Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Anglo-Ind.) a generic name for any Indian man.

1828		[G.R. Gleig] Subaltern’s Log-book (1829) I 188: When the servants are called there is an exclamation of ‘Ho! Ram Sammee,’ dwelt on for a considerable time, and the same sound is heard in every part of the camp.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 49: ‘I, Ramee Sawmee Dabash, Sare, come to make master proper compliment’.
1869		Report of Educational Congress, Town Hall, Manchester 202: ‘I am certain you will never send any Ram Sammy to prison because his child is not at school.’.
1871		[Edward Jenkins] Coolie: His Rights and Wrongs 189: Both employer and immigrant, therefore, are thenceforth bound by the provisions of the Colonial Immigration Laws. By this time I am afraid Ram-sammy has no option but to accept the terms, even should he know and object to them. But they are not exactly the terms explained to him in India.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 573/1: Ramasammy, s. This corruption of R?masw?mi (‘Lord Rama’), a common Hindu proper name in the South, is there used colloquially [...] As a generic name for Hindus, like ‘Tommy Atkins’ for a British soldier. Especially applied to Indian coolies in Ceylon, etc.
1893		‘T. Bland Strange’ Gunner Jingo’s Jubilee 190: A strange bearer came. ‘What’s the matter, Ram Sammy?’‘The sahib was drunk in the doctor’s tent, and I put him to bed’.
1929		A. Gibson Ceylon 23: A shrieking sisterhood of grass coolies [...] have plunged without a moments warning into the eldritch music of a Witches’ Sabbath [...] Thereafter a respite, broken only by Ramasamy, good jovial wight, who joins with his mates in a corroboree held in the centre of the highway.