Background
The land
Geography
Tamil Nadu rises from the flat coastal plains in the east to the Western Ghats – the Nilgiris in the north and the Palani, Cardamom and Anamalai hills in the south. The Nilgiris (‘blue mountains’) rise like a wall above the haze of the plains to heights of over 2500 m. The plains are hot, dry and dusty, with isolated blocks of granite forming bizarre shapes on the ancient eroded surface. The coast itself is a flat alluvial plain, with deltas at the mouths of major rivers. The occasional medieval water tanks add beauty to the landscape.
Tamil Nadu’s coast bore the brunt of India’s casualties of the 2004 tsunami. Along 1000 km of shoreline, at least 8000 people died, and 470,000 were displaced. As well as loved ones, the wave washed away infrastructure: communities, homes, livelihoods, schools, and health clinics.
Climate
Most rain falls between October and December, making this the worst time to travel. The best time to visit is from mid-December to early March when the dry sunny weather sets in and before the heat gets too crushing, although the hills can still be very cold, especially at night. In the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, temperatures never fall much below 21°C, except in the hills, but although humidity is often high maximum temperatures rarely exceed 42°C.
History
Tamil Nadu’s cultural identity has been shaped by the Dravidians, who have inhabited the south since at least the fourth millennium BC. Tamil, India’s oldest living language, developed from the earlier languages of people who were probably displaced from the north by Aryan-based culture from 2000 BC to 1500 BC.
By the fourth century BC Tamil Nadu was under the rule of three dynasties: the Cholas, the Pandiyas and the Cheras. The Pallavas of Kanchi came to power in the fourth century AD and were dominant between AD 550 and AD 869. Possibly of northern origin, under their control Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) became an important port in the seventh century. The Cholas returned to power in AD 850 and were a dominant political force until 1173 before the resumption of Pandiya power for a further century. The defeat of the great Vijayanagar Empire by a confederacy of Muslim states in 1565 forced their leaders south. As the Nayaka kings they continued to rule from as far south as Madurai well into the 17th century. When Muslim political control finally reached Tamil Nadu it was as brief as it was tenuous.
It was more than 150 years after their founding of Fort St George at Madras in 1639 before the East India Company could claim political supremacy in South India. Haidar Ali, who mounted the throne of Mysore in 1761, and his son Tipu Sultan, allied with the French, won many battles against the English. When the Treaty of Versailles brought the French and English together in 1783 Tipu was forced to make peace. The English took Malabar (in Kerala) in 1792, and in 1801 Lord Wellesley brought together most of the south under the Madras Presidency . The French acquired land at Pondicherry in 1673. In 1742, Dupleix was named governor of the French India Company and took up residence there. He seized Madras within a few years but in 1751 Clive attacked Arcot. His victory was the beginning of the end of French ambitions in India. The Treaty of Paris brought their empire to a close in 1763, although they retained five counting houses.
Culture
The majority of Tamilians are Dravidians with Mediterranean ethnic origins, settled in Tamil Nadu for several thousand years. Tamil is spoken by over 85% of the population, which is 90% Hindu. Five per cent are Christian, a group especially strong in the south where Roman Catholic and Protestant missions have been active for over 500 years. There are small but significant minorities of Muslims, Jains and Parsis. There are isolated groups of as many as 18 different types of tribal people in the Nilgiri Hills. Some of them are of aboriginal stock although local archaeological discoveries suggest that an extinct race preceded them. The Todas’ life and religion revolve around their long-horned buffalo which are a measure of wealth. Their small villages are called munds with around six igloo-like windowless bamboo and dried grass huts. Their chief goddess Tiekirzi, the creator of the indispensable buffalo, and her brother On rule the world of the dead and the living. There are only about 1000 Todas left. The Badagas are the main tribal group and probably came from Karnataka. They speak a mixture of Kannada and Tamil and their oral tradition is rich in folk tales, poetry, songs and chants. As agriculturalists their villages are mainly in the upper plateau, with rows of three-roomed houses. They worship Siva and observe special tribal festivals. Progressive and adaptable, they are being absorbed into the local community faster than others.
Cuisine
Many Tamilians are vegetarian and the strict Brahmins among them avoid the use of garlic and onion and in some cases even tomatoes. Favourites for breakfast or tiffin (snacks) include dosa (thin crisp pancakes, plain or stuffed with mildly spiced potato and onion as masala dosa), iddli (steamed, fermented rice cakes), delicious rice-based pongal (worth searching out) and vadai (savoury lentil doughnuts), all served with coconut chutney and sambar (a spicy lentil and vegetable broth). A thali here comes in the form of boiled rice with small steel containers of a variety of vegetables, pickles, papadum, rasam (a clear, peppery lentil ‘soup’) and plain curd. The most prized Tamil cuisine is that of the Chettinad region, which draws on unusual spices (including one derived from a tree- growing lichen) to create subtle blends of flavour; its reputation for relentless spiciness has come about only recently, and is the result of a crossover with Andhra cuisine. Dessert is usually the creamy rice pudding payasam. The drink of choice is coffee, which comes freshly ground, filtered and frothy, with hot milk and sugar.
Literature
As the oldest living Indian language, Tamil has a literature stretching back to the early centuries before Christ. A second century AD poets’ academy, the Sangam in Madurai, suggests that sages sat at the top of the Tamil social order, followed by peasants, hunters, artisans, soldiers, fishermen and scavengers – in marked contrast to the rest of the subcontinent’s caste system. From the beginning of the Christian era Tamil religious thinkers began to transform the image of Krishna from the remote and heroic figure of the epics into the focus of a new and passionate devotional worship – bhakti. From the seventh to the 10th century there was a surge of writing new hymns of praise, sometimes referred to as the Tamil Veda.
Music
Changes constantly occurred in different schools of music within the basic structure of raga-tala-prabandha which was well established by the seventh century. Differences between the Hindustani or the northern system (which included the western and eastern regions) and the Carnatic or the southern system became noticable in the 13th century. The southern school has a more scale-based structure of raga whereas the northern school has greater flexibility and thus continued to develop through the centuries. The tala too is much more precise. It is nearly always devotional or didactic whereas the northern system also includes non-religious, every day themes and is occasionally sensuous. Telugu naturally lends itself to the southern system. The violin accompanies the vocal music – imported from the West but played rather differently.
Dance and drama
Bharata Natyam may be India’s oldest classical dance form: a highly stylized solo for a woman of movement, music, mime, nritta (pure dance) and nritya (expression). Its theme is usually spiritual love.
Modern Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu took its present form as a result of the States Reorganization Act of 1956. Until 1967 the Assembly was dominated by the Indian National Congress, but after an attempt by the central government to impose Hindi as the national language the Congress Party was routed in 1967 by a regional party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) under its leader CN Annadurai. After his death the party split and since then either the DMK, or the splinter party, the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK), has been in power in the state. Neither party has any constituency beyond Tamil Nadu and thus at the all India level each has been forced to seek alliances with national parties. From the late 1960s the AIADMK, which controlled the State Assembly for most of the time, has been led by two film stars. The first, MG Ramachandran, remained the chief minister until his death (even after suffering a stroke which left him paralysed). The record of Jayalalitha, his successor, one-time lover and fellow film star, has been less consistent, and her rule dogged by scandal. She and her party were ousted by the DMK in the May 1996 elections and she was temporarily jailed until, cleared of a wide range of criminal charges, she re-entered the Legislative Assembly in March 2002, taking over once more as chief minister after winning the state elections with an 80% margin (her administration then arrested the previous chief minister, senescent 83-year-old Karunanidhi, in a corruption case that some say was motivated by revenge). In the May 2004 national elections, though, the party, allied to the BJP and vocal in its opposition to Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin, failed to win a single seat. A coalition of opposition parties, arguing that she had lost her political mandate, demanded Jayalalitha’s resignation, but she hung on to office, albeit swiftly reversing a raft of controversial policies – such as scrapping free electricity schemes, reducing rice rations, banning animal sacrifices – introduced during the earlier years of power. Karunanidhi, though, DMK co-founder in 1949, got the last laugh and became chief minister for the fifth time in the elections of May 2006. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections the DMK and Congress won 18 and eight respectively of the 39 seats.
The civil war in Sri Lanka caused tremendous stresses in Tamil politics on the mainland, neither the AIADMK nor the DML wanting wither to alienate Tamil sentiment, nor wishing to back Sri Lanka’s LTTE. Whether the ending of that conflict brings much needed relief will depend crucially on the political approach adopted by the Sri Lankan government to the Tamil populations in the island.
Economy
Since India gained Independence in 1947, Tamil Nadu has become the country’s second largest industrial state. With a quarter of India’s spinning capacity, textiles are tremendously important and the state is famous both for handloom cottons and silks and for factory-made textiles. Leather and fabrics have also long been a vital export industry, but new industries exploiting abundant raw materials like iron ore, bauxite and magnesite have also developed. Chennai, home to the Ford and Hyundai car factories and manufacturer of lorries, buses and trains, has been dubbed India’s Detroit. Software is strong too, thanks to the creation of Special Economic Zones of guaranteed ‘flexibility’ and autonomy in working hours. Tamil Nadu is the fifth largest economy and the seventh most populous state in India, but remains deeply agricultural.
