One of the 19 states of India established on the basis of ethnicity. In Tamil Nada, about 6% of the country's population lives (it is the 7th largest in India). Economically, it is one of India's wealthiest states: GRP per capita is twice the national average. It is located in the south of the country and borders with Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and the union territory of Pondicherry. The capital is the city of Chennai.
The dominant ethnic group - Tamil people - are representatives of Dravidian cultures. They are distinguished by the Tamil language spoken by 90% of the regional population. The Tamil has its own script which is based on brahmi graphics. The language was the primary reason for separating the territories of Andhra Pradesh and Mysore from Madras state.
The latter was renamed in 1968 to Tamil Nadu, thus became an ethnic state. In 2004, the Indian Parliament recognized the Tamil as the country's classical language. However, Tamil is not the language of the court proceedings, postal services or airports of the state, - the situation that causes discontent and fuels the struggle for linguistic rights.
In the colonial period, there was a strong movement for independence in the province that became a basis for the "Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam" political party. DMK nowadays is the leading political force of the state; regionalist, pro-Tamil demands constitute a backbone for its program. The ideology of DMK and other regional parties is based on anti-Brahmanist ideas, and its electoral base consists of listed castes, whose share in Tamil Nadu is higher than the average for India.