Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s remark that “Tamizhagam” is a more “appropriate” name for the state than Tamil Nadu has drawn flak from the ruling DMK, which has questioned his right to suggest a different name for the state and accused him of unnecessarily interfering in state politics. While the BJP has defended Ravi and taken on the DMK, the Opposition AIADMK has disagreed with the Governor’s comment.
At the centre of the debate is the word “Nadu” that means “geographical boundary” or “land”. But a misreading of Tamil history and the complexities of translation have resulted in “Nadu” coming to mean “country” or “nation-state”. Thus, an essentially linguistic matter has turned into a political one in a state where mainstream politicians have been at the centre of nationalism and sub-nationalism debates for decades, and “Nadu” is viewed through the lens of Tamil nationalism.
Referring to this idea of the meaning of Tamil Nadu, Ravi said at an event at the Raj Bhavan on January 4, “Here in Tamil Nadu, a different kind of narrative has been created. Everything applicable for the whole of the country, Tamil Nadu will say no. It has become a habit. So many theses have been written — all false and poor fiction. This must be broken. Truth must prevail. Tamizhagam is a more appropriate word to call it. The rest of the country suffered a lot of devastation at the hands of foreigners for a long time.”
Pushing back against the Governor’s suggestion, DMK MP Kanmiozhi said, “The name Tamil Nadu indicates our language, tradition, politics and life itself. It was CN Annadurai who made that name official in the state Assembly. This land will remain Tamil Nadu forever.”
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Calling the idea of “Tamil Nadu” unique, state sports minister and Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin said, “Anna (Annadurai), the founder of DMK, gave this name after a long battle. CM Stalin who follows the paths of Annadurai and M Karunanidhi will protect it.”
DMK mouthpiece Murasoli criticised Ravi and wrote, “He says the name Tamil Nadu indicates a sovereign nation. Does the name Rajasthan sound like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, or Turkmenistan to you? Isn’t Maharashtra a secessionist name for its name indicates the land of Marathas? Kerala’s tourism slogan, ‘God’s own country’, may also be a demand for a nation-state status. Isn’t it problematic for you to find a ‘Desam (land)’ in Telugu Desam Party?”
Reminding the Governor that “India is a British creation”, the DMK mouthpiece asked him to thank the British for creating India instead of feeling proud of an imaginary “Akhand Bharat”.
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The AIADMK, DMK’s key rival and a BJP ally, too disagreed with Ravi’s proposal. Claiming that the party, too, follows Annadurai’s political line, former minister D Jayakumar said, “It will always be Tamil Nadu for us.”
The BJP, however, lashed out at the ruling party, with its state president K Annamalai saying that “the DMK has long been trying to bury their secessionist past, their ideological parent party (Dravidar Kazhagam or DK founded by social reformer Periyar) wanting a separate Dravida Nadu, later a separate Tamil Nadu”.
1967 resolution and Dravida Nadu
In a resolution tabled in the Assembly in 1967 to change the name of the state from Madras to Tamil Nadu, Annadurai, then the CM, left no ambiguity about the new name and its meaning, saying, “It is a state in India and it is not a separate country.”
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A senior Tamil historian, who did not wish to be named, also said that though “Nadu” in the local context does not mean nation-state, it assumed political meaning due to Tamil sub-nationalism. “Tamil sub-nationalism is seen as nationalism in the modern era because of its long history, literature, and culture. Even though there were different dynasties in Tamil Nadu, ancient literary references to the land of the people and its borders show that ‘Tamil Nadu’ is the appropriate word for ‘Tamil land’. The cultural and political history of the land justifies it. But the word ‘Tamizhagam’ wasn’t there, it wasn’t in the picture at all and it doesn’t have enough history to be claimed as an appropriate usage.”
The idea of “Nadu” finds mention in ancient texts. The Tamil epic Silappathikaram, written in the 5th or 6th Century CE, geographically defines Tamil Nadu as “vadavengadavum thenkumariyum” or “north Tirupati to south Kanyakumari”, marking Tirupati as the northern border of Tamil Nadu. Silappathikaram, penned by poet Ilango Adigal, was one of the first texts to imagine the idea of a unified Tamil Nadu.
“The tragic love story between Kannaki and Koavalan reveals Adigal’s goal,” said a Tamil scholar. “Kannagi and Kovalan came from Kaveripumpattanam, the Chola capital. Kovalan moves to Pandya’s Maduraikkandam, now Madurai. He was killed for stealing an anklet, which he didn’t do. Kannaki burned Madurai in retaliation and moved to Vanchi in Chera country, now known as early Kerala, where she died. When Adigal’s Silappathikaram took place in these three countries, we can see that the famous Chera ruler, Cheran Chenkuttuvan, went to the place where Kannaki died and built a temple in her honour.”
The scholar added that many studies believe Adigal wrote the epic to send the message back home that the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties should work together.
In this long-running historical and cultural discourse surrounding the idea of Tamil “land”, the demand for a country for Tamils, or Dravida Nadu, emerged from Dravidian politics in the last century. Annadurai’s main means of getting his message across to people was through his newspaper called Dravida Nadu. It found resonance with the youth of the time, several of whose parents were strong supporters of the Congress Party and Mahatma Gandhi.
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Starting in the 1920s, anti-Hindi agitations started in the then Madras Presidency. These agitations took place every decade thereafter and came to a head in the 1950s. Around the time of Indian independence, the idea of reorganising the territory on linguistic lines had gathered momentum. Some south Indian states demanded “lost” or “imagined” language-based territories. Potti Sriramulu fought to separate Andhra Pradesh from Madras. His death in a hunger strike forced Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s hand and the Union government agreed to reorganise the land by language. As Andhra Pradesh was created, it sowed the seeds for a Kerala-Madras split. An emotive subject, Tamil Congress stalwart and former CM K Kamaraj is still blamed for not doing enough to help Tamil Nadu get its fair share from Kerala.
“The Dravidian movement, especially the DMK and its parent party Dravidar Kazhagam, reshaped nationalism over the past century,” said a Tamil scholar. “Dravidian parties wanted a Dravida Nadu, Annadurai’s newspaper on these lines gained huge traction at one point. Conservatives and Congress supporters feared this new movement would corrupt a generation. However, Dravida Nadu did not happen because DMK had to surrender the idea before Annadurai’s death.” The scholar also added that “Nadu” had more historical credibility than “Tamizhagam”.
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