200 Years of Indian Origin Tamils in Sri Lanka Indian Origin Tamils (IOT)
200 Years of Indian Origin
Tamils in Sri Lanka
Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) of Sri Lanka are Tamil people of
Indian origin, also known as Malayaga Tamilar, who predominantly
descend from workers sent from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in the 19th &
20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. They are
instrumental in the development of the plantation sector. These Tamilspeaking people mostly live in the central highlands, also known as the
Malayagam or Hill country.
The first group of Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) arrived in Sri Lanka,
then called Ceylon, in 1823 as labourers to work in coffee and then tea,
rubber, and cocoa plantations in the hilly regions of Sri Lanka. Later
in the 1900s, substantial numbers of Tamils from India also came to
settle in Ceylon as financial entrepreneurs and grocers. They were the
trading community of IOT, which was not part of the plantation economy
and who had come to Ceylon since then. After the British takeover of
the administration of Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) in the early
19th Century, they involved themselves in various activities,
including
economic enterprises such as plantation and agriculture.
The Indian Origin Tamils were put through immense hardship
during the British rule in India and Sri Lanka. During the 1830s, Indian
Origin Tamils working in coffee estates were not provided with wages.
Instead, they were asked to trade coffee beans gathered by them for
commodities from shops. Only after 100 years of immigration to Sri
Lanka did the Indian Origin Tamils’ hardships become known to the
international community.
The Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka were enumerated as a separate
ethnic group for the first time in the census of 1911 when the people of
this community became the second-largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka.
The government considered them a separate group and named them
“Indian Tamils” in the official census from that year onwards. For
various administrative and political purposes, the government officially
identified the community as “Indian Tamils”.
In the 1940s, the trade union movement had galvanised the
plantation workers into a militant working class. They joined hands with
the Lanka Sama Samaja (or Socialist) Party (LSSP), which carried the
message of a working-class struggle for liberation from exploitation by
mostly British plantation companies. The Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948
made the IOT community stateless.
As they had no means of electing anyone to the Parliament, they
ceased to be a concern to the Sri Lankan Parliament. The plantation
workers were thus forgotten from 1948 to 1964. They were unable to profit
from any progressive legislation. The housing, health and education of
the plantation workers were neglected.
A Satyagraha campaign was launched to protest the deprivation
of representation by the Indian Tamil leaders in 1952 by the CWC
led by Soumyamoorthy Thondaman, Abdul Aziz, G.K. Motha, and P.
Perisundaram, K. Rasalingham, C.R. Motha, Kottampalli Govindan
Sellappa Nayar,
Vaithiyalingham Palanisami Pillai and many others
participated in this struggle. It occurred at the Galle Face Green, in front
of Ceylon’s parliament.
After making the IOT community stateless, Citizenship rights
granted according to eligibility criteria set out in a few enactments
enabled Indian Tamils to become part of the country’s permanent
population. This was a long process. There was much political
manoeuvring by the Indian Tamil leaders and the regimes in power at
various times to solve problems. Also, the process imposed on the Indianorigin Tamils a price which they paid through heavy sacrifices and
financial hardships. After two generations or more of Indian Tamils after
the Independence of Sri Lanka, the final batch of the 300,000 stateless
IOT population was granted citizenship in 2003 by a Bill proposed to the
Sri Lankan Parliament by Arumugam Thondaman. The IOTs suffered
the agony of being a stateless community. Accordingly, the Indian Tamil
population in Sri Lanka experienced different issues and trends during
the last two hundred years of their stay.
The current political regime in India followed a proactive approach
to address the issue of IOT. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited central
Sri Lanka in May 2017, where Indian Origin Tamils were settled and
inaugurated various projects completed with the aid of the Government
of India. This includes the completion of 4,000 concrete houses for the
Indian Origin Tamils and the announcement of 10,000 new houses.
During the visit of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to
India on 21st July 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the
implementation of various projects worth Rs 75 crore for Indian-origin
Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka while celebrating the 75th anniversary of
diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka and also completion of 200 years of
the arrival of Tamil community of Indian origin in Sri Lanka.
On the 2nd of November 2023, Union Finance Minister Smt.
Nirmala Sitharaman participated and graced the ‘NAAM 200’ organised
by the government of Sri Lanka.
Department of Posts is proud to issue a Commemorative Postage
Stamp on 200 Years of Indian Origin Tamils in Sri Lanka, recognising
the hardships faced by the Indian Origin Tamils and valuing their
contribution to the economic development of Sri Lanka. source india post
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