Abstract:
The entrepreneurial role of Up-country Tamils is significant among the other
Tamil groups as representative of “entrepreneurial little tradition” in the Sri
Lankan commercial sector. Since they commit three-fold characteristics of ethnicentrepreneurship, which are being members of a marginal, minority and immigrant
group, the study is intended to contribute to the construction of a broader discourse
on the particular characteristics of Up-country Tamil entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka.
Multiple factors such as historical protocol, politico-economic background and
cultural causes are responsible for construction of their entrepreneurial identity. The
caste and kinship-based networking pattern and excessive self exploitation help them
to construct the initial social capital. However, when the entrepreneur either seeks
to widen the entrepreneurial capacity or when the entrepreneur is unsatisfied with
the basic form of networking, he/she is required to shift from privet spaces to public
spaces. In one hand it is a geographical movement from the estate sector to a public
location such as a town or a bazaar. On the other hand it tends to be a modernization
of traditional norms and values of the Tamil community. Therefore, this study may
be a source of general understanding of a marginal social group overcomes its sociocultural barriers in terms of entrepreneurship development; it also attempts to reveal
the cultural structure of the Up-country Tamil community, their everyday needs,
and the interrelations between members to achieve goals. Within this ground, this
study attempts to describe significant entrepreneurial patterns of Up-country Tamil
community by field research conducted in three major plantation areas in Sri Lanka.
