Ethnic Composition · Part 3

to stay back, India can consider providing them citizenship, as it did for refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan. This can be acheived by filtering out any potential anti- social or anti-state elements, leading to the eventual closing down of refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. Such a process will bring an end to an episode that has lasted longer than the civil war of Sri Lanka. Katchatheevu Kachatheevu originally belonged to kings of Ramanathapuram. No maps of Sri Lanka showed it as its territory. However, seeing it’s strategic location, Sri Lanka started claiming it. The issue was discussed some times during the meeting between Indian and Sri Lankan leaders. However in Indira Gandhi signed an agreement whereby Kachatheevu was given to Sri Lanka. Katchatheevu is an uninhabited -acre island situated in between India and Sri Lanka in the Gulf of Mannar. It has a Catholic shrine and has been declared as a sacred area by the government of Sri Lanka. The shrine attracts devotees from both the countries. This agreement had secured the rights of Indian fishermen only to dry their nets and use the Church for religious observance. But then in , delimitation of International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) was agreed upon as required by the UNCLOS. With this, Indian fishermen do not have any right to even engage in drying of nets and use of Church because agreement superseded agreement. Since then our fishermen are facing innumerable problems. Tondi Jaffna Palk Strait Karaikal (Pondicherry) Rameswaram Mannar Ramanathapuram Katchateevu Thanjavur Vedarraniyam Pudukottai Sri Lanka Tamil Nadu E W N S Not to Scale Nehru-Kotelawala Pact ( ) The Nehru-Kotelawala Pact was an agreement that was signed between Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, and John Kotelawala, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, on January . It was an agreement regarding to the status and future of people of Indian origin in Ceylon. They were brought by British from Madras Presidency in British India to work in tea, coffee and coconut plantations of British Ceylon. In the pact, India accepted in principle the repatriation of Indian