Tamil people

The Tamil people are an ethnic group from South Asia with a recorded history going back more than two millennia. The oldest Tamil communities are those of southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka. There are also a number of Tamil emigrant communities scattered around the world, especially in Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, Mauritius, and South Africa, with more recent emigrants also found in Australia, Canada, and parts of Europe.

Institutions

Because Tamils have been spread over several countries for much of their history, there are few formal pan-Tamil institutions. The most important national institutions for Tamils have been the governments of the states where they live, particularly the government of Tamil Nadu and the government of Sri Lanka, which have collaborated in developing technical and scientific terminology in Tamil and promoting its use since the 1950s.

Related Topics:
Government of Tamil Nadu - Government of Sri Lanka - Tamil

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Politics in Tamil Nadu is dominated by the Self-respect Movement (also called the Dravidian movement), a movement founded by E.V. Ramasami, popularly known as Periyar, to promote self-respect and rationalism, and to fight casteism and the oppression of the lowest castes. Every major political party in Tamil Nadu bases its ideology on the Self-respect Movement, and the national political parties play a very small role in Tamil politics.

Related Topics:
Self-respect Movement - E.V. Ramasami - Self-respect - Rationalism - Caste

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In Sri Lanka, Tamil politics was dominated by the federalist movements, led by the Federal Party (later the Tamil United Liberation Front), until the early 1980s. In the 1980s, the political movement was largely succeeded by a violent military campaign conducted by several militant groups. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam emerged as the most important force amongst these groups in the 1990s, and is currently negotiating a final settlement with the government. The LTTE controls portions of Sri Lanka, and has attempted to establish its own government there, which it calls the government of Tamil Eelam.

Related Topics:
Sri Lanka - Tamil United Liberation Front - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - Tamil Eelam

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In the 1960s, the government of Tamil Nadu held a World Tamil Conference, and have continued to meet periodically since then. In 1999, a World Tamil Confederation was established to protect and foster Tamil culture and further a sense of togetherness amongst Tamils in different countries. The Confederation has since adopted a Tamil flag and Tamil song http://www.thenseide.com/ulagathamizhar-eng/pann.htm to act as trans-national symbols for the Tamil people; the words on the flag quote the opening line of a poem by the classical poet Kanian Poongundranaar, and mean "All lands are our home; all people are our kin."

Related Topics:
1960s - Tamil Nadu - World Tamil Conference - World Tamil Confederation - Tamil flag

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