Tamil Arasu Kazhagam (Association for Tamil Autonomy) ( ta, தமிழ் அரசு கழகம்) was an Indian political party founded by M. P. Sivagnanam (Ma. Po. Si) in

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 was established as an association in 1946. Its goals were to pressurize the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

Government of the Madras Presidency to increase the use of

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, nativ ...

in administration and education, to create an autonomous Tamil state out of a composite Madras Presidency and to soften the pro-Hindi stance of the Congress. The association was allied with the Congress during 1946–54 and worked against the Dravidian Movement. However, it grew closer to the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK) over time. During 1946–54, Sivagnanam was a member of the Congress. He left the Congress in 1954 and turned the Tamil Arasu Kazhagam into an independent political party. During 1957–60, it was involved in various protests over the drawing of state boundaries when

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 ...

split from the composite Madras State. It eventually became a part of DMK's electoral alliance in the 1967 assembly elections. It was also involved in the movements to change the name of the state from

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 ...

and to promote the use of Tamil over

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

for conducting ''Archanai'' (Offerings to God) in

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

temples. In the 1967 elections, two candidates of the party (including Sivagnanam) were elected to the assembly contesting under DMK's "Rising Sun" Symbol. The party was also an DMK ally in the 1971 assembly elections. In 1972, it opposed the DMK chief minister M. Karunanidhi's decision to scrap prohibition laws and switched its allegiance to DMK's splinter group – the

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

led Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK). The party did not directly contest in elections after 1971 and Sivagnanam was nominated to the

Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was in ...

in 1972. He remained as the member of the legislative council till its disbandment in 1986. The party stopped functioning after Sivagnanam's death in 1995.

Formation

On 21 November 1946, Ma.Po.Si called for an informal meeting at 'Tamil Murasu' office, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras. Popular participants in the crowd of youths were Thiru.V.Kalayasundaram, T.P.Meenakshisundaram, Mu.Va and Anbu Ganapathy.After a prolonged discussion,'Tamil Arasu Kazhagam' was formed with Ma.Po.Si elected as its leader.

Ideology

The idea of 'Tamil Arasu Kazhagam', was stressing the necessity of forming an autonomous Tamil State in Independent India to promote Tamil language and culture. The idea of 'Tamil State ‘ was composed of the following features: *1.Citizenship All the natives who consider Tamil Nadu as their mother-land and other settlers who speak Tamil as their mother-tongue would be treated as Tamil citizens. *2.Territory The contiguous areas where Tamils live in large numbers would form the territory of Tamil State with Cape Comorin and Tirupathi as its southern and northern boundary respectively. *3.State Representatives elected by an electorate based on the principle of universal suffrage would frame the constitution of the Tamil State *4.Socialism The economic policy would be socialism. It would be enforced scientifically in the context of the Tamil Society and culture. *5.Official Language Tamil would be the official language in every field of activity. Nevertheless, the option would be given to every citizen to learn any other language. *6.Religion Neutrality in ecclesiastical affairs. *7.Society Upliftment of the oppressed and the backward communities. Social apartheid in any form would be punishable within the limits of law. *8.Arts Secular arts would be patronized

References

Thamizharasu Kazhagam
{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Tamil Nadu History of Tamil Nadu Dravidian political parties Political parties established in 1946 Political parties disestablished in 1995 1946 establishments in India 1995 disestablishments in India