Adi Dravida (or Adi Dravidar) is a term that has been used since 1914 by the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

in India to denote Paraiyars. At the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, they made up about half of Tamil Nadu's Scheduled Caste population.

Origin

Iyothee Thass, a leader of the

Paraiyar Paraiyar, or Parayar or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah and Paree), is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and Sri Lanka. Etymology Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who ...

community, believed that the term "Paraiyar" was a slur. He attempted a reconstruction of Tamil history, arguing that the Paraiyars were the original inhabitants of the land, who had been subjugated by upper-caste invaders. Another Paraiyar leader,

Rettamalai Srinivasan Diwan Bahadur Rettamalai Srinivasan (7 July 1860 - 18 September 1945), commonly known as R. Srinivasan, was a Scheduled Caste activist and politician from then Madras Presidency of British India (now the Indian state of Tamil Nadu). He is a Para ...

, however, advocated using the term "Paraiyar" with pride, and formed the Parayar Mahajana Sabha ("Paraiyar Mahajana Assembly") in 1892. Thass, on the other hand, advocated the term "Adi-Dravida" ("Original Dravidians") to describe the community. In 1892, he used the term ''Adidravida Jana Sabhai'' to describe an organisation, which was probably Srinivasan's Parayar Mahajana Sabha. In 1895, he established the "People’s Assembly of Urdravidians" (Adidravida Jana Sabha), which probably split off from Srinivasan's organisation. According to Michael Bergunder, Thass was thus the first person to introduce the concept of "Adi Dravida" into political discussion. In 1918, the Adi Dravida Mahajan Sabha also requested the Indian government use the term to replace the current but pejorative term "Pariah" (Paraiyar) used for the community. Another Paraiyar leader, M C Rajah — a

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

councillor — made successful efforts for adoption of the term "Adi-Dravidar" in the government records. In 1914, the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was init ...

passed a resolution that officially censured the usage of the term "Paraiyar" to refer to a specific community, and recommended "Adi Dravidar" as an alternative. In the 1920s and 1930s,

Periyar Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the ' ...

ensured the wider dissemination of the term "Adi Dravida".

Reservation

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

, Adi Dravida are considered as

Scheduled Castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

, under India's positive system of Reservation.

References

Citations Bibliography * * * {{refend Tamil society Dalit communities Scheduled Castes of Kerala Scheduled Castes of Tamil Nadu Scheduled Castes of Karnataka Scheduled Castes of Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes of Telangana