Tamil Nadu or the land of Tamils lies on the eastern coast of the southern Indian Peninsula bordered by Puducherry (Pondicherry), Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is bound by the Eastern Ghats in the north, the Nilgiri, the Anamalai Hills, and Palakkad on the West, and Palakkad on the west, Bay of Bengal in the east, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Strait in the south east and Indian Ocean in the south. It is the eleventh largest state in India by area (about the size of Greece) and the seventh most populous state.
Prehistory Tamil Nadu's history dates back to pre-historic times and archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in India.
From early pre-historic times, Tamil Nadu was the home of the four Tamil kingdoms of the Chera, Chola, Pandya and Pallavas. The oldest extant literature, in the west and traded extensively with West Asian kingdoms. dated between 300 BC and 600 BC mentions the exploits of the kings and the princes, and of the poets who extolled them.
In early 19th century, East India Company consolidated most of southern India into the Madras Presidency coterminous with the dominions of Nizam of Hyderabad. Pudukkottai remained as a princely state under British suzerainty.
When India became independent in 1947, Madras Presidency became Madras State, comprising present day Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh up to Ganjam district in Orissa, northern Karnataka, and parts of Kerala. The state was subsequently split up along linguistic lines. In 1968, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu, meaning Land of Tamil.
Geography and Climate
Tamil Nadu covers an area of 130,058 square Kilometres (50,216 sq mi),and is the eleventh largest state in India. West and North of the state has lofty hills while the East and South are coastal plains. The bordering states are Kerala to the west, Karnataka to the northwest and Andhra Pradesh to the north. To the east is the Bay of Bengal. The southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula is located in Tamil Nadu. At this point is the town of Kanyakumari which is the meeting point of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean.
Tamil Nadu has a coastline of about 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) which forms about 18% of the country’s coastline (third longest). Tamil Nadu's coastline bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami when it hit India, which left behind 7,793 dead in the state. Tamil Nadu falls mostly in a region of low seismic hazard with the exception of western border areas that lie in a low to moderate hazard zone. As per the 2002 Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) map, Tamil Nadu falls in Zones II & III. Historically, parts of this region have experienced seismic activity in the M5.0 range.
Tamil Nadu is dependent heavily on monsoon rains, and thereby is prone to droughts when the monsoons fail. The climate of the state ranges from dry sub-humid to semi-arid. The state has three distinct periods of rainfall: (1) Advancing monsoon period, South West Monsoon (from June to September), with strong southwest winds; (2) North East monsoon (from October to December), with dominant northeast winds; and (3) Dry season (from January to May). The normal annual rainfall of the state is about 945 mm (37.2 in) of which 48% is through the North East monsoon, and 32% through the South West monsoon. Since the state is entirely dependent on rains for recharging its water resources, monsoon failures lead to acute water scarcity and severe drought. Tamil Nadu is classified into seven agro-climatic zones: north-east, north-west, west, southern, high rainfall, high altitude hilly, and Cauvery Delta (the most fertile agricultural zone). The table below shows the maximum and minimum temperatures that the state experiences in the plains and hills.
Tamil Nadu has a wide variety of minerals with the most reserves in India Lignite(45%) and garnet (over 40%) among others. Tamil Nadu contributes 15% of the total Salt production in the country. Forests cover over 17% of the state's geographical area with several Protected areas of Tamil Nadu including wild life and bird sanctuaries. (almost 90% of India's reserves), magnesite.
Governance and Administration
Tamil Nadu had a bicameral legislature until 1986, when it was replaced with a unicameral legislature, like most other states in India. The 'Governor' is the Constitutional head of the state while the 'Chief Minister' is the head of the government and the head of the council of ministers. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court is the head of the judiciary. It is the fourth largest city in India and is also one of the five A1 Metropolitan cities of India.
Tamil Nadu has been a pioneering state in E - Governance initiatives in India. A large part of the government records like land ownership records are already digitised and all major offices of the state government like Urban Local Bodies - all the Corporations and Municipal Office activities — revenue collection, land registration offices, and transport offices have been computerised, thereby improving the quality of service and transparency in operations.
The 31 districts of Tamil Nadu are listed below, with the numbers corresponding to those in the image at the right. Ariyalur District, which was created in 2001 from the Perambalur District, was restored as the 31st district of Tamil Nadu on the 23rd November, 2007.
Chennai, Coimbatore , Cuddalore , Dharamapuri , Dindigul, Erode, Kanchipuram, Kanyakumari, Karur, Krishnagiri, Madurai, Nagapattinam, Namakkal, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, The Nilgiris, Theni,Thoothukudi, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvarur, Vellore, Viluppuram, Virudhunagar, Ariyalur,
TN government has also announced that Tirupur will be the new headquarters of the Tirupur district which will be formed by splitting the Coimbatore and Erode district.
Politics
Prior to Indian independence Tamil Nadu was under British colonial rule as part of the Madras Presidency. The main party in Tamil Nadu at that time was the Congress Party. Regional Parties have dominated state politics since 1916. One of the earliest regional parties was the South Indian Welfare Asoociatioin, which was a forerunner to Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu, was started in 1916. The party was called after its English organ, Justice Party, by it opponents and later the same was adopted as its official name. The reason for victory of the Justice Party in elections was the non-participation of the Congress Party, demanding complete independence of India. Freedom movement saw great leaders like Subramania Bharathiar (Poet who inspired freedom movement by his poetic skills), Subramania Siva, V O Chidhamdaranar (Industrialist, who managed ships under the free India banner), Thirupur Kumaran, Rajagopalachariar (Rajaji) and Sathyamurthi to name a few. E.V.Ramaswami Naicker popularly known as EVR and also as Periyar, believed in agitational politics and he took the Justice Party away from its original path. The Justice Party which had a moribund existence under E.V.Ramaswami Naicker, died at last in 1944 which he renamed the party Dravidar Kazhagam (DK for short) in 1944. DK was a non-political party which demanded the establishment of an independent state called Dravida Nadu. However, due to the differences between its two leaders Periyar and C.N Annadurai, the party was split. Annadurai left the party to form the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The DMK decided to enter politics in 1956.
Demographics and Human Rights
Tamil Nadu is the seventh most populous state in India with a population of 66,396,000 as of July 1, 2008 (approximately 5.79% of India's population). It is the eleventh most densely populated state in India. In 2008, its population density was 511 persons per square kilometre, having increased from 429 in 1991, significantly higher than the Indian average of 324 persons per square kilometre. 44% of the state's population live in urban areas, the highest in India.Tamil Nadu's population grew by 11.19% between 1991 and 2001, the second lowest rate for that period (after Kerala) amongst populous states (states whose population exceeded 20 million in 2001). Its decadal rate of population growth has declined in every decade since 1971, one of only three populous states (along with Kerala and Orissa) to show this trend. The state has registered the lowest fertility rate along with Andhra Pradesh and Goa in India in year 2005-06 with 1.8 children born for each woman, lower than required for population sustainability. According to National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3), Tamil Nadu registered a fertility rate of 1.8, the lowest in India in year 2005-2006
As recorded in the 2001 All India census, 89.43% of the population speak Tamil as their mother tongue. Other languages spoken in the state are Telugu (5.65 %), Kannada (1.68 %), Urdu (1.51 %) and Malayalam(0.89 %). A significant population can speak more than one language, usually English. Also the vast majority of the people follow Hindu religion. The distribution of population based on religion is described in the bar graph at the right. Tamil Nadu has 10 Municipal Corporations: Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tirupur, Erode, Vellore and Thoothukudi.
Education and Social Development
Tamil Nadu has performed reasonably well in terms of literacy growth during the decade 1991-2001. The state's literacy rate increased from 62.66% in 1991 to 73.47% in 2001. which is well above the national average. A survey conducted by the Industry body Assochaam ranks Tamil Nadu top among Indian states with about 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in primary and upper primary education.
Tamil Nadu has nearly 19 Universities, 250 engineering colleges and 1150 arts college, 2550 schools and 5000 hospitals. Some of the reputed institutes include University of Madras, IIT Madras, Anna University, VIT Vellore, NIT Tiruchi, PSG Tech, CMC Vellore, Madras Medical College, Stanley Medical College, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS). Also Tamil Nadu produces the highest number of engineering graduates in India (around 30,000) every year which attracts many software companies to set up their shop in south India.
While India ranked 128 in human development index calculated worldwide with 0.619, Tamil Nadu has performed well with an index of 0.736 in year 2006, closer to 0.800 which is considered high development and only 0.041 less than 81st ranked China. The life expectancy at birth for males is 65.2 years and for females it is 67.6 years. However, it has a number of challenges, significantly, the poverty is high, especially in the rural areas. As of 2004-2005, the poverty line was set at Rs. 351.86 / month for rural areas and Rs. 547.42 / month for urban areas. For the period 2004-2005, the Trend in Incidence of Poverty in the state was 22.5% as against the national figure of 27.5%. The World Bank is currently assisting the state in reducing poverty High drop-out and low completion of secondary schools continue to hinder the quality of training in the population. Other problems include class, gender, inter-district and urban-rural disparities. Poverty in the state had dropped from 51.7% in 1983 to 21.1% in 2001
The Dravidian movement, which championed the causes of educating the people and eradicating superstitions, began in Tamil Nadu. In addition, it aimes to uplift the socially repressed Dravidian people and drew considerable support from the middle classes for their efforts in this matter. The movement was committed to social justice which led to the expansion of reservations for the deprived communities. Tamil Nadu now has a 69% reservation in educational institutions, the highest among all Indian states.
The Mid Day Meal Scheme program in Tamil Nadu, initiated by Kamaraj, was expanded considerably during the rule of the AIADMK in 1983. It feeds over a fifth of the state's population.
Pongal, also called as Tamizhar Thirunaal (festival of Tamils), a four-day harvest festival is the most celebrated festival of Tamil Nadu. The Tamil language saying Thai Pirandhal Vazhi Pirakkum — literally meaning, the birth of the month of Thai will pave way for new opportunities — is often quoted with reference to this festival. The first day, Bhogi Pongal, is celebrated by throwing away and destroying old clothes and materials by setting them on fire to mark the end of the old and emergence of the new. The second day, Surya Pongal, is the main day which falls on the first day of the Tamil month Thai (January 14 or January 15 in western calendar). The third day, Maattu Pongal, is meant to offer thanks to the cattle, as they provide milk and are used to plough the lands. Jallikattu, a violent taming the wild bull contest, marks the main event of this day. During this final day, Kaanum Pongal — the word "kanum", means 'to view' in Tamil — youths used to gather at river banks to view and select their future life partners, but that practice has declined.
