Sri Lankan Tamil identity and Indian Tamils: Why Indian Tamils did not participate in the conflict

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the Indian Tamils’ avoidance of joining the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. It was the only absentee, while all the other Tamil sub-groups participated in it. The research was conducted as an interpretive case study that used multiple theories as the basis for analysis. It was based on secondary data, as the time frame was limited also because this phase of the study could be carried out without primary data. The findings show that the purposely constructed contents and characteristics of the Sri Lankan Tamil identity itself discouraged the Indian Tamils joining the ethnic conflict. The most prominent Tamil group, Jaffna Tamil Vellalars, started to construct a single Tamil identity to fight the conflict, with particular characteristics that would be vital for their campaign for autonomy. It included origin myth and historical parity, and it claimed historical ownership to a particular territory. These contents helped the elite to unite all the other sub-groups but failed regarding Indian Tamils. This study shows that their avoidance was caused by the nature of the Sri Lankan Tamil identity itself. The Indian Tamil community did not have a higher sense of group worth. They were recent immigrants and of lower social status. Therefore, they found that they would be unsuitable to the identity that the Sri Lankan Tamil elite proposed. As the Indian Tamil leaders played the crucial secondary role, Indian Tamils avoided joining the purposely constructed Sri Lankan Tamil identity and thereby kept away from the conflict. This research highlights the deterministic importance of sense of group worth regarding the participation in a conflict.