For the first time in the history of more than half a million Tamil repatriates from Sri Lanka who continue to struggle hard to survive in the plantation regions of the state because of the plummeting prices of tea, coffee, rubber and pepper, a youngster from the segment, who battled poverty and fought against heavy odds, has become an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.
It was history of sorts last week when Inbasekar Kalimuthu, who hails from a Tamil repatriate plantation workers’ family of obscure Padassery village in Pandalur taluk of Nilgiris district, became assistant collector of Kozhikode district in Kerala.
Inbasekar represents the impoverished and backward Tamil repatriates who occupy certain pockets of hill stations Nilgiris, Kodaikanal and Yercaud.
“We are a community displaced twice. Our forefathers had been uprooted from their native places way back in 1823 as the British wanted them to clear Sri Lanka’s forests to set up tea estates there. They were forced to look for a new home after the Sri Lankan government stripped them of their citizenship once it gained independence in 1948,’’ said Inbasekar in an interaction with Deccan Chronicle.
Unmindful of the threats posed by wild elephants en route, Inbasekar, who studied in government schools of Pandalur, became an agricultural scientist after studying in Tamil Nadu Agriculture University in Coimbatore and Hyderabad Agriculture University.
He bagged IAS while working as a scientist with agricultural research centre in Delhi. It was sheer will and determination that brought him the laurels. His assuming of the new position has brought a cheer to the faces of the repatriate community. - Deccan Chronicle
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