A list of new Union Cabinet ministers issued has triggered a debate in political circles in Tamil Nadu, as well as on social media, by referring to ‘Kongu Nadu’, the informal name for a region in the western part of the state.

Where is Kongu Nadu?

• ‘Kongu Nadu’ is neither a place with a PIN code nor a name given formally to any region.
• It is a commonly used name for part of western Tamil Nadu.
• In Tamil literature, it was referred to as one of the five regions of ancient Tamil Nadu.
• There were mentions of ‘Kongu Nadu’ in Sangam literature as a separate territory.
• The name derives from Kongu Vellala Gounder, an OBC community with a significant presence in these districts.
• The region includes prominent businesses and industrial hubs at Namakkal, Salem, Tirupur and Coimbatore.

Is there any ground for the allegations about a planned bifurcation?

• Unlike Telangana or Uttarakhand, there has never been demand or discussions about a separate Kongu Nadu in the modern political history of Tamil Nadu.
• The debate, therefore, lacks any political or social context.

Back2Basics: Sangam Age

• The ‘Sangam’ describes a period from the sixth century BC to the third century AD encompassing today’s Tamil Nadu, Kerala, the southern parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and northern Sri Lanka.
• The Tamil Sangams or Cankams were assemblies of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past.
• It is named for scholarly congregations in and around the city of Madurai, located about 400 km southwest of Chennai.
• It generally refers to a collection of poems, composed by Tamil poets, both men and women developed in the ancient Southern state of India.
• It mostly deals with emotional and material topics such as love, war, governance, trade and bereavement.

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