The lives of Myanmar’s Tamil minority are being highlighted in a 12-part weekly series on BBC Tamil radio.
The Tamils Who Stayed Back In The Golden Land began airing on Sunday.
The series explores the conditions in which ethnic Tamils live today and talks about their collective memory, their daily lives and their aspirations for their future in a changing country.
Myanmar – also known as Burma – is transitioning to democracy after nearly 50 years of military rule.
The country’s ethnic Tamils, whose number is unofficially estimated at half a million, are the descendants of Tamils from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
They migrated to Burma during the days of the British Empire and worked in finance and trade as well as agriculture.
The end of the British rule in Burma in 1948 led to a decline of the community’s fortunes.
In the 1960s, in the wake of the military rule, many were forced to leave Burma – but many also stayed back.
The series looks at how ethnic Tamils have integrated into mainstream Myanmar society.
It will be broadcast at 3.45pm GMT on Sundays and is available as a podcast online via the BBC Tamil website, .