I am a Gujarati who lives in Karnataka. Both states have individual identities. Surat, where my parents still live, was an international port town till about 1700. It has a mix of people, all sorts of castes and communities, who have visited and stayed over centuries. It is the only city in India to have multiple indigenous merchant castes: Bania, Jain, Shia Bohras and Khojas, Sunni Bohras and Memons, Parsis, and since the 1970s, even Agarwals and Oswals by the thousands.