Description
The Jaffna Tamils, a small community, form a part of the cosmopolitan population of Malaysia. Their contribution to the nation has been significant and need to be recorded and preserved for posterity. This is the purpose and motivation for this book. The book is not an all-encompassing social history of the community, which has served the country and Government for a period spanning over a century.
The Jaffna Tamils first came to Malaya from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) primarily, on the invitation of the British Administration and later, on their own. They contributed significantly to the transformation of the country as it progressed to the modern advanced country it is today. In the process the Jaffna Tamils worked hard, made many sacrifices, suffered privation, loneliness and many even lost their lives. They also undertook t enhance their academic knowledge and efficiency at work, thus obtaining considerable personal achievement reaching high levels of eminence worthy of praise and recognition.
The book essentially aims to tell the story of the Jaffna Tamils, to make posterity proud of their ancestry and to stimulate the younger generations to emulate their ancestors. They brought pride to their country of origin and to the one they came to serve. The second motivating factor is the precedent set by an eminent Jaffna Tamil author, who wrote the book -The Hundred Years of Ceylonese in Malaysia and Singapore more than three decades ago. It was an exemplary research work, an effort of one man, Dr. S. Durai Raja Singam. We are only the followers of that torchbearer of great merit. We have tried to make an effort to supplement the record that he, with his literary eminence, had started Yet a third motivating factor is the frequent and popular demand for his book (which has been long out of print) and also the need to update the information, which has seen many changes since then. ISBN 9834317603
