Diaspora

Recruitment of Tamil labourers for Ceylon plantations begins

Labourers from the Tirunelveli, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tanjore areas were recruited for British coffee estates in Ceylon.

First emigrant ship from Madras reaches Mauritius

Britain allowed emigration from Madras to Mauritius again in December 1842, and the first ship from Madras reached the island in April 1843.

Indentured labourers from Madras arrive in Natal on the Truro

Organised Indian settlement in the British colony of Natal began with the Truro, which brought 342 indentured labourers from Madras.

Death of the young satyagrahi Thillaiyadi Valliammai

Valliammai, a 16-year-old daughter of Tamil immigrants from Thillaiyadi, died after imprisonment in Gandhi's South African satyagraha.

SS Rajula begins the Madras to Penang and Singapore service

The steamer SS Rajula ran a fortnightly Straits Service from Madras to Penang, Port Klang and Singapore from 1926 to 1972.

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.

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.

Sirima-Gandhi Pact on stateless persons of Indian origin

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.