The Forgotten Builders of Sri Lanka's Tea Empire. The Story of the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka.

 The Forgotten Builders of Sri Lanka's Tea Empire. The Story of the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka.

When people think about Sri Lanka, one of the first images that comes to mind is the endless green carpet of tea plantations stretching across the mist covered mountains of the central highlands. Every year, millions of kilograms of world famous Ceylon Tea leave the island for every corner of the globe. Behind this success lies the story of a community whose sacrifices transformed Sri Lanka's economy, yet whose struggles were often overlooked for generations. They are the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka, also known today as the Malayaga Tamils or Hill Country Tamils. Their story began during British colonial rule in the early nineteenth century. After capturing Ceylon from the Dutch, the British discovered that the cool climate of the central highlands was ideal for plantation agriculture. At first they cultivated coffee on a massive scale. Thousands of acres of forests were cleared and plantations quickly spread across Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Badulla and surrounding regions. The plantation owners soon faced a serious problem. Local villagers were generally unwilling to work permanently under the harsh conditions demanded by the estates. To solve this labour shortage, British officials and estate owners turned their attention to southern India, particularly the districts of Tamil Nadu. Recruiters travelled from village to village, promising employment and a better future across the sea. Beginning in the 1820s and continuing for more than a century, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children crossed the narrow Palk Strait by boat before making the long and exhausting journey on foot into Sri Lanka's mountain regions. Many travelled for days through difficult terrain with little food or shelter. Disease, exhaustion and malnutrition claimed many lives before they even reached the plantations where they had been recruited to work. Life on the estates was far from easy. Workers spent long hours clearing forests, planting coffee bushes and later tea, picking leaves in every kind of weather and carrying heavy baskets across steep hillsides. Entire families often worked together simply to survive. Most lived in small rows of simple houses known as line rooms, where several families shared limited space and basic facilities. Medical care, education and sanitation were often inadequate, making life especially difficult for children. Despite these hardships, the plantation workers became the backbone of Sri Lanka's plantation economy. When a devastating fungal disease destroyed most of the coffee plantations during the late nineteenth century, the British replaced coffee with tea. Once again, it was these workers who planted, maintained and harvested the new tea bushes that would eventually make Ceylon Tea famous throughout the world. They also contributed to rubber and coconut plantations, helping create one of the island's most important export industries. Although they played such a vital role in the country's prosperity, their lives changed dramatically after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. Citizenship laws introduced soon afterwards left a large proportion of Indian Tamil plantation workers without Sri Lankan citizenship. Many also lost their voting rights, leaving them politically voiceless for decades. Families who had lived on the island for generations suddenly found themselves classified as stateless people. During the 1960s and 1970s, agreements between the governments of Sri Lanka and India resulted in hundreds of thousands being repatriated to India, while others were gradually granted Sri Lankan citizenship. The process took many years and created uncertainty for countless families whose roots had already become deeply connected to Sri Lanka. Eventually, by the late twentieth century and early twenty first century, most remaining stateless plantation Tamils were granted Sri Lankan citizenship. .2….