Abstract:
This paper challenges traditional as well as homogenous scales of appraising ethnic
entrepreneurship that exists in concurrent ethnic entrepreneurship literature, with paying
attention to diverge and dynamic characteristics of Tamil entrepreneurship. It emphasizes that
the Tamil business may classify into several factions as far as mobilizing different peculiarities
of each sub profile without narrowing down one group as “Tamil entrepreneurship”. Therefore
the study has cast a new gaze upon comparing entrepreneurialism of ‘outsider’ entrepreneurs
and mainstream business groups. For instance, the Chettiars and the Muslim Tamils, who are
mainly Tamilnadu, Jaffna and Colombo based Tamils, represent the mainstream of the
worldwide ethnic commercial network of Tamils. Their particular identity is likely to be on
account of both primordial and situational aspects of ethnic entrepreneurship. On the other
hand, the entrepreneurial mobility of the bottom level of the Up-country Tamils shows
particular characteristics of the ‘outsiders’ of business. The initiation of the Upcountry Tamil
business from micro level is greatly dependent on the unlimited dedication of an entrepreneur.
The research has entirely based on literature on Tamil business communities worldwide
undertaken into historical analysis scheme. Therefore, this paper will be important in terms of
widening theoretical approaches of ethnic entrepreneurship by emphasizing the need of
multiple approaches to comprehend each sub section of an ethnic group.
