It has been 200 years since Malayaha Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka. Calling them as ‘Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka’ is refusing to recognise their ethnic rights. The New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party strongly condemns this.
The mentioning of Malayaha Tamils as Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka by ‘Yazh Nanbargal’ (Friends of Jaffna) along with the Indian embassy is a historical fraud. SK Senthivel, General Secretary of the New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party, in his press release condemned this, and said that this is belittling and maligning the identity of Malayaha Tamils by Yazh Nanbargal in order to extend the hegemony of India.
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This year marks the completion of 200 years since the Malayaha Tamils were first brought by the British to colonial Ceylon as indentured workers from South India in many phases beginning in 2023. Labour Unions, Progressive Organisations, Left forces and the intelligentsia are continuously voicing for the unresolved issues of the Malayaha Tamils and are emphasizing on their uniqueness. Identifying them as Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka at this juncture has many motives.
The New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party has been waging the struggle for long for the recognition of the Malayaha Tamils as a separate nationality. It has made a series of demands to the government to recognise the Malayaha Tamils as one of the four nationalities. We have been struggling for this demand since the 1990s. We have pointed this out emphatically in the proposals for constitutional reform submitted by the party during the so called Good Governance regime (United National Front for Good Governance).
It is condemnable to call the Malayaha Tamils, an oppressed nationality who have been denied citizenship and the rights of civil societies, including land, housing, education, etc., as Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka.
Progressive organizations and the public in Jaffna should register their protest over this new oppression of the Malayaha Tamils. The New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party emphasizes the necessity to raise their voices by all those who care about the Malayaha Tamils against this, and calls upon the people of Sri Lanka to fight for the rights of the Malayaha Tamils.
On behalf of the Central Committee,
SK Senthivel,
General Secretary,
New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party.
