Sri Lanka Tamils (Indian origin)
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- For other usage of this term see the disambiguation page Sri Lanka Tamils
The Sri Lanka Tamils of Indian Tamil origin or Hill country Tamils, Up-country Tamils or simply Indian Tamils are descended from indentured workers sent from South India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations.
These Tamil-speakers live in the central highlands, also known as the Malayakam or Hill Country. Although they are all termed as Tamils today, some also have Telugu and Malayalee origins as well as diverse South Indian caste origins.
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[edit] Sri Lanka's distinct Tamil-speaking communities
Sri lanka has two other Tamil-speaking communities. They are the native Sri Lanka Tamils and Sri Lankan Muslims. Hill country Tamils differ from these native communities by their dialect, culture, and socio-economic conditions. But due to the discriminatory nature of Sri Lanka's politics towards its minority communities, hill country Tamils have been migrating to traditionally Tamil-speaking regions in the Northern province[citation needed]. Further after the Black July pogrom of 1983, Sri Lankan Tamil and hill country Tamils have come together in refugee and resettlement camps and differences are slowly melting away[citation needed]. Many hill country Tamils have intermarried with other communities including Sri Lankan Tamils and generally mark them as Sri Lankan Tamils in the an annual census. Historically the upper castes (see Vellalar) amongst Sri Lankan Tamils had discriminated against many hill country Tamils based on caste prejudices[citation needed]. This has become much less common[citation needed].
[edit] History
[edit] Initial recruitment
Although there is evidence of various Sri Lankan monarchs and Portuguese and Dutch colonial authorities recruiting workers from India, the current Hill Country Tamils derive their origins from a British colonial era project. Many South Indian recruits who came prior to the British effort have assimilated as part of the Sinhalese or the native Sri Lankan Tamil communities (See Salagama, Karave and Durave)
According to Professor Bertram Bastianpillai, workers around the Tamil Nadu cities of Thirunelveli, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tanjore were recruited by Governor Sir Edward Barnes on the request of George Bird, a pioneer planter.
[edit] Social structure
The social structure of the plantations strongly resembles the South Indian rural social structure. This community is rigidly bound by caste system. In a plantation the tea factory is the center of activities. It stands majestically in the central part of the plantation.
The office adjoins this and these are surrounded by the quarters of the staff members such as clerks, tea makers, conductors, petty accountants or kanakkupillais, and supervisors. The bungalows of the planter and his assistants are in an isolated but peaceful area. These will be in close proximity to the office. The dwellings of the workers called line rooms are situated a little further away from the factories.
[edit] Caste orientation of a plantation
Those who are considered to be of higher castes such as Vellalas, Kallar, Agamudaiyar, Maravar, Naidus, Reddiars and Nairs occupy the first row of line rooms. They perform respectable jobs such as factory work and grinding of tea. They work as minor employees too. Even though they belong to the labour category they are influential among conductors, tea makers, kanganies or supervisors and other officials.
The workers considered low castes live in the dwellings that are away from the center and these dwellings are called distant or lower Lines. This group consists of Pallar, Paraiyars, Sakkiliar, washers and barbers. The yard sweepers and changers of clothes are in the lowest rank.
[edit] Survival of customs
Even today they receive very meager facilities from the management. These groups follow the customs, traditions, and festivities of the South Indian Tamil ancestors. The traditional musical instruments such as Thappu and Parai are used. Folk dances such as Kavadi, Kummi and Karaga Attam are performed.
Folk dramas called Koothu in their various forms such as Ponnar Koothu, Sangaran Koothu, Arujunan Thabas, Kaman Koothu are still prevalent among them along with Silambadi as an important feature.
This community is eternally poverty stricken, continuously exploited, penalized by humiliations and cruelly afflicted by communal violence. Still amongst all these difficulties, they uphold their traditions, heritage and arts as fervently as possible. It is said that the plantation labourers are born in debts, live and die in debts. They cherish their cultural aspects and religious believes and preserve their distinctiveness.
[edit] Religious patterns
In general they use Hindu beliefs to guide their day to day lives. They have built temples and places of worship for their deities on estates and in villages, towns and other places within Sri Lanka to which they have migrated.
By custom, when they arrive at a place where they intend to reside, these immigrants would institute, under a banyan or bo tree, a triangular shaped stone or figure of a deity, plant a weapon of a popularly worshiped god such as a spear, trident or sword and worshiped these. The main deities worshiped by these people to this day are, in order of popularity, the goddess Mariyamman, Murugan and his consorts, Valli and Theivanai, Pillayar or Ganesh, Sivan and his wife Parvathi, Vishnu and Letchumi [Laxmi], and the goddess of wisdom Saraswathie.
No sooner were these migrant workers brought to Thalai Mannar, the port at which they landed on their arrival by boat from South India, they were herded via Kurunagela 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 them against these 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 pervious gang of workers or clear the jungle to establish new ones. In one of the camps of Matale, they instituted a stone as an icon of the goddess,Mariamman, also known as the small-pox goddess, under a Vilva tree and worshipped her there. At this very location where the worship of her began in 1820, the now-famous Matale Sri Muthumariamman Temple was built in 1852.
The trading community of the Nattukotai Chettiars introduced the worship of Murugan in his form as Lord Kathiresan at Matale and were to subsequently build the Kathiresan temple at Matale. The annual festival of this temple is celebrated in the month of July. Devotees of the plantation sector walk from the tea estates and hometowns they live in to Kathirkamam, a place considered sacred by both Buddhists and Hindus, in the South of Sri Lanka, where Murugan is worshiped in the form of Skanda.
Deepavali, Pongal, Tamil New Year are celebrated as festivals by them.
[edit] Folk deities
Each caste has its own deity based on caste predecessors and are worshiped by these descendants as guardian angels. Example the Kallar cast had Nallananpillai Perumal as their guardian angel. They make vows and sacrifices to this deity. They submit offering on a particular date at a particular time annually. Mostly the night before Deepavali is set aside for worshiping the predecessors.
Deities such as Madasamy, Muniandi, Kali, Madurai Veeran, Sangili Karuppan, Vaalraja, Vairavar, Veerabathran, Sudalai Madan, Nagaphooshani Ammann and Roda Mini are also worshiped.
[edit] Temple societies
There are 104 registered Hindu temples in the Nuwara Eliya District, 153 in Kandy region and 62 in Matale. Religious schools or Araa Nerri Padasaligal are conducted throughout the Central Province and Registered schools of such nature are, Nuwara Eliya 22, Kandy 54 and Matale 11. A considerable number of Hindu associations and Institutions have been established and are functioning actively. There is a serious effort at conversions to other religions as well. Many have converted to Christianity and Islam. Hindu organizations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad tries to stem the tide of conversions.
[edit] Community Development
This community was a closed community confining themselves to the plantations. While it actively contributed and contributes to the economic well being of this country, their own social economic conditions are amongst the worst in the country. Being isolated and ghettoed within the heartland of Sri Lanka and also linguistically isolated from the Sinhalese villagers who live in the valleys. They were the classic example of captive labour whose life in its entity was decided by the employers. Any social relationship or cultural ties they had were only among themselves or with 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 Socialist) Party, which carried the message of a working class struggle for liberation from the exploitation by mostly British plantation companies. With independence things began to change drastically for the plantation workers. They were 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 1st parliament and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was the second largest party after the United National Party.
[edit] Disenfranchisement of the Indian Tamils
The first Prime Minister, D.S. Senanayake saw the strong possibilities of a Marxist takeover of government and commenced the task of weakening the Marxist parties and their associate organizations. He introduced the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, the Indian-Pakistani Citizenship act of 1947 and amended the parliamentary elections act and disfranchised the Indian Tamils.
As they had no means of electing any one to the Parliament they ceased to be the concern of parliamentary politicians. The plantation workers were thus forgotten from 1948 - 1964. Their lives were in ruins. They did not profit by any progressive legislation in the independent Sri Lanka. The housing, health and education of the plantation workers were in total neglect. Infant mortality was highest among them. It became the dying community of Sri Lanka.
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. It has been economically, politically and socially deprived.
[edit] Cheap captive labor for cash crops
Based on the cultivation of cash crops, it is even today dominant in the country's economy. It is a major earner of foreign exchange and the largest employer. Cheap labour is one of the essential ingredients of its success. Hence these immigrants were bonded and under paid. In 1921 workers were empowered to break this bonds of indebtedness tying them to the estates. The minimum wages ordinance was extended to plantation labour in 1927 marginally raising the wages that had not changed since the 19th century.
This daily wages was 41 Cts. in 1933. Owing to trade union activities it was raised to Rs 17/83 in 1983, Rs 72/24 in 1993 and became Rs 101 in 1998. The wages of female workers was lesser than males but has been equalized since 1984. Even though there was an increase in wages, the living wages are not sufficient to meet their day to day needs and they are always indebted. Hence they are poverty stricken, socially backward, politically neglected and communally terrorized.
The plantations were nationalized under the 1972 land reform law and its 1975 amendment. The state owned plantations are managed by the Sri Lanka Plantation Corporation & Janatha Estate Development Board. The nationalization did not result in any basic change on the plantation sector. The state has been forced to take a greater interest in the health, housing and general well being of the labourers. Hence estate schools were nationalized and brought into the general educational system with the grant of Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) many schools were built. This helped the slight growth of literacy rates. As unemployment increased in the plantation sector youths looked for other avenues. A considerable number of Indian Tamil girls are employed in garment factories. Some seek greener pastures in the Middle East as housemaids. So we could observe the Indian Tamils not only towards urban areas but foreign nations too.
[edit] Repatriation and rebirth
The Srima-Shastri pact of 1964 and Indira-Sirimavo supplementary agreement of 1974 paved the way for the repatriation of 600,000 persons of Indian origin to India. Another 375,000 persons were to accepted as citizens of Sri Lanka which made them enter the polity. These repatriation agreements were the harbingers of the destruction of this community, which had evolved into a composite group with a distinct culture of its own. In the fifties and sixties this community was clamoring for education and recognition of its distinctive culture. This brought in the emergence of a community consciousness and the artesian of a distinct community. An educated middle class comprising of teachers, trade unionists and other professional began to make its appearance.
There was a vigorous campaign for social ameliorations and increased educational facilities. There was a growing spirit of resistance. People destroyed Indian passports and refused to go to India. Repatriation was resisted and cries that fundamental rights cannot be smothered were raised. International opinion was canvassed against deprivation of citizenship rights. The plantation people who were not prepared to leave, destitute, the land whose prosperty they had built . They were prepared to fraternise within the Sinhalese and accept Sri Lankan leadership in the trade union movement. They eschewed a separate state as a political solution. In the general election of 1977 they were able to elect 11 candidates.
This helped the emergence of the plantation people as a political force, but they were faced with communal violence in 1977 and 1983. In 1984-5, to stop India intervening in Sri Lankan affairs, the UNP government eventually granted citizenship right to all stateless persons. The late Savumiamoorthy Thondaman was instrumental in using this electoral strength in assuring the socioeconomic conditions of hill country Tamils to improve.
[edit] References
- ^ Socio economic conditions of Indian origin Tamils by V. Radhakrishnan
- ^ Plantation Tamils – The Oppressed People of Sri Lanka by S. Makenthiran
- ^ In serach of New identity - Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka
[edit] External links
[edit] Prominent Hill Country Tamils
- Muthiah Muralidaran - Sri Lanka's prominent cricketer and world record holder
- Savumiamoorthy Thondaman - Post-ndependence politician [2]
- M.G. Ramachandran - Sri Lankan-born Indian politician
- Natesa Iyer - Pre-independence politician
- Arumugam Thondaman - Sri Lankan politician
- P. Chandrasekaran - Sri Lankan politician
- Prof. Mookkiah- Professor in Geography at University of Peradeniya
- S.Balakrishnan - Founding member of MIRJE Sri Lanka
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