Identifications with an ‘aesthetic’ and ‘moral’ diaspora amongst Tamils of diverse state origins in Britain

This chapter employs Pnina Werbner's notion of diasporas as moral communities of suffering and co-responsibility, as well as aesthetic communities of shared transnational consumption of culture and performance of ritual, and relates this to the case of Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in Britain. Sri Lankan Tamil migrants I interviewed towards my research imagine membership of a Tamil diaspora as based on personal (or familial) experiences of suffering in the Sri Lankan civil war, which acts both to create bonds with other Sri Lankan Tamils, and to distinguish from Tamils of other state origins (Indian, Singaporean etc.) despite cultural commonalities (Werbner's aesthetic diaspora). Conversely, many of the non-Sri Lankan Tamil migrants I interviewed imagined these boundaries in more flexible terms, and claimed membership of the 'community of suffering' in ways which did not necessitate personal experience, but rather privileged symbolic constructions of the ethnic community, and an interpretation of historical and current events in India, Sri Lanka (and other sites of Tamil population) as components of a single narrative of Tamil victimhood.

Physical activity patterns and correlates among adults from a developing country : the Sri Lanka Diabetes and Cardiovascular Study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patterns of physical activity (PA), the prevalence of physical inactivity and the relationships between PA and sociodemographic, clinical and biochemical parameters among Sri Lankan adults. DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTING: Nationally representative population-based survey conducted in Sri Lanka. SUBJECTS: Data on PA and associated details were obtained from 5000 adults. PA was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (short-form). A binary logistic regression analysis was performed using the dichotomous variable ‘health-enhancing PA’ (05‘active’, 15‘inactive’). RESULTS: Sample size was 4485. Mean age was 46.1 (SD 15.1) years, 39.5% were males. The mean weekly total MET (metabolic equivalents of task) minutes of PA among the study population was 4703 (SD 4369). Males (5464 (SD 5452)) had a significantly higher weekly total MET minutes than females (4205 (SD 3394); P,0.001). Rural adults (5175 (SD 4583)) were significantly more active than urban adults (2956 (SD 2847); P<0.001). Tamils had the highest mean weekly total MET minutes among ethnicities. Those with tertiary education had lowest mean weekly total MET minutes. In all adults 60.0% were in the ‘highly active’ category, while only 11.0% were ‘inactive’ (males 14.6%, females 8.7%; P<0.001). Of the ‘highly active’ adults, 85.8% were residing in rural areas. Results of the binary logistic regression analysis indicated that female gender (OR52?1), age .70 years (OR53.8), urban living (OR52.5), Muslim ethnicity (OR52.7), tertiary education (OR53.6), obesity (OR51.8), diabetes (OR51.6), hypertension (OR51.2) and metabolic syndrome (OR51.3) were all associated with significantly increased odds of being physically ‘inactive’. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of Sri Lankan adults were ‘highly active’ physically. Female gender, older age, urban living, Muslim ethnicity and tertiary education were all significant predictors of physical inactivity. Physical inactivity was associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome.

Les relations entre catholiques et hindous chez les Tamouls sri lankais à Montréal et la notion de syncrétisme : l’exemple des pèlerinages et de la dévotion mariale

Dans cette étude, l’auteure décrit les relations entre des catholiques et des hindous chez les Tamouls originaires du Sri Lanka qui ont immigré à Montréal. Ce faisant, elle accentuera son étude sur les perspectives des catholiques tamouls, et ce particulièrement au cours de pèlerinages et à travers la dévotion mariale. Les relations entre catholiques et hindous sont ainsi codifiées par des normes sociales et culturelles. De plus, l’auteure démontre que la migration, de même que la société d’accueil, influence les interactions entre ces deux groupes. Dans ce contexte, la notion de syncrétisme devient un concept secondaire qui est principalement étudié en lien avec les normes sociales tamoules. Finalement, l’auteure démontre, à travers les pèlerinages et la dévotion mariale, que les catholiques entretiennent des rapports contradictoires avec les hindous.

De l'indépendance à la reconnaissance du génocide : le (re)cadrage des actions collectives de la diaspora tamoule depuis 2009

Alors que la mobilisation de la diaspora tamoule pendant la guerre civile sri lankaise (1983-2009) a été amplement discutée et analysée, peu de chercheurs se sont penchés sur la mobilisation de la diaspora tamoule après 2009. Pourtant, cette mobilisation d’après-guerre présente une rupture importante avec le discours d’indépendance du Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) prédominant pendant la guerre civile sri lankaise, rupture qui s’illustre, entre autres, par l’émergence d’un discours de reconnaissance du génocide. Comment expliquer ce changement de discours? L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’exposer le recadrage des actions collectives de la diaspora tamoule depuis 2009, pour ensuite expliquer comment et pourquoi nous l’observons. Pour ce faire, nous retraçons le discours de cinq acteurs collectifs en matière d’indépendance et de génocide, tel que rapporté par le site web diasporique, Tamilnet.com. Les acteurs collectifs à l’étude sont les suivants : le Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), le Global Tamil Forum (GTF), le Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) et le National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT). Notre démarche, qui consiste en une analyse de cadrage, à la fois quantitative et qualitative, nous amène à remettre en question la relation causale entre la fenêtre d’opportunité et le recadrage. En revanche, nous démontrons que le recadrage des actions collectives de la diaspora tamoule depuis 2009 s’explique par l’émergence de nouveaux acteurs collectifs, eux-mêmes porteurs d’un nouveau discours. L’apparition de ces nouveaux acteurs collectifs médiate ainsi la relation entre la fenêtre d’opportunité et le recadrage.

Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a 'Tamil diaspora', they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as 'aesthetic' and 'moral' communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, 'membership' of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly - based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil 'victimhood' that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.