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Sri Lanka
05 Sep 2010
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| The Indo-Lankans: Their 200-Year Saga
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 Order this book
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by Subbiah MUTHIAH
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The Indo-Lankans - Their 200-year saga brings to life the aspirations, the striving and achievements of people who are a part of the success story of Sri Lanka -people of Indian origin who settled in and contributed to Lanka from 1796. This story of the toilers and the traders, professionals and players, entrepreneurs and leaders, all of recent Indian origin, is told in picture and word in the pages of this book, an indelible record of 200 years of contribution by hundreds of thousands who committed their lives and fortunes to the Island they now call home and where they have become Indo-Lankans. A deeply researched story of their sweat and tears, of deprivation and high mortality, of daring investments and risks few others would take, it is also a story of decades of significant contribution and achievement.
Cohesively presented in 850 pictures and 100,000 words, it is a record of people from different parts of India who came to Ceylon during the last two centuries and contributed to the Island's progress and prosperity in many ways. Over half of them put down roots in Ceylon and, today, their descendants, Sri Lankans all, number over a million. This is a record of what they did and how they contributed to making the Island a better and more prosperous place for all wtio call it home. m it, the reader will find on page after page reminders of ages past, of events forgotten, of achievements no longer remembered, and even a new find or two.
While of the earlier waves of migration to the Island, only a few myths and legends and fewer records remain, this book will remain a record of the newest wave who, over the next few decades, will be absorbed into the mosaic of the land. As a permanent record of the roots of the Indo-Lankans and their contribution for generations to come, this book begins by recalling The Early Settlers - there of the distant past" and then looks at:
- The Toilers, who opened up the plantations on which the prosperity of the Island depended well into the 1970s, who built the roads, railways and harbour and maintained them, who provided numerous services and, most significant of all, helped create villages where there were none and made villages into towns
- The Early Traders, who followed those pioneering toilers, provided services wherever they settled and developed a commercial economy where there had existed little before them
- The Professionals, who arrived in a country fast developing in the 20th Century and seeking an ever-increasing number of personnel for governance, education and development as it grew
- The Players, who came from families from the highlands as well as from those in business in the plains and from across the Palk Strait, to contribute to the revival of the Arts in Lanka and its numerous spurts teams
- The Entrepreneurs, who emerged from the ranks of early traders as well as from the plantations, and from across the Palk Strait to help Sri Lanka build an economy in which export and tourism play major roles
- The Faithful, whose faiths from across the Palk Strait today offer the Island a spectrum of faiths in whose festivals people of all beliefs participate and
- The Leaders, who contributed significantly to the development of the labour movement and business associations in the Island and who have gone on to play an important role in the ministerial councils of Sri Lanka over the last two decades.
The author, S. Muthiah, is a well-known heritage writer, himself of Indian origin, who spent four decades in Sri Lanka before moving to Madras. The pictures are from numerous sources - old ones from libraries and museums in the U.K. from old books, and from families in Sri Lanka and India. The new pictures are by Dominic Sansoni.
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Extracts
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Specifications
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24 x 34 cm |
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317 pages |
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ISBN : 955-8790-00-1 |
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99 euros |
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