Gounder is a title used by various communities in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It may refer to communities such as the , Kongu Vellalars , Kurumbas, Tuluva Vellalars, Uralis, Vanniyars, Vettuvars and

Vokkaliga Vokkaliga (also transliterated as Vokkaligar, Vakkaliga, Wakkaliga, Okkaligar, Okkiliyan) is a community, or a group of closely-related castes, from the Indian state of Karnataka. They are also present in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. As ...

Etymology

There are number of derivations for the title. One theory derives it from the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

word ''Kaamindan'', meaning "noble protector of the country", later modified as ''Kavundan'' or Gounder. According to

S. N. Sadasivan Sivanandamandiram Narayanan Sadasivan (1926–2006) was an Indian author. Sadasivan wrote various books on public administration, the social history of India and management. He managed the activities of the Kerala Institute of Public Administrati ...

the Tamil Kavundans or Goundans branched off from the

s and both might have a common origin from the

Kuruba Kuruba is a Hindu caste native to the Indian state of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are the third-largest caste group in Karnataka. Traditionally, they were agriculturalists and cattle farmers. The origins of kuruba i ...

History

During the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

era, some Gounders migrated to Malayan rubber plantations as Kanganis to manage the coolies.

References

Tamil society Indian surnames Karnataka society Social groups of Tamil Nadu {{India-ethno-stub