19 March, 2024

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The Curse Of Caste

By Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan

Prof. Charles Sarvan

No, I shall weave no tracery of pen-ornament […]

But let the wrong cry out as raw as wounds 

This time forgets and never heals, far less transcends. ~ (Stephen Spender. 1909 – 1995)

The curse of caste: Sujatha Gidla, Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India, London, 2018

A euphemism is defined as “as a noun or phrase substituted for one considered offensive or hurtful, especially one concerned with religion, sex, death or excreta.” In certain circumstances, to try to avoid causing embarrassment or pain is laudable but the other side of euphemism is that it can help minimise; distort and even hide reality: see Spender’s refusal above. To substitute the word “worker” or “helper” for “servant” might ease the employing-class but not necessarily the life of the employed. The word “untouchable” is thought to be insulting and cruel (see also “coolie” etc.) and the term “Dalit” is substituted but Gidla herself uses “untouchable”. An ant (see title), however intelligent, principled and hard-working remains an ant, and is heedlessly crushed. See the novel, Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand, and Arundhati Roy’s justly famous The God of Small Things. Taking creative liberties with the English language, Roy refers to the upper castes with the opposite of “untouchable”: “touchable”. I may add that untouchable women become touchable when they are raped or gang-raped by those of the upper castes. (The Buddha preached that nobility is not by birth, be it into a family, class, ethnic group or religion, but is individually achieved through character, conduct and contribution: something as much piously proclaimed in Sri Lanka as it’s violated in practice.)

Every human life is a potential story. However, a life becomes a story only when it’s narrated, as in this record. Ants Among Elephants is a family chronicle but since that family consisted of untouchables, it is inescapably an indictment of caste: “Because your life is your caste, your caste is your life.” However, Gidla’s life is not typical of untouchables. Her parents were educated, and she herself obtained the M.Sc. in Physics from Warangal. Having worked on a project funded by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, she moved to the USA at the age of twenty-six. Her sister, also in the United States, is a medical doctor, and her brother in Canada is an engineer. Biographical information tells us that during her second year at Warangal, Gidla participated in a strike (the only female to do so) against an upper-caste professor in the Engineering department who was deliberately failing students from the lower castes. She was detained for three months; tortured and contracted tuberculosis. Gidla researched this book for over fifteen years, making three trips to India. Writing on her family, Gidla reaches back into the past and records how things were: I give some examples below, without arranging them for importance. Hopefully, conditions are much better now.

The untouchables are associated with two creatures: the crow for its blackness (see the relation between skin-colour, strict endogamy and caste) and the pig for its “foulness”: Gidla, page 165. The untouchable is like the pig which sees the sky for the first time only at the end of life when it is spread-eagled for the knife (page 167). The buffaloes of untouchables were (are?) not allowed to graze on the same meadows as the buffaloes of the “touchables” (page 23). “Under the vetti system, every untouchable family in every village had to give up their first male child” to the “dora” to work as a slave until death. “O brother and sister, mother and father, this is no folktale set in a distant past. It was real life in Telangana in 1947” (page 45). “The impoverishment of his subjects was the source of the Nizam’s riches…The gardens and monuments, the learning and the fine arts, the banquets and moonlit dances – all that delighted the senses and elevated the spirits… required the suffering and degradation of millions” (page 47). His paramilitary subjected “whole villages to orgies of murder, torture, looting, arson and rape. They especially liked to stab a man in the rectum with a long sword, twist it around inside him, and pull it out with such force that his guts fell out in a heap” (page 54): I apologise for these deeply distressing details. To secure that essential, water, the untouchables had to walk several miles to sources permitted to them: compare Thomas Laqueur’s article, ‘Lynched for drinking from a white man’s well’ in the London Review of Books, 11 October 2018, pages 11-15. Their huts, made of mud, are pitifully vulnerable to the monsoon rains. It’s the women who do the work of removing excreta from latrines. “Their tools are nothing but a small broom and a tin plate. With these, they fill their palm-leaf baskets with excrement and carry it off on their heads… Some modernised areas have replaced these baskets with pushcarts (this being what’s thought of as progress in India), but even today the traditional ‘head-loading’ method prevails across the country… As their brooms wear down, they have to bend their backs lower and lower to sweep. Then their baskets start to leak, the shit drips down their faces… Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are endemic among them” (page 122). “I grew up in the untouchable slum of Elwin Peta in Kakinda. All around me was abject poverty. When you are surrounded by so much misery, you don’t see it as anything extraordinary” (Gidla, page 327). Indeed, one wouldn’t be able to survive, day after day, if one did. Ground into abject poverty, despairing and desperate, the men turn brutally violent on their women, even on their children. Conversion to Christianity or joining the Left parties does not help: caste pursues the untouchable even there. Gidla’s book records and bears testimony, and the latter is done through detail, factually, and all the more moving and convincing for it.

Appendix

For caste in Sri Lanka see, among others, Udeshika Jayasekara’s study of six villages in the Matara District, Colombo Telegraph, 11 January 2019 and my comment on K. Daniel’s Caste in Jaffna: Mirage, Colombo Telegraph, 14 July 2017. I quote from the latter:

“There’s no doubt that those Sinhalese incurably infected with ugly racism will gleefully grab this novel as a bludgeon with which to beat the Tamils, pretending to a moral outrage and a compassion of which they are completely devoid. To change the metaphor, casteism among Tamils can be used as a red herring to divert attention away from their racist acts.” Of the thousands of innocent civilians who died at the end of the Eelam War, surely there were also those of the so-called low castes? On the other hand, I also wrote: Tamils who don’t protest Tamil casteism in Sri Lanka lose the moral right to protest Sinhalese racism. (Italics in the original.)

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  • 16
    26

    Demala people ‘KNOW YOUR REAL ENEMY’
    ————-
    Low caste Demala people took part in the terrorist campaign against Sinhalayo because they were brainwashed by Wellala elite Demala politicians who portrayed Sinhalayo as their enemy whereas their real enemy is elite Wellala Demalu who dominate the Demala society and oppress them.
    ———
    About 80% of land in Yapanaya are owned by Wellala Demalu who comprise only about 30% of the people. Most of these land owners are absentee landlords who enjoy a comfortable life in Colombo or in a Greener Pasture. They use a customary law brought to this country from Malabar called ‘Thesawalamei’ to keep land within themselves.
    Instead of wasting their lives fighting against Sinhalayo who do not discriminate Demala people based on caste or on any other ground, the low caste people should have fought against their real enemy WELLALA DEMALU.

    • 25
      7

      Low Class sinhalayasa of MAHINDAPALA nature were gone history of srilanka.
      :
      In my Childhood, dobies (laundry men ) went to place to place in every village in order to collect dirty linen of us. There our elders treated them with unbelievable disresect. Not even a normal chair was offered ot them, when asking to sit down. Howwever, Mahindapala aka Eagle Eye as a man in his early 80ties today should be able to relinquish the stuff since the years ahead of him is numbered. We are all human beings, we must not harbour hatreds all what we experienced in this life.
      :
      I wish you a MAHINDAPALA aka EE from Down Under – sooner recovery !

      • 16
        1

        Is wijadass a name synonymus with the dhoby caste

      • 6
        7

        Simon De Silva,
        No more dobies. Now Govigama people run laundries.

        • 1
          0

          EE
          Do they wash the clothes?

    • 5
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      Eagle Eye
      According to a recent article ‘Ravana’s language & his social order’ which appeared in Colombo Telegraph, Vellalla are people from a mixture of Kallars (cattle thieves) and Maravars (soldiers) after the invasion of Kalaprars to the Tamilaham (consisting of Tamil Nadu and Kerala). Prior to that i.e. during the Vedic period there were four Varnams who have never shown any differences. Actually this casteism is a curse for any development. According to original Hinduism caste system was unknown.

    • 7
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      Eagle Eye,
      Malabar people are people from Kerala. Jaffna people consist of people from Ramnad District, Vethariniyam from Tamil Nadu while a few from the Nair community and the fisher folk from Kerala. The customs and cultures of the people of Kerala & Jaffna appears to be similar. I shall be pleased if someone writes the history of the people of Jaffna.

      • 9
        4

        Most Jaffna/Sri LankanTamil people are descended from the indigenous Naga , with some admixture from present day Kerala and Tamil Nadu but this is little. Unlike the Sinhalese who are largely descended from South Indians, the Sri Lankan Tamils are not. This is why the present day Sinhalese share a 70% DNA with South Indians( Indian Tamils) but the Sri Lankan Tamils only 17% DNA with South Indians( Indian Tamils) , as most of the invasions and immigration from South India were concentrated on the so called Sinhalese south and not on the Tamil north and east. The Sri Lankan Tamils also have a marginally higher percentage of North Indian ancestry , than the Sinhalese who claim a North Indian ancestry. 30% DNA in common with Bengali and North East India , compared to 25% DNA that the Sinhalese share. The reason why the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Sinhalese have similar customs and culture to the people of Kerala , especially the cuisine , is prehistorically all these people are the same. Due to various invasions, immigrations and introduction of new religions, new ethnicities were created from the original eastern Chera/Naga Tamil base. Sinhalese in the south of Sri Lanka and Malyalee in modern day Kerala. The island as well as modern day Kerala were all at one time , part of ancient Thamilakam( the land of the Tamils) Chera( Kerala) Chola, Pandian, Eelzham or Chingkallam . One of the ancient Tamil name for the island was CheranTheevu , from which the word Serendib originated. Cheran is a another name in Tamil for Naga. This is why ancient Kerala was known as Chera Nadu, meaning the land of the Naga.

        • 1
          5

          “ancient Thamilakam”
          Where was it?
          There were three powerful kingdoms as well as the Pallavas who ruled in the northern Tamil speaking territory.
          Linguistically the Chera dialect deviated from standard Tamil many centuries ago.
          There was no Tamil kingdom or any other state structure called “Thamilakam”.

          • 4
            0

            here was no Tamil kingdom called Thamilakam but these lands were collectively known as ancient Thamilakam or Thamil lands and you know this. As for the language of Kerala the local dialect of Tamil may have deviated from standard Tamils , but it was still a form of Tamil written in the Tamil script and considered a dialect of Tamil . This was called Malayalama or Malabar Tamul and was the language of the vast majority of Kerala’s population (85%), until the British at the behest of their Nambothiri and Nair allies banned the use of this language in the 1820s and made the highly Sanskritised dialect of the Namboothiri immigrants , called Grantham or Grantha Bhasha , written in the Tulu based Tilgari script as the official language of Kerala and cunningly renamed this dialect as Malayalam added more Dravidian( Tamil words to this dialect). The dictionary published by Graham Shaw for Kerala in 1785 was a Tamil /English dictionary. The powerful Syrian Christian church in Kerala was still using Tamil , until they were forced to change in the 1820. The first book printed in the east in 1578 ” Doctrina Christianity was in Tamil or Malabar Tamul. ,as the Tamil language was called in Kerala. You have very little knowledge of anything but come here posting garbage in defence of Sinhalese racist and Muslim opportunists .

            http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101407670300.htm

            satisfied.

            • 4
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              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamilakam

              ancient Tamilakam. I acknowledge one mistake forgot to mention the important northern Pallava kingdom

              • 0
                1

                Can you (without your usual flights of fantasy) expand on the origin of the Pallavas?

            • 0
              1

              “You have very little knowledge of anything but come here posting garbage in defence of Sinhalese racist and Muslim opportunists .”
              Garbage knows garbage as in “paampin kaal paampaRiyum”.
              However, nobody here is a match to you for volume and venom of drivel.
              *
              The concept of Thamilakam did not exist at the time of any ‘Tamil’ kingdom or empire. It is a subsequent ethno-political term.
              As for the history of Malayalam, there is plenty in the print and electronic media, that you choose to ignore.

        • 4
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          Siva Shankaran Sharma,

          The Para-Tamils and Para-Sinhala are from Southern India with a sprinkling from Eastern and Western India, their Para-Homeland, per Genetics paper published in Nature Genetics.

          Only the the Native Veddah Aethho are the Native original inhabitants of the land.

          When will the Paras get back to their Homeland Bharat?

          • 3
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            I basically agree with you and this includes the Para-Sri Lankan Muslims too but it they arrived from the South Indian homeland at various time in history. Some prehistoric, others ancient to medieval times and many quiet recent and now claiming to be of Aryan and Arab heritage and stating the ones who descended from the Paras who arrived from South India from prehistoric to ancient times , still speaking the same language , practising the same ancient religion and followin the same customs, do not belong to the island but just them, in the name of Sinhalese Buddhist Fascism and recently imported Gulf Arab Wahhabism.

            • 0
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              What ancient religion they practice? What customs and culture they follow? Can you elaborate and give what they are from your Australoid history book?

          • 0
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            Amarasiri At first ask that question from yourself

            • 1
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              Ranjith(SPRRW)
              The Failed Sorcerer

              “Amarasiri At first ask that question from yourself”

              He has a valid question. Please answer him while I will deal with him myself as to his return.

          • 1
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            Amarasiri is another Tamil wannabe Vaedda. He has taken a Sinhalese name too. Tamils really have problems….
            Please understand that Sinhalese are as indigenous to this island as the Vaeddas. Vaeddas ofcourse are the only remaining original tribe here. Sinhalese are not the original inhabitants of the island, since the Vaeddas predates the Sinhalese. But that doesn’t make the Sinhalese any less indigenous to this island, since this island is where the Sinhalese became a people and a nation, from the primitive original tribes of the island, which included also the Vaeddas, as genetic studies show. (NB! Tamils do not share a single Vaedda specific haplotype with the Vaeddas, as the study you keep posting shows – “ highest number of haplotype sharing was found between Vedda with Up-country Sinhalese and with Lowcountry Sinhalese. On the other hand, there was no haplotype sharing between the Vedda people with any of the Tamils “). The Sinhalese language evolved here. You don’t find Sinhalese anywhere else, just as much you don’t find Vaeddas anywhere else.

            So please stop calling the Sinhalese paras and for that the Tamils too, because that kind of talk doesn’t fit anywhere and you are not proving any point either except that you really do not have a valid point at all. You are trying to negate the indigeneity of the Sinhalese by equating the Sinhalese with the Tamils, who are an immigrant community. Sinhalese are obviously paras to you since you are obviously a Tamil. By the way – it is not Veddah Aettho – its Vaedda or Vanniyela Aeththo – aeththo means people or persons. We know you cannot pronounce the “ae” sound which is found only in Sinhalese and the Vaedda languages and not found in the Tamil language – so you are excused.

            • 2
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              Punchi Point
              Punchi Brain
              Punchi Willi

              “Amarasiri is another Tamil wannabe Vaedda. He has taken a Sinhalese name too. “

              No kidding!!

              You should seriously consider spending some time in a forest monastery.
              Are the Sinhalese capable of taking many manifestations in order to fit the circumstances and already popularised myths?

              Please give us a summary of all your claims, ….. such as the one being related to the Ten Head Ravana a Siva Devotee and composer of Kambhoji Raga (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU4LCK0HmOY) and an Expert player of Veena, Sinhala language is older than Hebrew, Achchige Patali Champika Ranawaka’s ancestors discovered ZERO, arrived from Gujrat, Sinhapurians from Lata land, Mohenjo-darian, ………………… Sinha Le, a cross between a beast and a beauty, …………. Helas of Hela province of Papua New Guinea, …..

              Please make up your mind.

        • 8
          6

          Siva Sankaran Sharma,

          “but the Sri Lankan Tamils only 17% DNA with South Indians”

          So said Sri Lankan Tamils only share 17% of South Indian DNA, but they are so privileged to share 99% of South Indian culture, tradition, language etc., etc. Brother, tell that to Marines, sailors won’t buy that..ha..ha..

          • 7
            3

            Not only the Sri Lankan Tamils but the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Muslims share 99% of South Indian culture, and this is the basis of most modern culture. Posting under a fake Muslim Identity does not fool me , as I know that you are a Sinhalese Buddhist Fascist, deliberately posting anti Tamil statements under a Muslim identity

            • 1
              1

              What if someone suggests that you are an emotionally disturbed Dalit posing off as a Brahmin and demands evidence of Brahmin DNA in you?
              *
              Grow up, and learn to respond to views rather than resorting to personal abuse.

          • 0
            0

            Abdul Kader. J

            “So said Sri Lankan Tamils only share 17% of South Indian DNA,”

            Who said they share 17% of South Indian DNA?
            Tamils share 74% of South Indian DNA while Sinhalese share 76% of the same DNA. Whether both share South Indian DNA or not, both of their ancestors were undoubtedly kallthinies from South India.

            “but they are so privileged to share 99% of South Indian culture, tradition, language etc., etc. “

            It appears Sinhalese are also privileged to share 99% of South Indian culture, tradition, language, religion, food, caste, stupidity, ………………………..

            Now what seems to be your problem?

            • 0
              0

              Native Vedda,

              “Who said they share 17% of South Indian DNA?”

              So you usually don’t check a comment is addressed to whom, and on what subject? CTRL+F to invoke find, copy/paste “17%” and start to find wherever that is written.

        • 0
          0

          Dear Siva Sankaran Sharma,
          .
          You sound sane and objective, and I’m convinced that most Sinhalese are predominantly of Dravidian origin.
          .
          However, can the figures for “Tamils” be so different?
          .
          I’d like us all to get over these silly obsessions and live as decent human beings!

      • 1
        0

        Roy
        You are mixing up people brought here by the British to work on the Railways and later the plantations.
        Malayali immigration under the British was for urban jobs including the Dockyard and the Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills.
        Trade links between Kerala and the island as a whole were historically strong. A number of Sinhala surnames suggest Malayala origin if not Tamil origin. Many owners of such name agree, at least in private, on their South Indian ancestry.
        Nobody can write he history of any ethnic group here as each is comprises a thoroughly mixed lot. While there are some cultural and linguistic commonalities between Jaffna and Kerala, their ‘Hindu’ religions are very different. Also, the strong Muslim and (Syrian and RC) Christian presence in Kerala made no serious impact on Jaffna.

        • 4
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          SJ
          I am talking about the Tamils before the arrival of the Westerners (Portuguese, Dutch & British). Even some names like Karunakaran, Rajendran, Kesava, Pradeep, etc are common in Kerala. The traditions of Kerala – food and marriage – and Jaffna are similar.

          • 0
            0

            The names you list are common to Tamilnady as well. Some of them are of recent origin. Kesava, Pradeep, etc. were not known in Jaffna two generations ago.
            Food items: Pittu is referred to in ancient Tamil literature. They use coconut more than in Tamilnadu because of availability.
            With trade flourishing alien food items enter the cuisine of any people. There is a lot from Java that entered the Sri Lankan cuisine.
            The Malayali wedding is far more like a Sinhala wedding.

            • 1
              0

              No they are not , they vary . The Hindu weddings are very simple but there is more similarity to a Tamil Hindu wedding but the real ceremony takes only a few minutes. There is no priest . The Bride enters the Manavarai, and the Groom ties the Thali and then they walk round the fire thrice. This is a typical Nair wedding . The Namboothiri Brahmin weddings are more elaborate. The Nambiar weddings are slightly different. Similarly so are the Christian weddings. The Roman Catholic weddings are very similar to the usual Roman Catholic wedding but the Syrian Christian or Nasrani weddings have a lot of Hindu customs , and are more elaborate. They have a lot of oil lamps in their churches , just like the Hindus. The Bride sometimes even wears a red saree. Again amongst the Syrian Christians the Kananiya Syrian Christians( Jewish converts to Christianity) weddings have Jewish customs mixed into it. Mappila Muslim wedding are again very different. They have a lot of traditional sons and dance called Opanah ( Opanai in Tamil) that is part of the wedding ceremony . Ethnic Tamil Brahmins from the Pallakadu region , have typical Tamil Brahmin weddings. Like I stated you have very little knowledge but pretend to know a lot and post a lot of garbage contradicting others to prove you are some sort of intellectual. I have first cousins who are from Kerala, as one of my aunties married a Malayali, they are Menons and I have been to Kerala many times and even attended their weddings. The customs and culture of the people of Kerala is quite familiar to me.

              • 0
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                This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2

              • 0
                0

                This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2

              • 0
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                You had been in many countries including West Far East and most of the States in India. So am I not correct calling you an Australoid Crow? Crows spread everywhere.

    • 9
      2

      Sinhalese calling out casteism among the Tamils – that pot calling kettle black moment!
      By the way, vellalar is the Tamil equivalent of Sinhala govigama. Just like the vellalar among the Tamils, govigama caste has the hegemony over politics among the Sinhalese.

    • 2
      4

      Prof. Charles Sarvan,

      Thanks for the article on the caste discrimination in India, the Homeland of the Paras who came Illegally, and brought with them, the cursed caste system and Hinduism, to the Land of Native Vedfah Aethho. Unfortunately, even pristine Buddhism was modified to be Para-Sinhala Para-“Buddhism”, that allowed the Para-Sinhala to practice castism.

      The caste system among the Tamils is worse, aided and abetted by Hinduism, and there is caste discrimination among the Para-Sinhala as well, contrary to Buddhism.

      The Paras in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho, really belong in India, where they can practice their castism culture in the ceasoool of Baharat.

      • 5
        1

        Amarasiri,
        Do not blame Hinduism for practising caste system. Even in the Native Vedda period Ravana was supposed to be a strong Lord Shiva devotee. I read in the article ‘Ravana’s language & his social order’ – it is the Brahmins who were instrumental for this caste system. I have my suspicion whether today’s brahmin priests in Jaffna know Sanskrit, other than spreading their shawl for collecting money (Thatchanai) after their poojas. I think this caste system is a man-made one. Some one should write about Hinduism so that we could know the essence of it.

  • 15
    9

    Being someone from a High caste, I would always think caste plays an important role in shaping a man’s character. For example, if one visits the Welikada prison or the Bogambara prison and interview the prisoners, one would find that many inmates inside that prison are low caste fellas.

    I once was part of an SL Army team that provided security within the Welikada prison. Although the stint lasted only for a few weeks, I got to know whose who inside the prison. Most were either slum dwellers, minorities (Tamils who committed Sinhala killings or Muslim Narcotic smugglers) or people of low caste rif-rafs.

    Having said that I am also very impressed and I salute those low caste people, who overcome social barriers and become accomplished individuals. One such hero, I strongly admire is Bharat Ratna Dr. B.A Ambedkar who was born an untouchable and who overcame immense social prejudice and extreme poverty to become one of the most learned men of Asia.

    • 7
      0

      I thought we dont have such CASTE barriers now in SL.
      Anyways, from the surnames pop up in the TV, I wonder where all those new surname come from.
      I always hate the manner my parents and relatives treated those low caste people.
      :
      I would not respect anyone that yet today, are proud of being belong to a high caste.
      :
      At the Pera and anywhere I had the chance mingle up with ones coming from various walks of lanka, I noticed, what matters is the health upbringing by edcuated parents.
      :
      Perera, I don t think you could be right saying that only LOW CLASS ones are the majority among the prisoners you found in those bins. Today every 4th is captured with drugs and drug trafficking in Colombo. Most of them are from not lower caste families.
      :
      I know you may also know it well that we the sinhalayas have no such strong caste system. I think it can still be there in few villages in SL.
      I ve got to know cousins got married to DURAWA or KARAWA caste and their parents never considered them to be lower.

    • 7
      1

      Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera,
      .
      “Being someone from a High caste, I would always think caste plays an important role in shaping a man’s character”
      .
      Okay for a moment, we buy what you say; but you got just the caste, no class, let alone high-class. Hey wait, can you elaborate us how your so said “high-caste” played that “important” role in your case please sir?

      • 1
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        Shafeek,

        Because you asked the question in a dignified manner, I will reply to you. Let me start by saying that although our last name is Perera we are Kandyan Radala people. The name Perera was acquired for business reasons. But there are some in our families that still use the old ancestral name of Molligoda. My Maternal grand parents are from the Dunuwille family. If you Muslim folks don’t know who they are, just go to the Kandy town and ask for the Dunuwille waluwwa and they will show you. If they invite you inside, you can inquire about me.

        Now, I am a Thomian, just like SWRD, just DS, just like Dudley. We Thomians know what’s best for the country. When we used to rule over these 20 million rif-rafs as a country we did well. We Thomians also are quite aware what destruction these minorities can do to the country. This is the reason people don’t like me. That’s why I am unpopular here. This has nothing to do with who I am. In any case, minorities are nobodys to be judgemental of me.

        • 2
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          Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera, thanks. Everyone has a reason to love or hate the other. Take care, bye.

          • 3
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            Dear Shafeek and Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera,
            .
            I wanted Shamal to reply to me about his so-called status as a guy who studied in my old school. I realised that the likelihood of his doing so was not great. It is only those who have inferiority complexes who make vain boasts the way he does! He will now retreat like a cur with its tail between its legs. Shafeek, your terse response clearly indicates to me that you desire to have nothing more to do with this scum.
            .
            Shamal, if you have any courage, please post your response to me, either here, or as a comment to this article by another “Thomian”:
            .
            https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/an-open-letter-to-the-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-part-ii/
            .
            Very different from you who are a disgrace to any school.
            .
            I’d also like you listen to the cultured tones of Prof. Kumar David:
            .
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaqtNmUSBgU
            .
            A great man who doesn’t need to drop names like “Thomian”, and “Dunuwille waluwwa”.
            .
            Remember that Prof. Charles Sarvan was also educated in the same school. I gave links, a week ago, to two articles that he wrote as homage to his alma mater; he has not published either of them on Colombo Telegraph. These school things should have little to do when discussing life in our country. Reserve them for the OBA.

        • 5
          1

          Shamal Perera,
          .
          “We Thomians” are not all that better than everybody else. Perhaps, we were mostly from families that had acquired some wealth owing to being compradors. Dudley was a most decent man, yes. But his father was merely cunning. He thought he was “clever” with his Gal-Oya scheme. Think objectively about where it has landed this country now. I feel that for once you have revealed something true of yourself.
          .
          SWRD, however opportunistic, was an educated and sophisticated politician. How long he was at S. Thomas’ is a moot question. His father had, indeed worked his way up to be the most powerful man in Ceylon, and SWRD was educated mainly at home, by Brits. I think that he was in STC mostly as an exam qualification. For a brief period he may have been a class-mate of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. And of Kunji, And of my mother’s cousin, E.B. Wikramanayake. We want to claim everybody to be ours. We are notoriously economical with the truth. A University batchmate of mine has been obsessed with claiming every famous man for ourselves. Dr N.M. Perera. I’m pretty sure that N.M. must have been at Cathedral College in Mutwal after (the always prestigious) S. Thomas’ moved to Mt. Lavinia.
          .
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._M._Perera
          .
          Please get back to me on this. I could confound one or two details even there, in Wikipedia. It is possible that you may be puzzled by some of the things I say, but it is undistorted truth. But how significant are my details for the dead serious things that we are discussing here? We need to move out of this morass.

          • 3
            1

            The point I was making about SWRD was that D.S. S made it very clear that he wanted his son to succeed him, and not Bandaranaike.
            .
            Had SWRD been allowed to lead the UNP, he may not have had to use the switching of languages central to his election campaign.

          • 1
            0

            Ah, expected as much. No response from Shamal Perera.
            .
            This often happens. I meet guys who’ve been to S. Thomas’ and I look and sound so innocuous that they try to walk all over me. Until they begin to sense that I’m the more genuine article.
            .
            Prof. Sarvan is too civilised to be rude to them. In any case, he possesses such obvious class that they will then claim that he has after all been civilised by guys like him, at S. Thomas’. Just you try to be rude to any Sri Lankan citizen again, Shamal, and I’ll know what to say about your Molligodas and Dunuwillas.
            .
            Oh, it’s not that I wouldn’t respect guys like Harindra Dunuwille, and such like. It’s just that Shamal is an imposter, crude and vulgar.

            • 1
              0

              This is very common to SHamal. And caste branded sounds highly accepted by him yet today. He would not get back to you when things become concrete.
              This happened to me not once several times sofar about various other articles.
              :
              He is not alone among the ones trying to slip away from truths. There is a an article writer – Dr Wijewardhana. He has also failed to add his responses to all what we raised regarding the huge losses about which president Sirisena loudly claimed at. Over 990 billions of rps should have gone missing in CB, since 2008 upto 2015.
              All these men louded about 11 billions which is btw frozen in the bank, but nothing, not a single word about president’s public statements on that very issue. This is a big puzzle to me. Why on earth entire lankens stay mum about 990 billions to have gone lost in the days of MR authoritarian rule.

              • 0
                0

                Dear SURANBATTA,
                .
                Thanks for sharing our mutual pleasure at the silencing of Shamal Perera.
                .
                The case of Dr W.A. Wijewardena is quite different. His articles are serious. My experience is that he does answer queries, but not every one of them. Our differences with him are at a quite different level.
                .
                No time to discuss all that now.

        • 3
          1

          There is a way in which we could get rid of all these codgers whom we are stuck with. Please see the feature of the system of voting which could make us, the public, much more influential in the process of electing those whom we think honest.
          .
          https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/defiant-nagananda-to-represent-himself/
          .

          There’s no point entering into arguments with guys who refer to the rest of the country as “rif-rafs”. And I have no call to insult my batch-mate, who is not a bad guy for all that. Nor you, I guess. Let me call him Stanley.
          .
          Our batch of English Specials completed the exam in November 1985, four sitting the final exam, one “Familian” chickening out. About a year ago, I happened to ask him who “topped the batch”. “Alex”, came the answer. I asked him if he couldn’t remember me being the guy who got the Leigh Smith Prize and got appointed Temporary Assistant Lecturer. I attached Prof. Halpe’s testimonial to an e-mail.

    • 10
      4

      Retarded and Eagle Blind Eye with Birds brain

      Excerpt from By Way of Deception: The Making of a Mossad Officer by an Israeli Mossad officer, Victor Ostrovsky:

      ——–“I’ll meet you at the airport,” Amy said, “because we have a group
      of people coming from Sri Lanka to train here.”
      Amy was waiting for the Sri Lankans’ flight from London when I
      joined him. “When these guys arrive,” he said, “don’t make a face.
      Don’t do anything.”
      “What do you mean?” I asked
      “Well, these guys are monkeylike. They come from a place that’s
      not developed. They’re not long out of the trees. So don’t expect
      much.”
      Amy and I escorted the nine Sri Lankans through a back door of
      the airport into an air-conditioned van. ——-

      I understand for the non-asians you lot are just “Pakies”

      Whether you are a high caste Aryan Sinhala/Buddhists or a lowly Demela, as far as the majority of the Europeans are concerned you are just another smelly Paki, a common slur and for Israelis you are just monkey.

      • 2
        3

        NAtive Vedda,

        Just monkeys?

        Do you mean Para-monkeys who came illegally from their Para Homeland Bharat, Damba Diva, India?,

        • 1
          2

          —————-
          as far as the majority of the Europeans are concerned you are just another smelly Paki
          ——————

          Amarasiri,

          If Europeans find this fella Native Veddha to be smelly, then you can’t blame the Europeans for it. Going by his behavior in this forum, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he was shabbily dressed and smelled badly.

          He needs to invest some money on some good perfumes. I’d recommend Clive Christian No. 1 or the Caron Poivre. But my most highly recommended one is Lalique for Bentley (Crystal Edition).

          Ask the fella to buy one and wear it and trust me the Europeans will feel a breath of fresh air (no pun intended).

          • 0
            0

            Then tell us how the canadians would consider you ? I have no doubt, you the kind of men betrayed our sinhalaya having killed those 11 young sons of colombo mothers. And stay today as if KIRIMATI GILAPU kimbulas not being able to face the music.
            .
            Definitely not as you felt you being kept above as belonging to higher caste right ?
            :
            Let alone you guys as refugees would not have been the same rights, even if the passports are offered to you. I have no doubt, if they know much about you the kind of men how you treated your fella citizens, they would rather corner by everymeans. No doubt abou tthat.

      • 4
        1

        NV,

        “Whether you are a high caste Aryan Sinhala/Buddhists or a lowly Demela, as far as the majority of the Europeans are concerned you are just another smelly Paki”

        Very true. Let me add, for an East Asian including Middle-east, Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera & other Eagle, are just another house-driver, and their “Sudu or Kalu Manikes” are just another maid..

        • 1
          2

          Amila,

          Middle Easterners and other nationals treat you like a house driver or housemaid is because either you are one or you look like one. LOL.

          If you were an accomplished individual with a rock solid education, a good work ethic and a fine personality no one will treat you this way.

          They will always know what you are capable of and your also realize true value. But if they treat you like garbage, then that is perhaps it is what it is.

          You cannot blame you country of Birth for that. You need to develop yourself first.

          • 2
            2

            Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera,
            .
            You are part of British-made Radala who received large land grants from the British as concession for their enslavement of you guys. As per Wikipedia, “Their (British made Radalas) residences were of unprecedented scale, built in the 19th century in the British colonial style” – probably that was your Walauwa mentioned above. Nowadays, these British made Radalas have big issue – minority complex.
            .
            You are not original Kandyan Radalas, just British made Radalas for “going Kade” for them. Even now, we can see that you are “going Kade” for Govigama politicians. Original Radalas never do that and outcaste you as “low caste”.
            .
            Oya “puk talks gehin Muslim kattiyata kiyapang. Canadawe Suddanta kade palayang buruwa”. You Moda donkey, keep going to Kade for Whites in Canada now.
            .
            Your competence & how accomplished are shown when you retire from SLA as mere LT during the war time and going Kade for politicians. STFU. Radala newei, Raddhak hendhapang dhen.
            .
            Because of uneducated buggers with poor IQ like you brag everywhere is the main issue in SL

          • 2
            0

            Cowardly scum, Shamil Perera, where is your response to me?
            .
            It is clear that this racist bully has no courage for confrontation when challenged by a guy who knows his antecedents. He revels in finding some innocent somewhere whom he can bully.
            .
            Since I am more magnanimous I will not punish you further. Please mind your manners and your language if you ever dare return to Colombo Telegraph.

            • 1
              0

              So, a gentle person of your nature, Sinhala M, says this. So, who would not stand on your way. As for me, those army men are so brutal by every means.They dont care about the any kind of sensitivities. Nor would respect neighbourhoods.
              .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtwUWrECpSo&lc=z224i5nrmwucyr1l0acdp43bl0xnc15vikr53f0soyxw03c010c

              Then what more talks we should have to deny war crimes being false allegations. I am sinhalaya, but I do believe, not just in war but also post war episodes, there had been lot more heinous crimes deliberately committed by lanken forces.
              :
              My heart melt down with deep sorrow whenever I watch those videos about the mothers whose lovely sons had then been abducted and not yet clear if they are live today. Such anxities would never leave those mothers in their day today life..Be them sinhalaya, tamil, muslims or other, they are mothers of our country.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylJHyn3-gi4
              Those mothers and their torments tremour lanken soil continuously. That they can stop, only after a proper investigation on the kind of high crimes. We talk high about our 2500 year history, but yet today, can we at all make hopes about a safer life in this country. ?

              • 0
                0

                Thanks, Desperate Sinhalaya.
                .
                There is a limit to which we need to tolerate vulgar fellows like Shamal.

      • 1
        2

        Joos should be the last persons on earth to call anyone “monkeylike”. Here is a photo of a completely non-monkeylike bunch of Jews when Hitler kicked their rear-ends into submission.
        https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2016/05/NationalArchivesAndRecordsAdministration_cropped.jpg

        Should these fellas in the picture who didn’t have the guts to even protect themselves from the Nazi brigade calling others “Monkeylike”?

        Anyway, I don’t agree with what this so-called Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky has said above. Many foreign military analysts, I have met during my time in the army and educators have immense respect for the work ethic and counter terrorism capabilities of the Sri Lankan army.

        Special SAS soldier and military analyst Chria Ryan considers the STF has one of the 9 best counter insurgency units in the world.

        Bad news for monkeys like you.

    • 4
      10

      Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera,

      Oh yes. Everybody in Sri Lanka has a high-caste name. You needn’t have added the Rtd. Lt. to prove it. We are certainly not quite as caste-conscious.

      “Shaping a man’s character indeed!!!” You mean you are still living in the age of Victorian literature?

      Aren’t you in the modern age where a man’s character is not bent by the wealth and privilege, like of the British owning properties in the colonies? Are you still one of the Lankans sitting within the luxuries of the colonial mindset. How old-fashioned you are. Older Lankan (now long dead), liked to use the word “character” (with a British accent and and straight-up neck and back….with emphasis on “k” a roll of the “r”). Indeed, one can shudder at it- like whacking someone over the knuckles for “character.” You must by one hellava old-boy of the old-boy-school.
      _
      No. A man’s character is bent by simple socialist democratic living as prescribed by the Buddha. Come to think of it, even the rich and powerful Ams., with all their flying bombs, will NEVER use the word “character” in the same context.
      _
      ps. but you are not a Lankan of course, but some Indian trying to pretend to be Lankan. And you thought you could fool us : ” Hookay Bablu Dablu, let’s use military names and fool the Lankan that way.”

  • 18
    1

    Charles, you mention that:

    “The Buddha preached that nobility is not by birth, be it into a family, class, ethnic group or religion, but is individually achieved through character, conduct and contribution: something as much piously proclaimed in Sri Lanka as it’s violated in practice”.

    It’s not that simple. The Mahavibhasa, a 2nd century Buddhist text mentions:

    “What the Aryans say is the truth, what others say is not true. And why is this? The Aryan ones understand things as they are. The common folk do not understand. Furthermore, they are called Aryan truths because they are possessed by those who are conceived in the womb of an Aryan woman”.

    Buddhism accommodated caste. Modern Buddhist scholarship indicates that 80% of the Buddhist Sangha or clergy in the time of the Buddha hailed from the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya castes. 40% of the Sangha at that time belonged to the Brahmana caste. The Buddhavamsa, a Pali language scripture part of the Theravada tradition, indicates that Gautama, the Buddha was born into the Kshatriya caste. The future Buddha, Maitreya will be born into the Brahmana caste. The three Buddhas prior to Gautama were Kakusanda, Konagamana and Kassapa, all of whom belonged to the Brahmana caste. The Lalitavistara, a 3rd century Buddhist scripture, explicitly mentions that a Buddha can only be born a Brahmana or Kshatriya and can never come from any of the “lower castes”.

    Old Sinhala language religious documents such as the Pujavaliya, the Saddharmaratnavaliya, the Kadayimpoth, and the Niti Nighanduwa refer to an elaborately ordered caste hierarchy in Buddhist Sri Lanka.

    Reality is more complex than you indicate.

    • 0
      8

      Punya,

      Indeed you rationalize from a very fixated and truncated Hindu perspective. But how do other religions and races have an egalitarian view towards spiritually and goodness? Are they more evolved as humans compared to the Hindus?

      Unlike the rest of the rational world, Hindus are lost in basic psychological understanding and cannot comprehend the myriad of social factors that cause dysfunctional people and societies. Your so called high castes have had every opportunity for thousands of years to be upright and at least decent.  By look at the atrocities they commit.

      High-castes had the time, space, and opportunity to indulge in higher-mind elevations. That is why much is written by them in ancient texts. But Buddha understood the soul within each person regardless of social circumstance. Hence his insistence on a greater egalitarian set of disciples. His intent was on the dismantling of the caste-system so the beauty of the human mindset could emerge. He would have seen the same atrocities done by the high-castes on the low-castes that the book, The Curse of Caste, details. However, the Hindu mindset persisited amongst Indian society right throughout.

      But Buddha’s ideals held greater sway in Sri Lanka (in spite of what was brought down and written in old texts), and furthered and brought to fruition in the Indo-Chinese countries.

      • 0
        0

        And besides Punya, the term Aryan in Pali means one who is upright, good and pure. It has no caste or racial connotation whatsoever as per Buddhas powerful all-pervading and salient message on Egalatarianism.

        As Buddha never wrote down his words, much of what was written was prone to interpretation by the high-caste hierarchy around him. But in spite of these small “high-caste” interjections into Pali texts, the overall powerful and pervading message of Buddhism is that of Egalitarianism.

        Also Punya, as it was the high-caste set that wrote about the past and future Buddhas, it cannot be taken as bona fide. These perceptions were based either on cultural norms of Indian society at the time, or perceptions that arose from intense meditation of the high-cast meditators – neither which gives proof of actuality. Indeed, as it was only the Buddha who had achieved enlightment, then we can take his, and only his message to have the purest veracity. And that veracity was that of Egalitarianism.

        So Punya, what you consider to be the complexities of reality, can be taken to a wider and higher level of analysis, till the crux of the enlightened Buddha’s message becomes apparent : His powerful salient and all-pervading discourse on Egalitarianism.

  • 5
    19

    India interfered with Sri Lankan affairs citing non-existing discrimination against Tamil people.

    The reasons for racial disharmony in some instances, as in 83, were well planned plots to instigate Sinhalese to attack Tamils.

    JRJ totally mismanaged the matter, taking the world to sympathize & justify Tamil terrorists

    It’s high time for Sri Lanka to interfere with Indian affairs citing discrimination of people on caste basis.

    India has an ethical responsibility to invite & resettle probably untouchable (to Indian point of view) Indian Tamils presently living in Sri Lanka who were forcefully taken here by the British to slave in plantations.

    Earlier they’re called Indian Tamils but JRJ made Sirima -Shasthri pact non-functional for political reasons; to make a strong vote base for the UNP in plantation districts letting India to alleviate concern of their own people.

    Plantation Tamils must be convinced to go back to India in groups on boats forcing India to accept them.

    Unless they’ll be boat people without a country to settle & India & Britain will have to take the responsibility; 45% to be made British citizens & 45% to India & the balance 10% to offer SL citizenship on humanitarian considerations.

    • 9
      2

      Please don’t raise this issue again, Real Revolutionist. There no longer are “Indian Tamils” – unless there are a handful of people who have come in during the last decade or so. They, obviously have to be dealt with under immigration laws, like any tourist who overstays.
      .
      The Sirima-Shastri pact also was unfair by these people who contributed so much to our economy up to about 1960 – in the period when we were a quite prosperous country.
      .
      The UNP, even more than the SLFP, were unfair by these people who could indeed be tricked into supporting them. As a community, they are woefully lacking in Education.
      .
      All these people now with us are citizens of Sri Lanka.
      .

      • 0
        3

        Sinhala Man

        It must be mentioned that we have all the due respects for the plantation brothers & it’s not with hatred but with heartfelt love & kindness towards them, these comments are made.

        Isn’t it good to make corrections for faults occurred/done in the past for the benefit of all of us & show to the big powers that there’s nobody to tolerate & forget injustice caused by them for simple people like plantation Tamils of Sri Lanka & even the other communities in this island.

        Not only they’re lacking education, they’re lacking very basics even before education that should be met & entitled.

        Law can make everybody equal but practically they won’t enjoy it.

        Give them dignity, give them recognition in a practical way.

      • 0
        0

        The late Trade Union leader S. Thondaman (Snr) quite rightly
        called them “Sri Lankans of recent Indian Origin” I expect
        you understand the validity and deep meaning of this expression.
        I might remind you that Nehru, his colleagues and those Indian leaders who followed them rejected the Lankan description of ‘Stateless Citizens” in those pre-1987 days.

        Kettikaran

    • 1
      0

      Real Revolutionst,

      They all are Paradeshis, Paras for short, who came illegally to the Pristine Land of Native Veddah Aethho, to destroy it and spread the Para castism culture, that truly belongs to Bharat.

      This is the Land of Native Veddah Aethho, and not the Land of the Paras from India.

      Yes, all the Parad should return home, to their Homeland Bharat.

  • 2
    1

    Very dishonestly written article. Examples are taken from Thelugu speaking new province Thelengana or the former Aandra Paadesh and from Sri Lanka. So, how can you do a service to your nation of “TAMILS”.

  • 9
    15

    Eagle Eye must first cast out the beam out of his own eye and then he can see clearly to remove the speck out of Wellala Demalu eye. This person suffers from Demalu phobia and like a dog which raises its leg wherever the stone hit it. Caste is a curse and is found in India and Ceylon thanks to Hinduism. There was no caste system in the Vedas, but later there emerged the four Varnams based on colour. They are the Brahmins, the Shatrias, the Vaisiyar and Sudras in that order. This division based on colour and vocation multiplied based on the esteem of job each does. As of today, one can change his/her job but not his caste that has since got entrenched.
    Sinhalese have the same caste system as Tamils because both were Hindus, to begin with, but I admit caste is more rigid among the Tamils than Sinhalese thanks to the influence of Buddhism,
    Prabhakaran did not belong to the Vellala caste, yet he was able to rally the youths cutting across caste divisions. LTTE never practised caste system and the top leadership was occupied by non-Vellala caste. LTTE was able to mitigate the caste system by encouraging inter-caste marriages but did not succeed fully.

    Eagle Eye should know that the Malwatte and Asgiriya Buddhist Chapters are based on caste. Non-govigama castes are not admitted into these Buddhist institutions. Most of the so-called Sinhalese living in the coastal areas were Tamils a few centuries ago. Especially the ones from the western and southern littorals. We can already see immigrant Tamil communities from South India like the Colombo Chetties and Baratha( Paravars) becoming Sinhalese, Just like the Karawa, Salagama, Durawa, Hunu Hali and many of the upper Govigamma and Radala became Sinhalese a few centuries ago.
    JR Jayawardene’s family origin is Thambi or Thambi Mudalai from Kerala. Bandaranayake’s origin is from Neelaperumal again from Kerala.

    • 9
      0

      Thanga, Christianity had racism, anti-Semitism, slavery and genocide.

      • 2
        1

        Razi Riad

        S inhala/Buddhism still practice casteism, check matrimonial columns in your main Sinhala and English media. It was in or around 1833 Monasteries abandoned slavery, stopped owning slaves due to British proscription. Only recently about you witnessed ethnic cleansing and genocide in Buddhist countries.

        Slavery in Sri Lanka: Presidential Address delivered on 20—12—74
        Nandadeva Wijesekera
        Journal of the Sri Lanka Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
        New Series, Vol. 18 (1974), pp. 1-22

        If not for Brits the Buddhists Monasteries would have continued the practice of owning slaves.

    • 3
      6

      Thanga,
      Sinhala Buddhists do not have a caste system similar to Hindus. What is found in Sri Lanka is a Guild System. A guild is an association of artisans or merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade. This is completely different from the caste system of Hindus which is based on from which part of the body of Brahma the person emerged. During the time Kings ruled the country, he assigned different professions to different groups so that they specialize in that area. They passed their knowledge from generation to generation. King also gave land (Nindagam) to these people.
      ———-
      There are no Dalits (untouchables) among Sinhalayo.

      • 5
        0

        EE you say: There are no Dalits (untouchables) among Sinhalayo.
        Then, who are the Rodiyas?
        Also, not long ago, certain castes were not allowed entry into the elite households in the central regions and even the coastal walawuas.
        Thanks to SWRDB, there was remarkable progress in overcoming discrimination in public places.
        *
        I know the terms used by the elite to refer to the downtrodden castes, but will not repeat them here, as you probably know each of them.

        • 5
          0

          SJ

          “Thanks to SWRDB, there was remarkable progress in overcoming discrimination in public places.”

          It’s only a cosmetic transformation, you only have to visit Sinhala and English matrimonial columns.

          Another discrimination is based on the colour of the skin, shanty dwellers and gated community, …..

      • 2
        2

        A hierarchical guild system develops into a caste structure.
        There is caste and caste discrimination among the Sinhalese, but not as bad as among Jaffna Tamils.

    • 3
      1

      It is Thambi Mudaliar(JR’s ancestor) and Neela Perumal (Bandaranaike’s ancestor). These names indicate that the origin is from what is modern day Tamil Nadu and not then Tamil Kerala.

      • 0
        2

        JR’s ancestry is Thambi Mudiyanse”. Mudaliyar is a position.
        Also:
        “The similarity of the word Thombi (current Dutch Indian term for guide) to Thambi (Moor) made his enemies ascribe Moorish origins to him as was freely done during the Kelaniya elections of 1940 & 1947”
        Source: “Remembering the most dominant Lankan political figure” by Padma Edirisinghe (Posted on March 29th, 2016 on Lankaweb)
        *
        The amateur historian (no more the Real SSS) should use a little more discretion in making history out of guesswork and gossip.

        • 2
          0

          No It is Thambi Mudaliyar. Like Tamil names ThambiThurai. Thambi Aiya or Thambiah. Thambi Muttu . Chinna Thambi. and even the Sinhalese title Mudiyansalage is purely derived from the Tamil word Muthiyan meaning an elderly person hence a person to be respecteded. Like Muthiyor. There is nothing Moorish about the name or title . The Sinhalese mistook Thambi for a Muslim name., as Thambi/Thamby is also a Tamil Muslim caste or title . Now go and fly a kite instead of trying to be intellectual and all knowing and posting garbage , just for the sake posting and refuting my posts , with very little knowledge and end up looking like a fool.

  • 4
    1

    The low-caste downtrodden people in and near Jaffna recently embraced and celebrated an Army colonel who went out of his way to give them some public water taps, a school and a playground in Vishwamadu. They gave the Colonel a hero’s farewell when he was transferred from the North. I really doubt any ‘high-caste’ Tamil politician will ever get this kind of love from his own people.
    The high caste politicians should realize that the people in the North are realizing the truth. Instead of ignoring the lower castes, they should help them. Trying to fool these people by hollering about separate states and war crimes will not help any more.

    • 2
      5

      Vis8,
      This colonel was transferred on the request of Wellala TNA politicians because he managed to change the hateful attitude Demala people had towards Armed Forces and becoming popular among local people. Ordinary Demala people want Army to stay because they feel safer but Wellala TNA politicians do not like the presence of Army. The Colonel got frustrated after the transfer and resigned to lead a campaign against ‘Koti Diaspora’ propaganda against Sri Lanka and Sinhalayo.

    • 7
      1

      Tku Vis8. This news of the Sinhala Army Officer felicitated by the people of Vishwamadu should receive wide publicity in all 3 languages in the country. This will contribute to better understanding in Sinhala-Tamil relations and healing our deep social wounds. Living together is the only way out -difficult as they seem today..

      Caste disparities are losing their relevance gradually both in the North and South. It will phase out sooner in the North than in the rest of the country – more due to the politics of the Tamil militant youth and the displacement of a million Tamils to the economically developed global diaspora. With millions of Sinhalese also out of the country caste is very likely to be replaced by class (economic, that is) in the coming decades. It is happening in India.

      Backlash

      • 4
        3

        It is happening in India.
        You must be joking.
        Read the papers for news on caste based crimes.

        • 8
          1

          SJ

          I have visited both South and Maharasthra for many decades – staying for months. I have seen the growing numbers of inter-caste marriages – some in families personally known to me. The sensation-based media does, I admit, overdo their reports
          on caste-based incidents – more in killings in the rural areas. But this is changing fast. If you have access to Netflix I suggest you watch the Video-movie “A billion color story” (2008) that won several awards globally. It was a big hit in Film Festivals in London, Toronto, Seoul and other Capitals. It is a poignant story of the change that is rapidly overtaking metropolitan India (the major cities) Needless to mention, you might know Southern Rajajis Brahmin daughter married the non-Brahmin Northern Gandhi’s daughter in the 1940s.

          Backlash

          • 1
            3

            The television does not report caste-based cruelty.
            The ‘growing number of inter-caste marriages’ has not eliminated case-based thinking. Such marriages do not lead to merging of castes.
            Urbanization militates against caste, but does not eliminate it.
            *
            Harsh reality lies outside the movies that only scratch the surface.
            Ask yourself why there are so many caste based political issues in India.

          • 2
            4

            Backlash, SJ,

            Maybe it is getting better in urban areas, but I think in rural areas the issue won’t go away anytime soon.

            I have a co-worker who was born in Calcutta and got married to a Minnesotan lady of Norwegian ancestry. He is very progressive on many issues, but inexplicably still holds hard line views whenever I bring up the mistreatment of Dalits in Hinduism.

            • 2
              1

              Agnos
              Thanks.
              It is easy to pretend to be free of caste prejudice.
              Caste is part of the dominant ideology of South Asian society and as part of a centuries long hierarchy is deeply ingrained to vanish in two or three generations in the city. There are other material factors. It is still an important part of one’s identity in India, where even in urban areas candidates are fielded by the main political parties based on caste.
              Also, when one feels socially inferior in some way, caste can offer a helping hand to feel better.

  • 6
    0

    Dear Prof. Sarvan,
    .
    Many thanks, a second labour of love just a week after the meditations on the photograph. Your articles have a value beyond the here and now.
    .
    You have given us many reviews of valuable books; this another of them. I think that the hope of us all must be that those who are authorities on the subject would go on to purchase and read the book; but you write in such a way as to give us others the gist of the book, so that we get the essential message.
    .
    So here you have shown us just how iniquitous the caste system is, and the message comes across powerfully. You have done so by quoting directly from the writer, Sujatha Gidla. Some details are painful, others disgusting. I first read this a few hours ago, and found the account very moving. Now when I make these observations, the clock says it is the following day, the 29th. Unfortunately two of the trolls who plague us have already been at work. I mean Eagle Eye and Shamal Perera.
    .
    The horrors of the caste system must necessarily be conveyed with tact but, as you say, the constant use of euphemisms stands between us and the reality. The final result is that I have immense respect for you for writing about these painful facts with such objectivity.
    .
    You must make us confront the horrible realities, but you are, as ever, a sensitive man who says, from your own bat:
    .
    “I apologise for these deeply distressing details.”
    .
    For us, in the South the meaningfulness of your article may be slightly different, but, really the messages given to us are universal. Thanks. I hope to add my own thoughts, but it sometimes doesn’t get done.

    • 2
      0

      Sinhala Man@
      As you already know it, I am very pleased to read from you and few other commenters on this and other forums. We the ones seem to have no such race, creed or other barriers to keep us from one another, feel like we are all srilankens. I got to know my tamil friends in Europe. Also got to know muslim SLankens as well. I dont care about the race and religion, so long the person would bring human values. I am born buddhist but I dont respect today’s so called BUDDHAGAMA followers in the country today. My friends from Europe reiterate that the real buddhists are found not in SL and Thailand but either in Europe or California.
      .
      Btw, I am planning to travel to LANKA in June or July. I will come and see you. I really want to come to know you in person.
      :
      I don t have any close contacts with my relatives back in SL. So I will next spend my vacation on a hotel either down south or near to Kaluthara. If my plans would work properly, I would love to offer you a great vacation in Europe so that you could see it around. This comes from my bottom of the heart, since I consider you the kind of senior CITIZENs should be held highly respectable. We can do a great job together in terms of some good work in SL. I hope to support homes for the children and aged also some buddhist temples in rural areas. I do read what you OFTEN add to this platform. And I really enjoy reading from yours. May be possible, due to lack of time reasons could keep me somewhat away from CT next days. Anyways, I will try my best. I love to get to know good, honest friends back in home country.

      Thanks Greetings from SUNNIER EU

      • 1
        0

        Dear Bunjappu,
        .
        I fear that if you meet me, you may be quite disappointed to find me a pretty helpless sort of guy!
        .
        However, I suggest that you write to my regular email address. I don’t think that Colombo Telegraph objects to persons revealing their own e-mail addresses. However, you will find that they give me a green gravatar. If this fails to get through, I will repeat message as Sinhala_Man.
        .
        My address:
        .
        My own roots are in the South, around Baddegama, but I hang out mainly two miles out of Bandarawela town. I’d better not give you the co-ordinates of my neglected old house here (built by my father), lest some racist directs a missile here! On the other hand, one of my neighbours has pointed out that missiles are expensive, and I matter so little that nobody is going to expend one to send me to my eternal rest.
        .
        We have a wonderful climate here, and June/July are months with little rain here. On the other hand, most of Sri Lanka ought to be having lots of rain now; I’ve just checked the forecasts for the next two months – almost nothing to be expected; rather worrying.
        .
        And if I also give you a link to an article that I once wrote, you will see two photograph of myself:
        .
        https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-thomian-pharisees-are-unrepentant-why-this-matters-to-all-sri-lankans/comment-page-1/#comments

        Panini Edirisinhe aka Sinhala_Man

        • 0
          0

          Please never again add/repeat your personal stuff to here, you and I already know, some srilankens are brutal as Saudis, that set that premedidated misterious murder of Jamal Khashoggi (a Lasantha style Journalist) in Istanbul, Turkey. I dont think I would have guts just go into an Embassy since I heard the brutal incident. That goes that close to me and th elike living out of the country.
          Btw, no need to add your E-mail address onto CT repeatedly: Pardon me, I could not ask you to do so in my previous posts. You are a trully soul; now have become to the attention of honest commenters on CT platform. That we the ones with honest ambitions add our thoughts, noticed from the day one.THIS IS A GREAT COMPLIMENT TO YOU SIR. I always respect the kind of people only, regardless of the race, religion and whatever other barrier locals seems holding as their prerequisites. Let this be short, since I intend to write you to your Email next days. No worries, if we meet personally, I will arrange it accordingly. I have no fears to go to a politician (I adimre CBK and her secretariat, I also admire any civilized poltiicians in my home country) if you would want me to do so. Thanks and a lovely sundy from EU.

      • 1
        0

        Dear Bunjjappu,
        .
        My message to you has got through, but I see that the CT editors have, in their wisdom, left out my e-mail address. I realise that they have done so with good reason.
        .
        I can be more than a little naive!
        .
        Anyway, there is time for you to work out a way to contact each other.

  • 2
    0

    First came the humans. For communicating each other developed language. after many many years later came religions and discriminations by the form of colour, religions, ethnicity, sex, nationality, colour and so on. Religions and discriminations are created by humans by jealousy to oppress the other humans.

  • 6
    0

    Caste, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, education, money, politics, colour and language are some of the tools the world leaders have created to devide and control.
    ,
    These tools are necessary for development and discipline as well. But extreme use of these tools are very harmful to the civilised society. Hence, you need to consider the love and peace a leader shows before you vote for them.
    ,
    A good leader will never exploit the week. Will never undermine people due to their differences. Will never resort to fear campaigns for popularity.

    • 1
      0

      Dear Suranga Gunasekera,
      .
      These are simple truths when uttered by people like you who have a good value system. As you say they are necessary when all the people start aspiring for high profile work etc. The problem is that too many people DO make “extreme use” of them.
      .
      A digressive observation. Why not use some mark different from a comma to separate paragraphs? I once quite misunderstood a comment that you made. I’m sure that you remember: I apologised.

      • 1
        0

        ?many thanks. Point taken. Have a wonderful day.

  • 1
    0

    I think its high time these practises are curtailed.

  • 2
    6

    The beauty of the family in the picture is unmistakable. And that Indians can do such things to their beautiful people is unbelievable.

    Once I wore a sari and went to some convention. So, there was this youngish haughty thin long looking Indian guy. Fellow kept smiling at me and preening with the greatest of egoistical pomposity. He seemed to say, “You look like you belong to one of us sister. Hold yourself up with pride.” (I am a bit lighter toned than most Lankans). I really saw madness in his look, and shuddered. He reminded me of the man who killed Gandhi. I wonder if he would have attacked me if I told him what my genetic make-up was. That is what the Indian masses have to go through every day.

  • 3
    0

    Most of your readers seem obsessed with only their own navel, incapable of taking an interest in another place, in another life, taking up general points such as the negative aspect of the use of euphemisms, the failure of the church and Left movements to shelter and champion

    This article by Sarvan was about Gidla and her life-experience, and only at the end was reference made to the little island of Sri Lanka. And yet this is what excites your readers, to the exclusion of all else. Strange and unfortunate.

    Foreign observer

    • 0
      0

      In our own interest, let us not disregard the pertinent critical comments of Foreign Observer. Often most commentators in these pages lose their way in their mindless and off-the-mark diatribes.

      Chris P. Bacon

  • 2
    0

    “Tamils who don’t protest Tamil casteism in Sri Lanka lose the moral right to protest Sinhalese racism.”

    You got a point there!

    • 4
      0

      Goviya

      “You got a point there!”

      Sinhalese who don’t protest against Sinhalese racism in Sri Lanka lose the moral right to protest Tamil Casteism.

  • 5
    0

    The irony is that India, which boasts of sending rockets to space and great technological advances in a bid to become the regional power, still has people handling human excreta. A shame!

  • 2
    0

    Re the following text on euphemisms:
    “To substitute the word “worker” or “helper” for “servant” might ease the employing-class but not necessarily the life of the employed. The word “untouchable” is thought to be insulting and cruel (see also “coolie” etc.) and the term “Dalit” is substituted but Gidla herself uses “untouchable”.
    *
    The term Dalit I think was introduced by Ambedkar who rejected both ‘untouchable’ and ‘Harijan’ (designed by Gandhi). Dalit means one at the bottom level, and is no euphemism. It is universally used by Dalit groups across India.
    Use of caste names is resented by Dalit castes. Launderer and hairdresser castes among Tamils liked to be called dhobi or barber rather than by the standard Tamil term. The terms ‘kattaadi’ or ‘pariyaari’ were acceptable as well.
    The term ‘differently abled’ is widely used in preference to ‘disabled’. Neither of these terms nor any term that specifically refers to a handicap will help unless there is genuinely respectful treatment of the physically handicapped.
    I wonder if the term ‘sex worker’ offers dignity to prostitution. As long as a certain notion of ‘prostitute’ is in one’s mind, the use of any substitute term is plain humbug.
    Offence lies is in the attitude of the society towards the marginalised. Interestingly, there are terms like ‘valathu kuraintha’ and ‘puththi kuraintha’ in common use in Tamil that are kinder than standard terms referring to certain disabilities. Again, the terms are not universally used, and are limited to contexts where kindness is intended.
    Acceptability of a euphemism should be left to the group of people the term refers to.

  • 2
    3

    Thanks to Old Banda , our Dalit Kids who are the great majority got a chance to learn how to read and write.
    Some of the Parents who knew the value of Education and had a little income to support them, made them continue their education and got them out of the Poverty Cycle, which enabled them to break through the Low and High Caste Barrier.

    Now there is no Caste Differences among the the Sinhalese except a few who still think they are high Class…
    But no one would give a shit.
    Except the poor who are still trapped in the Poverty Cycle.

    The Bottom Line is Inhabitant need more and more Well Resourced Good Schools in even remote parts of the Nation..
    But Sadly this Yahapalana Boss Dr Ranil is against it.
    Rich Class, High Caste seems to be his forte, although Dr Ranil has assigned his Deputy from Keselwatta to keep some Dalits on side…

    Wonder whether the biggest Tamil Political outfit TNA has a similar arrangement ?…

    • 1
      0

      KASmaalam K A Sumanasekera

      “Thanks to Old Banda , our Dalit Kids who are the great majority got a chance to learn how to read and write.”

      You must be kidding.
      Refer to K M De Silva’s History of Sri Lanka, even you could see it was Kannangara’s determination which led to the introduction of Swabasha education but it was free too.

      The public racist SWRD Banda (a Tamil Descendant from South India) who enforced Sinhala only language policy and rest is history, it was to make you lot the Sinhala/Buddhist noisy minority happy.

      Please read, fact check, think about it and then type.

      • 1
        1

        Dear Native,
        Kannangara may have introduced Swabasha to the Village Kids..
        Fair Enough.
        But they couldn’t get a decent Gig even in the Public Sector until the Seventies..

        I know you went to Jaffna Anglican Missionary School which poured in thousands and thousands to help run the Government Services along with the Rich High Caste from the Colombo Schools.
        With a few from Regional Schools who studied in English.
        And your mate Dr Ranil’s ancestors loved it..

        If not for Banda there wouldn’t have been a GMOA, UTA, Viyathmaga and Eliya to challenge the destructive policies of Dr Ranil and his Faction, which are hell bent not only on dividing the Nation in to Blocks, but also to restore the old domination of the English Speaking Class..

        And it fits to a Tee with the policies of your main mates’ Sampathar and Abrahams TNA.
        Native why didn’t you answer my last query?..

        • 1
          0

          KASmaalam K A Sumanasekera

          “The Bottom Line is Inhabitant need more and more Well Resourced Good Schools in even remote parts of the Nation..”

          How about divesting your investments in “Blue Chip” and pay for schools?

          The Sinhala/Buddhist Fascist diaspora is spending loads of money through Global Sri Lankan Forum (GSLF) to organise fascistic activities inside and outside this island, perhaps financing Sarath Weerasekara’s twice yearly shopping trips to Geneva, where he finds himself humiliated by himself and his fellow free riders. I wonder why the Sinhala/Buddhist fascists like their Tamil brethren are willing to fund their own destruction and not in any progressive projects .

          Dalit is imported from your ancestral homeland in India similar to 99% of culture, language, religion, food, customs, …………………… Cannot you and your Tamil brethren find any appropriate word for it?

          What was your question?

          The public racist Banda undid and screwed up everything what Kannangara did. By the way Banda told one of my old friend that he never meant to make Sinhala the only official language. Its so happened he unexpectedly received 51 Seats out of 95, and he could not go back on his promises. He was hoping for a hung parliament and was ready to negotiate with ITAK and ACTC and drop his Sinhala “Only” language policy.

          • 0
            1

            Native
            I am in full agreement with what K.A.S. has written above. Every word is true. You are consistently self contradictory. You say Sinhalese are genetically and culturally very similar to Tamils but agree with the demand that Tamils be recognised as a ‘distinct ethnic entity’. You say Sinhalese are discriminatory and genocidal but demand that +50% Tamils must have the right to live among the Sinhalese even after the Ealam. Most of your comments are “Yanne koheda? Malle Pol” type. Forget history. Start with the ‘existing demographic distribution of Tamils (all Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion caste or the date of arrival) across the island’.

            Soma

            • 1
              0

              somass

              What has Viyathmaga got to do with war criminals and war crime deniers, Gota, Palitha, Sarath, Shenali, Kamal, ………………….?

              Aiyo somass:
              “You say Sinhalese are genetically and culturally very similar to Tamils but agree with the demand that Tamils be recognised as a ‘distinct ethnic entity’.”

              “You say Sinhalese are discriminatory and genocidal but demand that +50% Tamils must have the right to live among the Sinhalese even after the Ealam.”

              Is KASmaalam K A Sumanasekera your drinking buddy or maybe snorting comrade?

              Don’t put your nasty words into my mouth. Go read carefully every word, phrase, sentence, paragraphs, …. comment that I have written in CT since its inception.
              I agree I address you as somass appropriately for reasons that are obvious.

              • 0
                0

                Dear Native V

                P:ls be a little gentle on this transvestite – the brain-damaged
                Soma – who is here, there and everywhere on these pages. The creature’s only dream is to drive all Tamils in the island to
                the Dhamma Dvipa. Yes – one more incurable nut who is unable to digest the fact Sinhala/Sinhalese came from Bharath.

                Puththisali

  • 1
    4

    This is a Hindu problem

  • 2
    0

    KASmaalam K A Sumanasekera

    “Thanks to Old Banda , our Dalit Kids who are the great majority got a chance to learn how to read and write.”

    You must be kidding.
    Refer to K M De Silva’s History of Sri Lanka, even you could see it was Kannangara’s determination which led to the introduction of Swabasha education but it was free too.

    The public racist SWRD Banda (a Tamil Descendant from South India) who enforced Sinhala only language policy and rest is history, it was to make you lot the Sinhala/Buddhist noisy minority happy.

    Please read, fact check, think about it and then type.

  • 1
    7

    Jesus Christ reached out to the ‘ dalits’ of His day.
    ‘ When a leper came to Him imploring Him,saying,” If You are willing, You can make me clean”…
    Jesus,moved with deep compassion, stretched out His hand and said to him,
    ” I am willing”.
    There are no ‘dalits’, ‘ vellala’, govigama’, whatever else in the Christian scheme of things.
    We are all brothers and sisters. All equals.
    One humanity.
    One Race.
    ‘ For He Himself is our peace,who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall.of separation..'( Holy Bible).

    • 1
      0

      Sandy

      Largely yes – except in the North East of SL in particular. The scourge lives even today. Have the Sinhala Christians rid themselves of this?
      Is the answer Yes and No.

      Backlash

      • 0
        1

        Too sad for words that the ‘ scourge lives even today’
        We can’t answer for others,but for those of us who believe in Jesus, it can only be that
        We see everyone as
        ‘Us’.
        Because that’s how our God sees and values us all.

    • 3
      0

      Che Guevara lived among lepers in a leper colony during his Motorcycle Diaries days.
      But he was an atheist.

    • 0
      0

      Sandy,
      That’s the same thing Buddha also preached.

  • 2
    2

    Nothing frightens a Tamil than the thought of living in a Tamil only enclave. The reason is the ugly caste discrimination and those living among Sinhalese are fortunate. Sinhalese must understand that the only way to defeat the separatist ideology is to propose that all Tamils (Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion caste or the date of arrival) should be accommodated in one Tamil Homeland. +50% Tamils presently living in areas outside NE must be made to understand that they will have to relocate themselves into a would be Ealam. When that becomes the main theme of discussion the Tamil political class will be compelled to roll back their demands by Tamils themselves. Sinhalese must demand that they will have to choose between the Homeland OR the right to live anywhere, definitely not both. And that will be the end of the story. The option of right live anywhere will guarantee them the right to live with dignity.

    Soma
    (Tamils are their own enemy)

    • 1
      0

      Soma, you sum up: “Tamils are their own enemy”. I agree.
      You could add: “The Sinhalese are their own enemy”.
      Any form of parochial thinking is self-destructive.

    • 1
      0

      “Nothing frightens a Tamil than the thought of living in a Tamil only enclave” writes Soma – one of the most bigoted anti-Tamil racists in these pages. It is the other way about, dear lady (I believe you are female) Sheer nonsense. Tamils wherever they are in the world lived together in the past and will so do in future happily despite caste and other differences. It is clear you dream of the day all Tamils in the South are chased away to – wherever (NEP, Tamilnadu etc) But you live in vain. You deny the fact much of the Sinhala language and the Sinhala people have a Tamil base – but the reality of history is different. We have no alternative but to live with venomous snakes like you amongst us.

      Puththisali

      • 0
        0

        Mr Pithtuvelu
        Join me in my campaign to encourage Tamils (all Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion caste or the date of arrival scattered across the island) to go for the option of ‘right to live anywhere’ when the choice is forced on them for an Ealam OR the right to live anywhere.

        Soma

      • 0
        0

        Sorry Mr Puththisali, I forgot to tell you how I came to form the opinion “nothing frightens a Tamil than the thought of living in a Tamil only enclave”
        Suggest on this column the possibility of relocating those +50% Tamils (all Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion caste or the date of arrival scattered across the island) into a would be Ealam and see the reaction for yourself!

        Soma

      • 0
        0

        ‘ Didn’t the same God who made me,make them?
        Aren’t we all made of the same stuff,
        Equals before God?’
        – Job .31.Holy Bible –

      • 0
        0

        Who cares whether Sinhalese has a Tamil base or not… if Sinhalese actually had a Tamil base, it is nowhere to be found, even in the earliest Sinhala Brahmi inscriptions, since linguists have not found any Tamil or Dravidian substratum in Sinhalese. The thing with your nonsense Tamil theories is that they contradict with linguistic science and chronology. Eg. Tamil is a language which emerged as a distinct language from proto-south Dravidian root language around the start of Christian era (some linguists date it even later (eg. Andronov)), while Sinhalese language is attested in inscriptions on potsherds in Anuradhapura dated with C-14 dating at 540 BC. Put simply – for Sinhalese language to have a Tamil base, first the Tamil language has to have been formed, and secondly it should have been in so widely spread that it reached this island, and then somehow in a mysterious way, only you Tamils know of, transformed into Sinhalese. Really, please stop claiming these nonsense stuff. Sinhalese language is a very ancient language which developed here from a primitive Indo-Aryan dialect proven by among other things the many pre-Sanskritic features it possesses.
        Please read:
        https://tamilandvedas.com/2015/02/04/sinhalese-wonder-a-riddle-in-indo-aryan-languages

        • 0
          0

          Disregarding Punchi Point’s hallucinations about the antiquity of the hybrid Sinhala language, did it occur to him why was this Mahavamsa – so much venerated by the Sinhala Buddhists – not written in Sinhala. That this “holy” document had to be discovered by two British Civil Servants only in the late 18th century adds to the confusion.

          Dear Sandy – Your intelligent and rational comments sadly have no place in this Holy exclusive Buddhist Land touched by the presence of such exceptional human beings as the late Buddharakita Thero and his possible avatar otherwise referred to
          as Gandassara – who should legally be now a guest of the State.

          The brain-damaged Soma might take note of these comments as well.

          Puththisali

          • 0
            0

            1. Please stop insulting the Sinhalese and our language.
            2. The preface to the Mahavamsa states that it is compiled using ancient Sinhalese aethakatha.
            3. You must stop hallucinating about the British discovering the Mahavamsa. What next? The British wrote it too? Your problem is that Tamils got to know of the Mahavamsa only after the British translated it into English. Mahavamsa has been living chronicle for two millennia among part of the Buddhist monks and the Sinhalese royalty who regularly updated it.
            4.Tamils are obsessed with the Mahavamsa and have such a problem with it. Most Sinhalese do not care for the Mahavamsa at all. The only time I heard of the Mahavamsa was in grade 3 history class and after that I had forgotten what Mahavamsa is. When I first read Tamil political issues on the internet in 2009, some Tamil was shouting about the Mahavamsa and I actually had to read up what the Mahavamsa was. That’s the relationship most Sinhalese have with the Mahavamsa. Also the actual name is Mahavanshaya and not Mahavamsa. Tamils write and pronounce the name as the British wrote it, with the m- sound. The letter m with a dot under was use to denote the anusvara, as the English alphabet doesn’t have “ng” sound and later the dot was dropped, so they were left only with the -m sound. Tamils don’t know this, and started writing Mahavamsam even using the Tamil script. LMAO
            5. You are most certainly confused about many things -one thing is that Britain took over the coastal areas only in 1796, i.e the end of the 18th century.
            6. It is not I who have written the article about the antiquity of Sinhala language. It is compiled by Swaminathan in Tamil-and-the-Vedas.

  • 0
    0

    Sorry Mr Puththisali, I forgot to tell you how I came to form the opinion “nothing frightens a Tamil than the thought of living in a Tamil only enclave”
    Suggest on this column the possibility of relocating those +50% Tamils (all Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion caste or the date of arrival scattered across the island) into a would be Ealam and see the reaction for yourself!

    Soma

    • 1
      0

      somass

      You do not need to have reasons being paranoid.
      That is what binds you as the Sinhala/Buddhist fascist noisy minority.

      Are you working along with Dilan Perera on his next Armageddon? Are you on your own writing your victory speech immediately after a profitable, successful, ………… riots against the minority.

      Why haven’t you spent time investigating the where about of the books stolen from Jaffna library and brought the arsonists to book? Some of them are still alive.

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