Tamil Nadu diaspora
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The Tamil Nadu diaspora (
Early migrations (before 1800s)
Many of Tamil
Medieval Migration (1800 - 1950)
During this period British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Danish colony administrators recruited a lot of local Tamilians and took them to their overseas colonies to work as labourers, petty administration officers, clerical and military duties.
In the 19th century, Madras Presidency (of which the Tamil Nadu region was a core part of) faced brutal famines. Great Famine of 1876–78. Tamil Nadu was both politically and economically weak. Britishers thus made use of Tamil workers for their plantations to all over the world - significantly in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Sri Lanka (distinct from the Sri Lankan Tamils) and also as far as Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad.
Some of the Tamil groups (especially Chettiyars, Pillais, Muslims) emigrated as commercial migrants. These groups then dominated the trade and finance in primarily in Myanmar, Singapore, and other places. The first Indian to own a merchant ship during the British times comes from this group.[1]
There also a group of people from French Tamil colonies of Pondicherry and Karaikal emigrated and settled in other parts of the world, significantly in France, Réunion, Seychelles and the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
These Tamilians well integrated, assimilated with their adopted countries, and became part and parcel of local populations in Mauritius, South Africa, Guyana, and Fiji. Where as Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka, and Tamil Malaysians of Malaysia were evolved into distinct ethnic nationalities of their own but retaining their ancestral language and religion in their new homelands.
Modern Migration (1950 - present)
In the second half of the 20th century, around 3.5 million Tamils emigrated from Tamil Nadu as skilled professionals, workers to various parts of India like Bangalore, Mumbai, Andaman Islands and also countries like UAE, USA, Singapore and so on. Some of them got citizenship of respective countries but still having strong family and cultural ties with Tamil Nadu, than those who migrated before 1950, who lost touch with their ancestral links in Tamil Nadu.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands has about 100,000 Tamils. The Tamil speaking people of the Andaman and Nicobar islands are commonly known as the Madrasi (after Madras, erstwhile name of Tamil Nadu). Andaman Tamils, like Bangalore Tamils having a strong ties with Mainland Tamils of Tamil Nadu through marriages, cultural, religious and linguistic ties.
Singapore is home to about 600,000 Tamils, among them 410,000 are recent migrants from Tamil Nadu as of 2015.[4] The recent immigrants were distinct from Tamil-speaking native Singaporeans. Singapore has emerged as the most preferred destination among migrants from Tamil Nadu. A study in 2015 revealed that 410,000 of the 2.2 million Tamil diaspora were residing in Singapore.[5] Early Tamil people of Singapore migrated from Tamil Nadu from as early as the 1820s. Recent decades thousands of Tamil people from Tamil Nadu migrating to Singapore for job prospects. Tamil Language is one of the four official languages in Singapore.[6] Singapore has dedicated Tamil Newspaper, Television and Radio station funded by Government of Singapore to promote Tamil language.
In the
The Middle East is home to over 1 million emigrants from Tamil Nadu,<[4] and over 75.000 migrants immigrated to the Middle East in 2012 alone.[10] However, statistics on the numbers of migrants are scarce.
There are about 450,000 Tamilians in the United Arab Emirates having come from Tamil Nadu as professionals and workers in many sectors.[11] Pongal and New Year are celebrated on a grand scale in Dubai and in a few other states. The first Tamil newspaper from the Middle East region was launched from Dubai on December 10, 2014. Tamil 89.4 FM radio is a Tamil radio broadcasting from Dubai UAE.
Australia becoming favorite destination for people from Tamil Nadu to migrate. In 2011-12, India became the largest source of permanent migration to Australia forming 15.7% of the total migration programme. According to the 2011 census there were 50,151 Australians, who spoke Tamil at home.[12]
References
- ISBN 9788132100393.
- ^ "Bangalore Population 2019".
- ^ "2011 census". Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
- ^ a b "Singapore most preferred destination of Tamil diaspora, study finds". Times of India. 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016.
- ^ "Singapore most preferred destination of Tamil diaspora - INDIA New England News". INDIA New England News. 23 March 2016.
- ^ Singapore, R. o. (1999). Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. Retrieved 10 1, 2010, from Singapore Statutes Online: http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_retrieve.pl?&actno=Reved-CONST&date=latest&method=part
- ^ US Census 2010 See Row# 125
- ^ New Jersey Tamil Sangam
- ^ Bay Area Tamil Manram Archived 2010-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Uttar Pradesh sends the largest number of Indian workers abroad, not Kerala or Punjab". Retrieved 2015-09-15.
- ^ Sivasupramaniam, V. "History of the Tamil Diaspora". International Conferences on Skanda-Murukan.
- ^ "Census Explorer". Special Broadcasting Service.
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