India and Ceylon reach agreement regarding the issue of stateless ‘plantation’ Tamils living in Ceylon: Sirima-Shastri Pact paved the way for the repatriation of 525,000 persons of Indian origin to India. Another 300,000 persons were to be accepted as citizens of Sri Lanka which made them enter the polity, leaving a residue of 150,000.
Earlier, under the 1954 Nehru-Kotelawala Pact, India agreed in principle to accept the repatriation of Tamils of Indian origin who wanted Indian citizenship, but did not accept the Sri Lankan position that all those who do not qualify for Sri Lankan citizenship should automatically be given Indian citizenship. The Sirima-Shastri Pact was perceived as a breakthrough.
Sources
Statelessness in Sri Lanka, UNHCR 2007; Exit, an elder stateswoman, DBS Jeyaraj, Frontline, Volume 17 – Issue 17, Aug. 19 – Sep. 01, 2000; Witness to History: A Journalist’s Memoirs, S. Sivanayagam, 2005.
Quotations
“Felix Dias Bandaranaike said in the House of Representatives that as far the Ceylon was concerned, there were no stateless people in the country. There were only two categories of citizens – Ceylonese or Indian. If they qualify for Ceylon citizenship under the law, they were obviously Indian citizens. The remedy for those who were refused Indian citizenship was to seek a writ of mandamus on Indian government officials. That would have to be decided by the Supreme Court of India (Hansard, 31 August 1963).” Witness to History, S. Sivanayagam 2005.
“It is an unprecedented move in international relations for half a million people to be treated as pawns in the game of power politics.” SJV Chelvanagakam, 1964.
“A creditable accomplishment was her resolving the contentious issue of “statelessness” of plantation workers of Indian origin living in the central highlands of the island, estimated at 975,000. The accord with her Indian counterpart, Lal Bahadur Shastri, in 1964 provided for India taking 525,000 such people, and Sri Lanka 300,000, leaving a residue of 150,000. Known as the Sirima-Shastri Pact, it was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough.” DBS Jeyaraj, Frontline, 2000.
Principal terms of the Sirima-Shastri pact (Indo-Ceylon Agreement of 1964)
1. The declared objective of this agreement is that all persons of Indian origin in Ceylon who have not been recognized as citizens of Ceylon or as citizens of India should become citizens of either of Ceylon or of India.”
2. The number of such persons is approximately 975,000 as of date. This figure does not include illicit immigrants and Indian passport holders.
3. 300,000 of these persons, together with the natural increase in that number will be granted Ceylon citizenship buthe Government of Ceylon; the Government of India will accept repatriation of 525,000 of these persons together with the natural increase in that number. The Indian Government will confer citizenship on these persons.
4. The status and future of the remaining 150,000 of these persons will be the subject of a separate agreement between the two governments.
5. The Indian government will accept repatriation of the persons to be repatriated within a period of 15 years from the date of this agreement, according to a programme as evenly phased as possible.
Related events
15 November 1948
1949
1974
1982
1988
