India and Overseas Indians : The Case of Sri Lanka

Contents: Preface. 1. Overseas Indians: a definitional clarification. 2. Problems of the overseas Indians. 3. India’s approach to the overseas Indians. 4. Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka: socio-economic profile. 5. India and the Indian Tamil problem up to 1964. 6. Inter-governmental moves on the citizenship issue of the Indian Tamils, 1965-81. 7. India and the citizenship problem of the Indian Tamils since 1981. 8. Riddles of repatriation. 9. Conclusions. Appendices: 1. Population estimate of the overseas Indians. 2. Overseas Indians’ population change in select countries. Select bibliography. Index.

"The problems of overseas Indians have been one of the ‘foreign concerns’ of India. Yet, the relationship between the overall objectives of India’s foreign policy and the nature of its relationship with those countries which are seized with the problems of overseas Indians is not adequately explored. This book provides an analytical enquiry into the linkages between the two by critically examining India’s approach towards the Indians overseas, with a special emphasis on the citizenship problem of the ‘Indian Tamils’ of Sri Lanka. In the process, it seeks to answer several questions which have a crucial contemporary relevance, viz does India have a coherent policy towards the overseas Indians? What was its reaction to their problems in various countries? How did it manage the problems of Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka? How far did India’s ‘Indian Tamil’ policy register a deviation from its general approach towards the overseas Indians? Did it often subordinate its concern for the plight of the overseas Indians to the need to promote its bilateral relations with the countries of their domicile? Towards this end, the overseas Indians’ problems in countries such as South Africa, Burma, Kenya, Uganda, Fiji and Sri Lanka are analyzed in this book. It was in these countries that their problems acquired a serious dimension to the extent of impinging greatly on India’s bilateral relations with them." (jacket)