{"id":101361,"date":"2013-08-20T13:27:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T07:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=101361"},"modified":"2013-09-01T02:41:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T21:11:40","slug":"para-dhemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/para-dhemala\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/strong>\u00a0Charles Sarvan<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Prof. Charles Sarvan<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c\u2026an alien Tamil speaking group with little or no history in the island\u201d (Sunday Island<\/em>, Colombo. 25 January, 2004, p. 7), \u00a0 quoted in my essay, \u2018Reign of Anomy\u2019.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember hearing Sinhala<\/em> spoken in the Jaffna of my childhood, but I\u2019m over 75 and no longer trust my memory: perhaps, Sinhala<\/em> was spoken here and there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Be that as it may, it\u2019s not relevant to what follows.<\/p>\n

We shifted to Colombo when I was 14, and I was almost immediately sent to St Thomas\u2019, Gurutalawa (see \u201cRecollections of Gurutalawa,\u201d Sunday Island<\/em>, 5 July 2009). The context in which the word para<\/em> was used, both at boarding-school, in Colombo and elsewhere; the accompanying tone of voice and facial expression, all indicated contempt, dismissal and rejection. Para<\/em> was linked to Paray\u0101<\/em> (low caste) and that sufficed to convey meaning to me.<\/p>\n

It was reading Michael Roberts several years ago that brought me to another, and far more significant, meaning of para<\/em>, namely, \u201cforeign\u201d. I think even those who have recently expressed disappointment with him will admit that not many can match the reading and knowledge Michael has on Sri Lankan history and anthropology.\u00a0 (I feel free to use the familiar \u201cMichael\u201d. I met him even before we both entered the University of Peradeniya in 1957.)<\/p>\n

In his Sinhala-ness and Sinhala Nationalism<\/em>, Michael writes that the term para<\/em><\/p>\n

has multiple meanings including pita <\/em>(foreign). Pita<\/em> and para<\/em> become synonymous, he comments. The conventional sense of the word throughout the middle period and into the twentieth century has been that of \u201cother,\u201d \u201calien\u201d or \u201cenemy.\u201d Though disparaging, especially in modern times, para<\/em> was not necessarily so in the classical literature and could refer to \u201cothers\u201d in a neutral sense. Nevertheless, the context of usage in the C\u00fblavamsa<\/em> of the early middle period, where it refers to M\u0101gha<\/em> and his destructive activities, and in the hatan kavi<\/em> of the seventeenth century and onwards, where it refers to the Portuguese (who are often called parangi<\/em>), points to a pejorative import in such politicised expressions.<\/p>\n

In his Sinhala Perceptions of the Self through Images of the Burghers <\/em>(my sincere thanks to Mr Nanda Godage for taking the trouble to post a copy to me) Michael Roberts writes: \u201cThe word para<\/em> has a lineage that goes back to medieval times and carries numerous meanings in literary texts\u2026 In more recent centuries, however, the common meanings have been (i) enemy or satur\u0101<\/em> and (ii) other or others, in the sense of \u2018foreigner\u2019\u2026 para<\/em> can be prefixed, as an adjective in expression of contempt, to hambay\u0101<\/em> (Moor), demal\u0101<\/em> (Tamil) and lansiy\u0101<\/em>\u201d (page 10).<\/p>\n

If the foreign is seen as a threat to Sinhalese purity (of \u201crace\u201d and culture); to innate and intrinsic Sinhalese righteousness and stability, then it helps to explain not only contempt and hatred towards those seen as foreign (in effect, everyone who is non-Sinhalese) but the extreme violence used to preserve what is believed to be pristine and pure and, therefore, sacred. Roberts: the Sinhalese have a conviction that they are a chosen people, and this leads to an emphasis on purity (page 14). The distinction is between the \u201cSinhala\u201d and the \u201ca<\/em>-Sinhala\u201d, the non-Sinhala (page 19). Evil, and the disorder and fragmentation it brings, is not within but comes from outside, from what is foreign, para<\/em> (page 20).<\/p>\n

By the way, something Michael notes ( page 20) shows yet again that \u201crace\u201d can be a far stronger emotion and force than religion: \u201cSinhala Catholics\u2026 participated actively in the populist or the sponsored violence against Tamils in 1977, 1981 and 1983\u201d \u2013 I may add, irrespective of whether these Tamil victims were Christian or not.<\/p>\n

Finally, as Paul Caspersz ironically commented (see, Sarvan, Sunday Leader<\/em>, 14 February 2010), if one insists on the label \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d, then one should also speak of \u201cIndian Sinhalese\u201d: polluted or pure, the roots are the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":80832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938,6968],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular","category-popular-columns"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/para-dhemala\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/para-dhemala\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-20T07:57:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-08-31T21:11:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Charles-Sarvan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"294\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"353\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/para-dhemala\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/para-dhemala\/\",\"name\":\"\u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d - 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