Every year, the State government holds birth or death anniversaries of over two dozen personalities but there has never been any tradition to observe the establishment of the present State of Tamil Nadu, which completes 60 years of existence on Tuesday.
On the contrary, other southern States such as Karnataka and Kerala which celebrate their formation days as Kannada Rajyothsava day and Piravi day respectively.
Till Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in June 2014, the day was observed as the State formation day by AP.
Explaining why the day does not hold any significance for Tamil Nadu, Panruti S. Ramachandran, veteran politician and a prominent face of the ruling AIADMK, says “we were the original Madras Presidency, from which all other neighbouring States were created. This is why these States are celebrating their new-found identity. There is no point in our celebration as Tamil Nadu was not a newly-formed State.”
However, Pe. Su. Mani, chronicler of Tamil Nadu history and a close associate of M.P. Sivagnana Gramani, popularly called Ma. Po.Si, holds the Congress government of the 1950s responsible for the practice. He says the Congress government did not want to give credit to Ma. Po.Si., who had fought for the retention of Tamil-speaking areas in Tamil Nadu at the time of re-organisation of States. It was because of the efforts of leaders including Ma. Po. Si and Nesamoney that Tirutanni, Shencottah and Kanniyakumari became part of Tamil Nadu. Countering the contention, A. Gopanna, head of the media wing of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee , recalls that even in the early 1920s, the Congress partygave its clearance for formation of State-level units on linguistic lines. In the 1950s, C. Subramaniam, who was number two in the Kamaraj Cabinet, had even said that the State could be called “Tamil Nadu” in Tamil, even as the term, “Madras” be retained in English. At the same time, the leadership of the party was conscious of fissiparous tendencies becoming dominant.
Echoing Mr Mani’s observation, R. Thangathurai, another chronicler of the State’s political history, feels that Ma. Po. Si, who hailed from a modest background, had not been recognised to the extent he deserved, considering his services to the State and Tamil literature.
Nevertheless, K.S. Radhakrishnan, spokesperson of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) says the focus now should be to create awareness and debate among the present younger generations whether the re-organisation of States in the 1950s has been beneficial to Tamil Nadu or not, and if the State has suffered, efforts should be taken to find remedies.
In the meantime, DMK president M. Karunanidhi recalled that when C.N. Annadurai was Chief Minister in 1967, he had moved a resolution in the Assembly for renaming the State as Tamil Nadu. Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss called upon people of Tamil Nadu to strive for what leaders of yesteryear had fought at the time of re-organisation of States.
