Tamil Nadu (India)

Last modified: 2004-11-20 by rob raeside
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• Tamil Nadu national flag
• Free Tamil Movement
• Tamil National Liberation Front

• India
• Aspirant Peoples

The following was posted on a Tamil Nadu nationalist site:

There is no "official national flag" for the nation of Tamil Nadu. A Tamil Nadu National Flag was raised in the city of Coimbatore (Kovai) on January 25, 1968. Tamil Nadu students held Anti-Hindi Imposition Marches (Rallies) throughout Tamil Nadu on that day. In Coimbatore City, after marching through the main streets the students gathered at the Va Voo Chithamparanar Park (VOC Park) at the center of the city. The convener of this Anti-Hindi Imposition March in Coimbatore said, addressing the huge gathering, that independence for Tamil Nadu is the only way to end Hindi-imposition on Tamil Nadu. Amidst thunderous applause, he raised a Tamil Nadu National Flag. He saluted the flag and everyone stood in attention. It was a rather simple flag with a map of Tamil Nadu drawn on a rectangular white flag.

The flag fluttered in the wind until the meeting ended and students left the park. Throughout the march and the meeting large numbers of Tamil Nadu police were present. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was in power in Tamil Nadu State at that time. DMK swept the elections and came to power in 1967 because the people "punished" the previous ruling party (the Congress Party) for Hindi imposition and the brutal manner it put down the 1965 Tamil Nadu Students Anti-Hindi  Agitation. (Some 500 unarmed Tamil people were killed and thousands wounded by Indian security forces.) The DMK Government under Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai ordered the police not to interfere in the anti-Hindi imposition protests of 1968 but to keep a watchful eye. So police did not interfere in the hoisting of the Tamil Nadu National Flag. Once the students left the park, police brought down the flag and took it with them. My research was unable to find the name of the student who raised the national flag. I have heard that he was from the Coimbatore Agriculture College. This college has now evolved into Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).

The Tamil Nadu National Flag was raised next in 2000. "Tamil Nadu Viduthalai Padai" (Tamil Nadu Liberation Army, TNLA), "Tamil Nadu Meetchi Padai" (Tamil Nadu Retrieval Troops, TNRT) and Veerappan who had joined them only recently hoisted a Tamil Nadu National Flag at their base in the Sathyamangalam forests. A photo of that flag was published in some magazines. The flag had the emblems of the three royal dynasties of old Tamil Nadu. The three emblems are bow, tiger and fish, representing the Chera, Chola and Pandya dynasties, respectively.

For the time being we may use one of these flags. The final flag need to be decided by the Constituent Assembly of Tamil Nadu (Constitutional Assembly of Tamil Nadu) after Tamil Nadu is liberated from Indian rule. Let us work for that day to come soon!

"Prometevsberg ", 20 October 2004

by Ivan Sache

From Flags of Aspirant Peoples, marked as "Tamil Nadu (Free Tamil Movement)":
Horizontal red-black
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999

The Free Tamil flag is used with the colours reversed (black over red) by the main opposition party in the state, the DMK, as seen on their homepage. The original Tamil independence party, the DK, uses a black flag with a red circle, as seen on their site. From this site the Dravidar Kazhagam flag, in the ratio of 3:2, a red circle in the middle in the black background, was adopted in 1946. The black represented the deprivations and the indignities to which the Dravidians are subjected to under the Hindu religious milieu. The red stands for the determined efforts to dispel the ignorance and blind faith among the people and to liberate them materially and mentally from all kinds of exploitation, particularly those of social and cultural. end quote

The governing party in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, uses a DMK flag defaced with a profile of the late DMK leader Annadurai.  Their site gives it as an flash image,
interspersed with their electoral symbol of two leaves. Other groups include the MDMK, which uses a horizontal red-black-red flag (see the image at this site).

"Prometevsberg ", 20 October 2004

The Tamil National Liberation Front claims almost a third of Indian subcontinent plus Eelam as Periya Tamil Nadu (or Vishala Tamil Nadu)- Greater Tamil Nadu.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 March 2001