The governor of Tamil Nadu is the

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

of the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n state of

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 ...

. The governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the

president of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

at central level. They exist in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

appointed by the president of India for a term of five years and they are not local to the state that they are appointed to govern. The factors based on which the president evaluates the candidates is not mentioned in the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

. The governor acts as the nominal head whereas the real power lies with the chief minister of the state and their

council of ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or ...

. The current incumbent is

R. N. Ravi Ravindra Narayana Ravi (born 3 April 1951) is an ex-IPS(29RR), 1976 batch an Indian politician and former bureaucrat serving as the current and 15th Governor of Tamil Nadu. Ravi served as the 18th Governor of Nagaland from 1 August 2019 to 9 ...

since 18 September 2021.

Powers and functions

The governor enjoys many different types of powers: *Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals, *Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature, that is Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad, and *Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the Governor.

Governors

Madras Presidency and Madras State

Headquartered in Fort St. George,

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

was a province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu, the

Malabar region The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing ...

of North

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

, the

coastal The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

and

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

regions of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, and the

Bellary Bellary, officially Ballari, in the eponymous Bellary district, is a city in the state of Karnataka, India. History Bellary was a part of Rayalaseema (Ceded Districts) which was part of Madras Presidency till 1 November 1956. The Ballari ...

Dakshina Kannada Dakshina Kannada district is a district of Karnataka state in India, with its headquarters in the coastal city of Mangalore. It is part of the larger Tulu Nadu region. The district covers an area nestled in between the Western Ghats to its east ...

, and

Udupi Udupi (alternate spelling Udipi; also known as Odipu) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. Udupi is situated about north of the educational, commercial and industrial hub of Mangalore and about west of state capital Bangalore by road. ...

districts of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

. It was established in 1653 to be the headquarters of the English settlements on the

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

. After India's

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

in 1947,

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

, the precursor to the present day state of Tamil Nadu, was carved out of Madras Presidency. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu and parts of present-day Karnataka and Kerala.Tamil Nadu Secretariat — Brief History
(

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature ...

, 17 September 2008)

Tabular

Graphical

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1946 till:1972 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1946 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) id:PA value:blue legend: Appointed id:GP value:red legend: Acting Legend = columns:2 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100 Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:TNG PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:TNG from:1946 till:1948 color:PA text:" Sir Archibald Edward Nye (1946 – 1948)" from:1948 till:1952 color:PA text:" Maharaja Krishna Kumarasingh Bhavasingh (1948 – 1952)" from:1952 till:1956 color:PA text:"

Sri Prakasa Sri Prakasa (3 August 1890 – 23 June 1971) was an Indian politician, freedom-fighter and administrator. He served as India's first High Commissioner to Pakistan from 1947 to 1949, Governor of Assam from 1949 to 1950, Governor of Madras from ...

(1952 – 1956)" from:1956 till:1958 color:PA text:" A. J. John, Anaparambil (1956 – 1958)" from:1958 till:1958 color:GP text:" Dr. Pakala Venkata Rajamannar (1958 – 1958)" from:1958 till:1964 color:PA text:" Bhishnuram Medhi (1958 – 1964)" from:1964 till:1964 color:PA text:" Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur of Mysore (1964 – 1964)" from:1964 till:1965 color:GP text:"

P. Chandra Reddy Justice P. Chandra Reddy or Palagani Chandra Reddy (1 July 1904 – 7 October 1976) was an Indian judge. He was educated at V.R. High School, Nellore and Pachaiyappa’s College in Madras. He was appointed an advocate at the Madras High Cour ...

(1964 – 1965)" from:1965 till:1966 color:PA text:" Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur of Mysore (1965 – 1966)" from:1966 till:1969 color:PA text:" Sardar Ujjal Singh (1966 – 1969)"

Tamil Nadu

Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu (

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 ...

for ''Tamil country'') on 14 January 1969. Governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the President of India at the Central government level. The Governor acts as the nominal head of the state while the Chief Ministers of the states and the Chief Minister's Council of Ministers are invested with most executive powers. ;Graphical

Records

* Surjit Singh Barnala is the only appointed Governor to have served two terms in office (24 May 1990–15 February 1991 and 3 November 2004–31 August 2011). * The longest term in office was that of Surjit Singh Barnala who served as the Governor for a period of almost six and a half years (3 November 2004–31 August 2011). * The shortest term in office was that of M. M. Ismail who served as the acting Governor for a period of nine days (27 October 1980–4 November 1980). * The longest term in office as additional in-charge was that of C. Vidyasagar Rao for a period of 1 year 1 month and 4 days (2 September 2016– 6 October 2017).

Powers and functions

Governors

Madras Presidency and Madras State

Tabular

Graphical

Tamil Nadu

Records

See also

Notes

References

External links