Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka are Tamil people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka. They are also known as Malayaga Tamilar, Hill Country Tamils, Up-Country Tamils or simply Indian Tamils. They predominantly descend from workers sent during the British Raj from Southern India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Some also migrated on their own as merchants and as other service providers. These Tamil speakers mostly live in the central highlands, also known as the Malayakam or Hill Country, yet others are also found in major urban areas and in the Northern Province. Although they are all termed as Tamils today, some have Telugu and Malayalee origins as well as diverse South Indian caste origins. They are instrumental in the plantation sector economy of Sri Lanka. In general, socio-economically their standard of living is below that of the national average and they are described as one of the poorest and most neglected groups in Sri Lanka. In 1964 a large percentage were repatriated to India, but left a considerable number as stateless people. By the 1990s most of these had been given Sri Lankan citizenship. Most are Hindus with a minority of Christians and Muslims amongst them. There are also a small minority followers of Buddhism among them. Politically they are supportive of trade union-based political parties that have supported most of the ruling coalitions since the 1980s.
The Tamils in Sri Lanka can be divided into two groups, the Sri Lankan Tamils, who are native to the island of Sri Lanka and the Indian Tamils or Hill Country Tamils, who are descendants of bonded labourers sent from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in the 19th century to work in tea plantations.de Silva, C.R. Sri Lanka – A History, pp.177, 181. Many came as laborers to work in the plantations, but few of them came as business people. Most of the recruits came as they were recruited by the head man in their villages, mostly by high caste Tamils.
Sri Lankan Tamils mostly live in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and in the capital of Colombo, whereas Hill Country Tamils largely live in the central highlands. The Hill Country Tamils and Ceylon Tamils historically have seen themselves as separate communities, particularly due to the nativity of the island, and due to caste level differences as well. In 1949, the United National Party (UNP) government stripped the Indian Tamils of their nationality, including their right to vote. Prominent Tamil political leaders such as S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and his Tamil opposition party opposed this move.
Under an agreement between the Sri Lankan and Indian governments in the 1960s, around 40% of Hill Country Tamils were granted Sri Lankan nationality and many of the remainder were repatriated to India.de Silva, C.R. Sri Lanka – A History, p.262 However, the ethnic conflict has led to the growth of a greater sense of common Tamil identity, and the two groups are now more supportive of each other. By the 1990s most Indian Tamils had received Sri Lankan citizenship, although some were not granted Sri Lankan citizenship until 2003, during the peace talks between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government.
History Initial recruitment
The Hill Country Tamils derive their origins from a British colonial era project. According to Professor Bertram Bastianpillai, workers around the Tamil Nadu cities of Thirunelveli, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tanjore were recruited in 1827Nadarajan, V History of Ceylon Tamils, p.124 by Governor Sir Edward Barnes on the request of George Bird, a pioneering planter. There is also a trading community of Indian Tamils who were not part of the plantation economy. As soon as these migrant workers were brought to Mannar, the port at which they landed on their arrival by boat from South India, they were moved via Kurunegala to camps in the town of Matale. There they were quarantined for a period of a week or more, examined for infectious diseases such as small pox, cholera or typhoid and vaccinated against those diseases before they were sent to Kandy, from where they were dispersed to locations where they would either work on estates already established by a previous gang of workers or clear land to establish new ones. Many died during their first few months of employment. They were instrumental in the establishment of tea, rubber, coffee and coconut plantations. They formed the bulk of the labour force of the plantation sector.
Community development
The community was a closed community confining themselves to the plantations, while actively contributing to the economic well-being of Sri Lanka. However, the socio-economic indicators of the community were among the worst in the country. The community in general was isolated, living in ghettos within the central region as well as linguistically isolated from the majority Sinhalese villagers who live in the valleys. They were captive labour whose entire life was decided by their employers. Any social relationships or cultural ties were only among themselves or with South India. In the 1940s the trade union movement had galvanized the plantation workers into a militant working class. They joined hands with the Lanka Sama Samaja (or Trotskyist) Party, which carried the message of a working-class struggle for liberation from the exploitation by the mainly-British plantation companies.
Sri Lanka became independent in 1948 and the community believes that it became the first community marked out for discrimination by the new state of Ceylon in 1948. In the elections to the first parliament of Ceylon, seven Indian Tamil representatives were returned to Parliament. The plantation workers voted either for Indian Tamil candidates or for Lanka Sama Samaja Party candidates. Dr. N.M. Perera was the leader of the opposition in the first parliament and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was the second largest party after the United National Party (UNP).
Disenfranchisement
The first prime minister, D.S. Senanayake of the conservative UNP, reacting to the possibilities of losing power to leftist political parties, commenced the task of weakening the leftist parties and their associate organizations. Indian Tamil labour had overwhelmingly supported these organizations. According to opposition parties he was also influenced by segments of the majority Sinhalese population who felt their voting strength was diluted due to Indian Tamils. He introduced the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, the Indian-Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1949 and amended the Parliamentary Elections Act and disfranchised the Indian Tamils along with many persons of Indian and Pakistani ancestry. As they had no means of electing anyone to the Parliament they ceased to be a concern of parliamentary politicians. The plantation workers were thus forgotten from 1948 to 1964. They were unable to profit by any progressive legislation. The housing, health and education of the plantation workers was neglected. Infant mortality was highest in the country. Although since the introduction of universal franchise in 1931, strong traditions of social welfare in Sri Lanka have given the island very high indicators of physical well-being. Impressive national statistics tended to hide the existence of deprived pockets within the population and the most deprived population group has been the plantation labour, which had been economically, politically and socially deprived.
Donoughmore Commission The Donoughmore Commission of 1928 recommended universal franchise, and this was also meant to include the plantation workers as well. Page 57 of the report proposed: However, the very concept of universal franchise was anathema to most of the political leaders of that era. Ponnambalam Ramanathan, a highly respected leader, opposed universal franchise as he felt that the caste system was an integral part of the Hindu way of life,Dr. Jane Russell, Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Commission, 1931–1947, Tissera Publishers, Sri Lanka 1982 and led a delegation to London seeking to legally enshrine the caste hierarchy, and dethrone universal franchise. The Kandyan Sinhalese also objected to the enfranchisement of the Indian estate workers as they feared that their electoral base would be diluted by a large influx of Indian Tamil votes. They also argued that the tea estates were built on land confiscated by the British colonial government, and that the Kandyan peasants had been driven from their traditional lands and those injustices would be compounded if the Indian workers were legitimized. Governor Stanley, by an order in council introduced restrictions on the citizenship of Indian workers to make the Donoughmore proposals acceptable to the Ceylonese leaders. Thus the first state council of 1931, which consisted of many Tamil and Sinhalese members, agreed not to enfranchise the majority of the Indian estate workers.
Soulbury Commission A decade later, the Soulbury Commission, which paved the way for the independence of Ceylon recognized the "anxieties arising out of the likelihood of large-scale enfranchisement of the Indian immigrants", The Commission, therefore, left the existing basis of franchise in Sri Lanka undisturbed.H. Chattopadhyaya, Indians in Sri Lanka, 1979, p. 217 D. S. Senanayake had led the 1941 talks with Sir G. S. Bajpai of India and had reached agreement on modalities of repatriation and citizenship, although they were finally not ratified by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. D. S. Senanayake had expressed the wish to "embrace all Indian workers who integrate into the country as members of the Ceylonese nation", and had been relatively sympathetic, as early as 1928, and as late as 1941, to the granting of citizenship to Indian workers who wished to become permanent residents of the island.
The Soulbury constitution came into effect in 1946. In trying to cobble an all-party cabinet inclusive of the Tamils, led by G. G. Ponnambalam, the Sinhalese nationalist groups led by S. W. R. D Bandaranaike, the Kandyan Sinhalese, Senanayake had to find a compromise formula. The 1947 elections had returned six representatives from the Ceylon Indian Congress (CIC), based on the votes of the franchised Indian workers and Hill Country Tamils. Although this worried the Kandyans, the main reason for Senanayake and others to review their attitude to Indian workers was the growing threat of Marxist infiltration into estate trade unions. In this he had won the concurrence of G. G. Ponnambalam for the second citizenship act, which required ten years of residence in the island as a condition for becoming citizens of the new nation. Senanayake, who had been very favourable to easy citizenship for Indian workers had increasingly modified his views in the face of Marxist trade union activity. The Bracegirdle affair Prof. K. M. de Silva, History of Sri Lanka, Penguin, 1995, p. 539 was regarded as the harbinger of such dangers. The fear of left-wing politics began to grow in the minds of Sri Lankan politicians of the era. The colonial government responded to the agitation of the leftists by imprisoning N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva and other left leaders. Anti Marxist feelings were shared by the mainstream Sinhalese and Tamil leaders alike. (, Ch. 36). The criticism in the house was levelled by Tamil members of the upper chamber (senate), like Senator Natesan, who pointed out that Senanayake had supported the franchise of the Indian Tamils till recently, and had "caved in" more recently.
Parliamentary acts