Madras State was a state of India which was in existence during the mid-20th century. The state came into existence on 26 January 1950 when the Constitution of India was adopted and included the present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Andhra state was separated in 1953 and the state was further re-organized when states were redrawn linguistically in 1956. On 14 January 1969, the state was renamed as Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population, Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, who speak the Tamil language, one of the longest surviving classical languages and serves as its official language. The capital and largest city is Chennai.