if any regional identity survives Hindi imposition, I'd be betting on the Tamils and their culture.

ugh.

What is your yardstick to determine which regional language "survived" Hindi imposition? cinema? or who makes the most noise online? Kannada ,Malayalam and other south Indian languages survived 'Hindi imposition' . In fact it is kannada which has eight Jnanpith awards(till few years ago kannada ,despite being a regional language, had the highest Jnanpith awards).

It is this metric one should use as a yardstick . Literature -novels, poetry, short stories, folk tales, etc., represents a culture's richest creation. Cinema represents culture too , but in Indian context we should be ashamed of our cinema.

Tamil writer, Charu Nivedita, rued how the deadly mix of cinema and politics ensured Tamil Nadu remains an intellectual backwater.

"I am considered to be a popular writer in the state. However, my fellow authors and I need nothing short of a miracle to sell even a 1000 copies. To put this in perspective, in China Jiang Rong’s ‘Wolf Totem’ has sold nearly thirty million copies. Why, even in neighbouring Karnataka, SL Bhyrappa’s new releases are eagerly awaited and copies fly off the shelves at such pace that publishers have to go in for reprints with a week of launch."

Because of this cinema-politics link , the post congress period in TN is characterized by "rhetoric" and "tokenism". Therefore more than the literature , empty rhetoric by a mass hero about "Tamil pride" matters . The people take after their heroes(who also happen to be politicians) and indulge in empty rhetoric,over emotional.

Kannadigas have preserved our regional identity/culture without much brouhaha. We did this without letting ourselves become a "pawn" in a soap actors' political games.