Madrassi

Madrassi or Madrasi is a demonym and frequently an ethnic slur used for people of South India (then the Madras Presidency), mostly by people of western, central and northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. It also used to make derogatory reference to south Indian dark skin colour. Although the term borrows its name from Madras (the former name of Chennai, Tamil Nadu), it is used generically to refer to any person from South India. The term originated during the British Raj to designate people from the southern parts of India, which were then in the Madras Presidency. During the early 1990s, the terms lungi hatao pungi bajao and Yendu gundu were coined by Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra state of India to ridicule languages from south India. South Indians were derisively referred to as "yandugundu walas" and "lunghi walas". Bal Thackeray, the Marathi politician and founder of the Shiv Sena, lampooned the Madrassi in his writings and cartoons.