By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

The Rising Hand of Religious Domination

I had come to the US for my grandson Thoma’s baptism in May and some medical developments forced me to stay back. Finally, when my doctors consented to my going home for 5 weeks, I was forced by some new developments that constrained me to enter emergency services at Kalubowila Colombo South Hospital on my arrival. It was excellent service in crowded conditions that kept service-oriented doctors on their toes. Many of us shared two to a single-bed while others slept under the bed. Food was excellent and the fare even included full-boiled eggs. As patients were cured and discharged, others immediately took their place.

A Buddhist monk, perhaps 40 years old, was discharged. He did not go away. He stayed hogging his bed, and getting free meals. This is the point I make. Where in the world does a majority controlling the reins of power and the nation’s purse strings, free-load like this, taking resources away from the poor? Hindus, Muslims and Christians feed their clergy. But Buddhists seem intent on using their political power to take state resources, refusing to feed their own monks. I call it shamelessness.

After discharge we went to Matara to pay my respects to Dr. H.H.J. Keerthisena, one of the few non-communal lecturer-colleagues at Peradeniya and my boss in Ruhuna who stints no words in praising my contributions in founding Ruhuna’s Engineering Faculty. From there we went to Batticaloa to meet Jesuit Father Joe Mary who helped identify the truly needy. In addition, Joe Mary took us to the home for the elders run by the Little Sisters of the Poor who kept their largely Hindu and some Christian inmates to their end. I was amazed that international charities like theirs could staff their work with a multinational workforce. They were funded on this trip by generous donations from my relations and former students.

On 4 Feb. 2025 I had arranged to distribute grocery packs through former MP Shanthi Sriskantharajah to the very poor and destitute at her Olirum Vaalvu Illam in Thunukkai. But on that day, there was a five-district hartal forcing people to gather at Mullaitivu to protest against the 4000 acres from an old gazette being given to Mahaweli authorities. Proceeding with the ceremony would have raised hackles as it would have been seen as our celebrating Independence Day leading to loss of community support. So we moved it to 3 Feb. but key people could not come as they had no leave. Dr. Siva Haran, my dear old Johnian Applied Maths teacher’s son, a donor who is an oncologist in New York, helped oversee the distribution.

We found that at our next stop Thiriyai North of Trinco a lot of aid had been received after the floods and we took a decision to keep the money for another day. As a result, from Olirum Vaalvu we went to Mannar.

It was a sad day in Mannar. In July 2017 after a visit to the Portuguese Fort, I wrote of how human traffic was wasting away our heritage. People walked over the brass tablets which were readable 8 years ago, but no longer so now.

Hindus who cry foul when their lands are taken over, care two-hoots when Christian heritage is taken over by Hindus, and vitiated and crushed.

The archaeologists restoring seem untrained. They have put nice grey cement over the old stone- and brasswork, making us lose sight of what the majestic fort actually looked like.

As I pointed out 8 years ago in Colombo Telegraph in that same article, Changiliyan’s palace entrance lay pockmarked with shrapnel and ready to collapse. The magnificent park in front of St. James’Nallur planted with teak up to the Kachcheri by the Dutch Governor for his walk from his mansion to the Kachcheri was encroached by Hindus to build a temple while the PLOTE and the LTTE chopped down the trees for their armaments.

When I was about 10 years old there was a foot high shrine by the side of the road. Today it has grown into the park as a huge building, ever growing in size. It now belongs to chaami! – Hindus object only when Buddhists take over crown land and are blind to the takeover of crown land for chaami!

Today I see some restoration work going on but like in Mannar with liberal daubing of grey cement.

Another glaring example is the Nallur Temple between the Kandasamy Temple and god’s bathing pool. Up to my OLs, Point Pedro Road ran between the temple and bathing pool (theerthang kerni). Now Pont Pedro Road bypasses the pool and the original Point Road is part of the temple. Since the temple is private, whom does the taken over land belong to now? There is no transparency or accountability.

Such land grabbing is not only of state land. At Nayanmaarkattu, a friend’s land has been taken over to build a library over his objections. Electricity has been authorized by those like CVK Sivagnanam and Emmanuel Arnold while running the Municipal Council for crooked purposes. Former Municipal Accountant Rajaratnam readily testifies to the crooked goings on at JMC. My friend getting his land back will be difficult since tuition classes are run from the library – just like how my own land in Iluppaikadavai in Mannar District was taken over for a road to a temple cutting my 10 acre plot into two, saying it is for chaami!

The entrance to Chemmany Road has an arch with one of its two feet on my friend’s land. That land at the A9-Chemmany Road junction has had different politicians planning a petrol shed on it.

Hindus are as crooked as the Buddhists. I would like one Hindu to speak up loudly about the obverse side of Buddhist land grabbing. I am yet to see one.

While we Tamils do not seem to care at all about our heritage, the Muslims have a deep sense of culture and the importance of preserving it for posterity.

To the Muslims’ credit, the Heritage Museum in Kattankudy, about 5 km south of Batticaloa, is a four-storey institution dedicated to the history and culture of Sri Lankan Moors, through former Eastern Provincial Councilor M.L.A.M. Hisbullah’s efforts. It is clean without dirty infectious betel spit everywhere like the Nallur Temple at festval time. It houses over 1,500 artifacts, showcasing the community’s, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history. We Tamils have nothing to show-case because we lack power of any kind and are too busy trying illegally to go abroad.

The Sinhalese seem intent on destroying anything that remains of Christian heritage. There is a strong case of devolving and sharing power in archaeology preservation – I trust neither the Buddhists nor the Hindus to do an honest job without oversight.

The Anglican church staffed by largely ill-educated lower-caste priests is incapable of providing leadership. When the ill-educated depressed community members are put in power, they feel compelled to show off the education they do not have.

I have lived in the St. James’ Mission House (the former Governor’s Mansion) for several years and can attest that there is no platform where the Sivalingam was housed. From the Mission House there is a doorway to St. James’ Church and on the Mission House side there is a foot by foot, 2-foot high platform. My father used to sit there for 10-15 minutes before divine mass in prayerful preparation prior to entering the Vestry to “Vest himself for Mass.” His garments—specifically the alb, stole, and chasuble—signify their role as a representative of Christ. Specific, traditional prayers were recited by him while kissing and putting on each item to prepare for the liturgy. Pilimatalawa graduates know nothing of these simple blessed rituals.

This show-off priest, J. Gnanakarunyan, in an interview to Wikipedia (which requires no authentication) has bombastically stated that the platform is the seat of Sivalingam in the Church. He is therefore now widely cited as a liberal-minded, trusted historian who takes no parochial stand.

The Karaiyar Bishops seem to gain much by bringing down the Vellala order through such priests. Little of the Vellala order now remains. The once predominantly Vellala St. James’s now has two Hoole families (three before I left the Anglican Church because it is lawless) and perhaps 2 more Vellala families. What remains is a Paraiya-Fisher parish.

When I wrote a history of the parish, the book was given by the next vicar to a “Director of Education” of the fisher-caste who maligned it so badly that the book cannot be shown to anyone bringing respect to us. My name as author was taking off, giving him the entire credit. He bought himself a Rs. 30,0009 doctorate ass I learnt later.

A day was initiated to recognize the achievements of those who got doctorates at the parish and I was asked to give out the prizes. To my shame, I discovered too late that the doctorates were bought for Rs. 30,000. Such is the nature of St. James’ education.

Bishop Dushantha Rodrigo with his Parava-fishing background, made P. Selvan the venerable archdeacon of Jaffna. In his sermons, despite his claims to a doctorate from Peradeniya without a UGC-recognised first degree, Selvan preached that we started schools to force conversion so we should say sorry to Hindus; and that until the missionaries came, there was religious amity. He had obviously not heard of Tamil poetry that the water from Vishnu’s back after his lavatory ablutions was fit only for Siva’s drinking. The polite phrase used is water from washing his feet (as in the clean phrase to a visitor when father is in the toilet and we say he would come soon as he is washing his feet).

So heated was the controversy between Saivites and Vaishnavites that Arumuga Navalar frequently entered into fisticuffs with Vaishnava teachers and their disciples in Kumbakonam (Hellmann-Rajanayagam1989). Obviously, Selvan’s Peradeniya doctoral studies did not cover the story recorded by Nambi Andar Nambi (Stanzas 59 and 74), of the saint Sambandar ordering the execution by impalement of 8000 Jains towards the close of the last millennium (Jesudason 1961; p.79). Kingsbury and Phillips (1921, p. 11) also describe this incident and state that these Jains who were killed were Jain-teachers (1921, p. 29). Nilkanta Sastri (1958, p. 413) and Majumdar (1960, p. 430) also list this incident, alluding to the festival at the great Madurai temple commemorating to this day ‘this gruesome’ event through paintings. During this period many Buddhist shrines and viharas were turned to Hindu use (Sastri, 1958, pp. 422–423).

At Nallur St. James’ Church the over 90% Paraya-Karaiyar members (mostly women) who rarely read, gleefully swallow Selvan’s stories which make us sound liberal. These stories are fodder for the Siva Senai that wants a Babri Masjid of St. James – that is burn down St. James’ and build in its place a Hindu temple.

Legal niceties seem not to matter to the Bishop or the uneducated clergy and membership. After Changili’s bother’s son, a Catholic, ruled Jaffna and was treacherously murdered and Changili killed his own two sons for turning Christian, the grieving queen bequeathed the land on which St. James’ stands to the Church. It was named “Our Lady of Victories.” Subsequently the Hindu Raja of Tanjore gave generous assistance, and on 8th May, 1614, the foundation of the new church of Our Lady of Victories was laid.

In the meantime, a certain Father Fray Francisco had come from Cochin bringing with him a log on which he had begun to carve an image of his patron Saint Antonio. He now decided to convert it into an image of the Lady of Victory and entrusted it to an artist named Anakutti. Many days had not passed before rumours spread claiming miraculous powers for the carving. The Fathers therefore removed the Image to church on 24 July 1614. The name of the church was changed to Our Lady of Miracles. This is todays’ St. James’.

Archdeacon Selvan with little intellectual training has been hosting The Jaffna District Inter-Religious Council (JIRC), which includes leaders from Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic faiths, actively working towards wwhat they call peace and unity, frequently hosting conferences in the city. A major Inter-Religious Conference aiming to strengthen national unity was held on 4 October, 2025, in Jaffna, at St. James’ Church. Some of the key attendees were from the Sivasenai.

Lakmal Harischandra has reported Hindus in Trincomalee forbidding a Muslim teacher from wearing her Abhaya. It was widely reported that Siva Senai and some disgruntled Tamil politicians were involved in this case. He reports the case of the leader of Siva Senai making another commotion about cattle slaughter in Chavakachcheri. In speaking to a little known TV station, he asserted that if Muslims cannot fall in line with the lifestyles of the majority – the Buddhists and Hindus – then they must leave.

The Sivasenai can never understand peace! The right to eat meat is still prohibited near the Nallur temple. A beef stall in Vaddukottai was forcibly closed by those who eat meat! But nearly all of them are carnivorous on selected days, that being the lifestyle of the Hindu majority.

What right did Selvan have to host the horrible, murderous, Sivasenai at church serving food when it was advocating the destruction of St. James’? And why not serve meat at the meetings to meat eating Christians at these inter-religious meetings? Is St. James’ already Babri Masjid by the orders of Selvan and the Siva Senai?

Worse was the Nallur Vicar inviting Professor K.T. Ganeshalingam of Jaffna University’s political science department to preach from inside the church which is prohibited. He abused a 13-year old child left with him by his wife “to look after his needs” when she went off on pilgrimage to India and was saved from the Police and women’s groups by the LTTE because of his service to Pongu Tamil. Ganeshalingam preaches on women’s rights and child-rights!

From which dregs of society do our Bishops pick priests to serve over us? In Jaffna all but one of the serving priests are lower in the social order, as if the Bishops assume that the lower-castes are intrinsically good people – recall, “blessed are the poor” – whereas the Vellalas can also be good. However, Father Stephen Jebachelvan, the only Vellala Anglican priest and national university (Peradeniya) graduate in the North, is bypassed for all appointments as if the Bishops assume that Vellalas are bad people.

In fact valuable cemetery land has been stolen and Archdeacon Selvan will not permit a discussion at the Warden’s meeting, acceding to the wishes of a Paraya Warden who wants no discussion. He has blocked the original cemetery plan being requested from the diocesan office. What Selvan refused to request, Warden Ponnuthurai has obtained by personal request proving the theft.

How high does the corruption go in this caste nexus from Bishop down? At Diocesan Council, the Bishop assuredly will limit discussion through his “5-minute rule”, and “no names” rule,” just as he has limited discussion on how oak trees were felled on diocesan precincts and removed by church high-ups. The church is dirty-corrupt! Fr. Celestine Fernando’s son has spilt the beans many times but no one listens.

The new incumbent at St. James’ as of 1 January, The Ven. Phillip Nesakumar, goes as Vellala but many things including arranged marriages contracted by his family, his thefts like ordering goods for the Nuffield School fraudulently signing as Principal, his land transactions and buying a stolen car confiscated by the police when he drove in it to Jaffna, all call his caste into question.

He has claimed that all who accused him of doing bad are now being punished by God through sickness and death as God showed him when he prayed. One is dead and another dying as God showed him, he told Samson Ponnuthurai.

At a recent birthday party for teenager Benjamin Chevan Ponnuthurai, one who sees through Nesakumar arrived early and was seated in the hall where the cake and seats were arranged. Nesakumar came late and refused to go in. He mumbled some prayers from the verandah that no one inside could hear and ran away without blessing the cake or awaiting its cutting. As he explained to Samson Ponnuthurai the next day, if he had gone in, he would have been impelled – compelled – to assault his detractor. Poor Banjamin had no priestly blessing without which he cut and served his cake himself.

Such is the calibre of Anglican Priests honored by archdeaconships while many embezzlers and womanisers are forgiven, sent abroad on doctoral scholarship and made Archdeacon. There is no forgiveness for those who expose bad priests. The prayers offered by the Bishop’s priests for those who expose sacerdotal wickedness are curses invoking sickness and death for them as Nesakumar admitted to Ponnuthurai.

What a church! Only fools will suffer the Bishop and his priests. The Anglican Colombo Diocese has become its own biggest enemy. The wise would walk out of the church. As God speaks to us in King James Bible: “I will not sit with the wicked.” That is God’s advice to us. We do not receive from the like. Should we even receive communion from the hands of priests like Nesakumar who invoke death and sickness if we criticise them?

The more we pretend there is no caste, it will finish us off. Beware!