Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map of Sri Lanka
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Currency Equivalents
- Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 1 Raising Questions
- Chapter 2 Colonialism: The Burden of History
- Chapter 3 1948: Disenfranchisement
- Chapter 4 1954: The Agreement that Failed
- Chapter 5 1964: The Agreement that “Succeeded”
- Chapter 6 1967: The Start of the Implementation
- Chapter 7 1970–1977: “Sirima Times” – Pressure to Leave
- Chapter 8 1988: The End of a Saga
- Chapter 9 Retrospection
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Index
Chapter 4 - 1954: The Agreement that Failed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map of Sri Lanka
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Currency Equivalents
- Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 1 Raising Questions
- Chapter 2 Colonialism: The Burden of History
- Chapter 3 1948: Disenfranchisement
- Chapter 4 1954: The Agreement that Failed
- Chapter 5 1964: The Agreement that “Succeeded”
- Chapter 6 1967: The Start of the Implementation
- Chapter 7 1970–1977: “Sirima Times” – Pressure to Leave
- Chapter 8 1988: The End of a Saga
- Chapter 9 Retrospection
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
The presence of the stateless bears the germs of a deadly sickness. For the nation-state cannot exist once its principle of equality before the law has broken down.
(Hannah Arendt 1958, 290)Introduction
The concepts of “compulsory repatriation” and “statelessness” are introduced and discussed in this chapter as they occurred in the context of the 1954 agreement. In 1954, an agreement deciding the fate of those who were disenfranchised was concluded between India and Sri Lanka. The agreement failed to be implemented. But most significantly, the agreement was about shifts in focus by both India and Sri Lanka. This chapter addresses the reasons the Sri Lankan government shifted from the position held by the former Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake, which was one of keeping the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka as a disenfranchised community, to one where the government actively sought to repatriate them.
This chapter addresses the compulsions that caused India to shift to repatriation as an option, whereas Nehru had stood steadfastly by his view that the Indian labor should be accepted as citizens of Sri Lanka. This decision was to significantly change the course of future negotiations. In Sri Lanka, it also made “statelessness” – a concept that had not been part of the Sri Lankan vocabulary – a common word as India refused to accept all those who had been denied Sri Lankan citizenship.
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- Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri LankaThe Case of the Tamil Estate Workers, pp. 71 - 88Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2009