CHENNAI: In what is seen as a ‘Tamil revivalist drive’ by the AIADMK government led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the state is celebrating on Friday (November 1) the re-carving of the erstwhile Madras Presidency on linguistic basis, first as Madras State, and then re-christened ‘Tamil Nadu’ during the first DMK rule, as ‘Tamil Nadu Naal Vizha’, in a nostalgic throwback to ‘Rajotsava Day’.
From this year, as announced by Palaniswami, November 1 every year will be celebrated as a state government function as ‘Tamil Nadu Naal Vizha’, to mark the date on which the ‘States Reorganisation Act, 1956’ came into effect on November 1, 1956. That legislation led to erstwhile Madras State gaining some additions and facing few deletions in its area, based on linguistic re-organisation, and gave a new identity as home to a predominantly Tamil-speaking State.
On Friday, a grand function under the auspices of the state Tamil culture and language department, is being celebrated in Chennai in which besides Palaniswami, the Deputy Chief Minister, O. Pannerselvam, culture minister, Ma Foi. Pandiyarajan, fisheries minister, D Jayakumar among others will felicitate.
If the erstwhile Madras Presidency, which under the British Raj comprised much of South India, lost its Telugu-speaking areas when a separate Andhra State was formed on October 1, 1953, in the wake of the martyrdom of Potti Sriramalu, besides the Kannada-speaking areas of Bellary district was also then merged with erstwhile Mysore State.
There was much heartburn first in the state configuration changes in 1953, with the Telugus, who formed a sizeable population of then Madras Presidency, along its northern coast in particular and substantially contributing to its economy, wanting the capital of Madras that later became Chennai. When it looked like an explosive situation, Rajaji’s deft handling of the situation saw Madras being retained in what is now Tamil Nadu, with Tirupati going to Andhra state.
Subsequently too, the rumblings in reallocation/delimitation of areas continued with Tamil nationalist leaders like Ma Po Sivagnanam and C.Pa. Adithanar, seeking to carve out a ‘homogenous Tamil Nadu’, based on the norm that all principal Tamil-speaking areas should be part of Madras State. The ‘North Tamil Nadu boundary’ agitation led by Sivagnanam, became a huge issue.
Historians point out how the then Chief Minister, K. Kamaraj wisely handled the situation with a statesman-like outlook and resolved petty territorial claims amicably, whether it was Devikulam and Peermedu in the west or Tamils’ claim for Tirutani in the north. Years later, by when the dust over territorial claims had settled, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu by Annadurai-led DMK in 1969.
Much water has flown down after these avoidable battles and ‘Tamil Nadu Naal Vizha’ should now be a joyous celebration of the cosmopolitan and universal roots of Tamil society and not manifest as another sign of provincial parochialism.
However, some of the contemporary Tamil Nadu leaders like PMK founder, Dr S Ramadoss, ahead of the celebrations, stressed that some of the Tamil-speaking areas like Tirupati, Kalahasthi, Devikulam and Peermedu, which were ceded to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively, should be got back to Tamil Nadu.
Political and legal steps should be taken for this, he urged, a not too happy augury that could needlessly stoke fresh tension between the southern states. At the other end, the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi president Easwaran, has called for creating a separate flag for Tamil Nadu as a symbol of ‘unity of the Tamils’.
