Tamil Nadu Timeline

Refugees

8 events, 1948 to 2009; 1 marked as turning points.

  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. 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.

    2. 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.

  3. 1974

    1. 1974New DelhiDiplomacy

      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.

  4. 1983

    1. 24 Jul 1983 to 29 Jul 1987RameswaramConflict

      Black July and the arrival of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees

      Anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka in July 1983 sent the first large wave of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to Tamil Nadu.

  5. 1987

    1. 29 Jul 1987ColomboDiplomacy

      Indo-Sri Lanka Accord signed

      An accord between India and Sri Lanka on the Tamil issue led to the dispatch of the Indian Peace Keeping Force to the island.

  6. 1991

    1. 12 Dec 1991 to 13 Dec 1991BangaloreConflict

      Anti-Tamil violence in Karnataka over Cauvery award

      Mobs attacked Tamils in Bangalore, Mysore and other parts of southern Karnataka after the Cauvery interim award was gazetted.

  7. 2009

    1. 18 May 2009MullaitivuConflict

      End of the Sri Lankan civil war

      The Sri Lankan army defeated the LTTE, ending a 26-year war that had deeply affected Tamil Nadu's politics.