Attached
The estate Tamil community migrated to Sri Lanka from India in the 19th century as
labourers in rubber, coffee and tea plantation fields. Some also migrated as merchants
and as other service providers. At present, the majority o f them are working as plantation
labourers in Central, Uva, Sabaragamuwa and Southern provinces with their own subculture. The primary objective o f this study was to explore and explain the particular
relationship between sub-cultural factors and the criminality in the estate sub-culture. A
sample o f 80 estate Tamil families out o f 120 was selected through random sampling
from Deniyaya and Handford estates, Matara district in the Southern province. For more,
information, in-depth interviews and police records were used. Data was analysed using
the SPSS software. This study identified a special living style among estate Tamil
communities, which depends on their routine activities. Murders, tumults, abduction and
robberies were identified as the most common crimes among the estate Tamil people.
The conclusion is that most of those crimes were directly related to the sub-cultural
factor called short term delightment. The usage of illegal drugs, hardworking lifestyle,
limited consumption o f holdings and lack o f education were identified as ancillary factors
of short term delightment which have led to the increased rate o f crimes among them.
Establishing a new mediation board for estate workers, development of the
infrastructures, and inspiration for the education can be recommended to control and
prevent crimes among the estate Tamil community.
