Arunthathiyar

Arunthathiyar (chakkiliyar:-cobbler) is a scheduled caste community mostly found in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is also a part and house to an ancient Chera Dynasty region. 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 for the Arunthatiyar, Chakkiliyar, Madari, Madiga, Pagadai, Thoti and Adi Dravida communities;[1] while the Office of the Registrar-General, which administrates the census of India, does not recognise all of those communities as one.[2]

Arunthathiyar community members at an Aathi Thamizhar Peravai meeting

The 2001 Census of India reported that there were 771,659 Arunthathiyar in Tamil Nadu, being 6.5 percent of the Scheduled Caste population of the state.[2]

Current status

At the 2011 census, 59% of the Arunthathiyar population lived in rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Their literacy rate was 58%.

Notable people
  • Madurai Veeran, Commander-in-Chief of Naicker's, folk deity and protector of Madurai[3]
  • Ondiveeran ,Ondiveeran Pagadai (or Ondi Veeran) (died 20 August 1771) was an Indian commander-in-chief in Puli thevar's army who fought against the British East India Company in Tamil Nadu.
  • kuyili ,was an army commander of queen Velu Nachiyar and revolutionary against the British East India Company in the 18th century.
  • L.murugan ,He is the current State Unit President of the Tamil Nadu BJP and Vice-Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes
  • V. P. Duraisamy ,He served as the Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 1991 and 2006 to 2011. He was a member of Rajya Sabha from 1995 to 2001 and also chairman of many legislature committees.He was expelled from the post of Deputy general secretary of DMK on 21 May 2020 following which he joined BJP.
  • P. Dhanapal ,current speaker of tamilnadu legislative assembly
  • N.Selvaraj , member of parliament, rajiya sabha



References
  1. "Tamil Nadu Government Gazette" (PDF). Government of Tamil Nadu. 12 March 2009. p. 3. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  2. "Tamil Nadu Date Highlights: The Scheduled Castes Census of India 2001" (PDF). Office of the Registrar-General. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  3. Vannar, Gokul (18 July 2010). "The story of Madurai Veeran". New Indian Express. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.