Tamil Nadu Day, celebrated on July 18, brings back the focus on the circumstances that led to the formation of the State, as it exists now. A look at history would reveal that in the run-up to the creation of the State, there were several obstacles. At least, one episode of the whole story was violent. And, that pertains to the transfer of Kanniyakumari district to Tamil Nadu in November 1956.
Since around the mid-1940s, the demand for the transfer of four southern taluks — Agastheeswaram, Thovala, Kalkulam and Vilavancode — from the princely State of Travancore (the present day Thiruvananthapuram) and subsequently from Travancore-Cochin to the Madras Presidency got crystallised with the birth of the All Travancore Tamilar Congress in 1945 and the Travancore Tamil Nadu Congress (TTNC) in 1947. At the same time, the concept of Aikya Keralam (a united Kerala) was also talked about. The Maharaja of Cochin, Kerala Varma VII, had supported this idea of the union of Cochin (now called Kochi), Travancore, Malabar and Kasaragod (both in Madras).
Though the proponents of Aikya Tamizhagam had also wanted Devikulam and Peermedu to be included in the then Madras State, the focus was on those four taluks, known as Nanjil Nadu. The Assembly elections (in 1948, 1951-52 and 1954) in the princely State delivered one message: in Tamil-speaking areas, the TTNC was a force to reckon with. It was then that “Marshal” A. Nesamony (1895-1968) became prominent. In 1951, he won from the Nagercoil (now Kanniyakumari) Lok Sabha constituency as the TTNC candidate. The late 1953 saw the Centre constituting the States Reorganisation Commission. The Kanniyakumari transfer was one of the issues before the commission.
