Abstract
This article documents the formation of an exclusive and unified Ceylon-Tamil community in response to racialization as “Indian”. This community solidarity was oriented largely around the articulation of a distinct status-based ethnic identity premised on the possession of superior educational and professional qualifications. This led to the community establishing a respected position within the colonial economy. As a consequence of the expansion of education and the commitment to meritocracy in postcolonial Singapore, the privileged status of the Ceylon-Tamil community was gradually denuded. State intervention that sought once again to subsume the Ceylon-Tamil community under the multicultural category of “Indian” finally fractured community cohesion as members sought to escape state-ascribed identity. It is argued that the highly disciplinary nature of the postcolonial state, in the practice of multiculturalism, is critical to understanding the unintended fragmentation of minority ethnic communities in Singapore.
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SelvaRaj, C.N. (2016). The Postcolonial Predicament of the Ceylon-Tamils. In: Lian, K. (eds) Multiculturalism, Migration, and the Politics of Identity in Singapore. Asia in Transition, vol 1. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-676-8_4
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