TAMILS

Origins

The majority of Tamils are from south Asia, specifically the states of India and Sri Lanka (called
Ceylon until 1972). Close to 60 million Tamils live in India (1991), primarily in the far
southeastern state of Tamil Nadu (130,000 square kilometres) and in the small coastal Indian
union territory of Pondicherry, both formerly part of the British colonial-administration entity
called the Madras Presidency. The above figure also includes Tamils who live in major urban
centres throughout India, including Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta.

In Sri Lanka the Tamils number around 3.5 million (1989), a figure that includes Tamils who
have been in Sri Lanka since ancient times, Tamil-speaking Muslims (Sri Lankan Moors
descended from tenth- and eleventh-century Arab traders), and Tamils who came from India in
the nineteenth century to work on colonial British plantations. The indigenous, or “Ceylon,”
Tamils comprise approximately 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population and live largely in the
northern (Jaffna) and eastern regions of the country, as well as in the capital of Colombo. The
descendants of Tamils who came from India in the nineteenth century (7 percent) live mainly in
the central highlands of the island. The Tamil-speaking Muslims (7 percent) are concentrated in
the eastern region.

In south Asia, over 94 percent of Tamils live in India. By contrast, in Canada nearly 93 percent
come from Sri Lanka while only about 6 percent are from India, the remainder being from other
countries and areas where Tamils had previously emigrated, including Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji,
Mauritius, South Africa, and the Caribbean. (See also INDO-CARIBBEANS; INDO-FIJIANS;
SOUTH ASIANS.)Aside from a significant minority of Muslims and Christians, the majority of
Tamils are Hindus belonging to the Saivite sect.

The Tamil language belongs to the Dravidian family of languages spoken throughout south India
and is considered the oldest living language in the Indian subcontinent. It has its own script called
Vitteluthu (round letters) and a rich two-thousand-year-old literary tradition. At present, Tamil is
the official language of the state of Tamil Nadu in India, where it enjoys a fair degree of
government patronage and support for its development.

During the first millennium B.C.E., Tamil kingdoms flourished in southern India and patronized
the arts and literature. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism also took root, as did, in later periods,
Islam and Christianity. As early as the sixth century B.C.E., Tamils began migrating from the
Indian subcontinent across the narrow Palk Strait to the island of Ceylon, a demographic trend
that steadily intensified during the first millennium C.E. One of the most powerful Tamil states
was ruled by the Chola dynasty, which flourished during the tenth to thirteenth centuries in
southern India. The Cholas also expanded into neighbouring Ceylon and southeast Asia. For
several decades they ruled all of Ceylon (993–1070), and by the thirteenth century they had
established a distinctive Tamil kingdom in the northern part of the island, with its centre in Jaffna.

Southern India and Ceylon were among the first places to experience European colonial
expansion in south Asia. The Portuguese arrived in the early sixteenth century, followed by the
Dutch, the French, and finally the British. The long history of European presence in southern
India and Sri Lanka, especially in the Tamil regions, ensured a strong European and Christian
impact on local culture, language, and customs. British colonial rule lasted in the Madras
Presidency and Ceylon from the late eighteenth century until after World War II, when
independent India (a federation of states, 1947) and Ceylon (1948) were created. In India, the
former British-administered Madras Presidency that had encompassed much of the southern part
of the subcontinent was reorganized on the basis of linguistic states beginning in the 1950s.
Eventually, a Tamil linguistic state called Tamil Nadu was created in 1969 with its own elected
bicameral legislature, governed by a chief minister, and with a considerable amount of autonomy
from India’s union government.

In Ceylon/Sri Lanka, where Tamils formed the largest minority, a short initial period of Sinhalese
and Tamil political cooperation had broken down by the mid-1950s following the rise of
Sinhalese political nationalism, with its efforts to undermine the political, economic, and cultural
position of the Tamils. The drive to make Sinhala the official (1956) and later national (1973)
language of Sri Lanka provoked Tamil opposition that since 1958 has in turn resulted in a series
of major riots against the Tamils. During the next few decades, the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict
continued to escalate at the same time that Sri Lanka’s economy declined and its population
nearly doubled in size, causing increasing pressure on and competition for the country’s limited
resources. (See also SINHALESE AND BURGHERS.)

By the early 1970s, the failure of the moderate Tamil leadership to protect Tamil rights led to the
rise of militant youth movements pledged to fight for a separate Tamil state called Tamil Eelam.
The most powerful of these movements is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which
managed to wrestle the northern Jaffna region from state control and to run a de facto government
for nearly a decade beginning in the mid-1980s. Although the Sri Lankan government has
regained control over the north, fierce fighting continues between the Liberation Tigers and
government troops, causing increasing dislocation, suffering, and the death of an estimated
50,000 people. The conflict has also forced a large exodus of Tamils to seek refuge by emigrating
abroad.

Migration

Among the first Tamils to emigrate to Canada were predominantly English-educated individuals
from India’s upper-middle and middle classes and castes. Many had professional qualifications
and were seeking to find better prospects for their education and talents. A substantial proportion
came as graduate students and, after completing their studies, found jobs and remained in Canada.
Political developments in southern India dating back to the first decades of the twentieth century
may have also provided a strong incentive for Tamil emigration.

One of the earliest castes to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by English education in
southern India were the Brahmin castes. By the early twentieth century, the Brahmins held a
disproportionate amount of government and professional jobs in relation to their numbers within
the general population. Their predominance in the professions and government and their religio-
cultural ascendancy began to be challenged by the non-Brahmin, or Dravidian, movement which
began to gather momentum by the early part of the twentieth century in southern India. The
Dravidian movement, which later evolved into a Tamil ethno-nationalist movement, sought to
overturn what it saw as Brahmin or Aryan domination of India’s Dravidian south. Launched
formally in 1916 as the Justice Party, the Tamil movement fought for and obtained quotas which
by the 1950s had led to a significant reduction in the number of Brahmins in top government and
professional jobs in southern India. Faced with diminishing career opportunities, many Brahmins
in the Tamil region began migrating to other parts of India as well as to Britain, the United States,
Canada, and Australia.

Tamils in Sri Lanka were also attracted to English education much more readily than the majority
Sinhalese. In contrast to India, however, the majority of the English-educated Tamils in Sri Lanka
came from the dominant landowning vellalar caste. Living mainly in arid and less productive
areas of the northern and eastern provinces, many Tamils saw education as the key to economic
well-being. Thus, by the time Sri Lanka achieved independence from Britain in 1948, the Tamils
held a greater proportion of the professional, technical, and administrative jobs than their
numbers in the general population warranted. Independence confirmed their fears of being
subordinated to the Sinhalese majority.

It was not long before Sinhalese-dominated governments, riding a wave of ethnic and religious
populism, set out to correct what they considered the undue privileges held by the Tamils. Sri
Lanka’s first independent parliament passed legislation in 1948 excluding Tamils from India from
citizenship, and a year later it disenfranchised them. The adoption of Sinhala as the official
language of Sri Lanka in 1956 disadvantaged Tamils further. These laws were only the beginning
of a series of government measures that reduced a once politically and socially influential Tamil
community to economic and cultural marginalization. The failure of the moderate, English-
educated Tamil leadership to safeguard the interests of the community led to calls by an
increasing number of unemployed and disgruntled Tamil youth for more extreme measures. The
result was the increasing level of confrontation with the Sinhalese that has characterized Sri
Lankan life since the late 1950s and that has acted as a significant catalyst for large-scale
migration of Tamils abroad.

Arrival and Settlement

The earliest immigration to Canada from both India and Sri Lanka followed a pattern not
significantly different from that of other South Asian communities except for the Punjabis. Unlike
that group, who began migrating to Canada as early as 1903, members of other ethnic
communities in the Indian subcontinent arrived first only in the 1950s. There were overwhelming
barriers to South Asian immigration before that time. Canadian policy, as well as numerous
social, legal, and economic restrictions, reflected deep-seated racist attitudes towards all Asians.
Many of those who had already arrived in Canada lived an uncertain existence without wives or
children, and they did not have the right to vote. Significant changes to Canadian immigration
policy with regard to South Asians after World War II gradually addressed the realities of the
post-colonial era; overtly racist practices were harder to justify after the emergence of potentially
powerful, independent Asian and African states. Thus, by 1951 annual quotas for a token number
of non-sponsored immigrants, over and above those in the sponsored-immigrant category, from
the three South Asian countries were established: 150 for India, 100 for Pakistan, and 50 for Sri
Lanka. This landmark change in policy set the stage for a fundamental transformation of South
Asian communities in Canada.

By 1960 Tamils had begun arriving in this country from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and from
Sri Lanka. The numbers from both areas before the mid-1960s were small, perhaps amounting to
less than one hundred individuals by 1960, according to community estimates. Like other South
Asian migrants at this time, they were predominantly English-educated professionals from the
middle and upper-middle classes in their homelands. Given that both Tamil Nadu and the Tamil-
speaking areas of Sri Lanka had produced an unusually large English-educated class with a long
history of professional and administrative service under the British, it is not surprising that most
of the early Tamil immigrants to Canada came from this background.

The numbers gradually increased after the introduction of the point system for independent
immigrants in 1967 and also because of the sponsorship of family members. Unlike the Punjabis,
who had come by ship and established themselves in British Columbia, most Tamil immigrants
arrived by airplane and settled first in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. A significant number
in the 1960s and 1970s came by way of Great Britain, where they had previously settled but
become disenchanted with increasing racism in that country and lured by greater economic
opportunities in Canada. Since the majority of newcomers were well educated and familiar with
British institutions, they had few problems adapting to Canadian life. These early Tamil
immigrants were highly mobile and settled wherever they could find adequate employment.
Many moved to Alberta during the boom in oil production there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
There appears to have been significant growth in the immigration of Indian Tamils to Canada
between 1970 and 1980. Their population at present is thought to be around 4,000. The vast
majority live in Ontario. Smaller numbers are to be found in Quebec, Alberta, and British
Columbia. India’s Tamils are much more dispersed than those from Sri Lanka, especially when
compared to the Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived after 1983.

The number of Tamils from Sri Lanka in Canada remained low until the early 1980s, reaching
only about 2,000. In the following years, however, the population grew dramatically. The scale
and ferocity of anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka in 1983 not only convinced many to leave but also
persuaded the Canadian government to extend refugee status to those fleeing violence and
political persecution in the homeland.

The 1991 Canadian census confirms an increase in the number of Tamils, although the figures in
various reports differ, sometimes widely. With regard to the question of ethnic origin, only
15,695 responded they were wholly (8,690) or partially (7,005) of Tamil background. On the
other hand, 30,220 persons responded that Tamil was their only (24,745) or one of their (5,475)
mother tongues. Nearly as many – 26,825 – said Tamil was the exclusive (23,090) or one of the
languages (3,735) spoken in the home. Since the 1991 census, the numbers have continued to
grow significantly: in 1994 Immigration and Citizenship Canada reported that there were 67,837
Tamils from Sri Lanka as well as another 5,000 or so from other countries, bringing the total to
about 73,000. Regardless of which 1991 census report is used, the information on settlement
patterns is basically the same for ethnic origin, mother tongue, and home language. About 94
percent of all Tamils in Canada live in two provinces, Ontario (82 percent) and Quebec (13
percent), with only a few hundred at most in some of the other provinces. In all cases, Tamils
have been attracted to urban areas, with Toronto accounting for nearly 64 percent of the entire
group and Montreal 10 percent.

The post-1983 arrivals from Sri Lanka included not only the English-educated middle classes but
also newcomers drawn from a wider cross-section of the population. Many were fleeing from the
war-ravaged Jaffna peninsula. The overwhelming majority of the men, more than 80 percent,
were between the ages of twenty and forty-five, and over half were single. Females constituted
about 45 percent of the new arrivals, and approximately 80 percent of them were also under the
age of forty-five.

Economic Life

Many of the Indian Tamil immigrants to Canada, who were in general highly qualified, found
jobs in high schools, universities, and the professions. A number had come to Canada as graduate
students and decided to stay only if they could obtain suitable employment. The majority were
males. When they found work, they often sponsored their families to immigrate. It is difficult to
know whether the wives were able to obtain employment in keeping with their educational
backgrounds. Judging by community accounts, unemployment among Indian Tamil immigrants
to Canada has been fairly low. The children of this group have been encouraged to pursue higher
education in keeping with their families’ ambitions. Many, like their parents, have university
degrees and successful careers.

The educational and employment histories of the early Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants were similar
to those of Indian Tamils. Many had professional qualifications and found jobs in engineering,
accountancy, or other technical or managerial occupations. The experience of their wives was
also probably similar to that of the Indian Tamils. Like their Indian counterparts, Sri Lankans
placed great emphasis on their children’s education. Both groups were highly mobile and not
reluctant to move from one province to another in search of employment. Although they were
well qualified, there is no doubt that many felt some form of racial discrimination. The older
generation, with recent memories of the British colonial period, accepted such treatment as part of
the natural order. Their strategy was generally to make themselves indispensable to their
employers.

The post-1983 immigrants from Sri Lanka have had more difficulty finding suitable employment.
A number of factors contributed to this problem. They arrived at a time when the Canadian
economy was only slowly recovering from a slump and, unlike the earlier immigrants, many did
not have professional qualifications or fluency in English. The educational curriculum in Sri
Lanka had significantly changed by the 1970s. In keeping with gradual decolonization, greater
emphasis was now given to indigenous languages and cultures than had been the case in the
earlier period. Even university graduates after the 1970s were not as fluent in English as those
who had come to Canada in earlier decades. Also, the education of many of the new arrivals had
been disrupted by the civil war. Those with adequate training and work experience in Sri Lanka
faced the obstacle that Canadian qualifications were often required. The majority of post-1983
immigrants eventually found employment, but many did not obtain work commensurate with
their qualifications or expectations and were obliged to take semi-skilled or unskilled jobs.
Despite these hurdles, they have managed, through sheer hard work, to attain a fair degree of
economic success. Many have bought houses and sponsored their families to immigrate.

Out of a small sample who reported Tamil as their first language in the 1991 census, around 50
percent indicated that they earned less than $10,000 a year, and approximately 20 percent had an
income of between $10,000 and $20,000. Another 20 percent reported earnings ranging from
$20,000 to $40,000, approximately 3 percent from $40,000 to $60,000, and less than 1 percent
over $60,000. The number of males and females falling into the category under $10,000 was
approximately equal. However, with increasing income levels, the disparity between males and
females broadened significantly. The total unemployment rate for Tamils calculated from this
small sample was 22 percent, the figure for males being 18 and that for females 29. These
calculations should be taken with extreme caution since they are based on a limited analysis of
the Tamil-Canadian population. A high proportion of those in the sample were probably recent
arrivals from Sri Lanka.

Some Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka have opened their own businesses in order to circumvent
the difficulties of finding suitable employment. The number of such enterprises has burgeoned,
especially in the Toronto and Montreal regions, so that there is now a directory of Tamil-owned
businesses in Ontario and Quebec. Published annually and called Thamilar Maththiyil (Among
Tamils; Toronto, 1990– ), it has a circulation of around nine thousand and lists over four hundred
advertisers in both Tamil and English. Also included are institutions and organizations that serve
the community. Tamil businesses range from grocery stores and restaurants carrying South Asian
foods to astrologers, marriage brokers, car dealers, computer shops, insurance brokers, and real
estate and travel agents. The majority of Tamil business ventures appear to be successful, and
indications are that they are growing.

Community Life

The first Tamil immigrants from India and Sri Lanka had much in common despite their different
origins. They came largely from the urban, English-educated middle and upper-middle classes
and generally tended to have a liberal and cosmopolitan outlook. Although there were clearly
some class and caste differences among these early arrivals, they were not as great as those that
now exist within the Tamil community. Competition and social discrimination were minimal
since the numbers were small, and Tamils tended to become integrated into mainstream Canadian
society. Many settled wherever they could find employment and thus constituted a fairly
dispersed community. Because their numbers were limited and the community scattered, it was
difficult for these immigrants to transmit their culture to the younger generation. There were
hardly any organizations catering exclusively to Tamils. Insofar as they belonged to community
groups, these tended to be either pan-Indian cultural associations or religious ones. However, they
did have informal networks of friends and family that they maintained despite the great distances.

One of the first organizations that both Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils patronized was the south
Indian cultural association called Bharathi Kala Manram, which has branches all over Canada.
Formed in the 1960s, it is well known for its support of Carnatic music (the classical music of
south India) and bharata natya (Indian classical dance) in Canada. The organization has often
sponsored famous musicians and dancers from the home country to perform here. Many Tamils
from Sri Lanka, especially before 1983, participated in both Indian and Sri Lankan cultural
organizations in major cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver. The
functions held by these groups, which included picnics, new year’s dances, and cultural events,
were the only occasions for many members of the community to get together, meet new arrivals,
make friends, reminisce, and learn about events in the homelands. Tamils frequently drove
hundreds of kilometres to attend.

With the dramatic increase in the Tamil population in Canada after 1983, the situation changed.
Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived after that date were generally quite different from the earlier
immigrants. The vast majority were from the northern Jaffna peninsula area, the heartland of
Tamil culture in Sri Lanka, and were not drawn exclusively from the middle or upper-middle
English-educated classes. Admission on humanitarian and compassionate grounds had enabled a
wider cross-section of the population to migrate, and the newcomers were generally less
anglicized and more imbued with a sense of Tamil nationalism and pride in their cultural and
linguistic heritage. Even if they had not been personally involved with militant movements in Sri
Lanka, they had lived through a strongly nationalistic phase in their community’s history, and
they brought with them a feeling of community solidarity and patriotism. These recent arrivals
have managed to reproduce in Canada the kinship networks that they knew in Sri Lanka. The
process has been made easier by the fact that the great majority have settled primarily in Toronto
and Montreal. Many have sponsored family members and friends from their home village or the
area of Jaffna. School alumni organizations established in Canada have also helped to re-create
old connections.

The arrival of the post-1983 Tamils fundamentally changed Tamil community life in Canada.
Since recent immigrants vastly outnumbered those who had come at an earlier period, the
predisposition of the first immigrants to become acculturated to mainstream Canadian life has
been significantly reduced, if not reversed. Community standards and cultural goals have
increasingly been set by the new arrivals. The numerous Tamil organizations, businesses,
religious institutions, and cultural programs, concentrated in the Toronto and Montreal areas, that
have flourished after 1983 have led to a greater Tamil consciousness for both the earlier
immigrants and the new arrivals. One of the first associations and now the largest is the Tamil
Eelam Society of Canada. It was, in fact, founded as a cultural organization in 1976, before the
influx of new immigrants, but it was transformed into a volunteer-based settlement agency in
1983. Currently it has four branches in the Toronto area alone. Although specializing in
assistance to newcomers, it has begun to branch out to educational work, such as English- and
Tamil-language instruction, computer classes, and employment counselling.

Many of the other community organizations, although not as long-established or as large as the
Tamil Eelam society, offer a variety of services to the Tamil community in Canada. They include
such groups as the Ulagiat Thamilar Iyakkam/World Tamil Movement, the Federation of
Associations of Canadian Tamils, the National Association of Canadian Tamils, the Tamil
Information Centre, the Tamil Resource Centre, the Canada Tamil Cultural Association, the
Association of Sri Lankan Graduates of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Tamil Refugee
Rehabilitation, the Senior Tamils Centre, and the Canada Ceylon Tamil Chamber of Commerce,
Ontario. Most of these organizations are based in Toronto or Montreal and are patronized largely,
if not exclusively, by Sri Lankan Tamils. There seems to be only one organization devoted
exclusively to women, the group called Vilippu (Awakening) in Toronto. However, some of the
other immigrant women’s organizations, such as the Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre in
Toronto and the South Asian Women’s Group, often have Tamil-speaking counsellors on their
staff.

Family and Kinship

Though there are significant variations among Tamils in Canada, it can generally be said that
families and family obligations play a significant role in the life of most members of the
community. The family carries out functions that in other societies are left to the individual or the
state, such as arranging marriages, providing for women in the form of dowries, and caring for
widows and the elderly. Tamils have a tradition of cross-cousin marriages, which strengthens the
family links, especially among siblings. The institution of caste also tends to reinforce family
ideology. Because of its endogamous nature in Tamil society, members of a particular caste from
a specific village are assumed to be at least distantly related.

The extended family is an important institution among Tamils from India and Sri Lanka. Even if
the members do not actually live together, ties are generally strong. Despite both internal and
external migration to more urban industrial settings, these connections have resisted erosion;
indeed, family links may be reinforced by migration to unfamiliar locations because they help to
overcome a sense of alienation. A great deal of respect is given to age in Tamil society, both
within the family and outside it. Even among siblings, a sense of hierarchy is fastidiously
observed. Most Tamils would not feel comfortable calling an older person by his or her name.
They would either address such a person as anna (elder brother) or akka (elder sister), or, if the
individual is significantly older, as uncle or aunt.

Tamils, especially from Sri Lanka, have an unusual combination of both matriarchal and
patriarchal traditions. However, at least outwardly, authority is vested in the male. The husband is
considered the head of the family, and the wife, at least according to tradition, is not supposed to
address him by name. Women are encouraged to play a subordinate role in public. Within the
domestic sphere, however, they often wield a considerable amount of power that compensates for
the lack of power that they have in the public realm.

Dating is almost unheard of in Tamil society. Marriages are generally arranged by the family, the
bride’s family being expected to offer a substantial dowry (either land or money) in keeping with
the status of the groom. The prospective groom or bride is sought among the same caste, with
such factors as astrological compatibility, character, class and family background, employment,
and dowry taken into consideration. The majority of Hindu Tamils would not consider marrying
if the horoscopes of the partners were not compatible.

Rites of passage, especially for females, are observed. The most important one is the hair-cutting
ceremony thirteen or sixteen days after birth, when the child ritually becomes a social person. The
number of days varies with the caste of the family. For Brahman male children, the sacred-thread
ceremony is seen as the rite of passage to social personhood; for females, significant rituals mark
puberty, marriage, and widowhood. Marriage and children are highly valued in Tamil society,
and single people and childless couples are often seen as having missed one of the most important
functions of life. Since marriage is usually a social and familial agreement rather than a matter of
personal choice, divorce is extremely rare, even for the most incompatible couples. Further, the
position of women in Tamil society means that a divorced female is especially vulnerable, and it
is considered a great wrong to place her in such a position.

Children, especially females, are expected to take care of their parents in old age. Though the
handicapped and the mentally ill are generally looked after by the family, their presence is seen
by many of the older generation as a sign of misfortune. The strong family ideology that Tamil
culture inculcates in its members prevents any public airing of marital or family problems.
Physical and sexual abuse often go unreported since doing so would bring dishonour to the
family.

Many of these values have been brought to Canada by the Tamils as part of their distinctive
cultural heritage. The early immigrants, because of their greater degree of acculturation, slowly
adopted many mainstream Canadian attitudes to family life. Some even allowed their children to
date. Their views about marriage and family obligations, however, especially with respect to the
care of elderly parents, remained largely unchanged. Most expected their children to marry
Tamils from their own caste and class background. The partners were often sponsored from the
home country. Nevertheless, a number of the children of early immigrants married non-Tamils
from the general Canadian population.

The dramatic increase in the size of the Tamil community in Canada after 1983 has tended to
reinforce the more traditional views about child rearing, gender roles, and family life. The fact
that it is now possible for Tamils in this country to think of themselves as a community has led
many of the earlier arrivals to conform to these standards. Post-1983 Tamil immigrants, because
of their more traditional attitudes, have faced some problems adjusting to the Canadian
environment. Many find that division of labour along gender lines is impractical. Wives who are
left at home, often in large apartment buildings, do not have the same kind of community and
family support as they would at home, and their life as newcomers to Canada is frequently one of
extreme alienation from the society around them. The fact that many of the more recent
immigrants are not fluent in English adds further to their feeling of estrangement. There has been
a significant increase in family violence, wife assault, and divorce among Tamils who have come
to this country since 1983.

Culture and Education

Traditional Tamil culture was formed by two distinct influences. The earliest came from ancient
Tamil society. The ancient Tamils classified what they called Tamilakam (Tamil country) into
five distinct ecocultural zones (Ainthinai), each with its own distinctive cultural and occupational
characteristics: kurinchi (mountain areas), mullai (forest areas), marutam (fertile plains), neithal
(coastal regions), and palai (dry lands). The literature from this period was largely secular in
character and classified as either aham (dealing with inner feelings or love) or puram (dealing
with outer life or heroic deeds) poetry. The worship of the mother goddess amman and the god
murugan, still popular among the Tamils today, seems to have been prevalent already in ancient
times.

The second influence was that of Indo-Aryan language, religion, and culture, through the
migration of Hindu Brahmins to southern India beginning around the second century C.E. By the
tenth century, Brahmanism and Sanskritic culture had been integrated with the earlier traditions
of the Tamils. The dominant warrior-cultivating castes in the Tamil areas had adopted the
Brahman ideology of caste and ritual practices to help them bring together a variety of
heterogeneous groups and traditions within a social structure based on the supremacy of the
landed, warrior-cultivating castes. These aspects of Tamil culture were subsequently adapted to
the needs and imperatives of a predominantly agrarian society. European colonial rule and
English education did not fundamentally alter the traditional Tamil social structure and culture.
Instead, new ways were found by members of the various castes to retain their power, status and
culture in the new environment.

The traditional dress of the Tamils is the saree for females and the salvai (shawl) and vetti – a
long, rectangular piece of cloth, usually made of cotton or silk, secured around the waist – for
males. The major festivals of the Tamils are Thaipongal (Harvest festival) in January,
Puthuvarusham (Tamil/Hindu New Year) in mid-April, and Deepavali (Festival of Lights) in
October. Although Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils share a common language and culture,
their different geographic environments and political histories have contributed at times to
significant differences in spoken language, cultural practices, and outlook.

Tamils in Canada have access to a wide variety of organized cultural activity. In addition to pan-
Indian, south Indian, or Sri Lankan cultural organizations, many early Hindu Tamils in Canada
attended informally organized religious functions or lectures given by visiting spiritual leaders
from India. They also participated in associations that disseminated Vedantic philosophy and
Yoga. Sathya Sai Baba associations (a form of Hindu religious organization) were popular as
well. None of these organizations were exclusively Tamil; rather, they encouraged a pan-Indian
Hindu or South Asian identity. Many of the early immigrants even began speaking English at
home so that their children did not learn Tamil.

With the dramatic increase in the Tamil population after 1983, members of the community began
to attach more importance to their language and culture. Sinhalese-Tamil ethnic conflict in Sri
Lanka also increased the sense of solidarity. Language classes and instruction in Carnatic vocal
and instrumental music and bharata natya were organized in areas with a large concentration of
Tamils. The Tamil language can now be taken as a credit course at the high school level in
Toronto, and textbooks for language instruction have been prepared up to grade eight. In addition,
there are at least six weekly community newspapers published in Toronto and Montreal, all in the
Tamil language. The earliest was Senthamarai (Red Lotus; Toronto, 1986– ). Their names, such
as Thayagam (Motherland; Toronto, 1989– 94) and Eelanadu (Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka;
Toronto, 1991– ), reveal the orientation of the community that supports them. So far there are no
Tamil newspapers published in English, a fact that may reflect the community’s dramatic change
in attitude towards cultural maintenance. Monthly magazines and news programs on video are
also available. Radio programs in Tamil are broadcast daily in Toronto and Montreal, and there is
a weekly television program. The radio and television broadcasts feature news and cultural
programs from both Canada and the home country.

There has also been a tremendous growth in the importation and distribution of Tamil movies
from India. They are regularly shown in cinemas in Toronto and Montreal; most, however, are
watched at home since a great variety of movies are available on video cassette. Tamil musicians,
artists, and religious figures from India and Sri Lanka regularly visit Canadian cities to give
performances and lectures. A profound change has taken place in the cultural life of Tamil
Canadians as a result of large-scale immigration from Sri Lanka in recent years. Unlike earlier
immigrants, who often patronized pan-Indian or mainstream Canadian cultural activities, those
who arrived after 1983 support programs geared more exclusively to a Tamil audience.

Tamils have come to Canada with relatively high levels of education. Out of a small sample of
individuals who reported Tamil as their first language in the 1991 census, fewer than 0.5 percent
indicated that they had a grade nine education or less, approximately 50 percent gave their
educational background as between grades nine and thirteen, around 30 percent had some
postsecondary education, and about 10 percent held a university degree. There was not much
disparity between the sexes, except at the university level, where the number of females was
about half that of males. In keeping with the emphasis placed on education in Tamil society, the
childrem of most Tamil immigrants are receiving a great deal of support in their educational
ventures. Many are encouraged to pursue professional studies, especially medicine, engineering,
and computer science. There are already a significant number of Tamil students in many major
Canadian universities.

Religion
The religion of the vast majority of the Tamils in India and Sri Lanka is Hinduism. It is a form of
Hinduism that is distinctly characteristic of South India, however, and is marked by the central
role that the temple plays in the life and activities of the community. South Indian temples have a
characteristic gopuram shaped (cone shaped) temple architecture. Tamil Hinduism is also much
more ritualistic and conservative than Hindu practices found in northern India. The vast majority
of Tamils in India and Sri Lanka consider themselves as belonging to the Saivite sect of
Hinduism. Their Saivite identity was strengthened by the Saivite renewal movements which
began in the nineteenth century as a response to the impact of colonialism and Christian
missionary work in the Tamil regions. The more recent trend in both communities is towards a
more cosmopolitan Hinduism that embraces the many diverse strands of that religion.

The overwhelming majority of Tamils in Canada are Hindus, particularly Saivite Hindus from Sri
Lanka. Saivite Hinduism, centred on the worship of Shiva as the ultimate deity, has a long history
of saints and canonical literature in both Tamil and Sanskrit in south India and Sri Lanka.
Although there were few south Indian Hindu temples in Canada until fairly recently, many of the
early immigrants kept up their religious observances either through informal gatherings or by
attending pan-Indian Hindu functions. The first Tamil immigrants were generally more
predisposed towards what is considered Hindu high culture, that is, a preference for Vedantic
philosophy and Yoga rather than temple worship. Since the visit of Swami Vivekananda to the
United States at the turn of the century, Vedantic and Yoga centres have been established
throughout North America by his followers, as well as by adherents of other Hindu spiritual
leaders. The Society for Krishna Consciousness is probably the best known of such groups.

With the arrival of large numbers of Sri Lankan Tamils, the organization and construction of
south-India-style Hindu temples in Canada began. There are now at least three such temples in
the Toronto region alone. The most impressive is the one in Richmond Hill, built with the help of
experts in the sculptural and architectural traditions of the homeland. The Richmond Hill temple
is unique in that it was erected through the efforts of both Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils. Priests
in these temples are recruited from both India and Sri Lanka. A temporary temple exists in
Montreal, and land has been purchased at a downtown location for a permanent building at an
estimated cost of around half a million dollars. This structure is to be devoted to the goddess
Amman, who is very popular with Tamils. With the introduction of regular temple worship, one
of the most central elements of Hindu Tamil life in both India and Sri Lanka has been brought to
Canada. Every Tamil village in those countries has at least one temple. In addition to fulfilling
spiritual functions, it also plays an essential role in community life. Through ritual observances,
the temple has traditionally maintained social order and hierarchy in Hindu society. As well,
many marriages take place on the temple premises.

Not all Tamils, however, either in their homeland or abroad, are Hindu. The early Tamil
Christians in Canada, like their Hindu counterparts, did not have places of worship devoted
specifically to their own community. With the great increase in their numbers in cities such as
Toronto and Montreal after 1983, however, Tamil congregations and services became possible.
There are now at least five churches in Toronto. The majority of Tamil Christians in both South
Asia and Canada are Roman Catholics. Although they represent only a small percentage of the
Tamil population in Canada, their influence on the politics and culture of the community has been
significant. Their organizations assist members with settlement and other problems that
newcomers face. Christian organizations in both Sri Lanka and Canada also play a significant role
as mediators in ethnic conflict.

There are at least two Islamic organizations in Toronto catering to the Tamil community. Tamil
Muslims in Canada account for only a few hundred individuals. The majority are from Sri Lanka,
and many of them arrived recently because of increasing political unrest in the northern and
eastern regions of the country. Their numbers in Canada are likely to grow as a result of
continuing violence in eastern Sri Lanka.
Politics

The first Tamil immigrants were not particularly interested in political matters. Belonging as they
did to the English-educated middle classes in India and Sri Lanka, they were on the whole either
quite conservative or indifferent to politics. Many had been disillusioned by the problems
connected with the rising nationalism in their own countries and, to escape from them, they came
to Canada in search of prosperity and political stability. Their primary concerns were economic
issues and discriminatory legislation towards South Asian immigration or those already in the
country.

The more recent Tamil arrivals from Sri Lanka, by contrast, are much more politicized.
Emigrating from a country in the midst of intense conflict, many have experienced directly the
impact of political turmoil and war. The increasing violence directed against them as a group, at
least since the early 1980s, has led to a greater communal consciousness and solidarity. The
various militant organizations that arose among them served to politicize them and heighten their
sense of a distinctive Tamil identity. Their presence in Canada in large numbers has stimulated
interest among earlier immigrants in the political struggles of Tamils in the homeland. The
dramatic growth in newspapers and in radio, television, and video news reports from Sri Lanka
and Tamil Nadu has likewise contributed to a closer identification with political and cultural
developments in South Asia.

Thus, the greatest impact of the recent Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka has been to shift the
concerns of the community from a preoccupation with life in Canada to an increased interest in
events in the homelands. There are no formal political organizations in Canada, but many of the
Tamil groups, in addition to their concern with settlement, lobby various government agencies for
a solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. They also collect funds for relief efforts in that
country.

Intergroup Relations

Since the early Tamil immigrants to Canada were more predisposed to integration with
mainstream Canadian society, they saw themselves as part of a general South Asian diaspora
rather than a particular linguistic minority. Their small numbers and scattered settlement made
such a strategy both practical and inevitable. Most mixed freely with members of other South
Asian groups, as well as with the larger Canadian society. The earlier arrivals from Sri Lanka also
associated with the Sinhalese community in Canada and participated in its organizations. With
increasing violence in the homeland after the 1970s, however, the mutual distrust that developed
between the two communities was transferred to Canada, and many Sri Lankan organizations lost
their Tamil members, becoming, effectively, Sinhalese societies. Antagonism between adherents
of the various Tamil militant groups also seems to have been transferred to the Canadian setting.
The major division has been between supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and
those who are opposed to this organization.

The existence of large concentrations of Tamils in certain regions of Canada after 1983, together
with the lack of fluency in English of many newcomers, may have acted as a barrier to the
development of relations with other ethnic groups. Most seem more interested in establishing
stronger links within the Tamil community than forming new connections outside. The great
majority marry within their own ethnic group, and many do so by sponsoring partners from the
home country. This marriage pattern further cements their links to the Tamil community. Some,
however, move out of the ethnic neighbourhoods once they become more familiar with life in
Canada.

Group Maintenance and Ethnic Commitment

The overwhelming majority of Tamils now in Canada are from the Jaffna region, which has been
the focal point of Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka at least since the early 1970s. One of the
consequences of this protracted and brutal conflict has been that Jaffna has become increasingly
isolated from the rest of the country, as well as from the world beyond. A once vibrant, outward-
looking community has had to adopt an increasingly defensive nationalist orientation. This
development may help to explain the strong ethnic commitment now evident among Tamils in
Canada. Their sense of identity has also been fostered by the degree of concentration in a few
urban areas in Canada and by the arrival of family members, especially the older generation.

The leadership in the community, which is largely held by more recent immigrants, has
stimulated a high degree of interest in and commitment to the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. It has
also encouraged a dramatic surge in cultural activities within the space of a decade. The earlier
Tamil immigrants have either joined this movement or retreated to the margins of the community.
What is difficult to determine is the degree of ethnic commitment or cultural orientation on the
part of the new generation. Many of the children of immigrants have been able to grow up in a
Tamil environment, and they have an extended network of relatives, including grandparents, in
this country. Parents send their children to special classes to learn the Tamil language and
traditional music and dance. Although their familiarity with the language and culture of their
ancestors is not in doubt, it is a matter of debate whether these young people have the same
attachment to the home country or the same degree of ethnic commitment as their parents.

Further Reading

There are numerous works on the Tamils in India, most being highly specialized academic
studies. An exception is the engaging and insightful account of Tamil culture and family life in
India by Margaret Trawick, Notes on Love in a Tamil Family (Berkeley, Calif., 1990). Susan S.
Wadley, ed., The Powers of Tamil Women (Syracuse, N.Y., 1991), is a collection of essays on
Tamil women both in India and Sri Lanka. For a good introduction to the history of the modern
period of Tamil history in India, see E.F. Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India:
The Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916– 1929 (Berkeley, Calif., 1969).

A recent work that provides a good introduction to the Sri Lankan Tamils and the ethnic conflict
in Sri Lanka is Chelvadurai Manogaran and Bryan Pfaffenberger, eds., Sri Lankan Tamils:
Ethnicity and Identity (Boulder, Colo., 1994). There are also a number of more detailed works on
Tamils and their culture in Sri Lanka, including Bryan Pfaffenberger, Caste in Tamil Culture: The
Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka (Syracuse, N.Y., 1982), and R.S.
Perinbanayagam, The Karmic Theatre: Self, Society and Astrology in Jaffna (Amherst, Mass.,
1982). For a good introduction to the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, see S.J. Tambiah, Sri Lanka:
Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (Chicago, 1986).

There is little scholarly work devoted exclusively to the history of Tamils in Canada. Occasional
references to their early history in Canada can, however, be found in many of the general works
on South Asians. The most comprehensive of these is Norman Buchignani, Doreen M. Indra, and
R. Srivastava, Continuous Journey: A Social History of South Asians in Canada (Toronto, 1985).
Works dealing with South Asian life and adaptation in Canada also often contain information
pertaining to the earlier Tamils in Canada; see, for example, Milton Israel, ed., The South Asian
Diaspora in Canada: Six Essays (Toronto, 1987).

The few existing works on the Tamils in Canada deal almost exclusively with the Sri Lankan
Tamils and are often brief sketches published by various organizations and interest groups of the
Sri Lankan Tamil community. P.R.W. Kendall, The Sri Lankan Tamil Community in Toronto
(Toronto, 1989), is a concise work that is largely concerned with the health practices of Sri
Lankan Tamils in Toronto. See also Balagouri Vicky Kandasanny, “Findings on the Tamil
Community” (City of York, Community Services, 1995). Although written in an informal style,
this work contains useful information on the Tamils in Canada. There is also a brief article on
women: Sudha Coomarasamy, “Sri Lankan Tamil Women: Resettlement in Montreal,” Canadian
Women Studies, vol.10, no.1 (1989), 69–72. The experiences of a Tamil refugee family in
Toronto, based on oral-history interviews, are recounted in Elizabeth McLuhan, ed., Safe Haven:
The Refugee Experience of Five Families (Toronto, 1994).

Statistical information on Tamils in is found in Arul S. Aruliah, “Accepted on Compassionate

Grounds: An Admission Profile of Tamil Immigrants in Canada,” Refuge: Canada’s Periodical
on Refugees, vol.14, no.4 (1994), 10–14. There is also useful background information on
Canada’s acceptance of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, as well as other information pertaining to
Tamil refugees and the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, in Refuge: Canada’s Periodical on Refugees,
vol.13, no.3 (1993). The Census Canada data on home language and mother tongue for 1991 are
of some help for compiling an educational and occupational profile of recent Tamil immigrants:
Statistics Canada, Home Language and Mother Tongue (Ottawa, 1992).

Other sources of information on Tamils in Canada are the various Tamil newspapers and
magazines that are published in Toronto and Montreal. A particularly informative monthly Tamil
magazine is Thamilar Thagaval (Tamil’s Information; Toronto). The Tamil “yellow pages,”
Thamilar Mathiyil (Among Tamils), published annually since 1990, is also useful.

RAVINDIRAN VAITHEESPARA

(Source: Multicultural Canada)