Tanittamil Iyakkam is a linguistic purism movement which advocated to remove loanwords from Tamil language. Maraimalai Adigal laid the foundation for the movement in the early 20th century, and it was propagated later through the writings of Bharathidasan, Devaneya Pavanar, Perunchithiranar, and Subramania Siva. In 1902, Parithimar Kalaignar demanded classical language status for Tamil, and the language became the first to be accorded the status by the Government of India in 2004.