Tamil Nadu represents the Tamil-speaking area of what was formerly the Madras Presidency of British India. The Tamils are especially proud of their Dravidian language and culture, and they have notably resisted attempts by the central government to make Hindi (an Indo-Aryan language) the sole national language. While it has an industrial core in Chennai, the state is essentially agricultural
Apart from the rich alluvial soil of the river deltas, the predominant soils of the state are clays, loams, sands, and red laterites (soils with a high content of iron oxides and aluminum hydroxide). The black cotton-growing soil known as regur is found in parts of the central, west-central, and southeastern regions of Tamil Nadu.
Forests cover roughly 15 percent of the state. At the highest elevations in the Western Ghats, the mountains support subalpine vegetation. Along the eastern side of the Western Ghats and in the hills of the northern and central districts, the plant life is a mixture of evergreen and deciduous species, some of which are markedly adapted to arid conditions.
The area’s population evidently has changed little over the centuries. As speakers of a Dravidian language, the Tamils, who constitute the majority of the population, are understood to be descendants of the early inhabitants of India (the so-called Dravidians), who were driven southward between about 2000 and 1500 BCE when the Aryans (speakers of Indo-Aryan languages) descended into the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the Tamils, the population includes various indigenous communities, who live primarily in the hill regions; these people also speak Dravidian languages. In Tamil Nadu, as in the rest of the country, the caste system is strong, even though discrimination has been banned by the constitution of India. Members of Scheduled Castes (an official category embracing those groups that traditionally occupy low positions within the caste system) account for about one-fifth of the population. Scheduled Tribes (those indigenous peoples who fall outside the caste hierarchy) account for just a small fraction of Tamil Nadu’s residents.
Tamil Nadu is divided naturally between the flat country along the eastern coast and the hilly regions in the north and west. The broadest part of the eastern plains is the fertile Kaveri (Cauvery) River delta; farther south are the arid flatlands surrounding the cities of Ramanathapuram and Madurai (Madura). The high peaks of the Western Ghats run along the state’s western border. Various segments of this mountain range— including the Nilgiri, Anaimalai, and Palni hills—have peaks exceeding 8,000 feet (2,400 metres) in elevation. Anai Peak, at 8,842 feet (2,695 metres) in the Anaimalai Hills, is the highest mountain in peninsular India. The lower peaks of the Eastern Ghats and their outliers—locally called the Javadi, Kalrayan, and Shevaroy hills—run through the centre of the region. Tamil Nadu’s major rivers—the Kaveri, the Ponnaiyar, the Palar, the Vaigai, and the Tambraparni—flow eastward from the inland hills.
Tamil Nadu, state of India, located in the extreme south of the subcontinent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the east and south and by the states of Kerala to the west, Karnataka (formerly Mysore) to the northwest, and Andhra Pradesh to the north. Enclosed by Tamil Nadu along the north-central coast are the enclaves of Puducherry and Karaikal, both of which are part of Puducherry union territory. The capital is Chennai (Madras), on the coast in the northeastern portion of the state
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