P. S. to a smaller extent I have seen this in other south Indian Brahmin communities also
E.g. Deshashta Brahmin declaring themselves as Hindi or Telugu; Madhwa Brahmin calling themselves Marathis, Niyogi Brahmins describing themselves as Kannada and not Telugu