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Sivapragasam, P.P. --- "From Statelessness to Citizenship: Up-country Tamils in Sri Lanka" [2011] ELECD 172; in Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen (eds), "Statelessness and Citizenship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Statelessness and Citizenship

Editor(s): Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800679

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: From Statelessness to Citizenship: Up-country Tamils in Sri Lanka

Author(s): Sivapragasam, P.P.

Number of pages: 13

Extract:

5. From statelessness to citizenship:
Up-country Tamils in Sri Lanka
P.P. Sivapragasam




Source: © Greg Constantine 2010.


Figure 5.1 Hill Tamils working on tea plantations in Sri Lanka have
historically been discriminated against and were denied Sri
Lankan citizenship for decades. While many have obtained Sri
Lankan citizenship in recent years, thousands are still stateless.

The history of plantation people in Sri Lanka goes back at least two
hundred years. Because there is limited information available from that
time period, there is much room for interpretation, and it is important
to note that contemporary accounts may be coloured by an individual's
academic tradition, ethnic, religious and ideological perspective; or their
relationship with the contemporary trade union movement.

84
 Up-country Tamils in Sri Lanka 85

The origin of plantations themselves can be traced back to the Portuguese
Canary Islands in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, they were established in the New World where they mainly pro-
duced sugar and cotton for the European market ­ subsidized by African
slave labour.1 Subsequently, and despite the abolition of slavery in the nine-
teenth century, plantations spread under the aegis of an expanding Western
imperialism into parts of Africa and Asia. A wider range of food, bever-
ages and raw materials for industrial use were cultivated for the consumer
markets and factories of the West. To this day, plantations remain an
important form of agricultural production in many countries of the world.
An important and recurring ...