The Tamil laborers emigrate to Ceylon from…

The Tamil laborers emigrate to Ceylon from India not as individuals but as part of family units or groups of interrelated families.

Thus, they tend to maintain their native cultural patterns on the estates where they settle.

Although the Indian Tamils speak the same language as the Sri Lankan Tamils, are Hindus, and trace their cultural origins to southern India, they consider themselves to be culturally distinct from the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Their distinctiveness as a group and their cultural differences from the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils will be recognized in the constitutional reforms of 1924, when two members of the Indian Tamil community will be nominated to the Legislative Council.