Nineteenth-Century Religious and Social Reforms in Shaping Tamil Society in Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka

The nineteenth century marked a transformative period in the history of Tamil society in Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka, characterised by the emergence of religious and social reform movements that challenged entrenched systems of caste discrimination, gender inequality, and social exclusion. This study examines the role of these reform movements in shaping Tamil society by analysing their ideological foundations, reform strategies, and long-term social influence across both regions. Adopting a historical-comparative research design, the study draws upon primary sources, including religious texts, literary works, pamphlets, speeches, archival periodicals, and the writings of reformers, alongside secondary scholarship to examine the similarities and differences in the development of reform movements. The findings reveal that Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka shared comparable patterns of caste hierarchy, patriarchal traditions, and social exclusion despite their differing political, colonial, and religious contexts. Reform movements responded by promoting education, religious revival, cultural preservation, social equality, and the empowerment of marginalised communities. In Northern Sri Lanka, reformers such as Arumuka Navalar, C. W. Thamotharampillai, Sabapathy Navalar, and Ponnambalampillai focused primarily on Saivite revival, Tamil language, education, and the preservation of Tamil cultural identity. In Tamil Nadu, Ramalinga Adigalar, Vaikunda Swamikal, Iyothee Thass Pandithar, and Vedanayagam Pillai emphasised humanism, women's education, caste reform, and the upliftment of oppressed communities. Although these reformers adopted different strategies in their respective regional contexts, they shared the common objective of transforming discriminatory social structures through education, religious renewal, and moral reform. The study argues that nineteenth-century religious and social reforms laid the intellectual, cultural, and institutional foundations for subsequent reform movements and played a decisive role in shaping the evolution of modern Tamil society in both Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka. These findings underscore the enduring historical significance of these reform movements within the broader Tamil cultural sphere.