State of Madras | |||||||||||||||
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Former state of India | |||||||||||||||
Madras State (1947–1953) | |||||||||||||||
Map of Southern India (1953–1956) before the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 with Madras State in yellow | |||||||||||||||
Capital | Madras | ||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||
• Coordinates | 13°05′N80°16′E / 13.09°N 80.27°E | ||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||
15 August 1947 | |||||||||||||||
• Establishment of Madras state | 26 January 1950 | ||||||||||||||
• Separation of Andhra | 1 October 1953 | ||||||||||||||
• Separation of Kerala and re-organization | 1 November 1956 | ||||||||||||||
• Renamed as Tamil Nadu | 14 January 1969 | ||||||||||||||
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States of India since 1947 |
Madras State was a state of India which was in existence during the mid-20th century. The state came into existence on 26 January 1950 when the Constitution of India was adopted and included the present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Andhra state was separated in 1953 and the state was further re-organized when states were redrawn linguistically in 1956. On 14 January 1969, the state was renamed as Tamil Nadu.
Archaeological evidence points to the region being inhabited by hominids more than 400 millennia ago. [1] [2] Ancient Tamilakam, a region roughly on par with the Madras state, was ruled by a triumvirate of monarchical states, Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas. [3] The kingdoms had significant diplomatic and trade contacts with other kingdoms to the north and Romans. [4] The region was later ruled by Kalabhras, Pallavas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara. [5] [6] [7]
Europeans started to establish trade centers from the 16th century along the eastern coast. [8] By the middle of the 18th century, the French and the British were involved in a protracted struggle for military control over South India. [9] After the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799 and the end of the Second Polygar war in 1801, the British consolidated their power over much of the region and established the Madras Presidency with Madras as the capital. [10] [11] The British Empire took control of the region from the British East India Company in 1857. [12] Failure of the summer monsoons and administrative shortcomings of the Ryotwari system resulted in two severe famines in the Madras Presidency, the Great Famine of 1876–78 and the Indian famine of 1896–97 which killed millions and the migration to other British countries. [13] The Indian Independence movement gathered momentum in the early 20th century. [14] [15]
After the Indian Independence in 1947, the erstwhile Madras presidency was integrated into the Union of India as Madras province. [16] The province became Madras state following the adoption of the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950. [17] The state was split in 1953 and further re-organized in 1956. [18] [19] On 14 January 1969, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu. [20] [21]
Madras state covered an area of 127,790 sq mi (331,000 km2) and consisted of the present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra of Andhra Pradesh and South Canara of Karnataka. It was located on the south of the Indian peninsula, straddled by the Western Ghats in the west, separated from the Arabian Sea by Malabar coast, the Eastern Ghats in the north-east, the Eastern Coastal Plains lining the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait to the south-east, the Indian Ocean at the southern cape of the peninsula. [22] [23] It enclosed Puducherry and shares an international maritime border with the Northern Province of Sri Lanka at Pamban Island. The Palk Strait and the chain of low sandbars and islands known as Rama's Bridge separate the region from Sri Lanka, which lies off the southeastern coast. [24] [25] The southernmost tip of mainland India is at Kanyakumari where the Indian Ocean meets the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. [26] Andhra state was split from the state in 1953 and the state was further re-organized in 1956 when Kerala was formed by the merger of Travancore-Cochin state (except Sengottai taluk) with the Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk of South Canara district. The southern part of Travancore-Cochin, Kanyakumari district, along with Taluk, was transferred to Madras State. The Laccadive and Minicoy Islands were separated from Malabar District to form a new Union Territory namely Laccadive, Amindivi, and Minicoy Islands. [18] [19] The area shrank to 60,362 sq mi (156,340 km2) and 50,216 sq mi (130,060 km2) in 1956. [22]
As per the 1951 census, the state had a population of 57,016,002 which later became 35,734,489 in 1953 after the split of Andhra and 30,119,047 in 1956. [22] [27] Hinduism was the major religion with 86.8% followed by Islam at 9% and Christianity at 4%. [22] After 1953, Tamil was the major language followed by Malayalam (spoken in Malabar district before re-organization in 1956) and Telugu. [22]
O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar was the Premier of Madras Presidency during the Independence and served till 6 April 1949. [28] P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja was the chief minister till April 1952 till the first elections were held in 1952. [29] As laid down by the constitution, the state had 375 seats in the assembly. [16] In 1952 elections, the Indian National Congress emerged as the single largest party in the assembly and formed the government with Chakravarti Rajagopalachari as the chief minister. [28] In 1953, Potti Sriramulu went on a fast until death calling for a separate state for Telugu speaking people, which led to riots post his death. [30] Andhra state was carved out of the Madras state in 1953. [18]
Rajaji removed controls on food grains and introduced a new education policy based on family vocation in 1953. [31] According to this policy, students had to go to school in the morning and to compulsorily learn the family vocation practiced by their parents after school. It was opposed as casteist and opposed by Periyar. [32] It was put on hold on 29 July 1953 and dropped altogether on 18 May 1954. [33]
On 13 April 1954, K. Kamaraj became the chief minister of Madras state. [28] The state boundaries were re-organized further in 1956. [19] Kamaraj opened a primary school for every square mile and eventually made school education free. [34] He expanded the Midday Meal Scheme to cover all public schools. [35] He introduced free school uniforms to weed out caste, creed and class distinctions among school children. [36] The literacy rate went up from 19% to 37% during his tenure. [37] Major irrigation schemes were planned in Kamaraj's period and more than ten dams and irrigation canals were built across the state. [37] He established more than 13 industrial estates and brought many industries and research facilities to the state including Neyveli Lignite Corporation, BHEL at Trichy, Integral Coach Factory and IIT Madras. [37] Kamaraj remained chief minister for three consecutive terms, winning elections in 1957 and 1962. [28] In 1949, C. N. Annadurai, a follower of Periyar, formed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). [38] On 2 October 1963, he resigned as the chief minister and proposed that all senior Congress leaders should resign from their posts to devote all their energy to the re-vitalization of the congress party which would later be known as the Kamaraj Plan. [39]
M. Bhaktavatsalam became the chief minister post the resignation of Kamaraj. [28] During his tenure, the state witnessed Anti-Hindi agitations in response to the Union Government's Official Languages Act passed in 1963 which planned to introduce Hindi as compulsory language and to rejected the demands to make Tamil the medium of instruction in colleges. [40] On 7 March 1964, Bhaktavatsalam recommended the introduction of a three-language formula comprising English, Hindi and Tamil. [41] [42] [43] The amendment to the original act was passed in November 1967, accepting the three language formula where-in English will continue to be an additional language used for official communications. [44] The Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu led to the rise of Dravidian parties that formed Tamil Nadu's first government in 1967. [45]
In 1967, the DMK won the elections and formed the first non-Congress government under Annadurai. [46] The 1967 elections also resulted in an electoral fusion among the non-Congress parties to avoid a split in the Opposition votes with former chief minister Rajagopalachari leaving the Congress to found the right-wing Swatantra Party. In 1967, the state government legalized self-respect marriages and announced the distribution of rice at subsidized prices through the public distribution system. [47] [48] In 1969, the state government proposed renaming the state to Tamil Nadu and on 14 January 1969, the state was renamed Tamil Nadu. [20]
Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population, Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, who speak the Tamil language, one of the longest surviving classical languages and which serves as its official language. The capital and largest city is Chennai.
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari BR, popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji, was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence activist. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as when India became a republic in 1950 the office was abolished. He was also the only Indian-born Governor-General, as all previous holders of the post were British nationals. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname 'Mango of Salem'.
South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area and 20% of India's population. It is bound by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west and the Indian Ocean in the south. The geography of the region is diverse, with two mountain ranges, the Western and Eastern Ghats, bordering the plateau heartland. The Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Vaigai rivers are important non-perennial sources of water. Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Kochi are the largest urban areas in the region.
Travancore–Cochin, officially the United State of Travancore and Cochin and later the State of Travancore–Cochin, was a short-lived state of India. It was formed through the merger of two former kingdoms, Travancore and Cochin on 1 July 1949. Its original capital was Thiruvananthapuram.
Minjur Bhakthavatsalam was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the chief minister of Madras State from 2 October 1963 to 6 March 1967. He was the last Congress chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the last to have taken part in the Indian independence movement.
Politics of Tamil Nadu is the politics related to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
P. Kakkan or fondly known as Kakkan, was an Indian politician and freedom fighter who served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, Member of Parliament, President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and in various ministerial posts in Congress governments in the erstwhile Madras state between 1957 and 1967.
Kumaraswami Kamaraj, popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He also served as the president of the Indian National Congress between 1964–1967 and was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri and later Indira Gandhi to the position of Prime Minister of India, because of which he was widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s. Later, he was the founder and president of the Indian National Congress (O).
The fourth legislative assembly election of Madras State was held in February 1967. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led coalition under the leadership of C.N. Annadurai won the election defeating the Indian National Congress (Congress). Anti-Hindi agitations, the rising prices of essential commodities, and a shortage of rice were the dominant issues. K. Kamaraj's resignation as the Chief Minister in 1963, to concentrate on party affairs, along with persistent rumors of corruption had weakened the incumbent Congress Government. This was the second time after Communist Party of India winning Kerala assembly elections in 1957, for a non-Congress party to gain the majority in a state in India, and the last time that Congress held power in Tamil Nadu. It was the first time a party or pre-election alliance formed a non-Congress government with an absolute majority. It marked the beginning of Dravidian dominance in the politics of Tamil Nadu. Annadurai, who became the first non-Congress chief minister of post-independence Tamil Nadu, died in office in 1969 and V.R. Nedunchezhiyan took over as acting chief minister.
M. Alagappa Manickavelu Naicker or simply, M. A. Manickavelu was an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Commonweal Party. He served as the Minister of Revenue for the Madras state from 1952 to 1962. He also served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1962 to 1964. During 1964-70 he was the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council.
The first legislative assembly Election to the Madras state based on universal adult suffrage was held in 27 March 1952. This was the first election held in Madras state after the Indian Independence. This election was officially known as the 1951 Madras State Election, even though through delays, actual voting didn't take place until early 1952.
The second legislative assembly election to the Madras state was held on 31 March 1957. This was the first election held after the linguistic reorganisation of Madras State in 1956. Indian National Congress and its leader, K. Kamaraj won the election and defeated their rival, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. In 1954, due to the resignation of C. Rajagopalachari, for his controversial Kula Kalvi Thittam, the leadership of Congress was contested between K. Kamaraj, and C. Subramaniam. Eventually, K. Kamaraj, won the support of the party, was elected leader and chief minister of Madras State in 1954. In a surprise move, he appointed both M. Bhaktavatsalam and C. Subramaniam, to his cabinet, allowing great unity amongst the Congress that ruled the state of Madras, for the next decade. This election saw future DMK leaders M. Karunanidhi and K. Anbazhagan win their first MLA seats in the legislative assembly.
The third legislative assembly election to the Madras state was held on 21 February 1962. The Indian National Congress party, led by K. Kamaraj, won the election. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made significant in-roads in the election and emerged as the second party for the first time by winning 50 seats. 1962 Election remains the most recent election in which Indian National Congress to form a majority Government in the State as its support was heavily declined due to rise of Dravidian political parties.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members, all of whom are democratically elected using the first-past-the-post system. The presiding officer of the Assembly is the Speaker. The term of the Assembly is five years, unless dissolved earlier.
The second legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency after the establishment of a bicameral legislature by the Government of India Act of 1935 was held in 1946. The election was held after 6 years of Governor's rule starting from 1939, when the Indian National Congress government of C. Rajagopalachari resigned protesting Indian involvement in World War II. This was the last election held in the presidency - after Indian independence in 1947, the presidency became the Madras state. The election was held simultaneously with that of the Legislative Council. The Congress swept the polls by winning 163 out of 215 seats. The years after this election saw factionalism in Madras Congress party with divisions across regional and communal lines. Competition among T. Prakasam, C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj resulted in the election of Prakasam as the prime minister initially. But he was later defeated by Omandur Ramaswamy Reddiar with Kamaraj's support. In turn, Reddiar himself was ousted to make way for P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja with the support of Kamaraj.
The second legislative council election for the Madras Presidency after the establishment of a bicameral legislature by the Government of India Act of 1935 was held in March 1946. The election was held after 6 years of Governor's rule starting from 1939, when the Indian National Congress government of C. Rajagopalachari resigned protesting Indian involvement in World War II. This was the last direct election held for the Madras Legislative Council in the presidency - after Indian independence in 1947, the presidency became the Madras state and direct elections to the council were abolished. The election was held simultaneously with that of the Legislative Assembly. The Congress swept the polls by winning 32 out of 46 seats. The years after this election saw factionalism in Madras Congress party with divisions across regional and communal lines. Competition among T. Prakasam, C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj resulted in the election of Prakasam as the Prime Minister initially. But he was later defeated by Omandur Ramaswamy Reddiar with Kamaraj's support. In turn, Reddiar himself was ousted to make way for P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja with the support of Kamaraj.
The first Legislative Assembly of Madras state was constituted in May 1952. This was following the first election held in Madras state after the Indian Independence.
Tamil Nadu Day, also referred to as Tamil Nadu Dhinam, is a holiday celebrated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to commemorate the formation of the state. Tamil Nadu was created on 1 November 1956 with the name Madras State. On 18 July 1967, Madras State was officially renamed to Tamil Nadu.
Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satyaputras, the Keralaputras, as far as Tamraparni
Theosophical Society provided the framework for action within which some of its Indian and British members worked to form the Indian National Congress.