By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Intolerance for Christians in Jaffna

I grumble but live on in Jaffna. It is home, a home that is less and less like a home. I own a piece of land in Nallur South. The school next door has encroached on my land and built toilets with windows that make our land stink. When /I went to the Principal with the plans, he gave me a run around saying I have to deal with the ministry. I feel so tired and over extended.

I have a piece of paddy land in Iluppaikadavai where the next door temple folk have built a road that cuts my land in two as neighbours advise me not to worry because it is for chaami.

Thanneer Pandol (Water Tent)

Early this morning on my way to mass I realized that, today (1 Sept.) being the high-point of the Nallur Temple festival, the Education Ministry had put up a Thanneer Pandol, to give cheap drinks to the worshippers going to the Temple. It blocked one of the entrances to my house.

Fearing that it could be permanent the 2^nd being another big festival (theertham, I think bathing the idol), I went to the police station and made an entry. They pleaded lack of staff as all men were on duty at the temple and others were attending to Sajith Premadasa’s visit. They agreed to send someone. I spoke to the leader at the Pandol at 8:00 am. Like in the missionary writings on Jaffna, they were polite and obsequious but untruthful. He promised to move it soon by 11:00 am but winked to his friends. It is 8.45 pm now and the Pandol still stands blocking my gate. I brought it down to make way for a car through that gate. I recognized that I had nothing in common with the community going to the temple and drinking sugared water in front of my house. A friend who came for the festival from abroad asked me to ignore it saying I will receive punniyam (merit). A Muslim friend told me to forget it saying “We now live in a land where what the majority says is right is the law.”

It is the Ministry that took over our Church’s Teachers’ Training College and the associated CMS Practising school that gave me my first 5 years of sound education. Under the terms of the take-over act, unless the acquired institution is used for the same purpose, it must be returned. The Training College is closed and its premises used as the Ministry, arguing that it is being used for the same purpose, namely education. What is worse is that the practising school has few children because of demographic changes and recently had about 30 students (down from several hundreds in my time) and a similar number of teachers. Today it has 46 students and 14 staff. They run the school at a loss lest in terms of the Act they are forced to return it to the church. The church is not fighting.

Bishops and their Lost Testicles

Since the take over a large plot behind the Mission House where I lived has been taken over to be the ministry canteen. A ministry official at church is said to have facilitated the theft. A woman official at the ministry went into a rant saying this is Siva Boomi. The Bishop has done nothing even as the archdeacon in his sermon today said 10% of estate-worker salaries were taken by the church. I doubt that and believe the Archdeacon of Jaffna is currying favour with the depressed castes with his hang-ups against Vellalas and the church. The church itself is in the business of making excuses for the state.

Early in the history of the church, all popes prior to consecration were put through a test to ensure they had testicles with no injuries. As The New Internationalist says (issue 244 – June 1993), it is unclear when the custom first began. The reason for its initiation is that according to the Law of Moses eunuchs could not enter into the sanctuary. Leviticus considered castrated animals and humans as unworthy of sacrifice. If we followed this practice before consecrating our bishops, they would have the b*lls more forthrightly to challenge the state instead of being the cowards they are.

But by and large, Jaffna is stultifying especially of Christians oppressed by a Tamil-Hindu community that thinks of itself as promoting human rights and freedoms. There was excitement last week as the UNHRC issued its report of how Tamil rights are being trampled. But those who so exult, including editorialists, many human rights workers and civil society members, are fully ignorant of how we ourselves wear Gestapo jackboots as we walk over minorities among us.

Recent studies based on genetics show that the Tamils and the Sinhalese are the same people. We share our greedy acquisitiveness for what does not belong to us.

Hilda Samuel

A recent incident of Hindu intolerance of Christians is like Sinhalese intolerance of Tamils. Hilda Samuel (aka Anto Handy), brought her sister Rani Eliezer’s and brother-in-law Prof. C. Jeyam Eliezer’s ashes for burial at St. James Nallur. She has also started a “Healing Centre” to help with disturbed persons. She rented a property for the Centre at the princely sum of Rs. 90,000 a month at 20 Stanley College Lane reflecting her generosity. Having moved in, she held a prayer meeting with Christian singing and was promptly asked by the landlord to vacate.

Improvements: Obviation of Boredom

Be that as it may, some good things are also happening although they exclude minorities such as offering holy ash to everyone coming to functions at a supposedly secular University of Jaffna. Last week saw the Medical Faculty Alumni having a two-day function with several of the proud faculty’s products turning up, including some of my friends. Then there was the Science Faculty’s 50^th anniversary bash. Of course, there was good food, and dramas and dances. We live off our expatriate brethren who presumably promote holy ashes by accepting them.

Nallur Kandasamy Temple Festival

It is also the season for the Nallur Festival. Unlike in previous years, the outgoing Municipal Commissioner seems to have brought severe restrictions. Gone is the raucous music from 4 am with no consideration for children nor for the non-religious and non-Hindu. Gone also is the phenomenon of those who cannot sing properly taking to loudspeakers and adding to the cacophony.

The outgoing Municipal Commissioner had also brought in so many restrictions in the neighbourhood of the temple that 17 enraged residents went to court. Especially galling to residents within the restricted area around the temple was how they were treated at the multiplicity of barriers. The sensible judge informed the litigants that by the time the case concludes the festival would be over. So he sent them for arbitration.

Arbitration did not work except that the new Commissioner is a little more flexible. Before restrictions are imposed there will be consultations between residents and the municipality with a diminished role for temple authorities. Many of the guards have been retrained to be more respectful and emergency numbers for complaints seem to be working. The Commissioner has agreed to a new gazette in 6 weeks which would then apply to next year’s festivities.

With the Nallur Festival good entertainment has come replacing the tone-deaf singing. Around Kittu Park Koothu is performed from 6 pm till at least 10.30 pm nightly– for example Kathavarayan Koothu. The story is relished by the lower castes. For, according to veteran folklorist A. Sivasubramanian (The Hindu, 31 July 2009) most  temples in rural areas had folk deities, who were generally slain Dalits. Among these, Madurai Veeran and Chinnathambi belonged to the Arunthathiar community and Kathavarayan was a Pulayar. Although Muthupattan, another folk deity, was a Brahmin, he married two Arunthathiar women. After most Vellalas fled Jaffna and the lower castes aspire to rise in caste, the crowds relish this Kathavarayan Kooththu. The festival is crowded like never before. Today on one trip outside I saw over 30 kavadi’s depicting our days of human sacrifice with a man suspended by hooks. When Vellala’s controlled the show their middleclass sensibilities would not let them be seen suspended like a cannibal’s food. Those days (1960s) we were lucky to see 2 or 3 kavadis during the whole festivsl, and these were the objects of kavadis by estate workers.

The Prof. Subramaniam Vithiananthan Lecture: Promoting Cynical Suck-ups

That improvement around the temple however has not shaken up the old order, marching like a juggernaut crushing minorities in its path. Society has a way of upholding the corrupt who rise in power. Whatever is alleged, the establishment carries on. And wider society is none the wiser. An example is a Jaffna University Council Member. It is alleged in the press that he runs orphanages for children and films them while they bathe. In Jaffna, so long as you hold a high position, people suck up to you and ignore even serious salacious allegations. For protecting the powerful is the path to gain and upliftment. This gentleman is a former principal of an A-grade school, university council member and Hindu leader who is usually seated on the stage at many public functions in Jaffna.

When serious allegations are raised against someone, however big, there is a need to look into them or the people will lose all respect for the system. When serious charges are ignored, society sucks up to the accused for gain while becoming more cynical at the same time of the system. Society is the loser. The person against whom allegations are made has an interest in having his name cleared and until then should keep a low profile to preserve the respect the system deserves. But not in Jaffna. This person gave the first speech at the Prof. S. Vananthan Memorial Lecture. Despite having an honourary doctorate from Jaffna, he was introduced as Dr. so and so in violation of academic norms. If a university cannot strictly uphold academic standards and feels constrained to suck up to big-wigs, there is little hope. What honour do real PhD-holders deserve if this man is called a doctor.

Prof. S. Vithianandan and Rt. Rev. Dr. S. Jebanesan

Prof. Subramaniam Vithiananthan was the first VC at Jaffna after it became a separate university, whereas earlier it was part of the University of Sri Lanka. Prof. Vithiananthan’s  wife Kamala is from the Kingsbury family, descended from C.W. Thamotharampillai’s third wife, specifically the Hassel family that has been crushed into disappearance by the Hindu Juggernaut that Jaffna is. The lecture itself was delivered by Bishop S. Jebanesan, in my view the most prolific “arts and humanities” person from Jaffna.

It is appropriate to say something of Bishop Jebanesan’s doctoral work. His supervisor was Prof. Kailasapathy the first President of Jaffna University. This role was taken over upon Kailasapathy’s demise by Prof. K. Sivathamby. The two, with western doctoral theses of their own, were fair-minded and open to the missionary contribution to Jaffna that was examined by Jebanesan’s  doctoral thesis.

Unfortunately, Dr. Poologasingham of Peradeniya who once was very liberal and wrote in his book that Arumuka Navalar in his youth was a Christian by the name of Pairaat who went to India to study conversion methods that he could use. However, Dr. Poologasingham suddenly did a volte face and insisted that Jebanesan should remove from his thesis certain sections vitiating many of the bald claims of Jaffna’s greatness before the thesis could be accepted. It was Vithianandan who vocally worked against  Poolohasingham’s position enabling the acceptance of Bishop Jebanesan’s work detailing the numerous positive contributions of the missionaries. Rt. Rev. Dr. Jebanesan’s speech is on record as a booklet and may be consulted by the more interested.

Savithiri Sathiyavan

It was refreshing to be reminded at the lecture of the Savithiri Sathiyavan story that I had learnt at lower school. It bears similarities to the Kathavarayan story. An all-male caste acted in the kooththu. The best role was played by a young man who superbly rendered the scene where Sathiyavan proposes to Savithiri as she acted the demure and shy damsel.

Jaffna has hope. To be liberated, Jaffna folk must fight for the rights of everyone, not just their own. The hypocrisy must go.