T. Kallupatti

Template:Infobox Indian jurisdiction T.Kallupatti (Tamil: தே.கல்லுப்பட்டி), is a panchayat town in Madurai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Ancient History and Archaeological Findings

Archaeological excavations has confirmed about Iron Age Historical remains in T.Kallupatti. The findings were from Upper Gundar Basin. The early history can be dated back to 5th Century A.D. T.Kallupatti and Chinnakattalai are the few places in South India with Iron Age historical remains of Copper and Gold .The findings were reported by the Journal for South Asian studies. The Archaealogical Survey of India excavated in 1977 . Its documented in the book Distinctive beads in ancient India by Maurya Jyotsna.

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, T.Kallupatti had a population of 10,500*. Males constitute 51% of population and females 49%. T.Kallupatti has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 75%, and female literacy is 64%. In T.Kallupatti, 11% of population are under 6 years of age. Floating population is high for a rural town at 25000

Geography

File:Kallupatti.JPG

Kallupatti

T.Kallupatti is at the Crossroads of Madurai to Rajapalayam and Virudhunagar to Theni Highways making it a rural hub.Western Ghats come on the western, north eastern and south west side of the town. The Town has a predominantly cooler temperature than Madurai city and other eastern areas due to proximity to the Western Ghats.

Community and culture

Town with Initials , the concept of Mother Village

The town has an initial similar to a person and this is actually a common thing seen in Southern Tamilnadu. The Initial for the town is the Name of the Mother Village from which it derives its existence. Its as similar to the relation between Mother and Children. This actually had been the original Tamil culture for years. Here T.Kallupatti's Mother village is Devankurichi(spelled as Thevankurichi) a small village on the road towards Peraiyur. The Devankurichi hill is a symbol of spirituality as one can see it while driving closer to T.Kallupatti. Many people throng the Agneeswaran Temple of Devankurichi for doing the last rites of those who are dead and so its equated to Kasi.

Community

T.Kallupatti is a symbol of mixed culture . muthiraiyar , Telugu people, thevar , pillai and dalits are major communities . Telugu speaking people who had migrated during the Vijayanagara Rule. The major communities are Kammavar Nayakkar,Gaurava Naidu, Ganjam Reddy. Tamil communities like Maravar(Thevar sect), form the next significant group of the town.Brahmin population is now eroded. There is also a significant number of Christian and Muslim population in the town. Dalits of the area are well educated and settled except for a smaller group. Significance identities of this historical place are Ealoor(7 villages) Muthalamman Temple, Devankurichi Temple, Gandhinikatan Ashram, Teachers' training school, Govt hospitals, etc.,. during our independence, t.kallupatti was as a hub for meeting and discussion place of freedom fighters. this place is being visited by many national freedom fighters and political leaders.

See also: Kamma_(caste) and Reddiar

• Ugadi is celebrated with same fanfare like other Tamil festivals and Telugu communities have local deities shared with Tamil communities.

Temples and festivals

Madurai District has the endless list of Towns with unique specialities and T.Kallupatti is not far behind in that.

• Muthalamman (Women Goddess) Temple Festival is a famous Temple Festival celebrated between 7 villages around T.Kallupatti. It is one of the rare festivals which doesn't have any Caste issues and everyone come together to help and celebrate. This is a major shift from the caste related violences during Temple festivals in Tamilnadu and Southern districts in particular. The festival involves each of the 7 villages preparing their own Sapparam for their goddess.Vannivelampatti comes closer to compete with T.Kallupatti Sapparam in terms of height. The festival comes a few days before Diwali.
• Mariamman Temple Festival is a yearly festival involving Tamil traditions. Women take Mulaipari during the festival.
• Solapatti Karuppaswamy Temple - Telugu and Tamil communities do offerings on a regular basis to the Karuppaswamy temple.

Karaikeni Padukalam

Karaikeni is a small village where the Padukalam is celebrated where many villages come together to have different war like activities. The history goes back 500 years when Karaikeni ruler Arasuthevar decided to resolve a dispute between 2 other small rulers. The decision was to contest a war to decide the winner. 1 of the ruler and his army was destroyed but one warrior escapes. His descendants come together every 2 years to celebrate this festival. Now the festival involves a fight between the groups in typical Tamil tradition involving Silambu.

Languages

• Telugu ( Spoken by Nayakkars, Naidus, reddys. Telugu spoken here has some Tamil words.).
• Tamil

Gandhiniketan Ashram

The major place to visit in T.Kallupatti is the Gandhiniketan Ashram. When one travels from Madurai in Tamilnadu along the highway leading to Coutrallam the famous waterfalls, what comes strikingly into view at the 40th kilometre is the Gandhi Niketan Ashram- one of the few surviving Gandhian Institutions in India, still vibrant with Gandhian thoughts and ideals. On entering the campus of this institution located in a sprawling 40 acres of land one can feel the peace and tranquility that pervades the place.

Formation

Gandhi Niketan Ashram which has a long history and rich tradition behind it is the brain child of Freedom fighter Mr. G. Venkatachalapathy ("The Architect of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Movement in Tamil Nadu") and was started it in 1940 to help create an independent India and reconstructing Rural India as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi.

Post independence

After India attained independence in 1947, the Gandhi Niketan Ashram was involved in areas like community development, panchayati raj, and khadi and village industries. Development officials and activists from all over India were trained here to work at the grassroots. The Ashram also played a key role in the Bhoodan movement spearheaded by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Nobel laureate and Civil rights leader of America who visited the founder at Madras twice and got a first hand account of the experiences of Venkatachalapathy in organizing Satyagraha and constructive programmes. E. F. Schumacher, one of the founders of the Green Movement in the west and renowned author of the book “Small is Beautiful” visited the Ashram in 1962 and obtained valubable insights into the areas of appropriate technology of benefit to the rural poor. Schumacher was later seen as an adviser for the Indian planning commission in the early 70s. Late Gandhian Leaders like Thiru Muniyandi Ayya, Thiru Palraj made sure the efforts were taken through the last 30–40 years. Students still wear Khadi dress as the uniform and do all work within school and maintain them without any caste difference.

Objectives

• To operationalise the Gandhian vision of Gram Swaraj by promoting constructive training, demonstration and development programmes
• To enable the villagers to produce their own clothing by spinning and weaving with hand spun yarn
• To promote an appropriate educational system suited to rural realities based on the Gandhian concept of Basic Education
• To eradicate the evil of untouchability and to propagate Adult Literacy
• To train the rural people to keep their villages clean.
• To improve agricultural practices and to teach villagers to produce nutritive food grains
• To educate people on the dangers of alcoholism and wean them away from liquor
• To achieve all of the above to create a village reconstruction army

e-Learning at Gandhiniketan Ashram

An ambitious programme to introduce computer-aided learning and interactive curriculum support in 1,000 rural schools in the country had been launched here. The e-learning/digital content programme was launched by former President A P J Abdul Kalam at the Gandhi Niketan Ashram School in 2008. The initiative helps students clarify their doubts sitting in their class. Schools are given infrastructure required for IT-based education which would have animation and interactive tools for various projects at the high/higher secondary school level.

Public administration and rural development

See also: Madurai District

T.Kallupatti Block comprises about 42 Villages and is one of the effectively administered rural blocks of the state. There is 100% Electricity coverage in all villages. Protected Water Supply is available in all villages under the Block. Male to Female Ratio is 1000-1001 which shows a major shift from Usilampatti Block ( just 20 km far ) where female infanticide is high.44% of Women are employed which provides a diverse workforce. 65% depend on Agriculture. MicroFinance and Illegal Money Lending is very less in the Block as there are 15 Agriculture Cooperative Banks. All 42 Villages are Panchayats and 39 of the 42 are Revenue Villages. There are 88 Child Welfare Centres with most of them Concentrated in the T.Kallupatti Town and are well connected through village Roads. Although Peraiyur is the Taluk the Central Location of T.Kallupatti and its being on the NH 208 provided it with a statistical advantage in Development and so Peraiyur comes under T.Kallupatti block as a revenue firka.

T.Kallupatti Block

Density of Population per km2	319
Percentage of Urban Population to total Population	22.69
Number of female per 1000 males	1001
Percentage of workers to total population	51.12
Percentage of Female workers to total workers	44.24
Percentage of Agricultural workers to total workers	67.46
Percentage of gross cropped area to net area sown	99.54
Bovine population per km2	50.23
Percentage of villages electrified	100%
Percentage of Villages covered by prot. water supply	100%
No. of Police Stations	3
No. of Noon Meal Centre	88

Sustainable development

At T. Kallupatti, 35 street lights, seven sodium vapour lamps at a bus stand and a motor pumpset of 7.5 horsepower used for an overhead tank are powered by a biomass gasifier unit. The unit of 12 KVA (kilovolt ampere) generates 220 units a day at a mere Rs.500. The bus stand and a nearby park are lit up round the clock, even in times of load shedding.

Biomass power generation method

The unit is fuelled completely by Julia Flora, a plant known as Seemakaruvellai (Thorny tree). A feasibility study for the project showed that the plant was available in abundance in the locality. This was critical to ensure long-term sustainability of the project. Self-help groups supply the wood, which is dried in the sun for 10 days and then chopped into pieces. The progress of the unit is closely monitored. The Highlights of biomass power generation method include

• Reduction in the emission of carbon and soil erosion.
• Provides a means of restoring degraded land.
• Raw materials, wood, bagasse, rice husk and other agricultural residues/wastes could be used to generate heat and electricity for agricultural and industrial processes.
• Short-rotation wood species, including casuarina, are used to fuel the biomass units.
• By harvesting crop in rotation, a standing plantation of 250 hectares will grow 10,000 tonnes of casuarina, which is sufficient to generate 1 megawatt.
• A 2,500-hectare casuarina energy plantation could support a plant of 10-12 MW.

Police station

T.Kallupatti police station is grouped as mother villages and as Hamlets under each mother village. There are 15 mother villages.

Electricity

T.Kallupatti has a substation of TNEB which supplies electricity to the town and nearby villages. The capacity was upgraded in 2010 .

Transportation

By road

The Town is well connected by National Highway 208 (India) till Thirumangalam where it joins with National Highway 7 (India) to Madurai in the North. NH208 runs via Rajapalayam till Kollam(Kerala) on the south. All buses to Rajapalayam and Tenkasi run through the town and is the route for Srivilliputhur, Courtallam, Ayyappa Temple in Pamba and southern Kerala Towns including Trivandrum via Shencottah.

By rail

Nearest Railway Stations are Thirumangalam(18 km) and Virudhunagar(27 km)

Economy

Agriculture is the highest grosser in and around T.Kallupatti. Cucumber cultivation yields more revenue along with other seasonal crops. Cucumber sales can be seen when vehicles cross the town and stop near the Bus Station. Rice is cultivated in the Western side of the Town and the block. There is also high level of black soil in the area leading to Groundnut cultivation.

Institute for Village Industries

Dr. J.C. Kumarappa Institute of Rural Technology and Development, an institutional training centre of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) at T. Kallupatti provides Six-month training in footwear and leather goods manufacturing, five-month training in tailoring and embroidery, four-month training in servicing of electronics and electrical appliances, three-month training in welding and fabrication, fancy leather and rexin goods making, motor winding, cutting and tailoring, two-month training in exercise book manufacturing, toilet and laundry soap making, handmade paper conversion (notebooks, file, cover, carry bag, etc.), fruits and vegetable processing, one-month training in spices and masala making, detergent cake making, two-week training in screen printing, week-long training in cleaning powder making, detergent powder, fruit jam, squash and pickles making, and four-day training in bio manure and vermin-compost.Form 2011 this institute closed by the administrates of the gandhi nekaten ashram .

Recent industrialisation

Textile mills, handlooms and factories have come around T.Kallupatti leading to larger number of jobs for men and women. This is due to the cheap labour around the town. Textile Mills from Rajapalayam have opened their units in the vicinity. This has led to jobs for women and has accounted more than 40% jobs for women. Major workforce work in

• M/s Auro Mira Bio Energy Madurai Limited (AMBEML) on the road to Rajapalayam.
• Textile Mills on the Road towards Madurai.
• Paramount Textiles.
• Small-Scale Industrial units in Gandhi Niketan, including leather factories.
• Khadi Units.

Banking

• Indian Overseas Bank covers most of the customers and nearby villages.
• 15 Primary Agricultural Co-operative Banks.
• 2 Scheduled Banks
• 5 Nationalised Banks

Education

Higher secondary schools

• Gandhi Niketan Higher Secondary School.(other than local students almost 60% population from the 40 villages around T.Kallupatti Study here)
• GOVT. Higher Secondary School.
• M.S.R. Matriculation Higher Secondary School - run by Dr.R.Muthukrishan.

Primary and middle schools

• Lakshmanan Memorial English School
• Jaya Nursery English School.
• Gandhinikethan Primary School

Colleges

• DIET - Government Teacher Training College
• MSR Teacher Training Centre
• Nagalakshmi Ammal Arts and Science College

Educational district

T.Kallupatti comes under Usilampatti Educational District.

Politics

Thevar Statue in T.Kallupatti

T.Kallupati was under Sedapatti (State Assembly Constituency) seat till 2009 and now its merged with Tirumangalam(Madurai) constituency after realignment. The Parliamentary Constituency was Periyakulam (Lok Sabha constituency) till 2009 and now it falls under Virudhunagar MP constituency. T.Kallupatti also has Seva Groups for each community. Some of them are Karana Maravar Seva Sangam, All Telugu Sangam and branches of AITUC. Current Representations

• TN Legislative Assembly - Muthuramalingam of AIADMK - Thirumangalam Constituency.
• Member of Parliament - Manick Thakur of Indin National Congress - Virudhunagar (Lok Sabha constituency).

Sedapatti R. Muthiah

A Prominent leader from here is Sedapatti R. Muthiah. He was the Former TamilNadu Assembly Speaker while part of AIADMK from 1991-96. He was also the Union Minister for Surface Transport in the NDA Government led by A.B. Vajpayee. He later joined DMK. Mr. Muthiah was elected from Sedappatti as Member of Legislative Assembly for five terms. He was instrumental in the development of large number of villages and brought efficient rural administration by forming Peraiyur Taluk and T.Kallupatti Union. Many Village Roads connecting to T.Kallupatti were developed. Government Schools were started in many villages and Health care was provided to almost all villages. This enabled him to get a wider support from women and old age people. He is affectionately called SEDAPPATTIYAR by people of the area which later became his name. He later joined DMK after a prolonged absence from political scene.

Healthcare

There is a higher number of Hospitals run by private. Apart from that 1 Government Hospital and 15 Primary Healhcare Centres are available. M.S.R Matriculation school has a Health and Educational Society which comprises Srinivasa Clinic run by Dr. R. Muthukrishnan who is also the Founder Chairman of the School.

An NGO Called Nagar Nala Committee Operating in the town Conducting Free Eye Camp associate with Aravindh Eye Hospital,Madurai every month Last Saturday. It is organised by Its Secretary Thiru. N. Rajagopal Ayya. The organisation completes more than 160th camp 1 years back and still going on.it is world record .

Community centers and marriage halls

• Ayyanar Kalyana Mandapam(Biggest in town)
• Town Panchayat community center
• Kammavar Mahal
• Lakshmi Mahal

External links

• http://www.gandhiniketan.com/