Tamil Nadu Government

Tamil Nadu falls under the larger Indian system of government. The leader of the country is the President. However, his role is primarily ceremonial. The Prime Minister takes on most of the duties of the government. There is a two house Parliament. The upper house is known as Rajya Sabha. It has 245 members sent by the states in India based on their population. Tamil Nadu sends 18 representatives to the Rajya Sabha. The lower house is known as the Lok Sabha. Tamil Nadu sends 39 members to this lower house.

Tamil Nadu is split into 26 administrative districts. It has over 17,000 independent villages. At the state level, the legislative house has 245 members.

Tamil Nadu Government

The Constitutional head of state is the Governor. The Head of the Government is the Chief Minister. The Head of Judiciary is the Chief Justice.

All Indian people gain the right to vote at 18.

The main political groups in Tamil Nadu are DMK and AIADMK. They were born from the Dravidian movement. The Dravidian movement sought to make an independent nation for those considered to be the Dravida race. The belief was that in south India all people were Dravidian except the Brahmins. The person who created this idea was named E.V. Ramaswami and he was an anti-Brahmin activist.

Ramaswami never found support for his ideas, other than in Tamil Nadu. Even in Tamil Nadu, the support for the idea declined rather quickly. However, the two main political movements in Tamil Nadu sprung from these original ideas.

DMK, or Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is one of the primary political parties in Tamil Nadu, although it has also been known to influence surrounding states as well. It supported the idea of that there were two races in India, the Dravida and the Aryans. Originally it supported the Dravidian idea of separating into a separate nation, however, now DMK just claims to represent the Dravidians. DMK has fought against the idea of casteism in Tamil Nadu. In recent years DMK has taken on a more global approach. They were successful in convincing the Indian government to adopt Tamil as its classical language and have greatly contributed to Tamil literature. However, they are sometimes criticized because most of their works are about their displeasure with the government.

The AIADMK, or All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is the other main political party in Tamil Nadu. It was created by MG Ramachandran , a Tamil Nadu film star. The party split from the DMK party over differences that Ramachandran had with the head of the DMK party. After Ramachandran’s death, his wife assummed control of the party. Today the main party leader is a female former film actress named J. Jayalalithaa. Stories of corruption plagued her first term in office, but she was was able to be elected a second time. However, she made several unpopular decisions such as banning lottery tickets and tobacco product sales. Control of the government has been passed back and forth between AIADMK and DMK. In the most recent elections, AIADMK was soundly defeated by DMK and was only able to retain 61 seats in the assembly.