{"id":23867,"date":"2013-08-07T00:41:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T04:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23867"},"modified":"2013-08-07T00:43:25","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T04:43:25","slug":"hill-country-tamils-in-sri-lanka-feel-neglected-saying-neither-india-nor-tamil-nadu-has-done-anything-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23867","title":{"rendered":"Hill Country Tamils in Sri Lanka Feel Neglected Saying Neither India Nor Tamil Nadu Has Helped Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I could begin talking to him, Perumal Chandrasekaran had a question for me: \u201cDo you know that we exist?\u201d he asked matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n

A 38-year-old Tamil of Indian origin, Mr. Chandrasekaran was waiting at a lawyer\u2019s chamber near the Magistrate Court complex in Kandy for consultations on a land issue facing plantation Tamils. \u201cWe are among the most neglected sections here [in Sri Lanka]. India or Tamil Nadu has done nothing to help us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike the Sri Lankan Tamils living largely in the North and Eastern Provinces of the country, the Tamils in Sri Lanka\u2019s Central Province \u2014 often referred to as Hill country or Upcountry \u2014 have more recent links with India. In the early 19th century the British, who had colonised Sri Lanka, brought them from south India as workforce for the plantations, mostly tea.<\/p>\n

The ethnic war in the northern parts of the country put the spotlight on Tamils in and around Jaffna, Mullaitivu, and Kilinochchi. But plantation Tamils \u2014 constituting about five per cent of Sri Lanka\u2019s population \u2014 get little attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite our ties with south India, all your Tamil Nadu politicians speak up only for the northern Tamils and don\u2019t even acknowledge our community,\u201d said Mr. Chandrasekaran, who works in the construction sector. \u201cMy parents were plantation workers. I know the horrible lives they led, they were virtually slaves. I did not want to work there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has now taken up a legal battle for the people of his community who, he said, had no land or ownership rights till date.<\/p>\n

The compact, Line Rooms in Watawala, Nuwara Eliya district, may seem a fine addition to the scenic environs of the hill country, only if you don\u2019t happen to live in one of those.<\/p>\n

It was hard to imagine that the line room where Nallakaruppan Muthiah and his wife stayed amid one of the plantations could be anymore than 10-feet-by-six-feet in area.<\/p>\n

Within that is a fraction demarcated as kitchen space. A set of thin, steel sheets held themselves together as the home\u2019s roof, crowning the pale walls that have borne incessant rains for many decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very basic homes, built by the British for our ancestors,\u201d said Mr. Muthiah.<\/p>\n

Mr. Muthiah (63) retired as a plantation worker and his wife Subramanian Pushparani is the sole breadwinner in his family of five. The women get paid a basic daily wage of Sri Lankan Rs. 450 (approximately Rs.210) plus allowances depending on her productivity, for about nine hours\u2019 work with a short lunch break.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be assured of work for more than three days a week in this weather. These are hard times and we are helpless,\u201d she said, peeping out of the \u201ckitchen\u201d.<\/p>\n

With worker unions having become highly politicised, people like her have little hope of a better life. The Ceylon Workers\u2019 Congress had traditionally worked with the community, but workers who chose to stay apolitical are rather agnostic about the party\u2019s intentions now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is lending a lot of support to the north. Can\u2019t they do anything for us?\u201d Mr. Muthiah asked in a tone that stood out in its earnestness.<\/p>\n

The High Commission of India in Sri Lanka has been offering some assistance to the community, but it is dwarfed by their basic needs in regard to livelihood and living conditions.<\/p>\n

Many workers speak of their links with India, often suggesting that India could still help if it wanted to. \u201cMany of our relatives are in Madurai, Pudukottai, Erode and the Nilgiris, you know,\u201d he said. The relatives were among those who earlier worked in \u201cCeylon\u201d as Sri Lanka was known then, and returned to India in the 1960s, following the Sirima-Shastri Pact of 1964.<\/p>\n

The agreement \u2014 signed by former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her Indian counterpart Lal Bahadur Shastri \u2014 sought to repatriate over five lakh Tamils of Indian origin, and grant Sri Lankan citizenship to about three lakh. The remaining Tamils left in the central province gradually obtained citizenship in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

On the one hand they are citizens of Sri Lanka, at least going by the books. On the other, with most basic facilities out of reach, the plantation community has little reason to citizen enough.<\/p>\n

India, for many in their sixties like Mr. Muthiah, continues to symbolise a remote sense of \u201chome\u201d. Not that the younger generation feels distant \u2014 one of the homes had an A.R. Rahman song playing; and another, a poster of actor Vijay on the wall.<\/p>\n

But Jayarani\u2019s living room had something more unexpected \u2014 Gandhi and Nehru framed together, with an Indian flag in between. \u201cIt has been here from the time I got married\u2026that was about 18 years ago. My parents-in-law must have put it up, I don\u2019t know. We tell the children this is Gandhi, and this is Nehru,\u201d she said pointing to the picture. \u201cAnd the picture has just stayed on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

COURTESY:THE HINDU<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan Before I could begin talking to him, Perumal Chandrasekaran had a question for me: \u201cDo you know that we exist?\u201d he asked matter-of-factly. A 38-year-old Tamil of Indian origin, Mr. Chandrasekaran was waiting at a lawyer\u2019s chamber near the Magistrate Court complex in Kandy for consultations on a land issue facing plantation …<\/p>\n

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