Image used for representational purposes. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
While the State celebrates ‘Tamil Nadu Day’, the people of Nilgiris have appealed to the Chief Minister to consider the long-pending demand of the hill people to restore the name of one of India’s most popular hill stations.
The popular name of Ootacamund, or Ooty in short, was inexplicably Sanskritised as Udhagamandalam in 1972. The people of the Nilgiris have been pleading to restore the world-famous name for years. The name of Ooty has been a source of pride for generations of local indigenous people, appealed D. Venugopal of the Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC).
When the issue of changing the name of Madras State to Tamil Nadu was debated in the Rajya Sabha in 1962, Anna explained what the Tamils would gain from the change of name. He said, “We gain satisfaction sentimentally; we gain the satisfaction that an ancient name is inculcated in the hearts of millions and scores of millions of people. Is that not enough compensation for the small trouble of changing the name?” The same sentiment is echoed by the people of Nilgiris today.
Ootacamund was not an English name but a derivative of the original indigenous Dravidian name. A long-time resident of the Nilgiris, Rev A. Metz wrote in 1830, “Where Stonehouse [the first house built in Ootacamund by its founder John Sullivan] now stands, there was formerly a Toda mund, called by the Badagas ‘Hottegemund’, and this gave its name to the whole valley.” It is worth remembering that all the thousands of place names in the entire Nilgiri district have always been Badaga names.
Sir Frederic Price, in his monumental work, ‘Ootacamund. A History “ published in 1908 dealt at length with the origin of the name and agreed and concluded, ‘The word is certainly no corruption of the Tamil tongue, nor has its origin in anything derived from the English language’.
The ‘Badaga-English Dictionary’ by Paul Hockings and Christiane Pilot-Raichoor (1992) confirms that ‘Hotege’ is the common Badaga name for Ootacamund, which is true even today. The spelling of the name, however, had to go through several versions such as Hottegemund, Utakamand, Whatakaimand, Whotakamund, Wootaycamund, Wotaycamund, Wotokymand, Wuttacamund and so on.
The official name of the town has always been Hottegemund, as can be seen in the image of the Ooty railway station taken after independence. Restoring the name of Ooty would not only make the indigenous people like the Todas, Badagas and Kotas happy but would also be welcomed by its lovers in India and abroad.
Published – July 18, 2026 04:33 pm IST
