Read which all southern states celebrate their formation day on November 1 and how do they mark the day
The south Indian states, barring Telangana, are celebrating the State formation day on Tuesday, 1 November. Several cultural events are being held across these states, highlighting their rich heritage, tradition and language.
The states were formed on linguistic basis after the States Reorganization Act, 1956. Each state has a long history that led to their formation.
Tamil Nadu was reorganized on linguistic basis and it became a separate state on November 1, 1956. It was earlier known as the State of Madras.
In 1967, the Madras state was renamed as Tamil Nadu after a great political struggle by the people.
Tamil Nadu, however, started celebrating its formation day only in 2019. The ruling DMK government in 2021 decided to celebrate the Tamil Nadu Day on July 18, since the state was renamed as Tamil Nadu on that day.
Cultural events are held on both 18 July and 1 November to celebrate the formation day in Tamil Nadu.
The state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 after the post-independence Vishala Andhra movement, which demanded the merger of all Telugu-speaking areas.
The movement succeeded and a separate state of Andhra Pradesh was formed, and on November 1, 1956, Telangana, too, was added to it. Andhra Pradesh is the first state that was formed on a linguistic basis.
However, Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014. The first chief minister of the divided Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, changed the formation day celebration to June 2.
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the present chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, reverted the formation day to November 1 after assuming power in 2019..
The state pays tribute to Potti Sriramulu who sacrificed his life for the formation of a separate state.
When India gained independence in 1947, South India was ruled by the state of Mysuru, Nizams of Hyderabad, the Madras Presidency (present-day Chennai) and Bombay (present-day Mumbai).
The formation of Karnataka was the result of Aluru Venkata Rao’s Karnataka Ekikarana movement. In 1956, the Mysuru state borders were reformulated to include the Kannada-speaking region.
The state flag of Karnataka (Creative Commons).
On November 1, 1973, the name of the state was changed from ‘Mysuru’ to ‘Karnataka’. Since then it has been celebrated as Kannada Rajyotsava, also known as Karnataka Formation Day or Karnataka Day.
The yellow and red-stripped state flags are hoisted all across Karnataka, and people don the state colours on the Rajyotsava day.
The state government honours people who have made significant contributions to various fields with the Rajyotsava Prashasti (awards).
It is the state’s second-highest civilian honour. Many cultural events and community festivals are also held, with the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru hosting the main event.
The Kerala formation day is also known as Kerala Piravi, which translates to the birth of Kerala. It is celebrated to mark the formation of Kerala as an independent state after the amalgamation of three provinces on November 1, 1956.
Before the present-day Kerala took shape, it was part of three presidencies: Malabar, Cochin and Travancore.
The Malayalam-speaking state takes great pride in the language and hosts various events and language-based contests to promote it.
The major reason behind the formation of the states on linguistic basis was the importance given to the Hindi language. The south Indians are opposing the imposition of the Hindi language.
Various political parties and leaders from the south, including leaders like chief ministers MK Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan to JD(S) chief HD Kumaraswamy and TRS minister KT Rama Rao, have slammed the BJP for trying to impose Hindi.
Recently, Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin wrote a letter to the prime minister, highlighting the language issue. He addressed the “aggressive attempts of the Union Government to impose Hindi” and called it “impractical and divisive in character”.
GN Devy, the Chairman of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India told South First, “the linguistic state formation commission was appointed in the 1950s so that greater justice could be done to everyone in the country.”
He further added, “ Language is a constitutional right in terms of freedom of expression. So celebrating one’s language is always a welcoming idea. But if language pride turns into chauvinism it can be dangerous. I am not against any language in the world, but I am against any imposition in the world.”
Speaking to South First, Ganesh Chetan, a Kannada language rights activist, said, “Rajyotsava day is a celebration but there are a lot of issues which overshadow the celebration. The issues need to be addressed at both the central and state levels”.
“Kannada language is facing an onslaught of Hindi imposition and English domination because of technology and globalization. Language planning needs to be done for the growth and survival of any language”, said Chetan.
“Hindi imposition is one of the political issues. Unless the non-Hindi speaking states get together and get an amendment to part 17 of the Constitution, this will continue”, Chetan opined.
He mentioned that they are working on long-term projects to get the Kannada language into STEM. “Unless we get regional language into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, it won’t be relevant. Only cultural and literature involvement cannot sustain a language.”
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