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Madras State
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Madras State was the name by which the Indian state of Tamil Nadu was known from January 26, 1950 till 1968. Initially, Madras State also included coastal parts of modern-day Andhra Pradesh, northern Kerala (Malabar) and Bellary and Dakshin Kannada districts of Karnataka. It was reduced to its present extent by 1956.
It was subsequently split up along linguistic lines in 1953. Under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the States of Kerala and Mysore were carved out of the Madras state.
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Encyclopedia
Madras State was the name by which the Indian state of Tamil Nadu was known from January 26, 1950 till 1968. Initially, Madras State also included coastal parts of modern-day Andhra Pradesh, northern Kerala (Malabar) and Bellary and Dakshin Kannada districts of Karnataka. It was reduced to its present extent by 1956.
It was subsequently split up along linguistic lines in 1953. Under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the States of Kerala and Mysore were carved out of the Madras state. In August 1968, Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu.
History
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
In the 1952 elections, the first as a part of independent India, the Indian National Congress was the single largest party in the Assembly. However, the Congress could not form the government as it did not have a clean majority and the Communist Party of India led coalition appeared to be in a better position to form the Government.. Nevertheless, a Congress government was formed in the state and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was selected by the cadres of the Congress party to rule the state. However, he was not an elected member of the Madras Legislative Assembly. Hence, he was nominated by the Governor to the Legislative Council and took office as the Chief Minister of Madras state.
Dr. P.C. Alexander himself a former Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra governor writes that the most conspicuous case of constitutional impropriety was the one by Sri Prakasa when he invited Rajagopalachari to form the government in the Madras state. During this time Potti Sriramulu called for a separate state by the name of Andhra and went on an unconditional fast until his goal was achieved. He died following complications that arouse during the fast and violent riots broke out in the Telugu areas of Madras State. Jawaharlal Nehru had initially warned that this method of fasting to achieve administrative or political changes will put end to democratic government but after death of Potti Sriramulu Nehru agreed to the demand for separate state of Andhra but refused to include Madras (now Chennai) city in Andhra. Serious allegations arouse that Rajaji did not intervene to break the fast or provide medical help for Sriramulu even though the fast had continued for over 50 days. On a side note, only one other person,Jatin Das, before Sriramulu, in modern Indian history actually fasted to death. In most cases they either gave up, hospitalised or arrested and force fed .
The State of Andhra was carved out of the Madras State in 1953, Rajaji remained aloof from the Andhra State and related issues. He removed controls on foodgrains and introduced a new education policy based on family vocation. According to this policy students had to goto school in the morning and to compulsorily learn the family vocation, like carpentry, masonry etc after school. It was severely opposed as casteist and dubbed Kula Kalvi Thittam (Hereditary Education Policy) by his close friend Periyar who vehemently opposed it. This policy was under attack this from within the Congress as well as outside it. This ultimately led to his resignation in 1954.
Kamaraj
On April 13, 1954, K. Kamaraj reluctantly became the Chief Minister of Madras Province. To everyone's surprise, Kamaraj nominated C. Subramaniam and M. Bhakthavatsalam, who had contested his leadership, to the newly formed cabinet. Kamaraj removed the family vocation based Hereditary Education Policy introduced by Rajaji. He reopened the 6000 schools closed by previous government for financial reasons and also added 12000 more schools. Kamaraj strove to eradicate illiteracy by introducing free and compulsory education up to the eleventh standard. He introduced the Mid-day Meal Scheme to provide at least one meal per day to the lakhs of poor school children (
One of the first political acts of Kamaraj during his tenure as chief minister was to widen representation of the rising non-Brahmins in the cabinet. Ministerial berths were given to the non-Brahmin caste-based parties, Tamil Nadu Toilers Party and Commonweal Party. Both the parties were subsequently 'subsumed' by the Congress.19 In a move to counter Tamil cultural politics espoused by the DMK, Kamaraj made conscious attempts to partake in the linguistic cultural matters. In order to placate Tamil aspirations, Kamaraj effected some measures.20 The efforts towards introducing Tamil language as a medium of instruction in schools and colleges was accompanied by the publication of textbooks on 'scientific and technical subjects' in Tamil.21 In 1960 the state education minister took steps to introduce Tamil in government arts colleges as a medium of instruction.
Similarly the usage of Tamil in the courts received encouragement. To affirm his role in the linguistic politics of the state, Kamaraj did introduce a bill in February 1962 in the legislative assembly for changing the name of Madras to 'Tamilnad' for 'intrastate communication', the bill also proposing Madurai as the capital.23 But no decision was taken on it. The DMK made capital out of this, routing Congress in the 1967 elections four years after Kamaraj relinquished his office as chief minister in accordance with the Kamaraj Plan to concentrate on Congress organisational work.
Committed to his version of 'socialism' meaning that "those who are backward should progress", Kamaraj remained truthful to the simple dictum of his 'socialism', providing 'what is essential for man's living' such as 'dwelling, job, food and education'.24 The great feature of Kamaraj rule was the ending of the retrogressive educational policies and setting the stage for universal and free schooling. Six thousand schools closed down by Rajagopalachari were revived and 12,000 schools added.25 The percentage of school going children in the age group between 6 and 11 increased from 45 per cent to 75 per cent within a span of seven years after he became the chief minister.26
Almost every village within a radius of one mile with a population of 300 and above inhabitants was provided with a school.27 With a view to encouraging and attracting the rural poor children to the schools Kamaraj pioneered a scheme of free mid-day meals for primary school children in panchayat and government institutions.28 This scheme, aided by the American voluntary organisation CARE, was launched in 1957.29 In addition the government came forward to supply school uniforms to poor students.30 To make the education easily accessible to children from various backgrounds, full exemption from school fees was introduced. Public enthusiasm and participation in raising funds and procuring equipment for the schools were entertained through different schemes making education a social responsibility.31 Such measures made education affordable for many who were denied basic educational opportunities for centuries.
Kamaraj's other feat was his role in facilitating developmental programmes chiefly electrification and industrial development. Thousands of villages were electrified. Rural electrification led to the large-scale use of pumpsets for irrigational purposes and agriculture-received impetus. Large and small-scale industries were flagged off generating employment opportunities. Kamaraj made the best use of the funds available through the Five-Year Plans and guided Tamil Nadu in deriving the maximum benefit.
See also
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