Tamil Nadu got its name 50 yrs ago this day

Though the change in nomenclature came into being only in January 1969, it was on this day in 1967 that the late DMK founder Annadurai successfully moved a resolution to rename the State in the Legislative Assembly.

Notably, the historic rechristening of Madras came at a cost for the Indian National Congress. While the then DMK regime, which was in power for the first time, had scored big time in advancing its Tamil nationalist ideology (riding on the wave of anti-Hindi agitation), its then arch rival Congress, which had ignored proponents of the State renaming demand in the past, ceded its political space to the Dravidian parties.

It was the Congress government in the State of Madras led by K Kamarajar and the Centre that had more than once vetoed the renaming demand, which gained momentum ever since the States Reorganization Act 1956 came into existence.

Irony has no better example than the fact that a 78-year-old Congress functionary Sankaralinganar fasted unto death after Chief Minister Kamarajar summarily rejected his renaming demand in 1956. Sankaralinganar died after a 76-day hunger strike.

More such demands in this regard came in the subsequent years. However, the Congress regime did not pay heed to resolutions moved by socialist party in 1961 and DMK in 1957 and 1963.

Unsurprisingly, in Delhi, when Annadurai, then a Parliamentarian, was asked what benefits would accrue by renaming Madras as Tamil Nadu, he told the Parliament that it would see the same benefits accrued by renaming the Parliament and Council of States as Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.

However, the clever retort and even quotations from Tholkappiyam and Silapathigaram by Anna were not sufficient to convince the then Congress government, which had defeated a private members bill moved by Left MP Bupesh Gupta for Tamil Nadu.

Finally, it was in November 1968 that the Parliament had ratified the renaming bill. Thus, Madras became Tamil Nadu. This brief piece of history should explain Congress discomfiture to Tamil nationalism and why DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday recalled the renaming episode and asked his cadre to take a vow to retrieve the rights lost by the State.