"Based on exhaustive archival research and a complete review of the secondary literature, this book studies the Plantation Tamils of Ceylon through the dominant groups whose ideologies shaped the construction of their history over the century from 1840 to 1940. The Plantation Tamils, descendents of those who came from India to grow the crops on which the colonial economy was based, suffered generations of discrimination and political repression before they became citizens in the 1980s.

As this work shows, they had become a distinct Sri Lankan community long before this time.".

"The information available about the Plantation Tamils was produced largely by planters, the government of Ceylon, the Colonial Office, the government of India and Ceylonese politicians. In the nineteenth century the planters and government of Ceylon, prodded by the Colonial Office, tended to blame each other for the hardships faced by the labourers.

In the twentieth century, while Indian nationalists demanded that India take more responsibility for the living conditions of overseas Indians, Ceylonese nationalists demanded the exclusion of the Plantation Tamils from political life. Other scholars have screened out some of the biases in the records, but they have also reinforced biases that suited their own agendas.

This book investigates more carefully how knowledge about the Plantation Tamils was produced and in doing so dispels some of the more persistent myths about them."--BOOK JACKET.