Tamil Nadu

Here are nine of the most notable cities.

• 🌍 Chennai (Madras) — the capital of Tamil Nadu; one of India's major metropolitan cities. Also known as "Detroit of India" and a global IT BPO hub

• 🌍 Coimbatore — known as the Manchester of the South and major producer of engineering goods, textiles, auto components, pumps and wet grinders

• 🌍 Erode — major producer of turmeric, milk and textiles

• 🌍 Madurai — place of great historical and cultural importance; oldest city in Tamil Nadu (documented since 4th century BC)

• 🌍 Ooty (Udagamandalam) — major hill station in Tamil Nadu

• 🌍 Salem — a major industrial center

• 🌍 Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) — a major port

• 🌍 Tiruchirappalli — a city of agricultural and religious importance

• 🌍 Tirupur — global textile and knitwear hub

• 🌍 Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park — home to various species such as the Bengal Tiger, Indian elephant, Indian hornbill and lion-tailed macaque. This park is located in the Anaimalai Hills.

• 🌍 Guindy National Park (Guindy's Lodge) — one of the smallest parks in India located within a city Chennai. The Snake Park is next to Guindy National Park and there is a Children's Park (zoo) within the park.

• 🌍 Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park — mangroves provide important feeding grounds for the vulnerable marine mammal, the Dugong. This park has a large variety of plants and animals in its marine, tidal and nearshore habitats. Access is limited to glass-bottom boats. Coral mining has degraded parts of this park

• 🌍 Mudumalai National Park — offers a variety of flora and fauna plus the opportunity to go on an elephant safari

• 🌍 Mukurthi National Park — formerly known as the Nilgiri Tahr National Park; is home for several endangered species and its mammal attraction, the Nilgiri tahr

• 🌍 Palani Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park — this park has many mountains and waterfalls plus a large variety of plants, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The plant Kurinji flowers which blossoms every 12 years is found here

• 🌍 Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve — part of Nilgiri biosphere reserve, the sanctuary has the largest elephant population in the country. Located amongst the Western and Eastern ghats, the park has significant tiger and leopard population as well

• 🌍 Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve — home to various species such as the Bengal Tiger, Indian elephant, lion-tailed macaque, leopard, and the rare Malabar squirrel. This park is located in the Southern Western Ghats in Tirunelveli District and Kanyakumari District

The Tamil people are proud of their long history, with their language being one of the oldest living languages in the world. The area has been home to many great kingdoms, most notably the Chola Empire, which is widely regarded as one of the most powerful kingdoms in Indian history.

Modern day Tamil Nadu is largely influenced by Dravidianism, a political ideology that promotes the belief that South Indians are culturally different from North Indians. This political ideology has since become a permanent feature of Tamil Nadu's politics, and it can be reflected in how the Tamils are fiercely keen on promoting their cultural distinction from the rest of India.

Since the partition, Tamil Nadu has had a turbulent, tumultuous history. During the 1940s and 1960s, Tamil politicians and leaders aimed to create a separate state, Dravida Nadu, with the hopes that all other Dravidian language-speaking states would be united into one nation. However, the movement failed to find any support outside of Tamil Nadu, and thanks to various actions undertaken by the Indian government – such as organising states on the basis of language and culture – the movement died down.

When the Indian government tried to make Hindi the sole official language of India in the mid-1960s, the Tamils reacted strongly and violently. Riots broke out throughout the state, with clashes between protesters and government forces, leading to widespread discontent. At the time, the Tamils believed that the Indian government was attempting to culturally assimilate them. Interestingly, there's an ironic twist: Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India, actually suggested that Hindi should be the sole official language of India.

By the late 1960s, the much vitriolic tone against Hindi began to die down, and the movements were instrumental in ensuring that Hindi and English would be used as the official languages of India.

Today, while separatist sentiments are largely no longer existent, the state maintains a fiercely independent identity from the rest of India, and the state is regarded as one of the richest and most developed states in all of India.

Tamils are fiercely proud of the Tamil language (also written as Thamizh), one of the few living classical languages that's over 3,000 years old. It is unrelated to the North Indian languages, and instead belongs to the Dravidian language family that includes languages such as Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Learning a few words of Tamil will most certainly endear you to the locals.

Although Hindi has been gaining popularity lately, it is not widely understood by many of the locals. As is the case with the rest of South India, English is generally more widely-spoken than Hindi.

English is spoken by most urban-dwellers, so English-speaking visitors should have no problem getting by.

Tamil Nadu provides the visitor with a wide variety of delicious food for the vegetarians and for the non-vegetarians, though most food in Tamil Nadu consists of grains, lentils, rice and vegetables. Spices are added to give a distinctive taste. Breakfast or tiffin includes idli or steamed rice dumplings, dosai is a crisp pancake made from a batter of rice and lentils, vada is a deep fried doughnut made from a batter of lentils, pongal is a mixture of rice and lentils cooked together and seasoned with ghee, cashew nuts, pepper and cumin seed), uppuma is semolina cooked, seasoned in oil with mustard, pepper, cumin seed and dry lentils.

Lunch usually consists of rice with Sambar, rasam, and yogurt along with a number of spicy side dishes. This is called meals. A decent meals costs often less than two dollars.

Some of the famous dishes include:

• Dosai or dosa - This is India's answer to the French crepes, though the answer could arguably have been given much before the question was asked. It is made from rice and black gram flour. Dosas again come in a variety of forms and sizes. A dosa with potato curry stuffed inside becomes a masala dosa. A dosa made from rice flour and fine semolina (rava) becomes a rava dosa. Like idlis, dosas are usually eaten with coconut chutney, tomato chutney, pudina chutney and sambar.
• Pal payasam (rice pudding) - This is a sweet dish made from rice and thick milk.
• Plain idlis- Plain idlis are similar to rice cakes, but they are eaten with a coconut side dish made out of beaten coconut white mixed with a little spice called coconut (thenga in Tamil) chutney. Also typically served are tomato chutney (tomato pulp is used), pudina chutney and dal sambar. Idlis are served steaming hot. They are meant to be eaten with hand.
• Poori masala (poori kizhaingu) - It's a deep fried batter made with a mixture of flour and water and is served as break fast or evening tiffin with potato curry.
• Vada - It's prepared with different lentils and fried in oil, which can be eat with or without chutney & sambar. It can be had with breakfast or as an evening snack. Various types of vada are prepared, including medu vada (made with Urad dal) and masala vada (made with toor dal).
• Idiyappam - This dish is a staple breakfast dish. It is known by either of two names, both having the same second word which means ‘pancake’. The first part of the name comes from the Tamil word which means ‘to beat’.

• Jigarthanda — This drink consists of milk, resin of the badam tree (used originally) or substituted with China grass (commonly known as "kadal paasi" in Tamil), sarsaparilla syrup and ice-cream (vanilla flavour is ideal). It's a very famous drink in Madurai city.
• The famous filter coffee special to and very popular in Tamil Nadu is carefully made from chosen coffee beans, which are roasted to preserve the original aroma of the beans. These roasted beans are then powdered. The water that is added has to be at boiling point for the coffee powder to release its flavour. It is not possible to make this style of coffee with tepid water.
• Paruthi Paal is a very nutritious drink that is very much popular in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Paruthi Paal is regarded as “triple-nutrient” as it is a very rich source of protein, essential fatty acids, and sugars and can be called as an energy drink.

Tamil Nadu has a wide range of accommodation to provide to its visitors, be it the class-conscious tourist or the budget-backpacker. The house owners require the services of helpers to attend to the needs of the tourists. Apart from this the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) has 36 Hotels in Tamil Nadu that are hygienic and suits the budget to middle category travelers.

Tamil Nadu is one of the safest states in India. Nevertheless, be aware and cautious of your surroundings.

As in the rest of India, public displays of affection are frowned upon and may invite unwanted attention.

If you are a Sri Lankan Sinhalese, never ever reveal that fact. You could easily invite unwanted attention from Tamil nationalists, or those who have strong opinions on the Sri Lankan Civil War.

See also: India#Respect

Tamils are often negatively stereotyped as being "anti-Hindi", "anti-Northern", or both. To a large extent, these stereotypes are grossly exaggerated, and most ordinary folk neither have anything against the Hindi language (it is taught at some schools in Tamil Nadu) nor people from other parts of India.

The Tamils feel it's important to differentiate themselves in a country where they are a minority.

Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Civil War are emotive, controversial subjects in some circles. Some people may be offended if you state that the Tamil Tigers are a terrorist organisation.

• To Sri Lanka by airplane. Taking this option will cost ₹7,500 - ₹20,000 and takes 1h 19m. The distance between Tamil Nādu and Sri Lanka is 453 km.