Twelve specialists have contributed to this multi-disciplinary essays which offer wide perspective on the Tamil Nationalism of Sri Lanka. The writers place Tamil identity onto the context of Tamil culture and South Asian history as well as relating it to recent events. Among the areas explored are the historiography and archaeology in Sri Lanka; militant Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka; marriage and social mobility in Tamil identities; Sri Lanka Tamil literature; art identities in Jaffna; feminist critiques of Tamil Nationalism; census identifications; economic aspects of Tamil Nationalism and the changing global parameters of self-determination and statehood. A study of Jaffna Youth Radicalism in the 1920s and 1930s is appended. Bibliography and index.