ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the historical evolution of the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka and analyses the process of integration of the community to the larger Sri Lankan polity while retaining their distinct cultural identity. The ethnic conflict is almost entirely between the Sri Lankan Tamil minority and the Sinhalese. When Indian immigration commenced in the 1830s it was seasonal because Sri Lanka's first major plantation crop, coffee, did not require a large permanent resident labour force. The Indian Tamils as a group stand out from the rest of the Sri Lankan population due to their overwhelming concentration in the plantation economy and comparatively low social status. Sri Lanka is a country of immigrants and the Indian Tamils have been the most recent such large group. Indeed, in 1986 Sri Lanka decided to absorb 94,000 Indian Tamils and their natural increase who should have gone to India under the Bandaranaike—Shastri agreement.
