Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tamil (Indic people) Ethnicity'

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2001.
A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours), School of Humanities, University of Western Sydney, 2001. Bibliography : leaves 69-72.

This thesis examines masculinity in the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora through two ritual practices, kavat&dotbelow;i and viratam. I argue that these practices are expressions of masculine identity and articulations of anxiety rooted in the refugee experience. Kavat&dotbelow;i, a ritual piercing and ecstatic dance, and viratam, a rigorous fast, reconstruct masculinities fragmented by expatriation and the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Through ritual performance, men fashion themselves as the selfless heroes of traditional Tamil literature without negating their fluency as modern Tamil-Canadians. By voicing rupture and enacting reprieve, the men who perform these rites incur individual catharsis. New non-Brahmin masculine identities that draw their authority from renunciation and asceticism as opposed to social privilege emerge in this diasporic context. Employing analyses of literature, political propaganda, and ethnography this thesis demonstrates the powerful relationship between ritual performance and masculine identity. In kavat&dotbelow;i and viratam, the male body becomes the site of contested personal, political, and religious narratives.

This thesis is an ethnographic examination of the significance of Malayalee ethnicity in Singapore. Ethnic identity is important in the daily lives of Singaporeans, due in part to the government-directed public focus in Singapore on the ideal of multiculturalism through which it is asserted that to be Singaporean, one must be, in the main, Chinese, Malay, or Indian. But other identities, such as Malayalee, a subset of the larger category "Indian", have not decreased in importance. They, in fact, remain important in identifying what kind of Chinese, Malay, or Indian a person is, as Chinese, Malay, or Indian identifies what kind of Singaporean someone is. In the thesis I focus on a core contradiction in Singapore Malayalee culture. In Singapore it is perceived as very important to know one's 'mother tongue' in order to know one's culture and heritage. But Malayalees growing up in Singapore have not had much chance to learn their language, Malayalam, nor have they had much practical use for it outside of the home. Therefore, many Singapore Malayalees feel a sense of alienation from Malayalee culture. Many feel they know little about their own culture because they do not speak their own language. With the emphasis on multiculturalism the sense of a distinctive Malayalee culture will remain in Singapore, as will the sense of alienation from it felt by many Malayalees. In the analysis practice theory and the concept of habitus are used to identify how people's actions have been affected by particular historical circumstances, and how their actions have, in turn, structured the form of Malayalee ethnicity in Singapore today. It is asserted that practice theory gives a much better explanation of Singapore Malayalee ethnicity than primordialist or instrumentalist theories. There have been only five previous studies of Singapore Malayalees, all Bachelor's Honors theses at the National University of Singapore. This study contributes, therefore, to a sparse literature.

In Sri Lanka, the Tamils' demand for a federal state has turned within a quarter of a century into a demand for the independent state of Eelam. Forces of secession set in motion by emerging Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism and the resultant Tamil nationalism gathered momentum during the 1970s and 1980s which threatened the political integration of the island. Today Indian intervention has temporarily arrested the process of disintegration. But post-October 1987 developments illustrate that the secessionist war is far from over and secession still remains a real possibility. This thesis focuses on the phenomenon of Tamil armed secessionism. To better understand the forces responsible for the armed secessionist insurrection, this, thesis analyzes the preconditions leading to the violent conflict between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. The consistent failure of the political system to accommodate the basic Tamil demands has contributed to the emergence of Tamil armed secessionism. Further, diverse factors have given impetus to the growth of Tamil secessionist movements. However, the three main political actors in the secessionist struggle — the Sri Lankan government, the Indian central government together with the state government of Tamil Nadu and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — have had a major impact on the vicissitudes of the Tamil secessionist insurrection.
Arts, Faculty of
Political Science, Department of
Graduate

I examine the concept of "culture" being promoted in the Canadian policy of multiculturalism and by Tamil refugees safeguarding their culture in Quebec. I take culture in its relation to power as my focus. I explore what culture means to the Tamils, and how the Canadian ideology of multiculturalism is implicated in the way Tamil "culture keepers" (re)construct their cultural identity.
This research addresses popular "multiculturalism" movements which use anthropological notions of culture but fail to problematize the notion of culture itself. I illustrate how and why the concept of culture is itself culturally embedded and historically shaped, and thus dense with political implications.
It also addresses anthropological approaches which avoid realist ethnography because of its political implications. I argue that a focus on culture in its relation to power is necessary in order to examine anthropology's own continuing involvement in imperialism.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-161). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11858

Lui, Hong Yee Kelvin.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-178).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
ABSTRACT (English) --- p.i
ABSTRACT (Chinese) --- p.iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.v
TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vi
LIST OF TABLES --- p.xi
Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1.1 --- Rationale of the Study --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Context of the Study --- p.2
Chapter 1.2.1 --- India as a Multilingual Country --- p.3
Chapter 1.2.2 --- The Language Situation in Hong Kong - a Macro-Sociolinguistic Perspective --- p.5
Chapter 1.3 --- The Indian Community in Hong Kong --- p.6
Chapter 1.4 --- Research Questions --- p.8
Chapter 1.5 --- Organisation of Thesis --- p.10
Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.11
Chapter 2.2 --- "Globalisation, Migration and Multilingualism" --- p.11
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Conceptualising Globalisation --- p.12
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Mapping Theories of Transnational Migration --- p.13
Chapter 2.2.3 --- "Globalisation, Multilingualism and English as a Lingua Franca" --- p.15
Chapter 2.3 --- Language and Identity --- p.17
Chapter 2.3.1 --- Conceptualising Identity --- p.18
Chapter 2.3.2 --- Different Approaches to Identity --- p.18
Chapter 2.3.2.1 --- The Variationist Approach to Identity --- p.19
Chapter 2.3.2.2 --- The Sociopsychological Approach to Identity --- p.20
Chapter 2.3.2.3 --- The Poststructuralist Approach to Identity --- p.21
Chapter 2.3.3 --- Types of Identity Ascriptions and Affiliations --- p.22
Chapter 2.3.3.1 --- National and Ethnic Identities --- p.23
Chapter 2.3.3.2 --- Language identity --- p.24
Chapter 2.3.3.3 --- Migrant identity --- p.25
Chapter 2.3.4 --- Identity in Discourse: Analytical Frameworks --- p.26
Chapter 2.3.4.1 --- The Positioning Theory --- p.27
Chapter 2.3.4.2 --- The Stancetaking Theory --- p.28
Chapter 2.4 --- Language Ideology --- p.30
Chapter 2.5 --- Previous Research on Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Context---- --- p.32
Chapter 2.6 --- The Problematic Concept of Mother Tongue --- p.34
Chapter 2.7 --- Summary --- p.35
Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- METHODOLOGY
Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.37
Chapter 3.2 --- Restatement of Research Aims --- p.37
Chapter 3.3 --- Research Design --- p.39
Chapter 3.4 --- Pre-Study Fieldwork --- p.42
Chapter 3.5 --- Participants --- p.44
Chapter 3.6 --- Data Collection --- p.45
Chapter 3.6.1 --- Questionnaire Survey --- p.45
Chapter 3.6.1.1 --- Piloting for Questionnaire Survey --- p.47
Chapter 3.6.2 --- Semi-Structured Interviews --- p.48
Chapter 3.6.2.1 --- Selection Criteria for Participants in Semi-Structured Interviews --- p.49
Chapter 3.6.2.2 --- Piloting for Semi-Structured Interviews --- p.50
Chapter 3.6.3 --- Multiple-Case Study --- p.52
Chapter 3.6.3.1 --- Selection Criteria for Focal Participants --- p.53
Chapter 3.6.3.2 --- Language-Diary Study and Diary-Focused Interviews --- p.55
Chapter 3.6.3.3 --- Unstructured Interviews --- p.56
Chapter 3.6.3.4 --- Piloting for Language-Diary Study and Diary-Focused Interviews --- p.57
Chapter 3.7 --- Data analysis --- p.58
Chapter 3.8 --- Validity and Triangulation --- p.60
Chapter 3.9 --- Summary --- p.61
Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- GROUNDWORK FOR CASE STUDIES
Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.63
Chapter 4.2 --- Demographic Data --- p.63
Chapter 4.3 --- Mapping the Terrain - Analysis of Survey Results --- p.66
Chapter 4.3.1 --- Language Repertoire --- p.67
Chapter 4.3.2 --- Language Competencies --- p.69
Chapter 4.3.3 --- Language Choice Patterns --- p.72
Chapter 4.3.4 --- Identity and Sense of Belonging --- p.78
Chapter 4.4 --- Synopsis of Focal Cases --- p.82
Chapter 4.4.1 --- Profiling Takesh --- p.82
Chapter 4.4.2 --- Profiling Santhosh --- p.83
Chapter 4.4.3 --- Profiling Rishaana --- p.83
Chapter 4.5 --- Summary * --- p.84
Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- INDIA AT HEART - THE CASE OF TAKESH
Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.85
Chapter 5.2 --- Overview of Takesh's Life History and Sociolinguistic Background --- p.85
Chapter 5.3 --- """I've been living in Hong Kong but I still consider myself an Indian"" - Maintenance of Indian Identity" --- p.87
Chapter 5.4 --- "Self Identification as Chinese in Relation to the Non-Cantonese Speaking Ethnic Minority ""Other""'" --- p.93
Chapter 5.5 --- """Home is already the place I use Tamil for 24 hours"" - Compartmentalisation of Language Choice" --- p.100
Chapter 5.6 --- Takesh: At Home in India and Hong Kong --- p.105
Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- "INDIAN NATIONALITY, HONG KONG IDENTITY? THE CASE OF SANTHOSH"
Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.106
Chapter 6.2 --- Overview of Santhosh's Life History and Sociolinguistic Background --- p.106
Chapter 6.3 --- """I'm not into ancestors' stuff'-Negotiating Distance from Heritage" --- p.108
Chapter 6.4 --- """My Putonghua is Better than my Tamil"" - Ideology and Identity in Construction of Self-" --- p.115
Chapter 6.5 --- Simultaneous Construction of an English Speaking Identity --- p.120
Chapter 6.6 --- Santhosh: Only At Home in Hong Kong --- p.127
Chapter CHAPTER 7 --- INDIAN IDENTITY WITHOUT AN INDIAN LANGUAGE? THE CASE OF RISHAANA
Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.129
Chapter 7.2 --- Overview of Rishaana's Life History and Sociolinguistic Background --- p.129
Chapter 7.3 --- "Construction of a Monolingual, Multicultural Identity - School and Individual Ideologies" --- p.131
Chapter 7.4 --- """Tamil is important when it is considered with a bunch of other things"": Negotiating Proximity with Heritage With or Without Language" --- p.136
Chapter 7.5 --- """Without it, I'd be less Indian"" - Classical Arts Substituting Tamil as Symbolic Marker of Tamil/ Indian Identity" --- p.141
Chapter 7.6 --- "Mother as the ""Other"" - Discursive Construction of a Transnational Youth Identity in Interaction" --- p.145
Chapter 7.7 --- Rishaana: Interpreting an Alternative Indian Identity --- p.149
Chapter CHAPTER 8 --- CONCLUSION
Chapter 8.1 --- Overview --- p.150
Chapter 8.2 --- Findings to Research Questions ´Ø --- p.150
Chapter 8.2.1 --- Findings to Research Question (1) - Language Repertoire and Choice --- p.151
Chapter 8.2.2 --- Findings to Research Question (2) - Identity Negotiation in a Transnational Context --- p.153
Chapter 8.2.3 --- Findings to Research Question (3) - Language Ideology --- p.158
Chapter 8.3 --- Empirical Significance of the Study --- p.161
Chapter 8.4 --- Methodological Significance of the Study --- p.164
Chapter 8.5 --- Limitations and Directions for Future Studies --- p.165
References --- p.169
Chapter Appendix A - --- Questionnaire Survey --- p.180
Chapter Appendix B - --- Interview Guide for Semi-Structured Interview --- p.185
Chapter Appendix C - --- Language-Diary Entry --- p.190

This thesis analyses the Tamil minority problem in Sri Lanka in the light of self-determination and state sovereignty. State practice with respect to self-determination is discussed, in particular cases of Aaland Island, Katanga, Biafra and Bangladesh. Historical background, location and composition, as it relates to the Tamil minority problem in the country, are described, and the specific issue of self-determination in the Sri Lankan context of secession is dealt with. The research attempts to ascertain the legal conditions which would warrant secession.
Master of Laws (Hons.)

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic study of the cultural formations of moral and political community among Tamils displaced and dispersed by three decades of war and political violence in Sri Lanka. Drawing on twenty months of field research among Tamils living in Toronto, Canada and Tamil Nadu, India, I inquire into the histories, discourses, and practices of diasporic activism at the end of war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Tamils abroad were mobilized to protest the war, culminating in months of spectacular mass demonstrations in metropolitan cities around the world. Participant-observation among activists and their families in diaspora neighborhoods and refugee camps, and their public events and actions, as well as semi-structured interviews, media analysis and archival work, reveal how “diaspora” has become a capacious site of political becoming for the identification and mobilization of Tamils within, across, and beyond-nation states and their borders. Part One of this study considers how migration and militancy have historically transformed Tamil society, giving rise to a diasporic politics with competing ethical obligations for Tamils living outside Sri Lanka. Chapters One and Two describe and analyze how distinct trajectories of migration and settlement led to diverse forms of social and political action among diaspora Tamils during Sri Lanka’s 2002 ceasefire and peace process. Chapter Three turns to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka to contrast narratives about the emergence of Tamil politics, nationalism and militancy with diaspora narratives developed through life history interviews with activists. Taken together, these chapters provide a layered social and historical context for the ethnography of Tamil diaspora life and activism. Part Two of the dissertation ethnographically explores how and why Tamils in Canada and India protested the recent war, soliciting their states, national and transnational publics, and each other to “take immediate action” on behalf of suffering civilians. Chapter Four examines diaspora community formation and activism in Toronto, a city with the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside Asia, in the wake of Canada’s ban on the LTTE. Chapter Five turns to refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, India, to discuss how camp life shaped refugee politics and activism, while Chapter Six follows the narratives of two migrants waiting and preparing to migrate from India to the West. Chapter Seven examines how Tamil activists in Toronto and Tamil Nadu publicly invoked, represented, and performed suffering to mobilize action against the war. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the modes of Tamil migration, asylum-seeking, and diaspora activism that emerged in response to the war’s end and its aftermaths. In their actions of protest and dissent, I argue that Tamils from Sri Lanka create new modes of belonging and citizenship out of transnational lives forged from wartime migration and resettlement in multicultural and pluralist states. A political subject of “Tamil diaspora” has thus emerged, and continues to shape Sri Lanka’s post-war futures. This ethnography contributes to scholarly debates on violence, subjectivity and agency; the nation-state and citizenship; and the politics of human rights and humanitarianism at the intersections of diaspora, refugee and South Asian studies.

This dissertation is about an anti-caste movement among Dalits (the oppressed as untouchable) in South India, the Parayar. Since the late 19th century, members of this caste, and a few others from Tamil-speaking areas, have been choosing to convert to Buddhism based on conscience and conviction. This phenomenon of religious conversion-social transformation is this study's focus. By combining archival research of Parayar's writings among Tamil Buddhists, as these Parayar, settled in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, are called, I have attempted to understand this movement ethno-historically. In pre-colonial times, though the sub-continent's societies were hierarchical, the hierarchies were fluid and varied: i.e., the high-low or self-other dichotomies were neither fixed nor based on a single principle. The most significant effect of the encounter of British Colonialism and India was to precipitate an unprecedented master-dichotomy of singular and absolute form of self and other, as colonizer and the colonized. This had three consequences. (a) India was itself seen as singular and served as the Self to the colonial Other in an absolute dichotomy; (b) the role of essentializing the Indian Self was assumed by the brahmin; (c) this in turn resulted in an internal dichotomy between the brahmin-essential self and the non-brahmin-non-essential other. The means chosen to fix this dichotomy was to nominate the non-essential other's paradigmatic representation, the Dalit. I intend to read against the grain of the binary logic that was inaugurated at the moment of the colonial encounter by means of Tamil Buddhists' oppositional, reconstructional, and representationaldiscursive practices.

This study attempts to discuss the transmission of oral tradition in religious and domestic contexts among the Indian Tamil Hindu people of South Africa. In chapter one, the focus of this study, as well as some reasons for choosing the Tamil group are discussed. The focus of this essay is to highlight the transmission of oral tradition in communities that have been physically separated from the original homes of those particular communities. Thereafter, in chapter two, examples of surviving domestic rituals are analysed. Life cycle rituals and calendrical rituals that are performed in the home are discussed with examples. Examples of surviving public rituals are considered in chapter three. An account of the rituals that are performed in the temple [either calendrical or of a personal nature] is given. In chapter four Tamil Hindu mythology which has survived in this country is given consideration. Lord Siva, in particular, is discussed to a greater extent. An overview of how some of the tradition has survived concludes this essay.
Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Durban. 1993.

This study examines the similarities and differences between the historical background and the current performance of Hindu and Zulu funerals and associated ceremonies. After presenting an account of the historical development of the Hindu and Zulu communities in South Africa, a chronological account of the performance of each of these funeral ceremonies are presented. This account includes a detailed description of the rituals performed when a person is on his/her death bed, the actual funeral ceremonies and the post death rituals and ceremonies associated with ancestor veneration. The incidence and significance of The Anthropology of Geste and Rhythm in each of these ceremonies are demonstrated according to the theory of Marcel Jousse. The Hindu and Zulu ceremonies are then analysed and interpreted to demonstrate an individuals life crises which Van Gennep called the "Rites of Passage" and distinguishes three phases: separation, transition, and incorporation. The discussion accounts for the transmission of traditions over generations, and which demonstrate the anthropological and psychobiological nature of memory, understanding and expression as evident in the performance of Hindu and Zulu funerals and ceremonies and the manner in which the ancestors are venerated in South Africa. The research was undertaken mainly in Kwa-Zulu Natal. However to fill research gaps in the Hindu investigation a study was undertaken in some parts ofIndia as part of the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Programme.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

There has been a growing understanding in recent years of the links between conflict emergence and horizontal inequalities and increased focus on the role which development policies can play in both ameliorating and exacerbating the root causes of violent conflict. This study tests the empirical relationship between horizontal inequalities and conflict causation using the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict as a case study. The analysis shows robust support for the empirical relationship between horizontal inequality (which encompasses political, economic, social and cultural dimensions) and the emergence of violent conflict in Sri Lanka. In this context of inequality, Tamil leaders, who faced political exclusion, and their followers, who themselves experienced inequitable access to employment, education opportunities, assets, were inspired to mobilise and engage in armed violence. Thus, the ethnic conflict stemmed from the disillusionment, frustration and increasing radicalisation of Tamils in their attitude towards the Sri Lankan state, rejecting what they perceived as exclusionary policies. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as a key protagonist in the conflict, with an expressed view to establish a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. While most post war development policies are strongly aligned to government objectives, there are very little steps taken towards the design and adoption of policies to ameliorate horizontal inequalities. Instead, the government has identified security issues and economic growth as the cornerstone in the post war development process, and they are given greater emphasis in policies compared to underlying causes of violent conflict: inequalities in access to political power, economic resources and/or cultural status. Most Sri Lankan state actors are either not mandated to address equality issues or prefer conflict sensitive approaches to post war development. In general, there is a weak approach to conflict sensitivity in early post war development and reconstruction strategies (from 2009 to 2013). Likewise, there is relatively little attention paid to other conflict sensitive causes and dynamics such as the nature of the political system ii and problems of human rights. The failure to address fundamental issues relating to minority Tamil grievances has the potential to re-ignite the conflict.
Development Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)