Merger of Kanyakumari with Madras State

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The present-day Kanyakumari district and parts of Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu state in India was originally a part of the Travancore-Cochin state. Between 1945 and 1956, especially after the Government of India announced plans to reorganize states along linguistic lines, the people of Tamil-majority Kanyakumari campaigned for its inclusion in the Madras State (later Tamil Nadu) instead of the Malayalam-majority Kerala state. In Tamil, the campaign is also known as Therkku Ellai Porattam ("South Frontier Struggle").

The campaign was successful: Agastheeswaram, Kalkulam, Thovalai, Vilavancode and half part of Shenkottai taluks were merged with Madras as per the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.^[1] The first four were combined to form the present-day Kanyakumari district, while Shenkottai was merged with the Tirunelveli district present day tenkasi district