Ceylon Citizenship Act, No. 18 of 1948

The foundational statute that restricted citizenship to those able to prove descent or registration. Because most plantation Tamils — brought from South India by British planters from the 1820s onwards — lacked documentary proof of descent, approximately 700,000 people were rendered stateless overnight. The Act's discriminatory registration criteria (requiring two witnesses who were already citizens) effectively excluded the plantation community and is the legal starting point for all subsequent Malaiyaha Tamil rights analyses. **Source 2** **Title:** Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act, No. 3 of 1949 **Institution:** Parliament of Ceylon **Publisher:** Government of Ceylon / LawNet Sri Lanka **Year:** 1949 **URL:** http://www.lawnet.gov.lk **Tier:** A (primary law text) **Gloss:** Supplementary statute that provided a registration pathway for residents of Indian/Pakistani o