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Tamils in Canada
Ravindiran Vaitheespara in The
Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples
Courtesy The Multicultural History Society
of Ontario
 Origins
Migration
Arrival and Settlement
Economic Life
Community Life
Family and Kinship
Culture and Education Religion
Politics
Intergroup Relations Group Maintenance and Ethnic
Commitment
Further Reading
Origins
The majority of Tamils are from south Asia,
specifically the states of India and Sri Lanka
(called Ceylon until 1972). Close to 60 million
Tamils live in India (1991), primarily in the far
southeastern state of Tamil Nadu (130,000 square
kilometres) and in the small coastal Indian union
territory of Pondicherry, both formerly part of the
British colonial-administration entity called the
Madras Presidency. The above figure also includes
Tamils who live in major urban centres throughout
India, including Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta.
In Sri Lanka the Tamils number around 3.5 million
(1989), a figure that includes Tamils who have been
in Sri Lanka since ancient times, Tamil-speaking
Muslims (Sri Lankan Moors descended from tenth- and
eleventh-century Arab traders), and Tamils who came
from India in the nineteenth century to work on
colonial British plantations. The indigenous, or
"Ceylon," Tamils comprise approximately 12 percent
of Sri Lanka's population and live largely in the
northern (Jaffna) and eastern regions of the
country, as well as in the capital of Colombo. The
descendants of Tamils who came from India in the
nineteenth century (7 percent) live mainly in the
central highlands of the island. The Tamil-speaking
Muslims (7 percent) are concentrated in the eastern
region.
In south Asia, over 94 percent of Tamils live in
India. By contrast, in Canada nearly 93 percent
come from Sri Lanka while only about 6 percent are
from India, the remainder being from other
countries and areas where Tamils had previously
emigrated, including Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji,
Mauritius, South Africa, and the Caribbean. Aside
from a significant minority of Muslims and
Christians, the majority of Tamils are Hindus
belonging to the Saivite sect.
The Tamil language belongs to the Dravidian family
of languages spoken throughout south India and is
considered the oldest living language in the Indian
subcontinent. It has its own script called
Vitteluthu (round letters) and a rich
two-thousand-year-old literary tradition. At
present, Tamil is the official language of the
state of Tamil Nadu in India, where it enjoys a
fair degree of government patronage and support for
its development.
During the first millennium B.C.E., Tamil kingdoms
flourished in southern India and patronized the
arts and literature. Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Jainism also took root, as did, in later periods,
Islam and Christianity. As early as the sixth
century B.C.E., Tamils began migrating from the
Indian subcontinent across the narrow Palk Strait
to the island of Ceylon, a demographic trend that
steadily intensified during the first millennium
C.E. One of the most powerful Tamil states was
ruled by the Chola dynasty, which flourished during
the tenth to thirteenth centuries in southern
India. The Cholas also expanded into neighbouring
Ceylon and southeast Asia. For several decades they
ruled all of Ceylon (993-1070), and by the
thirteenth century they had established a
distinctive Tamil kingdom in the northern part of
the island, with its centre in Jaffna.
Southern India and Ceylon were among the first
places to experience European colonial expansion in
south Asia. The Portuguese arrived in the early
sixteenth century, followed by the Dutch, the
French, and finally the British. The long history
of European presence in southern India and Sri
Lanka, especially in the Tamil regions, ensured a
strong European and Christian impact on local
culture, language, and customs. British colonial
rule lasted in the Madras Presidency and Ceylon
from the late eighteenth century until after World
War II, when independent India (a federation of
states, 1947) and Ceylon (1948) were created. In
India, the former British-administered Madras
Presidency that had encompassed much of the
southern part of the subcontinent was reorganized
on the basis of linguistic states beginning in the
1950s. Eventually, a Tamil linguistic state called
Tamil Nadu was created in 1969 with its own elected
bicameral legislature, governed by a chief
minister, and with a considerable amount of
autonomy from India's union government.
In Ceylon/Sri Lanka, where Tamils formed the
largest minority, a short initial period of
Sinhalese and Tamil political cooperation had
broken down by the mid-1950s following the rise of
Sinhalese political nationalism, with its efforts
to undermine the political, economic, and cultural
position of the Tamils. The drive to make Sinhala
the official (1956) and later national (1973)
language of Sri Lanka provoked Tamil opposition
that since 1958 has in turn resulted in a series of
major riots against the Tamils. During the next few
decades, the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict continued to
escalate at the same time that Sri Lanka's economy
declined and its population nearly doubled in size,
causing increasing pressure on and competition for
the country's limited resources.
By the early 1970s, the failure of the moderate
Tamil leadership to protect Tamil rights led to the
rise of militant youth movements pledged to fight
for a separate Tamil state called Tamil Eelam. The
most powerful of these movements is the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which managed to
wrestle the northern Jaffna region from state
control and to run a de facto government for nearly
a decade beginning in the mid-1980s. Although the
Sri Lankan government has regained control over the
north, fierce fighting continues between the
Liberation Tigers and government troops, causing
increasing dislocation, suffering, and the death of
an estimated 50,000 people. The conflict has also
forced a large exodus of Tamils to seek refuge by
emigrating abroad.
Migration
Among the first Tamils to emigrate to Canada
were predominantly English-educated individuals
from India's upper-middle and middle classes and
castes. Many had professional qualifications and
were seeking to find better prospects for their
education and talents. A substantial proportion
came as graduate students and, after completing
their studies, found jobs and remained in Canada.
Political developments in southern India dating
back to the first decades of the twentieth century
may have also provided a strong incentive for Tamil
emigration.
One of the earliest castes to take advantage of the
opportunities afforded by English education in
southern India were the Brahmin castes. By the
early twentieth century, the Brahmins held a
disproportionate amount of government and
professional jobs in relation to their numbers
within the general population. Their predominance
in the professions and government and their
religio-cultural ascendancy began to be challenged
by the non-Brahmin, or Dravidian, movement which
began to gather momentum by the early part of the
twentieth century in southern India. The Dravidian
movement, which later evolved into a Tamil
ethno-nationalist movement, sought to overturn what
it saw as Brahmin or Aryan domination of India's
Dravidian south. Launched formally in 1916 as the
Justice Party, the Tamil movement fought for and
obtained quotas which by the 1950s had led to a
significant reduction in the number of Brahmins in
top government and professional jobs in southern
India. Faced with diminishing career opportunities,
many Brahmins in the Tamil region began migrating
to other parts of India as well as to Britain, the
United States, Canada, and Australia.
Tamils in Sri Lanka were also attracted to English
education much more readily than the majority
Sinhalese. In contrast to India, however, the
majority of the English-educated Tamils in Sri
Lanka came from the dominant landowning vellalar
caste. Living mainly in arid and less productive
areas of the northern and eastern provinces, many
Tamils saw education as the key to economic
well-being. Thus, by the time Sri Lanka achieved
independence from Britain in 1948, the Tamils held
a greater proportion of the professional,
technical, and administrative jobs than their
numbers in the general population warranted.
Independence confirmed their fears of being
subordinated to the Sinhalese majority.
It was not long before Sinhalese-dominated
governments, riding a wave of ethnic and religious
populism, set out to correct what they considered
the undue privileges held by the Tamils. Sri
Lanka's first independent parliament passed
legislation in 1948 excluding Tamils from India
from citizenship, and a year later it
disenfranchised them. The adoption of Sinhala as
the official language of Sri Lanka in 1956
disadvantaged Tamils further. These laws were only
the beginning of a series of government measures
that reduced a once politically and socially
influential Tamil community to economic and
cultural marginalization. The failure of the
moderate, English-educated Tamil leadership to
safeguard the interests of the community led to
calls by an increasing number of unemployed and
disgruntled Tamil youth for more extreme measures.
The result was the increasing level of
confrontation with the Sinhalese that has
characterized Sri Lankan life since the late 1950s
and that has acted as a significant catalyst for
large-scale migration of Tamils abroad.
Arrival and Settlement
The earliest immigration to Canada from both
India and Sri Lanka followed a pattern not
significantly different from that of other South
Asian communities except for the Punjabis. Unlike
that group, who began migrating to Canada as early
as 1903, members of other ethnic communities in the
Indian subcontinent arrived first only in the
1950s. There were overwhelming barriers to South
Asian immigration before that time. Canadian
policy, as well as numerous social, legal, and
economic restrictions, reflected deep-seated racist
attitudes towards all Asians. Many of those who had
already arrived in Canada lived an uncertain
existence without wives or children, and they did
not have the right to vote. Significant changes to
Canadian immigration policy with regard to South
Asians after World War II gradually addressed the
realities of the post-colonial era; overtly racist
practices were harder to justify after the
emergence of potentially powerful, independent
Asian and African states. Thus, by 1951 annual
quotas for a token number of non-sponsored
immigrants, over and above those in the
sponsored-immigrant category, from the three South
Asian countries were established: 150 for India,
100 for Pakistan, and 50 for Sri Lanka. This
landmark change in policy set the stage for a
fundamental transformation of South Asian
communities in Canada.
By 1960 Tamils had begun arriving in this country
from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and from Sri
Lanka. The numbers from both areas before the
mid-1960s were small, perhaps amounting to less
than one hundred individuals by 1960, according to
community estimates. Like other South Asian
migrants at this time, they were predominantly
English-educated professionals from the middle and
upper-middle classes in their homelands. Given that
both Tamil Nadu and the Tamil-speaking areas of Sri
Lanka had produced an unusually large
English-educated class with a long history of
professional and administrative service under the
British, it is not surprising that most of the
early Tamil immigrants to Canada came from this
background.
The numbers gradually increased after the
introduction of the point system for independent
immigrants in 1967 and also because of the
sponsorship of family members. Unlike the Punjabis,
who had come by ship and established themselves in
British Columbia, most Tamil immigrants arrived by
airplane and settled first in the provinces of
Ontario and Quebec. A significant number in the
1960s and 1970s came by way of Great Britain, where
they had previously settled but become disenchanted
with increasing racism in that country and lured by
greater economic opportunities in Canada. Since the
majority of newcomers were well educated and
familiar with British institutions, they had few
problems adapting to Canadian life. These early
Tamil immigrants were highly mobile and settled
wherever they could find adequate employment. Many
moved to Alberta during the boom in oil production
there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
There appears to have been significant growth in
the immigration of Indian Tamils to Canada between
1970 and 1980. Their population at present is
thought to be around 4,000. The vast majority live
in Ontario. Smaller numbers are to be found in
Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia. India's
Tamils are much more dispersed than those from Sri
Lanka, especially when compared to the Sri Lankan
Tamils who arrived after 1983.
The number of Tamils from Sri Lanka in Canada
remained low until the early 1980s, reaching only
about 2,000. In the following years, however, the
population grew dramatically. The scale and
ferocity of anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka in 1983
not only convinced many to leave but also persuaded
the Canadian government to extend refugee status to
those fleeing violence and political persecution in
the homeland.
The 1991 Canadian census confirms an increase in
the number of Tamils, although the figures in
various reports differ, sometimes widely. With
regard to the question of ethnic origin, only
15,695 responded they were wholly (8,690) or
partially (7,005) of Tamil background. On the other
hand, 30,220 persons responded that Tamil was their
only (24,745) or one of their (5,475) mother
tongues. Nearly as many - 26,825 - said Tamil was
the exclusive (23,090) or one of the languages
(3,735) spoken in the home. Since the 1991 census,
the numbers have continued to grow significantly:
in 1994 Immigration and Citizenship Canada reported
that there were 67,837 Tamils from Sri Lanka as
well as another 5,000 or so from other countries,
bringing the total to about 73,000. Regardless of
which 1991 census report is used, the information
on settlement patterns is basically the same for
ethnic origin, mother tongue, and home language.
About 94 percent of all Tamils in Canada live in
two provinces, Ontario (82 percent) and Quebec (13
percent), with only a few hundred at most in some
of the other provinces. In all cases, Tamils have
been attracted to urban areas, with Toronto
accounting for nearly 64 percent of the entire
group and Montreal 10 percent.
The post-1983 arrivals from Sri Lanka included not
only the English-educated middle classes but also
newcomers drawn from a wider cross-section of the
population. Many were fleeing from the war-ravaged
Jaffna peninsula. The overwhelming majority of the
men, more than 80 percent, were between the ages of
twenty and forty-five, and over half were single.
Females constituted about 45 percent of the new
arrivals, and approximately 80 percent of them were
also under the age of forty-five.
Economic Life
Many of the Indian Tamil immigrants to Canada,
who were in general highly qualified, found jobs in
high schools, universities, and the professions. A
number had come to Canada as graduate students and
decided to stay only if they could obtain suitable
employment. The majority were males. When they
found work, they often sponsored their families to
immigrate. It is difficult to know whether the
wives were able to obtain employment in keeping
with their educational backgrounds. Judging by
community accounts, unemployment among Indian Tamil
immigrants to Canada has been fairly low. The
children of this group have been encouraged to
pursue higher education in keeping with their
families' ambitions. Many, like their parents, have
university degrees and successful careers.
The educational and employment histories of the
early Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants were similar to
those of Indian Tamils. Many had professional
qualifications and found jobs in engineering,
accountancy, or other technical or managerial
occupations. The experience of their wives was also
probably similar to that of the Indian Tamils. Like
their Indian counterparts, Sri Lankans placed great
emphasis on their children's education. Both groups
were highly mobile and not reluctant to move from
one province to another in search of employment.
Although they were well qualified, there is no
doubt that many felt some form of racial
discrimination. The older generation, with recent
memories of the British colonial period, accepted
such treatment as part of the natural order. Their
strategy was generally to make themselves
indispensable to their employers.
The post-1983 immigrants from Sri Lanka have had
more difficulty finding suitable employment. A
number of factors contributed to this problem. They
arrived at a time when the Canadian economy was
only slowly recovering from a slump and, unlike the
earlier immigrants, many did not have professional
qualifications or fluency in English. The
educational curriculum in Sri Lanka had
significantly changed by the 1970s. In keeping with
gradual decolonization, greater emphasis was now
given to indigenous languages and cultures than had
been the case in the earlier period. Even
university graduates after the 1970s were not as
fluent in English as those who had come to Canada
in earlier decades. Also, the education of many of
the new arrivals had been disrupted by the civil
war. Those with adequate training and work
experience in Sri Lanka faced the obstacle that
Canadian qualifications were often required. The
majority of post-1983 immigrants eventually found
employment, but many did not obtain work
commensurate with their qualifications or
expectations and were obliged to take semi-skilled
or unskilled jobs. Despite these hurdles, they have
managed, through sheer hard work, to attain a fair
degree of economic success. Many have bought houses
and sponsored their families to immigrate.
Out of a small sample who reported Tamil as their
first language in the 1991 census, around 50
percent indicated that they earned less than
$10,000 a year, and approximately 20 percent had an
income of between $10,000 and $20,000. Another 20
percent reported earnings ranging from $20,000 to
$40,000, approximately 3 percent from $40,000 to
$60,000, and less than 1 percent over $60,000. The
number of males and females falling into the
category under $10,000 was approximately equal.
However, with increasing income levels, the
disparity between males and females broadened
significantly. The total unemployment rate for
Tamils calculated from this small sample was 22
percent, the figure for males being 18 and that for
females 29. These calculations should be taken with
extreme caution since they are based on a limited
analysis of the Tamil-Canadian population. A high
proportion of those in the sample were probably
recent arrivals from Sri Lanka.
Some Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka have opened
their own businesses in order to circumvent the
difficulties of finding suitable employment. The
number of such enterprises has burgeoned,
especially in the Toronto and Montreal regions, so
that there is now a directory of Tamil-owned
businesses in Ontario and Quebec. Published
annually and called Thamilar Maththiyil (Among
Tamils; Toronto, 1990- ), it has a circulation of
around nine thousand and lists over four hundred
advertisers in both Tamil and English. Also
included are institutions and organizations that
serve the community. Tamil businesses range from
grocery stores and restaurants carrying South Asian
foods to astrologers, marriage brokers, car
dealers, computer shops, insurance brokers, and
real estate and travel agents. The majority of
Tamil business ventures appear to be successful,
and indications are that they are growing.
Community Life
The first Tamil immigrants from India and Sri
Lanka had much in common despite their different
origins. They came largely from the urban,
English-educated middle and upper-middle classes
and generally tended to have a liberal and
cosmopolitan outlook. Although there were clearly
some class and caste differences among these early
arrivals, they were not as great as those that now
exist within the Tamil community. Competition and
social discrimination were minimal since the
numbers were small, and Tamils tended to become
integrated into mainstream Canadian society. Many
settled wherever they could find employment and
thus constituted a fairly dispersed community.
Because their numbers were limited and the
community scattered, it was difficult for these
immigrants to transmit their culture to the younger
generation. There were hardly any organizations
catering exclusively to Tamils. Insofar as they
belonged to community groups, these tended to be
either pan-Indian cultural associations or
religious ones. However, they did have informal
networks of friends and family that they maintained
despite the great distances.
One of the first organizations that both Indian and
Sri Lankan Tamils patronized was the south Indian
cultural association called Bharathi Kala Manram,
which has branches all over Canada. Formed in the
1960s, it is well known for its support of Carnatic
music (the classical music of south India) and
bharata natya (Indian classical dance) in Canada.
The organization has often sponsored famous
musicians and dancers from the home country to
perform here. Many Tamils from Sri Lanka,
especially before 1983, participated in both Indian
and Sri Lankan cultural organizations in major
cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Calgary,
Edmonton, and Vancouver. The functions held by
these groups, which included picnics, new year's
dances, and cultural events, were the only
occasions for many members of the community to get
together, meet new arrivals, make friends,
reminisce, and learn about events in the homelands.
Tamils frequently drove hundreds of kilometres to
attend.
With the dramatic increase in the Tamil population
in Canada after 1983, the situation changed. Sri
Lankan Tamils who arrived after that date were
generally quite different from the earlier
immigrants. The vast majority were from the
northern Jaffna peninsula area, the heartland of
Tamil culture in Sri Lanka, and were not drawn
exclusively from the middle or upper-middle
English-educated classes. Admission on humanitarian
and compassionate grounds had enabled a wider
cross-section of the population to migrate, and the
newcomers were generally less anglicized and more
imbued with a sense of Tamil nationalism and pride
in their cultural and linguistic heritage. Even if
they had not been personally involved with militant
movements in Sri Lanka, they had lived through a
strongly nationalistic phase in their community's
history, and they brought with them a feeling of
community solidarity and patriotism. These recent
arrivals have managed to reproduce in Canada the
kinship networks that they knew in Sri Lanka. The
process has been made easier by the fact that the
great majority have settled primarily in Toronto
and Montreal. Many have sponsored family members
and friends from their home village or the area of
Jaffna. School alumni organizations established in
Canada have also helped to re-create old
connections.
The arrival of the post-1983 Tamils fundamentally
changed Tamil community life in Canada. Since
recent immigrants vastly outnumbered those who had
come at an earlier period, the predisposition of
the first immigrants to become acculturated to
mainstream Canadian life has been significantly
reduced, if not reversed. Community standards and
cultural goals have increasingly been set by the
new arrivals. The numerous Tamil organizations,
businesses, religious institutions, and cultural
programs, concentrated in the Toronto and Montreal
areas, that have flourished after 1983 have led to
a greater Tamil consciousness for both the earlier
immigrants and the new arrivals. One of the first
associations and now the largest is the Tamil Eelam
Society of Canada. It was, in fact, founded as a
cultural organization in 1976, before the influx of
new immigrants, but it was transformed into a
volunteer-based settlement agency in 1983.
Currently it has four branches in the Toronto area
alone. Although specializing in assistance to
newcomers, it has begun to branch out to
educational work, such as English- and
Tamil-language instruction, computer classes, and
employment counselling.
Many of the other community organizations, although
not as long-established or as large as the Tamil
Eelam society, offer a variety of services to the
Tamil community in Canada. They include such groups
as the Ulagiat Thamilar Iyakkam/World Tamil
Movement, the Federation of Associations of
Canadian Tamils, the National Association of
Canadian Tamils, the Tamil Information Centre, the
Tamil Resource Centre, the Canada Tamil Cultural
Association, the Association of Sri Lankan
Graduates of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for
Tamil Refugee Rehabilitation, the Senior Tamils
Centre, and the Canada Ceylon Tamil Chamber of
Commerce, Ontario. Most of these organizations are
based in Toronto or Montreal and are patronized
largely, if not exclusively, by Sri Lankan Tamils.
There seems to be only one organization devoted
exclusively to women, the group called Vilippu
(Awakening) in Toronto. However, some of the other
immigrant women's organizations, such as the
Riverdale Immigrant Women's Centre in Toronto and
the South Asian Women's Group, often have
Tamil-speaking counsellors on their staff.
Family and Kinship
Though there are significant variations among
Tamils in Canada, it can generally be said that
families and family obligations play a significant
role in the life of most members of the community.
The family carries out functions that in other
societies are left to the individual or the state,
such as arranging marriages, providing for women in
the form of dowries, and caring for widows and the
elderly. Tamils have a tradition of cross-cousin
marriages, which strengthens the family links,
especially among siblings. The institution of caste
also tends to reinforce family ideology. Because of
its endogamous nature in Tamil society, members of
a particular caste from a specific village are
assumed to be at least distantly related.
The extended family is an important institution
among Tamils from India and Sri Lanka. Even if the
members do not actually live together, ties are
generally strong. Despite both internal and
external migration to more urban industrial
settings, these connections have resisted erosion;
indeed, family links may be reinforced by migration
to unfamiliar locations because they help to
overcome a sense of alienation. A great deal of
respect is given to age in Tamil society, both
within the family and outside it. Even among
siblings, a sense of hierarchy is fastidiously
observed. Most Tamils would not feel comfortable
calling an older person by his or her name. They
would either address such a person as anna (elder
brother) or akka (elder sister), or, if the
individual is significantly older, as uncle or
aunt.
Tamils, especially from Sri Lanka, have an unusual
combination of both matriarchal and patriarchal
traditions. However, at least outwardly, authority
is vested in the male. The husband is considered
the head of the family, and the wife, at least
according to tradition, is not supposed to address
him by name. Women are encouraged to play a
subordinate role in public. Within the domestic
sphere, however, they often wield a considerable
amount of power that compensates for the lack of
power that they have in the public realm.
Dating is almost unheard of in Tamil society.
Marriages are generally arranged by the family, the
bride's family being expected to offer a
substantial dowry (either land or money) in keeping
with the status of the groom. The prospective groom
or bride is sought among the same caste, with such
factors as astrological compatibility, character,
class and family background, employment, and dowry
taken into consideration. The majority of Hindu
Tamils would not consider marrying if the
horoscopes of the partners were not compatible.
Rites of passage, especially for females, are
observed. The most important one is the
hair-cutting ceremony thirteen or sixteen days
after birth, when the child ritually becomes a
social person. The number of days varies with the
caste of the family. For Brahman male children, the
sacred-thread ceremony is seen as the rite of
passage to social personhood; for females,
significant rituals mark puberty, marriage, and
widowhood. Marriage and children are highly valued
in Tamil society, and single people and childless
couples are often seen as having missed one of the
most important functions of life. Since marriage is
usually a social and familial agreement rather than
a matter of personal choice, divorce is extremely
rare, even for the most incompatible couples.
Further, the position of women in Tamil society
means that a divorced female is especially
vulnerable, and it is considered a great wrong to
place her in such a position.
Children, especially females, are expected to take
care of their parents in old age. Though the
handicapped and the mentally ill are generally
looked after by the family, their presence is seen
by many of the older generation as a sign of
misfortune. The strong family ideology that Tamil
culture inculcates in its members prevents any
public airing of marital or family problems.
Physical and sexual abuse often go unreported since
doing so would bring dishonour to the family.
Many of these values have been brought to Canada by
the Tamils as part of their distinctive cultural
heritage. The early immigrants, because of their
greater degree of acculturation, slowly adopted
many mainstream Canadian attitudes to family life.
Some even allowed their children to date. Their
views about marriage and family obligations,
however, especially with respect to the care of
elderly parents, remained largely unchanged. Most
expected their children to marry Tamils from their
own caste and class background. The partners were
often sponsored from the home country.
Nevertheless, a number of the children of early
immigrants married non-Tamils from the general
Canadian population.
The dramatic increase in the size of the Tamil
community in Canada after 1983 has tended to
reinforce the more traditional views about child
rearing, gender roles, and family life. The fact
that it is now possible for Tamils in this country
to think of themselves as a community has led many
of the earlier arrivals to conform to these
standards. Post-1983 Tamil immigrants, because of
their more traditional attitudes, have faced some
problems adjusting to the Canadian environment.
Many find that division of labour along gender
lines is impractical. Wives who are left at home,
often in large apartment buildings, do not have the
same kind of community and family support as they
would at home, and their life as newcomers to
Canada is frequently one of extreme alienation from
the society around them. The fact that many of the
more recent immigrants are not fluent in English
adds further to their feeling of estrangement.
There has been a significant increase in family
violence, wife assault, and divorce among Tamils
who have come to this country since 1983.
Culture and Education
Traditional Tamil culture was formed by two
distinct influences. The earliest came from ancient
Tamil society. The ancient Tamils classified what
they called Tamilakam (Tamil country) into five
distinct ecocultural zones (Ainthinai), each with
its own distinctive cultural and occupational
characteristics: kurinchi (mountain areas), mullai
(forest areas), marutam (fertile plains), neithal
(coastal regions), and palai (dry lands). The
literature from this period was largely secular in
character and classified as either aham (dealing
with inner feelings or love) or puram (dealing with
outer life or heroic deeds) poetry. The worship of
the mother goddess amman and the god murugan, still
popular among the Tamils today, seems to have been
prevalent already in ancient times.
The second influence was that of Indo-Aryan
language, religion, and culture, through the
migration of Hindu Brahmins to southern India
beginning around the second century C.E. By the
tenth century, Brahmanism and Sanskritic culture
had been integrated with the earlier traditions of
the Tamils. The dominant warrior-cultivating castes
in the Tamil areas had adopted the Brahman ideology
of caste and ritual practices to help them bring
together a variety of heterogeneous groups and
traditions within a social structure based on the
supremacy of the landed, warrior-cultivating
castes. These aspects of Tamil culture were
subsequently adapted to the needs and imperatives
of a predominantly agrarian society. European
colonial rule and English education did not
fundamentally alter the traditional Tamil social
structure and culture. Instead, new ways were found
by members of the various castes to retain their
power, status and culture in the new
environment.
The traditional dress of the Tamils is the saree
for females and the salvai (shawl) and vetti - a
long, rectangular piece of cloth, usually made of
cotton or silk, secured around the waist - for
males. The major festivals of the Tamils are
Thaipongal (Harvest festival) in January,
Puthuvarusham (Tamil/Hindu New Year) in mid-April,
and Deepavali (Festival of Lights) in October.
Although Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils share
a common language and culture, their different
geographic environments and political histories
have contributed at times to significant
differences in spoken language, cultural practices,
and outlook.
Tamils in Canada have access to a wide variety of
organized cultural activity. In addition to
pan-Indian, south Indian, or Sri Lankan cultural
organizations, many early Hindu Tamils in Canada
attended informally organized religious functions
or lectures given by visiting spiritual leaders
from India. They also participated in associations
that disseminated Vedantic philosophy and Yoga.
Sathya Sai Baba associations (a form of Hindu
religious organization) were popular as well. None
of these organizations were exclusively Tamil;
rather, they encouraged a pan-Indian Hindu or South
Asian identity. Many of the early immigrants even
began speaking English at home so that their
children did not learn Tamil.
With the dramatic increase in the Tamil population
after 1983, members of the community began to
attach more importance to their language and
culture. Sinhalese-Tamil ethnic conflict in Sri
Lanka also increased the sense of solidarity.
Language classes and instruction in Carnatic vocal
and instrumental music and bharata natya were
organized in areas with a large concentration of
Tamils. The Tamil language can now be taken as a
credit course at the high school level in Toronto,
and textbooks for language instruction have been
prepared up to grade eight. In addition, there are
at least six weekly community newspapers published
in Toronto and Montreal, all in the Tamil language.
The earliest was Senthamarai (Red Lotus; Toronto,
1986- ). Their names, such as Thayagam (Motherland;
Toronto, 1989- 94) and Eelanadu (Tamil homeland in
Sri Lanka; Toronto, 1991- ), reveal the orientation
of the community that supports them. So far there
are no Tamil newspapers published in English, a
fact that may reflect the community's dramatic
change in attitude towards cultural maintenance.
Monthly magazines and news programs on video are
also available. Radio programs in Tamil are
broadcast daily in Toronto and Montreal, and there
is a weekly television program. The radio and
television broadcasts feature news and cultural
programs from both Canada and the home country.
There has also been a tremendous growth in the
importation and distribution of Tamil movies from
India. They are regularly shown in cinemas in
Toronto and Montreal; most, however, are watched at
home since a great variety of movies are available
on video cassette. Tamil musicians, artists, and
religious figures from India and Sri Lanka
regularly visit Canadian cities to give
performances and lectures. A profound change has
taken place in the cultural life of Tamil Canadians
as a result of large-scale immigration from Sri
Lanka in recent years. Unlike earlier immigrants,
who often patronized pan-Indian or mainstream
Canadian cultural activities, those who arrived
after 1983 support programs geared more exclusively
to a Tamil audience.
Tamils have come to Canada with relatively high
levels of education. Out of a small sample of
individuals who reported Tamil as their first
language in the 1991 census, fewer than 0.5 percent
indicated that they had a grade nine education or
less, approximately 50 percent gave their
educational background as between grades nine and
thirteen, around 30 percent had some postsecondary
education, and about 10 percent held a university
degree. There was not much disparity between the
sexes, except at the university level, where the
number of females was about half that of males. In
keeping with the emphasis placed on education in
Tamil society, the childrem of most Tamil
immigrants are receiving a great deal of support in
their educational ventures. Many are encouraged to
pursue professional studies, especially medicine,
engineering, and computer science. There are
already a significant number of Tamil students in
many major Canadian universities.
Religion
The religion of the vast majority of the Tamils
in India and Sri Lanka is Hinduism. It is a form of
Hinduism that is distinctly characteristic of South
India, however, and is marked by the central role
that the temple plays in the life and activities of
the community. South Indian temples have a
characteristic gopuram shaped (cone shaped) temple
architecture. Tamil Hinduism is also much more
ritualistic and conservative than Hindu practices
found in northern India. The vast majority of
Tamils in India and Sri Lanka consider themselves
as belonging to the Saivite sect of Hinduism. Their
Saivite identity was strengthened by the Saivite
renewal movements which began in the nineteenth
century as a response to the impact of colonialism
and Christian missionary work in the Tamil regions.
The more recent trend in both communities is
towards a more cosmopolitan Hinduism that embraces
the many diverse strands of that religion.
The overwhelming majority of Tamils in Canada are
Hindus, particularly Saivite Hindus from Sri Lanka.
Saivite Hinduism, centred on the worship of Shiva
as the ultimate deity, has a long history of saints
and canonical literature in both Tamil and Sanskrit
in south India and Sri Lanka. Although there were
few south Indian Hindu temples in Canada until
fairly recently, many of the early immigrants kept
up their religious observances either through
informal gatherings or by attending pan-Indian
Hindu functions. The first Tamil immigrants were
generally more predisposed towards what is
considered Hindu high culture, that is, a
preference for Vedantic philosophy and Yoga rather
than temple worship. Since the visit of Swami
Vivekananda to the United States at the turn of the
century, Vedantic and Yoga centres have been
established throughout North America by his
followers, as well as by adherents of other Hindu
spiritual leaders. The Society for Krishna
Consciousness is probably the best known of such
groups.
With the arrival of large numbers of Sri Lankan
Tamils, the organization and construction of
south-India-style Hindu temples in Canada began.
There are now at least three such temples in the
Toronto region alone. The most impressive is the
one in Richmond Hill, built with the help of
experts in the sculptural and architectural
traditions of the homeland. The Richmond Hill
temple is unique in that it was erected through the
efforts of both Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils.
Priests in these temples are recruited from both
India and Sri Lanka. A temporary temple exists in
Montreal, and land has been purchased at a downtown
location for a permanent building at an estimated
cost of around half a million dollars. This
structure is to be devoted to the goddess Amman,
who is very popular with Tamils. With the
introduction of regular temple worship, one of the
most central elements of Hindu Tamil life in both
India and Sri Lanka has been brought to Canada.
Every Tamil village in those countries has at least
one temple. In addition to fulfilling spiritual
functions, it also plays an essential role in
community life. Through ritual observances, the
temple has traditionally maintained social order
and hierarchy in Hindu society. As well, many
marriages take place on the temple premises.
Not all Tamils, however, either in their homeland
or abroad, are Hindu. The early Tamil Christians in
Canada, like their Hindu counterparts, did not have
places of worship devoted specifically to their own
community. With the great increase in their numbers
in cities such as Toronto and Montreal after 1983,
however, Tamil congregations and services became
possible. There are now at least five churches in
Toronto. The majority of Tamil Christians in both
South Asia and Canada are Roman Catholics. Although
they represent only a small percentage of the Tamil
population in Canada, their influence on the
politics and culture of the community has been
significant. Their organizations assist members
with settlement and other problems that newcomers
face. Christian organizations in both Sri Lanka and
Canada also play a significant role as mediators in
ethnic conflict.
There are at least two Islamic organizations in
Toronto catering to the Tamil community. Tamil
Muslims in Canada account for only a few hundred
individuals. The majority are from Sri Lanka, and
many of them arrived recently because of increasing
political unrest in the northern and eastern
regions of the country. Their numbers in Canada are
likely to grow as a result of continuing violence
in eastern Sri Lanka.
Politics
The first Tamil immigrants were not particularly
interested in political matters. Belonging as they
did to the English-educated middle classes in India
and Sri Lanka, they were on the whole either quite
conservative or indifferent to politics. Many had
been disillusioned by the problems connected with
the rising nationalism in their own countries and,
to escape from them, they came to Canada in search
of prosperity and political stability. Their
primary concerns were economic issues and
discriminatory legislation towards South Asian
immigration or those already in the country.
The more recent Tamil arrivals from Sri Lanka, by
contrast, are much more politicized. Emigrating
from a country in the midst of intense conflict,
many have experienced directly the impact of
political turmoil and war. The increasing violence
directed against them as a group, at least since
the early 1980s, has led to a greater communal
consciousness and solidarity. The various militant
organizations that arose among them served to
politicize them and heighten their sense of a
distinctive Tamil identity. Their presence in
Canada in large numbers has stimulated interest
among earlier immigrants in the political struggles
of Tamils in the homeland. The dramatic growth in
newspapers and in radio, television, and video news
reports from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu has likewise
contributed to a closer identification with
political and cultural developments in South
Asia.
Thus, the greatest impact of the recent Tamil
immigrants from Sri Lanka has been to shift the
concerns of the community from a preoccupation with
life in Canada to an increased interest in events
in the homelands. There are no formal political
organizations in Canada, but many of the Tamil
groups, in addition to their concern with
settlement, lobby various government agencies for a
solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. They
also collect funds for relief efforts in that
country.
Intergroup Relations
Since the early Tamil immigrants to Canada were
more predisposed to integration with mainstream
Canadian society, they saw themselves as part of a
general South Asian diaspora rather than a
particular linguistic minority. Their small numbers
and scattered settlement made such a strategy both
practical and inevitable. Most mixed freely with
members of other South Asian groups, as well as
with the larger Canadian society. The earlier
arrivals from Sri Lanka also associated with the
Sinhalese community in Canada and participated in
its organizations. With increasing violence in the
homeland after the 1970s, however, the mutual
distrust that developed between the two communities
was transferred to Canada, and many Sri Lankan
organizations lost their Tamil members, becoming,
effectively, Sinhalese societies. Antagonism
between adherents of the various Tamil militant
groups also seems to have been transferred to the
Canadian setting. The major division has been
between supporters of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam and those who are opposed to this
organization.
The existence of large concentrations of Tamils in
certain regions of Canada after 1983, together with
the lack of fluency in English of many newcomers,
may have acted as a barrier to the development of
relations with other ethnic groups. Most seem more
interested in establishing stronger links within
the Tamil community than forming new connections
outside. The great majority marry within their own
ethnic group, and many do so by sponsoring partners
from the home country. This marriage pattern
further cements their links to the Tamil community.
Some, however, move out of the ethnic
neighbourhoods once they become more familiar with
life in Canada.
Group Maintenance and Ethnic
Commitment
The overwhelming majority of Tamils now in
Canada are from the Jaffna region, which has been
the focal point of Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka at
least since the early 1970s. One of the
consequences of this protracted and brutal conflict
has been that Jaffna has become increasingly
isolated from the rest of the country, as well as
from the world beyond. A once vibrant,
outward-looking community has had to adopt an
increasingly defensive nationalist orientation.
This development may help to explain the strong
ethnic commitment now evident among Tamils in
Canada. Their sense of identity has also been
fostered by the degree of concentration in a few
urban areas in Canada and by the arrival of family
members, especially the older generation.
The leadership in the community, which is largely
held by more recent immigrants, has stimulated a
high degree of interest in and commitment to the
Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. It has also encouraged
a dramatic surge in cultural activities within the
space of a decade. The earlier Tamil immigrants
have either joined this movement or retreated to
the margins of the community. What is difficult to
determine is the degree of ethnic commitment or
cultural orientation on the part of the new
generation. Many of the children of immigrants have
been able to grow up in a Tamil environment, and
they have an extended network of relatives,
including grandparents, in this country. Parents
send their children to special classes to learn the
Tamil language and traditional music and dance.
Although their familiarity with the language and
culture of their ancestors is not in doubt, it is a
matter of debate whether these young people have
the same attachment to the home country or the same
degree of ethnic commitment as their parents.
Group Maintenance and Ethnic
Commitment
The overwhelming majority of Tamils now in
Canada are from the Jaffna region, which has been
the focal point of Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka at
least since the early 1970s. One of the
consequences of this protracted and brutal conflict
has been that Jaffna has become increasingly
isolated from the rest of the country, as well as
from the world beyond. A once vibrant,
outward-looking community has had to adopt an
increasingly defensive nationalist orientation.
This development may help to explain the strong
ethnic commitment now evident among Tamils in
Canada. Their sense of identity has also been
fostered by the degree of concentration in a few
urban areas in Canada and by the arrival of family
members, especially the older generation.
The leadership in the community, which is largely
held by more recent immigrants, has stimulated a
high degree of interest in and commitment to the
Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. It has also encouraged
a dramatic surge in cultural activities within the
space of a decade. The earlier Tamil immigrants
have either joined this movement or retreated to
the margins of the community. What is difficult to
determine is the degree of ethnic commitment or
cultural orientation on the part of the new
generation. Many of the children of immigrants have
been able to grow up in a Tamil environment, and
they have an extended network of relatives,
including grandparents, in this country. Parents
send their children to special classes to learn the
Tamil language and traditional music and dance.
Although their familiarity with the language and
culture of their ancestors is not in doubt, it is a
matter of debate whether these young people have
the same attachment to the home country or the same
degree of ethnic commitment as their parents.
Further Reading
There are numerous works on the Tamils in India,
most being highly specialized academic studies. An
exception is the engaging and insightful account of
Tamil culture and family life in India by Margaret Trawick, Notes on Love in a
Tamil Family (Berkeley, Calif., 1990). Susan S.
Wadley, ed., The Powers of Tamil Women (Syracuse,
N.Y., 1991), is a collection of essays on Tamil
women both in India and Sri Lanka. For a good
introduction to the history of the modern period of
Tamil history in India, see E.F. Irschick, Politics
and Social Conflict in South India: The Non-Brahman
Movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916- 1929
(Berkeley, Calif., 1969).
A recent work that provides a good introduction to
the Sri Lankan Tamils and the ethnic conflict in
Sri Lanka is Chelvadurai Manogaran and Bryan
Pfaffenberger, eds., Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity
and Identity (Boulder, Colo., 1994). There are also
a number of more detailed works on Tamils and their
culture in Sri Lanka, including Bryan
Pfaffenberger, Caste in Tamil Culture: The
Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil
Sri Lanka (Syracuse, N.Y., 1982), and R.S.
Perinbanayagam, The Karmic Theatre: Self, Society
and Astrology in Jaffna (Amherst, Mass., 1982). For
a good introduction to the Sri Lankan ethnic
conflict, see S.J. Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic
Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy
(Chicago, 1986).
There is little scholarly work devoted exclusively
to the history of Tamils in Canada. Occasional
references to their early history in Canada can,
however, be found in many of the general works on
South Asians. The most comprehensive of these is
Norman Buchignani, Doreen M. Indra, and R.
Srivastava, Continuous Journey: A Social History of
South Asians in Canada (Toronto, 1985). Works
dealing with South Asian life and adaptation in
Canada also often contain information pertaining to
the earlier Tamils in Canada; see, for example,
Milton Israel, ed., The South Asian Diaspora in
Canada: Six Essays (Toronto, 1987).
The few existing works on the Tamils in Canada deal
almost exclusively with the Sri Lankan Tamils and
are often brief sketches published by various
organizations and interest groups of the Sri Lankan
Tamil community. P.R.W. Kendall, The Sri Lankan
Tamil Community in Toronto (Toronto, 1989), is a
concise work that is largely concerned with the
health practices of Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto.
See also Balagouri Vicky Kandasanny, "Findings on
the Tamil Community" (City of York, Community
Services, 1995). Although written in an informal
style, this work contains useful information on the
Tamils in Canada. There is also a brief article on
women: Sudha Coomarasamy, "Sri Lankan Tamil Women:
Resettlement in Montreal," Canadian Women Studies,
vol.10, no.1 (1989), 69-72. The experiences of a
Tamil refugee family in Toronto, based on
oral-history interviews, are recounted in Elizabeth
McLuhan, ed., Safe Haven: The Refugee Experience of
Five Families (Toronto, 1994).
Statistical information on Tamils in Canada is
found in Arul S. Aruliah, "Accepted on
Compassionate Grounds: An Admission Profile of
Tamil Immigrants in Canada," Refuge: Canada's
Periodical on Refugees, vol.14, no.4 (1994), 10-14.
There is also useful background information on
Canada's acceptance of Tamil refugees from Sri
Lanka, as well as other information pertaining to
Tamil refugees and the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict,
in Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees, vol.13,
no.3 (1993). The Census Canada data on home
language and mother tongue for 1991 are of some
help for compiling an educational and occupational
profile of recent Tamil immigrants: Statistics
Canada, Home Language and Mother Tongue (Ottawa,
1992).
Other sources of information on Tamils in Canada
are the various Tamil newspapers and magazines that
are published in Toronto and Montreal. A
particularly informative monthly Tamil magazine is
Thamilar Thagaval (Tamil's Information; Toronto).
The Tamil "yellow pages," Thamilar Mathiyil (Among
Tamils), published annually since 1990, is also
useful.
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