Religious Procession of Tamils | |
Total population | |
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100,000 [1] in Overseas DOM-TOM Réunion, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Languages | |
Tamil, French, English | |
Religion | |
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Related ethnic groups | |
Indians in France, Sri Lankans in France |
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Tamils |
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Tamils in France refer to the citizens as well as expatriate residents of Tamil origin living in France. Over 100,000 Tamils [2] [3] from both Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry now (Puducherry) and then from Sri Lanka also lives in France. This is in addition to the Indian Tamil community established in French overseas dominions of Réunion, Martinique, and French Guiana. There are approximately 220,000 people of Tamil origin in the Department of Réunion.
The earliest Tamil immigration into France can be traced back to since the 17th Century, from the French-administered colony of Puducherry in India. A large number of them hailing from middle-class families who joined the French government on service.
In the 1790s the French East India Company sent most of the Indian Tamils from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to France and Réunion for workers and after some years they were permanently settled and makes an residence there itself.
The later arrivals were mostly Tamils from Sri Lanka, who fled the country during the violence in 1983 and the Civil War that succeeded it. [4] Today, there are about 50,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living in France, of which the greatest number live in Paris.
The Parisian Tamil community was fairly dispersed and disorderly until 1991, when Paris-based Tamils began to form tightly-knit networks centred in the northern reaches of Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. Tamil-owned businesses appeared in great numbers seemingly overnight, while the colorful Chariot Festival, a tribute to the Hindu elephant god Ganesha, has become a popular annual procession eagerly anticipated by thousands of Parisians. There are Tamil newspapers, a radio station, and a website dedicated to Paris' residents.
Apart from speaking Tamil their native language, most of the Tamils are fluent speakers of English due to their British colonial past. Many of the early migrants had struggled to find work and higher education due to their relatively lesser understanding of the French. As a result, many of them have taken up free and paid classes to learn French. A critical demand is that the French government create special work-training programs designed to orient refugees from different fields.
The Tamil community preserve their culture by creating special schools for children. Today there are ten or eleven active branches in Paris and in the suburbs (banlieue). In these weekend classes, children are taught Tamil, traditional music and dance, and religion. [4]
The majority of the Tamil French population are either Hindus or Christians, and a minor number of them have faith in Islam as well. [2]
Passage Brady, nicknamed “Little India”, is divided in two by Boulevard de Strasbourg. Covered on one side, it is open on the other. There are numerous boutiques and restaurants specialising in Gujarati, Tamil and Punjabi cuisine. [5]
The Parisian quarter of La Chapelle, a stone's throw from Le Gare du Nord is popularly known as “Little Jaffna”. In only 10 years, "Little Jaffna", located at the last stretch of the winding street of Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis in the 10th arrondissement, between metros Gare de Nord and La Chapelle, has sprung to life and begun to truly flourish. Centring on three of four streets where the famous annual Ganesh Festival and its crowd drawing processions of dancers, rituals and floats has been celebrated at the end of August each year since the late 1990s the quarter is thriving and undeniably Tamil.
Majority of the residents are Sri Lankan Tamils who fled Sri Lanka from persecution in the 1980s, which also saw the beginning of the country's civil war. It is commonly mistakenly called by the average Parisian as Little India.
The visitor will notice a wide variety of stores, restaurants and businesses catering to Paris Tamil community; There are numerous boutiques selling saris, restaurants specialising in Tamil, Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine, halal butchers and spice stores; there are shops selling models of Hindu, Buddhist and Christian deities; trinkets and jewellery for all tastes and wallets – bangles for one Euro, rings for a thousand; all tastes in Indian film and music are catered for in various media outlets and many less stand -out stores, offering translation, visa, educational and other services also line the streets.
Both the area and event have become popular tourist attractions. Little Jaffna is a thriving village in its own right, offering a kind of Tamil cultural richness that seems curiously preserved from French influence.
The Tamils, also known as the Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages, with over 2000 years of Tamil literature, including the Sangam poems, which were composed between 300 BCE and 300 CE.
Karaikal is a city of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. It is the administrative headquarters of the Karaikal District and the second most populated city in the Union Territory after Pondicherry. Located on the Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal in South India, it is a coastal enclave and is surrounded by the state of Tamil Nadu in the southern region of Indian peninsula.
Nandi, also known as Nandikeshvara or Nandideva, is the bull vahana (mount) of the Hindu god Shiva. He is also the guardian deity of Kailash, the abode of Shiva. Almost all Shiva temples display stone images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine.
Pondicherry is the capital and most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of India and is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal to the east and the state of Tamil Nadu, with which it shares most of its culture, heritage, and language.
Hinduism is one of Sri Lanka's oldest religions, with temples dating back over 2,000 years. As of 2011, Hindus made up 12.6% of the Sri Lankan population. They are almost exclusively Tamils, except for small immigrant communities from India and Pakistan.
The Tamil diaspora refers to descendants of the Tamil speaking immigrants who emigrated from their native lands in the southern Indian subcontinent to other parts of the world. They are found primarily in Malaysia, Arab states of the Persian Gulf, South Africa, North America, Western Europe, and Singapore. It can be divided into two main diasporic clusters, due to geographical, historical and cultural reasons, as Indian Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Hinduism is a minority religion in France that is followed by more than 121,312 people in France, which is nearly 0.2% of the nation's population. Most of the Hindus in France are mainly from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and the Indian diaspora, though there are many Hindus from Nepal, Afghanistan, Mauritius and other nations.
The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora refers to the global diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan and Tamil diaspora.
Operation Poomalai, also known as Eagle Mission 4, was the codename assigned to a mission undertaken by the Indian Air Force for airdropping supplies over the besieged city of Jaffna in Sri Lanka on 4 June 1987 to support the Tamil Tigers during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Nainativu, is a small but notable island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The name of the island alludes to the folklore inhabitants, the Naga people. It is home to the Hindu shrine of Nagapooshani Amman Temple; one of the prominent 64 Shakti Peethas, and the Buddhist shrine Nagadeepa Purana Viharaya.
Le Bristol Paris is a five-star hotel located at 112 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, France. It opened in 1925 and is famous for its historic architecture. The hotel is part of the Oetker Collection, Masterpiece Hotels, which is owned by the Oetker family and was founded by Rudolf August Oetker.
The Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis is a street in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. It crosses the arrondissement from north to south, linking the Porte Saint-Denis to La Chapelle Métro station and passing the Gare du Nord.
The boulevard de Magenta is located in the Ninth and Tenth arrondissements of Paris, France.
Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and the first Tamil militant to commit suicide by swallowing cyanide.
The Sri Lankan diaspora are Sri Lankan emigrants and expatriates from Sri Lanka that reside in a foreign country.
Tamil German or German Tamizhar refer to the German citizens of Tamil ethnic origins mainly from India in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry then Sri Lanka and Malaysia apart from other parts of the world. Tamil migration to Germany which was mainly composed of higher education and labor migrants increased in the late 1980s and onwards mainly due to the escalation of the Sri Lankan Civil War which saw tens of thousands of those belonging to the Tamil community fleeing the country and seeking asylum elsewhere abroad. The Tamil population figures in Germany currently range somewhere between 50,000-60,000. Karin Stoll is the consul general at the German Consulate in Chennai.
Sri Lankan Paraiyar is a Tamil caste found in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. They are traditional parai-drummers who were also involved in weaving and scavenging.
Cyclonic Storm Burevi was a weak tropical cyclone which made landfall in Sri Lanka, becoming the first to do so since a depression in 2014, and brought minimal impact to Southern India in December 2020. The ninth depression and fifth named storm of the 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Burevi originated from a low-pressure area which formed on November 28. The system gradually became a depression on November 30, with the JTWC issuing a TCFA soon after. The depression then was upgraded into Cyclone Burevi the following day. Burevi slowly intensified reaching its peak intensity on December 2, just before making landfall in Sri Lanka. Burevi then weakened, entering the Gulf of Mannar the next day. Burevi proceeded to dissipate after stalling on December 5.