Arunthathiyar is a

scheduled caste 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 ...

community mostly found in the Indian 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 ...

. The term has two distinct usages: for the purposes of the state government's positive discrimination program, in 2009 it was designated an

umbrella term In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other wor ...

for the Arunthatiyar, Chakkiliyar (Sakkiliyar), Madari, Madiga, Pagadai,

Thoti The Thoti are one of the Scheduled tribes of India. In 1991 there were 3,654 Thoti reported by the census of India. In 2001 the census figure for Thoti was 2,074. The Thoti live in Andhra Pradesh primarily in Adilabad district, Warangal distr ...

and

Adi Dravida Adi Dravida (or Adi Dravidar) is a term that has been used since 1914 by the state of Tamil Nadu in India to denote Paraiyars. At the time of the 2011 Census of India, they made up about half of Tamil Nadu's Scheduled Caste population. Origin ...

communities; while the Office of the Registrar-General, which administrates the

census of India The decennial Census of India has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881. Post 1949, it has been conducted by ...

, does not recognise all of those communities as one. The

2001 Census of India The 2001 Census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871. The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females. Total population increased by 18 ...

reported that there were 771,659 Arunthathiyar in Tamil Nadu, being 6.5 per cent of the Scheduled Caste population of the state.

Origin

Due to their speaking Telugu and lack of mention in early Tamil texts, most scholarly authorities believe the community originated in Andhra Pradesh and migrated to Tamil Nadu in the 17th century. However, the community's own history is that they are originally Tamil kings who ruled the area around Tagadur (

Dharmapuri Dharmapuri is a special grade town in the north western part of Tamil Nadu, India. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Dharmapuri district which is the first district created in Tamil Nadu after the independence of India by splitti ...

), who were taken as captives in war to Andhra and Karnataka in ancient days and only returned in the 16th century as the Kannada-speaking Madiyars and Tamil-speaking Chakkiliyars. Therefore, they called themselves Adi Tamizhar.

Occupation

The Arunthathiyars, although they never touched dead cattle, still worked with leather and leatherworkers and cobblers, and were thus given a low social status in Brahminical Hinduism

Caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

. Many are also landless agricultural labourers and are engaged in bonded labour.

Current status

The vast majority of the community, almost 18.27 lakhs, live in Tamil Nadu, with small minorities in neighbouring states. Small populations live in the Palakkad district of Kerala (40,507), and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh (30,190) and Karnataka (2,959). 62% of the community lived in rural areas, and the literacy rate is 60%. Many Arunthathiyars in northern Tamil Nadu work as landless agricultural labourers for Naidu landlords, and their women work as domestic help in their houses. Some girls from the community are dedicated to the Mathamma cult, a local village deity tradition.

Notable people

Madurai Veeran Madurai Veeran, also known as Veeran, is a Tamil folk deity popular in southern Tamil Nadu, India. His name literally means, "warrior of Madurai". Legend According to the ''Maduraiveeraswamikathai'', Veeran was born to royal parents and w ...

- King and commander-in-chief (Thirumalai Nayakkar Period) *

Ondiveeran Ondiveeran Pagadai (or Ondi Veeran) (died 20 August 1771) was an Indian commander-in-chief who fought against the British East India Company in Tamil Nadu. Ondiveeran came from the Arunthathiyar community and is viewed by them as a hero. Press ...

- King and commander of an army who fought against the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Rao Sahib L.C. Gurusamy Rao Saheb L.C. Gurusamy (1885–1966), was an educator, politician, activist and reformer. He was born in Arunthathiyar community to Kottappa at Perambur, Tamil Nadu. He was one of the founding members of 'Adi Dravida, Adi Dravida Mahajana Sabha' ...

- Member of the round table conference team led by

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...

; founder of Arunthathiyar Mahajana Saba. Member of the Justice Party, social activist and politician * H. M. Jagannathan - Member of the Justice Party, social activist and politician, graduated in law. * V. P. Duraisamy - Politician and former DMK general secretary, current vice president of Tamil Nadu BJP *

P. Dhanapal P. Dhanapal (born 16 May 1951) is an Indian politician and incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly (India), Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He is a former Speaker (politics), Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. P. ...

- Former speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (2016-2021) *

L. Murugan Loganathan Murugan (born 29 May 1977) is an Indian politician and advocate currently serving as Minister of State (India), Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ...

- Current union minister of state of ministries of animal husbandry

References

{{reflist Dalit communities Scheduled Castes of Tamil Nadu