Colonial Tamil Nadu and the Freedom Struggle — TNPSC Group I

Weightage: Mains GS Paper I, Unit I names "Tamil Nadu's role in the freedom struggle" and the early uprisings, with Vellore (1806) listed by name. Prelims Unit III and Unit VI both draw on it. The national frame comes from the aliased UPSC CSE modern history chapters.

1. The two-part question

TNPSC asks this period in two ways. Facts (who, where, when) appear in Prelims. Judgement appears in Mains: why the south rose early, why Madras was moderate in politics, and what Tamil leaders added to the national movement.

2. Early resistance: the poligars

The Nayak-era chiefs, the poligars (palayakkarars), collected revenue and kept armed men. The Company wanted their revenue and their power.

• Puli Thevar fought the Nawab's forces in the 1750s and 1760s in the Tirunelveli region.
• Veerapandiya Kattabomman of Panchalankurichi refused to pay tribute, fought the Company in 1799 and was hanged at Kayattar.
• The Marudhu brothers of Sivaganga rose in 1801. The Company crushed the revolt and executed them.

After 1801 the Company took direct control of the poligar country.

3. The Vellore revolt of 1806

On 10 July 1806, sepoys at Vellore fort rose against new dress regulations that offended Hindu and Muslim soldiers. They killed British officers and hoisted the flag of Mysore's Tipu family, whose members were held in the fort. The Company put the revolt down within a day and executed or dismissed many sepoys.

It is called the first major sepoy revolt, half a century before 1857. Its causes were religious and military sensitivity, not a plan for freedom.

4. Madras under the Company and the Crown

The Madras Presidency covered most of the south. The ryotwari system, devised by Thomas Munro, made each cultivator the payer of revenue. Heavy assessment and famine hurt peasants. The Presidency had a long tradition of English education from Madras University (1857).

Political bodies began early: the Madras Native Association (1852), the Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884) and the Congress session at Madras in 1887. The Tamil press, including The Hindu (1878) and Subramania Bharati's journals, carried nationalism.

5. The Swadeshi years

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai (V.O.C.) founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Thoothukudi in 1906. It ran ships to Colombo and challenged British shipping. The Government arrested him in 1908, and he was sentenced to long imprisonment.

Subramania Bharati, the poet, wrote songs of freedom, women's rights and caste equality. Vanchinathan shot the Tirunelveli collector Ashe at Maniyachi in 1911, an act of the revolutionary current.

6. Gandhi, Rajaji and Kamaraj

Under Gandhian leadership, Tamil Nadu produced three names to know:

• C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) led the Vedaranyam salt march in April 1930 from Tiruchirappalli to the Vedaranyam coast, the southern counterpart to the Dandi march.
• Kamaraj rose from the Congress organisation to be Chief Minister of Madras State from 1954 to 1963.
• S. Satyamurti and T. Prakasam were prominent Congress figures in the legislature.

Women joined in large numbers. Rukmini Lakshmipathi is remembered as the first woman minister in the Madras Presidency government, and Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy as the first woman legislator in British India.

7. Vaikom and the Hindi question

The Vaikom Satyagraha (1924 to 1925) in Travancore opposed the ban on lower-caste people using the roads near a temple. Periyar E. V. Ramasamy took part, and the leader earned the title "Vaikom Veerar".

When the Rajaji ministry of 1937 made Hindi compulsory in schools, protests broke out. Periyar's Justice Party and others led them, and the order was withdrawn in 1940. This begins the long Tamil-Hindi language debate.

8. The making of the state

After independence the Madras Presidency became Madras State. The States Reorganisation in 1956 removed Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam areas. Sankaralinganar's fast for the name "Tamil Nadu" ended in his death in 1956. The Assembly resolved on the new name in 1967 under the DMK government, and the name Tamil Nadu came into force on 14 January 1969.

Hold the three dates together: 1956 (reorganisation), 1967 (resolution), 1969 (name in force).

Common traps TNPSC sets here

• Placing Vellore 1806 as part of the 1857 revolt. It came fifty years earlier.
• Mixing Kattabomman and Puli Thevar. Puli Thevar belongs to the 1750s and 1760s; Kattabomman to 1799.
• Calling the salt march in Tamil Nadu a Dandi event. Dandi is in Gujarat; Vedaranyam is the Tamil one.
• Dating the name Tamil Nadu to 1956. The state was renamed in 1969.
• Confusing V.O.C.'s company with a railway. It was a steamship line.

Memory aids

• "Puli 1750s, Pandiyan 1799, Marudhu 1801": poligar sequence.
• "1956, 1967, 1969": state formation to new name.
• "Dandi in the west, Vedaranyam in the south": the salt marches.

Summary

Resistance began with the poligars, the Vellore revolt of 1806 preceded 1857, and Madras produced early political bodies and a strong press. Swadeshi had V.O.C. and Bharati, and Gandhian politics had Rajaji and Kamaraj.

The state took shape in 1956 and received its name in 1969 after Sankaralinganar's fast and the 1967 resolution.

Exam protocol

• Keep poligar leaders in date order.
• State both a cause and a limit in a Vellore answer.
• Give the three state-formation dates together.