Tamil Nadu Day

Tamil Nadu Day is 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 14 January 1969, Madras State was officially renamed to Tamil Nadu.

History

Map of southern India showing the Madras State in yellow before the reorganisation of 1956

After Indian Independence on 15 August 1947, the Madras Presidency became the Madras Province. On 26 January 1950,India became republic it was formed as Madras State by the Government of India.

At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu, Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North Kerala and Bellary of South Canara. Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated to form Andhra State in 1953, while South Canara and Bellary districts were merged with Mysore State, and Malabar District with the State of Travancore-Cochin to form Kerala in 1956.

As a result of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the state's boundaries were re-organized following linguistic lines. The Tamil speaking region Kanyakumari was merged to Madras state which was earlier a part of Travancore-Cochin.

In 1967, all the political parties of Madras State spoke in one voice on their demnd to rename the state as Tamil Nadu. A resolution was passed unanimously in the Madras State Legislative Assembly by the government led by then Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai seeking to rename the state as Tamil Nadu.

On 14 January 1969, the state was officially renamed from Madras State to Tamil Nadu.[1]

In July 2019, Five decades after the state was renamed the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced that 1 November of every year will be celebrated as Tamil Nadu Day from 2019 would be observed to mark the formation of the state.

References

1. The states of India since 1947