Margins to Mainstream – A Review Note

It is 200 years ago that British plantation owners in Ceylon brought indentured labour from South India to work on tea and coffee estates.

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These people, now known as Malaiyaham community in Sri Lanka have become an integral part of the country. They account for about 1.5 million people or six percent of the country’s population and are gradually being absorbed into the mainstream of Sri Lankan life. Several members of the community have become leading politicians, like the Thondamans and the Ganeshans.

But as we can see from Vamadevan’s volume, there are other members getting engaged in public life.

M. Vamadevan, comes from the Kotagala area, and as a young boy lived on the Beragala estate near Haputale. One night, he and his parents had gone out leaving his three sisters at home. Tragedy struck that night and the three sisters were killed in a landslide.