Even if a concept of India as a nation,as Europeans define it,did not exist prior to the British rule, a cultural concept did exist from ancient times.A pilgrimage to Kashi in the North and Rameswaram in the South was a hope cherished by many devout Hindus from long ago.Sankaracharya established his peedoms in the four corners of the country ie. Sringeri in the South,Dwarka in the West,Badrinath in the North and Puri in the East.He is believed to have lived in the the nineth century CE. It is true that the term 'India' was never used by Indians themselves. Names like Bharat, Aryavart, Jambudweep in Ancient period and Hindustan in Middle Ages were more familiar. The subnationalisms based on languages came up only in the twentieth century.Perhaps Bengali subnationalism was the first to appear as a result of the division of the Province of Bengal by the then Viceroy,Lord Curson in 1905. Indians never thought of themselves as Bengalees,Punjabis,Gujarathis,Marathis, Malayalis or Tamilians before the 20th century. The concept of North Indians or South Indians also did not exist. Such concepts developed only after the concept of India took roots. Hence the question of viewing North Indians as foreigners by Southerners would not have risen.The people viewed themselves as the subjects of a particular king utmost. For a Travancorean, a Tamilian or a Mysorean was same as a Punjabi or a Bengali. Even today a Malayali is not likely to prefer a Tamilian or Kannadiga over a Bengali or a Punjabi,just because he is a Southerner.