Ceylon Citizenship Act

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The Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 was a controversial law passed by the

Ceylon Parliament which did not grant citizenship to Indian Tamils, who were 11% of the population
.

Background

During the 19th and early 20th centuries the

nationalists. There was real fear amongst the Indian Tamils that once Ceylon obtained independence
, the Sinhalese, who constituted 69.4% of the population, would take steps to remove them from the country.

The Bill

Shortly after independence on 4 February 1948 the new Sinhalese dominated government of

Therefore, they could not prove the requirements for citizenship.

The Bill was opposed fiercely in Parliament by the

The Bill was passed by Parliament on 20 August 1948 and became law on 15 November 1948, just 285 days after Ceylon had gained independence from Britain. Only about 5,000 Indian Tamils qualified for citizenship. More than 700,000 people, about 11% of the population, were denied citizenship and made stateless.[3]

Aftermath

In 1949 the Ceylon Parliament passed a different subsequent act called Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act No.3 of 1949 whose outward purpose, again, was to provide means of obtaining citizenship for the Indian Tamils. But in reality the conditions imposed by the Act were such that they discriminated against the Indian Tamils.[1] The Act granted citizenship to anyone who had 10 years of uninterrupted residence in Ceylon (7 years for married persons) and whose income was above the stipulated level. Again, this was an impossible task for most Indian Tamils. They had a habit of periodically returning to India, thereby interrupting their residence in Ceylon, and most could not meet the income qualification.[1] Only about 100,000 Indian Tamils qualified for citizenship under this Act.[citation needed]

Later in 1949 the Ceylon Parliament passed the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Amendment Act No.48 of 1949 which stripped the Indian Tamils of their

MPs elected at the 1947 general elections were Indian Tamils.[4] Upcountry Indian Tamils influenced the result in 20 other constituencies, very often voting for the opposition Sinhalese leftist parties. None of the 95 MPs elected at the 1952 general elections
were Upcountry Indian Tamils.

On 18 January 1954 Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Ceylon Prime Minister John Kotelawala signed the Nehru-Kotelawala Pact under which India agreed to the repatriation of any Indian Tamil who wanted Indian citizenship. But India refused to automatically provide Indian citizenship to those who did not qualify for Ceylon citizenship.[1][5]

On 30 October 1964

Sirima-Shastri Pact (also known as the Indo-Ceylon Agreement) under which India agreed to the repatriation of 525,000 Indian Tamils. Another 300,000 would be offered Ceylon citizenship. The fate of the remaining 150,000 Indian Tamils would be decided later.[1][6]

On 28 June 1974 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Ceylon Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike signed the Sirimavo-Gandhi Pact under which India and Sri Lanka agreed to grant citizenship to the 150,000 Indian Tamils whose status was left unresolved by the Sirima-Shastri Pact.[1][7]

In 1982 India abrogated the Sirima-Shastri Pact and Sirimavo-Gandhi Pact. At this point 90,000 Indian Tamils who had been granted Indian citizenship were still in Sri Lanka and another 86,000 were in the process of applying for Indian citizenship.[1][8]

In 1988 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons Act which granted Sri Lankan citizenship to all Indian Tamils who hadn't applied for Indian citizenship under previous agreements.[1][9]

On 7 October 2003 the Sri Lankan Parliament unanimously passed the Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act No.35 of 2003 which granted Sri Lankan citizenship to all Indian Tamils who had been residing in Sri Lanka since October 1964 and their descendants. This amounted to 168,141 persons and included those who had been granted Indian citizenship under previous agreements but were still living in Sri Lanka, though they had to rescind their Indian citizenship.[1][10] All Indian Tamils living in Sri Lanka had finally been granted Sri Lankan citizenship, 55 years after independence.[11]

References

  1. ^
    UNHCR in Sri Lanka. Archived from the original
    on 23 October 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  2. ^ Apparthuray Vinayagamoorthy (8 November 2003). "103rd Birth Anniversary today : G. G. Ponnambalam - Founder of ACTC". Daily News, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  3. ^ Ethnic Conflict of Sri Lanka: Time Line - From Independence to 1999 Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, International Centre for Ethnic Studies
  4. UTHR
    . Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  5. ^ K T Rajasingham (17 November 2001). "SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 8 February 2002. Retrieved 20 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ "29 October 1964". Peace and Conflict Timeline. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  7. ^ "1974". Peace and Conflict Timeline. Retrieved 20 June 2009.[dead link]
  8. ^ "1982". Peace and Conflict Timeline. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  9. ^ "1988". Peace and Conflict Timeline. Retrieved 20 June 2009.[dead link]
  10. ^ "October 2003". Peace and Conflict Timeline. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  11. ^ "Stateless Tamils' long struggle bears fruit". TamilNet. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 20 June 2009.

External links