Context

• In April 2025, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced in the Legislative Assembly that all village names ending with colony or containing explicit caste references, such as Pallappatti, Paraiyappatti, Naavidhan Kulam, Paraiyan Kulam, and Sakkilippatti, would be removed from official state records.
• These localities would be renamed, with the goal of eliminating public markers of caste identity and social stigma.
• While the move is symbolic, its implications are rooted in a long and complex history of caste-based segregation in rural Tamil Nadu, as well as in the linguistic evolution of place names.

Historical Origins of Caste-Based Segregation

• The practice of spatial segregation based on caste in Tamil Nadu likely began around the 12th century CE, drawing on the varnashrama system.
• By this time, literature began recording the isolation of toiling, marginalised communities in settlements away from dominant caste quarters.
• These divisions became entrenched over centuries, reinforced by religious movements such as the Bhakti period under the Cholas, which restructured village layouts in alignment with temple-centric social hierarchies.
• By the Vijayanagar period (14th–17th centuries) and under the Nayakkas, caste segregation was brutally enforced.
• The arrival of European colonisers deepened pre-existing social schisms while also introducing new administrative classifications that formalised derogatory locality names in official records.

The Evolution of ‘Colony’ and ‘Chery’

• Historically, the Tamil word chery (or cherry) simply referred to a settlement.
• Ancient works like Tolkappiyam (7th century BCE) and the Kurunthokai poetry collection (5th century BCE) used the term without any caste implication.
• However, by the medieval period, especially in texts like Periya Puranam (12th century CE), terms like theendachery (untouchable settlement) emerged, marking a clear social boundary.
• The English word colony underwent a similarly dramatic shift in meaning.
• Initially used by Europeans to describe elite, exclusive white settlements in colonised territories, the word lost its colonial grandeur in rural Tamil Nadu, where it came to refer almost exclusively to Dalit habitations.
• By the 20th century, chery and colony were interchangeable in rural caste geography.

The Social Stigma of Place Names

• In rural Tamil Nadu, a village name containing colony is rarely neutral.
• Unlike in urban, areas where Railway Colony or Jayendrar Colony may be socially mixed rural colonies are understood as lower caste enclaves.
• The stigma operates as a form of linguistic dog-whistling, instantly signalling a resident’s caste to outsiders.
• This has far-reaching consequences because residential addresses appear on essential identity documents such as Aadhaar cards, ration cards, passports, voter IDs, and driving licences.
• For members of historically marginalised castes, the mere mention of their locality can trigger prejudiced attitudes, discriminatory treatment, and social exclusion, perpetuating a cycle of psychological harm and economic disadvantage.

Attempts at Reform and New Terminology and the 2025 Renaming Initiative

• Attempts at Reform and New Terminology
  • The 20th century saw various reformist attempts to replace derogatory caste labels.
  • Mahatma Gandhi coined Harijan to symbolically uplift Dalits, but the term soon became another instrument of condescension.
  • Leaders like Iyothee Thass Pandithar and M.C. Rajah promoted the use of Adi-Dravidar instead of Parayar or Panchamar, and the Madras Presidency formally adopted this classification in 1922.
  • Yet even this designation eventually became associated with marginalisation.
• The 2025 Renaming Initiative
  • The Tamil Nadu government’s 2025 renaming plan is not a direct welfare scheme but a social reform measure.
  • The initiative aims to replace derogatory names with those inspired by flowers, poets, or scientists, deliberately avoiding political leader names.
  • While urban localities like Saibaba Colony or Velachery will remain untouched, since they are not caste-coded, rural habitations with colony or chery used in a discriminatory sense will be renamed.
  • This renaming is intended to promote dignity, reduce the everyday visibility of caste divisions, and create social cohesion.
  • While it cannot by itself dismantle caste prejudice, it signals an official recognition of the problem and sets a precedent for symbolic action in the service of equality.

Conclusion

• The stigma embedded in place names is not a relic of the past; it is an active mechanism of caste discrimination in rural Tamil Nadu.
• The journey of words like chery and colony from neutral descriptors to markers of exclusion reveals the power of language to both reflect and perpetuate social hierarchies.
• By removing derogatory locality names from state records, the Tamil Nadu government is making a historic, symbolic gesture towards a more inclusive society.
• Though symbolic reforms cannot substitute for structural change, they can reshape public consciousness and lay groundwork for genuine social integration.