Card-playing traditions are a part of every society. These traditions have remained popular to this day, albeit with local variations everywhere. While card games have gained popularity as an online gaming option across India, the country’s south has warmed up to it at a higher rate.
Rummy online, for instance, is a massive pastime in South India, a region well-versed in rummy rules for several decades now. And it is not just about any one card game. South India has had a long-standing tradition of card games. But that does not mean that card games are not popular in North India. However, the card-playing traditions in different parts of India have evolved quite differently.
The Card-Playing Traditions and Current State
Across India, card games are an unbeatable source of entertainment. This is the primary reason why Indians have participated in its online versions more promptly.
Rummy itself has multiple variations in South India. You have the traditional Indian rummy with the familiar rummy rules where players are dealt with 13 cards. But there are local rummy variations as well. Vazhushal, for instance, is a rummy variation from Tamil Nadu that allows more than one card to be picked from the discarded pile.
The popular card game of Twenty-Nine has local variations in Kerala. Twenty-Eight and Fifty-Six are popular variations, with the latter requiring double packs of 24 cards. Even the popular game of Go Fish has a South Indian variation. Go Fish is played differently through variations such as Fish, Canadian Fish and Russian Fish. But in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, it is the game of Literature that has a striking resemblance with Go Fish.
The popularity of these types of games also contributes to the overall success of online card game platforms in South India.
Mummudi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, a ruler of the Mysuru kingdom, is said to have played card games with his counterparts from neighbouring kingdoms. A game they often played was Ganjifa, an early form of rummy games. Practices like these cascade to the common folk, making skill-based card games popular in the region.
However, it must be noted that card games have their local variations in the rest of the country as well. For instance, Sweep, the card-fishing game, is popularly played in North India as Seep. North Indian card enthusiasts also engage in the game of capturing tens in the deck, which they call Dehla Pakad. A game with the same objective played in Western India is known as Mendikot. The pan-Indian popularity of Teen Patti, of course, goes without saying. Notably, it is also an Indian variation of the British card game Three Card Brag.
With card games traditionally popular across India, are there any regional oddities worth noting?
The Tech Factor
While the rich card-playing traditions have helped online card game platforms, faster adoption of digital platforms is also down to internet penetration.
While these numbers are dynamic, the top three states with the highest internet penetration are geographically below central India. Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra have crossed penetration levels of 70%. While trailing in the 40% range are the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, all of which are more or less in the north of the centre. This has meant that the adoption of online activities, including online card games, has been faster in the South.
Online games are now very much a part of the pan-Indian recreational agenda. However, it started as an urban phenomenon and appealed to the tech-savvy demographics. Skill-based games made early inroads in urban centres like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur and Kolkata. However, the South Indian population has had a large pool of tech-savvy people, thanks to the tech-first culture propagating in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi.
Nowadays, game platforms are accelerating their South Indian adoption through efforts like linguistic support. Rummy’s online platform, RummyCulture, for instance, provides customer support not only in English and Hindi but also in Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu. As obvious from the languages supported, the vernacular language-speaking South Indian gamers have another reason to opt for card games. The localisation of gaming is a growing phenomenon. This particular example of localisation may have helped card game platforms in India to make further inroads in South India.
Summing It Up
Thanks to an early brush with digitisation, the South Indian gaming community promptly migrated their card-playing traditions to online platforms. North India has followed suit as the internet spreads every day, with more gamers choosing online card games as a means of relaxation. As we speak, card games continue to be downloaded in the North and the rest of India as more and more non-urban gamers join the ranks.
