A minority within a minority

摘要

BOTH Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority think of themselves as original, indigenous inhabitants of the island-an important prop to their political claims and counterclaims. But there is one group of Tamils who are relatively recent arrivals, and whose status has suffered accordingly. The first 10,000 "hill-country Tamils" came to work in the island's nascent coffee plantations in 1827 as indentured labourers. They marched on foot through rough terrain to isolated camps in the jungle, which they then set about clearing. Many died. But the prospect of work in Sri Lanka's booming tea industry, along with famine, poverty and landlessness back in India, led many more to make the journey.