The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a secessionist nationalist insurgency to create an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil people. This campaign led to the Sri Lankan Civil War, which ran from 1983 until 2009, when the LTTE was eventually defeated during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, Tamilans or simply Tamils, are an ethnic group who speak the language Tamil as their mother tongue and trace their ancestry to southern India and north-eastern Sri Lanka. Tamils, with a population of around 76 million and with a documented history stretching back over 3,000 years, are one of the largest and oldest extant ethnolinguistic groups in the modern world. Tamils constitute 5.9% of the population in India, 15.3% in Sri Lanka, 6% in Mauritius, 7% in Malaysia and 5% in Singapore.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is an Indian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu and in the union territory of Puducherry. It is currently in power in the state of Tamil Nadu and is the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. AIADMK is a Dravidian party founded by M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) on 17 October 1972 as a breakaway faction of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). From 1989 to 2016, AIADMK was led by Jayalalithaa, who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on several occasions. The party has won majorities in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly seven times, making it the most successful political outfit in the state's history. The party headquarters is located in the Royapettah neighbourhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in a building donated to the party in 1986 by Janaki Ramachandran, MGR's wife.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is an Indian state political party in the state of Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai in 1949 as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. DMK was headed by M. Karunanidhi from 1969 until his death on 7 August 2018. He served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu five times. DMK was the first party other than the Indian National Congress to win state-level elections with a clear majority on its own in any state in India. The head office of the party is called Anna Arivalayam, which is located at Anna Salai, Teynampet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil script is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and elsewhere to write the Tamil language, as well as to write the liturgical language Sanskrit, using consonants and diacritics not represented in the Tamil alphabet. Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, Irula, and Paniya are also written in the Tamil script.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Before entering politics he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He has also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar, meaning artist in Tamil.
C. Joseph Vijay, professionally known as Vijay, is an Indian film actor and playback singer who works in Tamil cinema. He is one of the highest paid actors in Tamil cinema. Vijay is referred to by fans and media as Thalapathy (commander).
Tamil Puthandu, also known as Tamil New Year, is the first day of the year on the Tamil calendar. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the Hindu calendar, as the first day of the Tamil month of Chithirai. It therefore falls on or about 14 April every year on the Gregorian calendar. The same day is observed by Hindus elsewhere as the traditional new year, but is known by other names such as Vishu in Kerala, and Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in central and northern India.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils in Tamil, are members of the Tamil ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. According to anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE. Most modern Sri Lankan Tamils claim descent from residents of Jaffna Kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of the island and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. They constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
The Tamil language film industry has produced and released over 5000 motion pictures since the release of its first sound film, Kalidas, in 1931. This is a master list of listings of films released from 1931 in the industry by decade of release.
Tamil Eelam is a proposed independent state that Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Tamil Eelam, although encompassing the traditional homelands of Sri Lankan Tamils, has no official status or recognition by world states. Sections of the Eelam community were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 2000s. The name is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, Eelam.
Vaali was an Indian poet and lyricist whose works were in Tamil, had a five-decade long association with the Tamil film industry, wrote over 15,000 songs. He acted in a number of films, including Sathya, Hey Ram, Paarthale Paravasam and Poikkal Kudhirai. He was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.
Tamil cinema refers to Tamil-language motion pictures, which are primarily made in India. Based in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the hub of the Tamil film industry is in the Kodambakkam neighbourhood of Chennai. Kollywood is a colloquial term for this industry, the word being a portmanteau of Kodambakkam and Hollywood.
The Government of Tamil Nadu is the governing authority for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, like most other states in India.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly alone has powers to legislate laws covering state subjects in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 235 members of whom 234 are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post system. The remaining member is nominated as a representative of the Anglo-Indian community. The presiding officer of the Assembly is called the Speaker. The term of the Assembly is five years unless it is dissolved earlier.
Naam Tamilar Katchi, is a Tamil nationalist party in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. This party's main idol is V. Prabhakaran and his picture are found in all events of the party..
