Tamil Nadu Timeline

DiplomacyRise of Dravidian rule

Sirima-Gandhi Pact on stateless persons of Indian origin

· New Delhi

Sirima-Gandhi Pact on stateless persons of Indian origin
Indiragandhifan, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

India and Sri Lanka agreed on the future of the 150,000 persons of Indian origin whose status had been left open by the 1964 Sirima-Shastri Pact.

The Sirima-Shastri Pact of 1964 had decided the citizenship or repatriation of most stateless Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka but left 150,000 people for later settlement. In 1974 Prime Ministers Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi concluded a follow-up agreement covering this group. Together the two pacts paved the way for the repatriation of about 600,000 persons of Indian origin to India, many of whom were resettled in Tamil Nadu. The pact is regarded as having helped resolve the issue of stateless people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka.

Related events

  1. 1948

    1. 15 Nov 1948ColomboDiplomacy

      Ceylon Citizenship Act leaves Indian Tamils stateless

      Passed soon after Ceylon became independent, a citizenship law shut out most Indian Tamil plantation workers, descendants of migrants from the Madras Presidency.

  2. 1964

    1. 30 Oct 1964New DelhiDiplomacy

      Sirima-Shastri Pact on people of Indian origin in Ceylon

      India and Ceylon agreed that 525,000 stateless people of Indian origin, mostly Tamil plantation workers, would be repatriated to India.

    2. 1964YangonDiplomacy

      Exodus of Tamils and other Indians from Burma

      More than 300,000 Indians, most of them Tamils, left Burma after General Ne Win's expulsions and the 1964 nationalisation of private business.

    3. 1964New DelhiPolitics

      Kamaraj becomes Congress president and 'kingmaker'

      As president of the Indian National Congress, K. Kamaraj guided the selection of two Prime Ministers.

  3. 1968

    1. 8 Jan 1968New DelhiLanguage

      Official Languages (Amendment) Act guarantees bilingualism

      Amid fresh protests in Madras State, Parliament amended the 1963 Act to ensure English would continue in use alongside Hindi.

  4. 1975

    1. 25 Jun 1975 to 21 Mar 1977New DelhiPolitics

      National Emergency declared

      Indira Gandhi's government declared a national Emergency; the DMK government in Tamil Nadu opposed it.

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