Tamil Nadu vs Tamizhagam: State name has politico-linguistic history

It’s a week since the row began, but the dust has not settled yet on Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s remark on the usage of the word, Tamizhagam. On the contrary, his abrupt walkout in the state assembly on Monday (January 9) and Raj Bhavan’s Pongal invite in Tamil, referring to Ravi as Tamizhagam Governor, has widened the rift between the state government and the Governor.

Interestingly, a vast majority of the state population, which hitherto used ‘Tamil Nadu’ and ‘Tamizhagam’ interchangeably, without any kind of political connotation, is now consciously avoiding the latter.

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In Tamil, while nadu per se does mean nation, the nadu in ‘Tamil Nadu’ was never used in the sense of ‘nation’. It perhaps owes its origin to the nadu used in the Chola period — as an administrative unit. 

“The Chola kingdom was divided into nine mandalams or provinces. Under each mandalam there would be a group of kottams or valanadus,” explained an epigraphist who pleaded anonymity keeping in mind the sensitivity of the subject.

“They were further divided as nadus. Under each nadu there was a group of villages called ur. It is unfortunate that what was once used as an equivalent to today’s sense of ‘district’, has now been perceived as a separate nation or country,” the epigraphist said.

Language nuances

Tholkappiyam, the ancient Tamil grammar text, says: “Ella sollum porul kurithanavey.” This roughly translates to: “Each word has a specific meaning”. In Tamil, even a single letter can carry enough weight to change the meaning of the word it is used in. It is on this premise that one needs to understand the usage of the word Tamizhagam.

Split into two, Tamizhagam can be read as Tamil and akam. While the former denotes the language, the latter means ‘interior’ or ‘inner’. If we read it together, the word gives the meaning Thamizhai agaththey konda nilam, ‘the land which innately has Tamil’.

“One cannot separate a language from its land. In ancient times, the state has been referred to by various names in Sangam texts as ‘Tamil Nadu’, ‘Tamizhagam’ and ‘Tamil Koorum Nal Ulagu’ (‘A good world that speaks Tamil’). The three chieftains —  Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas —  had their own pieces of land, called nadu. Hence, the areas ruled by them were known as Chera Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandya Nadu, respectively. 

Similarly, Chera was referred to as malai naadan (‘he whose land is hilly’), Chola as vala naadan (‘he whose land is fertile’, since it was on the Cauvery basin), and Pandya as then naadan (‘he from the south’),” said poet Magudeswaran while speaking with The Federal.

He also cited the Sangam text Paripaadal, which has a line in one of the poems that goes — Thandamizh veli thamizhnaattagam, meaning ‘the landscape which has Tamil as a protective gate’.

“It would be redundant to use both  akam and nadu in a word. So it would be odd to say Tamizhaga Nadu or Tamil Aganaadu. But the line in Paripaadal says Thamizhnaattu Agam, meaning ‘in the interior of Tamil Nadu’ that actually emphasises the suffix nadu — the land within the specified boundaries,” he added.

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“Let us use ‘Tamizhagam’ in a broader aspect for regions wherever Tamil has ruled across the world, but we should use ‘Tamil Nadu’ for this state,” said Magudeswaran.

Fear of separatist sentiments

The Tamizhagam  row is basically sectarian politics being played by the right wing at the wrong time.

When CN Annadurai, the DMK founder and former chief minister, espoused the cause of renaming Madras state as Tamil Nadu, he would have never expected today’s row in his wildest dreams. All he wanted was to rename the state ‘Tamil Nadu’; he did not worry about using the word Tamizhagam in his arguments. It is evident from his parliamentary speech.

“These are all Tamil classics written more than a thousand years ago and in Paripaadal it is stated ‘Thandamizh veli Thamizh Nattu akamellam’, which means ‘Tamil Nad which is surrounded by sweet Tamil on all the three sides’. In Pathitrupathu, a classic written about 1,800 years ago, it is stated ‘Imizh kadal veli Thamizhagama’ meaning “Tamil Nadu which has got the sea as its boundary’. In Silapathikaram, it is stated ‘Then Tamizh nannadu’, meaning ‘Good Tamil Nadu’. Manimekalai has the line ‘Sambuth theevinul Tamizhaga marungil’: ‘In the (Indian) peninsula, Tamizhagam is the waist,’” said Annadurai.

He also touched upon the double standards of the Congress which was reluctant to change the state’s name to Tamil Nadu. “I may point out for the edification of the House, that when the Congress government in Tamil Nadu purchased the Jaipur palace at Ooty, known as Aranmore Palace, they immediately renamed that palace ‘Tamizhagam’.

“I am pointing this out to say that the Congress, which is trying to assuage our feelings, is trying to carry the Tamil Nadu people along with them by saying that they have renamed the Aranmore Palace as Tamizhagam, that they are publishing all the Tamil manifestos as Tamil Nadu government publications and that only for international correspondence, they want the name ‘Madras’. They are not prepared to amend the Constitution.”

The then Congress government both in the state and at the Centre feared that the usage of the suffix ‘Nadu’ would fuel separatist sentiments, given the state’s agitation against Hindi imposition. However, it appears Annadurai saw the discussion as ‘Madras state vs Tamil Nadu’, and not as ‘Tamil Nadu vs Tamizhagam’.  He then used the word ‘Tamizhagam’ liberally while quoting from the Sangam texts. Like a majority of Tamilians, he used ‘Tamil Nadu’ and ‘Tamizhagam’ interchangeably. 

In 1967, when Annadurai became the CM, he passed a resolution in the Assembly to alter the state’s name and was careful enough to stress that the ‘Nadu’ in the state’s proposed name should not be read as an individual (read independent) country. “It is in India and, since it’s naming the state belonging to India, there would not be any international problems,” he said.

Tamil scholar Senthalai N Gowthaman said using the word ‘Tamizhagam’ for Tamil Nadu is equivalent to using Bharat for India. “However, the Governor’s usage of the word ‘Tamizhagam’ has ulterior motives. He has no right to change the state’s official name,” he said.

Unresolved issues in using ‘Tamil Nadu’

‘Tamizhagam’ is not Tamil Nadu’s only debate. The state name has other unresolved issues, too. 

The British had changed the names of several cities in Tamil Nadu to suit the English phonetic (such as ‘Thiruvananthapuram’ to ‘Trivandrum’, and ‘Kolkata’ to ‘Calcutta’ elsewhere in the country). The then AIADMK tried to undo this in 2020, amid the COVID pandemic. So, Coimbatore was changed to Koyamputhoor, Vellore changed to Veeloor, and so on.

This led to a demand for Tamil Nadu to be renamed ‘Thamizh Naadu’, with the inclusion of the retroflex ‘zh’ in the place of ‘l’ in ‘Tamil’. The retroflex letter ‘zh’ is known in Tamil as sirappu zhagaram, meaning a special kind of letter that adds beauty to the language.

The reason why Annadurai wanted to rename Madras as Tamil Nadu and not as Thamizh Naadu was because of the difficulty faced by non-Tamils in pronouncing the ‘zh’ sound. Considering even many Tamils born in the state mispronounce ‘zh’ as ‘la’, Annadurai thought ‘Tamil Nadu’ would be a better idea.

Tamilians in the state are faced with another dilemma — whether Tamil Nadu, while written in Tamil, should be one word or two. While once practice is to write it as two words, as is done in English, the other is to write it as ‘TamilNadu’, since that’s how it would naturally be written in Tamil (where the noun and adjective are mostly joined into one word). There is no uniformity found in Tamil media as well with regard to how the name is written. 

Meanwhile, the Governor is in no mood to give up his stance. In an invitation sent to Tamil Nadu ministers and MPs for a tea party organised at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on January 14, the state government emblem is missing and the Governor is referred to as ‘Tamizhaga Aalunar’ (‘Governor of Tamizhagam’).