{"id":268691,"date":"2023-11-09T20:05:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T14:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=268691"},"modified":"2024-12-11T11:46:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T06:16:53","slug":"on-tamil-indentured-labour-in-sri-lanka-an-under-discussed-facet-of-colonial-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-tamil-indentured-labour-in-sri-lanka-an-under-discussed-facet-of-colonial-history\/","title":{"rendered":"On Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka \u2013 An under-discussed facet of colonial history"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>This post on Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka has been created based on the article \u201cAn under-discussed facet of colonial history\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu <\/strong>on 9th<\/sup> November 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 1 Indian History \u2013 <\/strong>Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the history of indentured labour under British rule. It also highlights the challenges faced by them, especially that faced by the Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

2023 marks the 200th<\/sup> year of the arrival of Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka (in November 1823).<\/p>\n

How did the concept of indentured labour begin?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A wave of liberal humanism swept through Europe in the 18th<\/sup> century. As a result, the British banned slavery in their colonies, only to replace it with another kind of bondage, termed \u201cindentured labour\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Labour crisis following the abolition of slavery in British colonies led to a soaring demand for workers from India to work on plantations and infrastructure projects in the Caribbean, Fiji, R\u00e9union, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

What were the challenges faced by indentured labour?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Misleading promises: <\/strong>They were misled about the work they would undertake, the wages they would receive, the quarters where they would live, and even the countries they were sailing to.<\/li>\n
  2. Debt burden:<\/strong> Most laborers reached their destination deep in debt, as they had to pay for their extremely high fare.<\/li>\n
  3. Lack of access to basic facilities:<\/strong> They were to reside in squalor, with no access to sanitation, running water, medical facilities or schools for their children.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What led to an increase in the requirement of indentured labour in Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    In the 1870s, the rapid spread of a fungal disease led to a blight that caused the disappearance of coffee from Sri Lankan plantations, paving the way for tea<\/strong>, whose estates increased manifold.<\/p>\n

    While coffee requires only 3 workers for every 10 hectares of cultivation, tea requires at least 8, and as such, demands more field labour. This led to an increase in the requirement of workers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Along with the shortfall caused by the abolition of slavery<\/strong>, and led to a massive, organized transfer of Indian Tamils to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

    What were the challenges faced by Tamils in Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Along with the usual challenges of indentured labour, Tamils faced the following as well:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Colonial practices and policies deemed them \u201cforeigners\u201d, thus rendering them stateless<\/strong> (under Sri Lanka\u2019s Citizenship Act of 1948) and prevented assimilation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    2. Women tea-pluckers<\/strong> worked all day in the plantations without any toilet facilities<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    3. System of sub-contractors called\u00a0kanganies<\/em><\/strong>, labour recruiters and overseers played a dominant role in the exploitation <\/strong>of Indian labourers on plantations. The vague contracts led to greater abuse.<\/li>\n
    4. The Plantation Tamils could not buy land and build houses<\/strong>, for colonial laws restricted landholding to those \u201cdomiciled\u201d in Ceylon only.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What should be the way forward for Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

      It is important that post-colonial countries like Sri Lanka take effective steps to decolonise<\/strong> themselves from the practices, laws and attitudes of imperial masters, to forge a post-colonial, inclusive identity for all its people.<\/p>\n

      Question for practice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The British policy of \u201cindebtured labour\u201d led to the exploitation of Indian labourers. Explain with reference to the Tamil plantation workers in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Source: This post on Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka has been created based on the article \u201cAn under-discussed facet of colonial history\u201d published in The Hindu on 9th November 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 1 Indian History \u2013 Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant… Continue reading On Tamil indentured labour in Sri Lanka \u2013 An under-discussed facet of colonial history<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":319335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[11880,263,10498],"class_list":["post-268691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-art-and-history","tag-gs-paper-1","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/An-under-discussed-facet-of-colonial-history.png?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","views":{"total":70,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700118661},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}