{"id":102000,"date":"2013-08-24T11:48:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T06:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=102000"},"modified":"2013-08-29T01:05:20","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T19:35:20","slug":"debate-on-para-dhemala-ethnic-purity-and-caste-ideology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/debate-on-para-dhemala-ethnic-purity-and-caste-ideology\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate On \u2018Para Dhemal\u0101,\u2019 Ethnic \u2018Purity\u2019 And Caste Ideology"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laksiri Fernando<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Laksiri Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n

When I read Charles Sarvan<\/a><\/span>\u2019s first article \u201cPara\u00a0<\/a>Dhemal\u0101<\/a><\/span><\/span>,\u201d I didn\u2019t see anything objectionable although I sensed perhaps he was not interpreting Michael Roberts\u2019 views<\/a><\/span> on the subject correctly and also I couldn\u2019t agree with his last paragraph which paraphrased Paul Caspersz saying \u201cif one insists on the label \u201cIndian Tamils,\u201d then one should also speak of \u201cIndian Sinhalese.\u201d The paragraph was simply inaccurate. Otherwise there was much meaning and substance to what Sarvan said about ethnic discrimination and caste ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was growing up at Moratuwa, almost at the center of the town, I cannot recollect anybody using the term \u2018para demala\u2019 even during the cataclysmic communal riots against the Tamils in 1958. Perhaps I didn\u2019t hear them. I had several Tamil friends at St. Sebastian\u2019s College, where I was initially studying, but even there it was not used to my knowledge. But \u2018paraya\u2019 was often used not so much at school but in the area where I lived and it was used as a derogatory term in anger or to spite someone who is not liked by you. It also had the connotation that \u2018the other\u2019 is inferior.<\/p>\n

But even in our school books I believe the terms \u2018para desin\u2019 and \u2018parangi\u2019 were there and our teachers explained the meanings respectively as \u2018foreign\u2019 and \u2018Portuguese\u2019 also emphasizing they are not neutral but pejorative terms. In our area, (Sinhalese) people believed that there were two classes of Tamils, those who were called \u2018Jaffna Tamils\u2019 and the others, the \u2018Indian Tamils.\u2019 Some considered the first group as more or less equal, but not at all the second. But the majority considered both as \u2018alien\u2019 and also \u2018inferior.\u2019<\/p>\n

Having read EW Adikaram\u2019s \u201cA Communalist is a Psychopath\u201d (Jativadiya Manasika Pisseki<\/em>) as an early teenager, the distinction or the discrimination worried or puzzled me. My effort is not to say that I have been free from any ethnic prejudice. On the contrary, I wish to admit that as a person brought up and socialized within a particular social context, I may have certain prejudices or biases unconsciously. But in my conscious life, I try my best to be free from biases or prejudices while at the same time not rejecting my given ethnic identity.<\/p>\n

But the reason to write this rejoinder is not the above. With all respect to Roberts, I believe that there is something extremely significant in what Sarvan has pointed out in his initial article. That is the connection between \u2018ethnic conception and caste ideology.\u2019 This is not the first time I have said this. The following is what Sarvan has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe context in which the word <\/em>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. <\/em>Para<\/em> was linked to <\/em>Paray\u0101<\/em> (low caste) and that sufficed to convey meaning to me.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What he relates is a personal experience, but what is significant to me is what he says as \u201cthe accompanying tone of voice and facial expression, all indicated contempt, dismissal and rejection<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where does this come from? My conjecture is that it comes from the age old caste-ideology with the accompanied conceptions of \u2018purity\u2019 and \u2018pollution.\u2019 This caste-ideology manifests among the majority Sinhalese in one way and among the Tamils in another. I am not saying that both are the same in practical terms, one discriminating the other on equal terms, but the ideological roots are more or less the same while there are other root causes as well.<\/p>\n

Have I encountered the \u2018contempt, dismissal and rejection\u2019 as a so-called Sinhalese? Yes, something closer to that at least once and seen a similar behavior another time. But if I recollect the way the Sinhalese treat the Tamils or the Muslims, then it is almost uncountable. The different experience may be due to me being a \u2018Sinhalese\u2019 and moving primarily among the Sinhalese.<\/p>\n

Among the Sinhalese, the influencing ideology remains as a \u2018superior caste\u2019 which attempts to subjugate a perceived \u2018inferior caste.\u2019 It claims \u2018purity\u2019 as a \u2018chosen people\u2019 by combining ethnicity with religion (Sinhala Buddhism<\/a><\/span>) and attempts by and large to purge the \u2018pollution\u2019 through attempted ethnic cleansing of both the Tamils and the Muslims or even the Sinhalese Christians as outcaste.<\/p>\n

Among the Tamils, the influencing ideology remains as a \u2018distinct group\u2019 also trying to claim a similar \u2018superior status\u2019 aligning with the brethren across the Palk-Strait. It also claims \u2018purity\u2019 and attempts to purge \u2018pollution\u2019 by cleansing whoever perceived as polluting its purity.<\/p>\n

I am not saying, the caste or \u2018caste-like\u2019 ideology is the only ideological current among the Sinhalese or the Tamils. But often it becomes dominant and distorts ideological landscape or political thinking of the country. We sometimes patronize ourselves by saying or thinking that the caste system is dead and gone in Sri Lanka. But that is not simply the case. The caste ideology is well and kicking. Those who are most communal minded are probably the ones who are most caste minded.<\/p>\n

I was recently writing an essay on human rights and the 1978 constitution and wondered why it is so much difficult for the todays Sri Lankans to accept universal human rights. My observation after some contemplation was that because they are (perhaps unconsciously) strongly caste minded. There is a perennial difficulty for many Sri Lankans to grasp and accept the concept of equality due to caste ideology. This may possibly change with the new generations. But that is not the case yet.<\/p>\n

The dilemma that Sri Lanka faces in this connection is a historical one, connected with the state and ethnic formation. Let me quote only one paragraph from what I wrote in 2000 (Human Rights, States and Politics: Burma, Cambodia and Sri Lanka<\/em>):<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is interesting to examine how the successive migrant communities from India, or other countries in the region, were absorbed into the society after the establishment of the Sinhalese ethnic state. Except in the case of Kshatriya or royal blood, it is evident that others were absorbed at the bottom of the caste hierarchy. At a very early stage of migration, those who came from Madhura in South India were absorbed as the service castes, who were supposed to function as artisans, craftsman, and manual laborers. The origins of several other so-called low castes in the country, e.g. fisherman and cinnamon peelers, can also be traced to the people who came from South India at a later date. What we can see here is a convergence between the ethnic divide and the caste divide.\u201d (p. 59). <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During 2002, when I was conducting some field research in the interior of the Kalutara District, I came across a caste called Demala Gaththera. Gaththera caste is one of the oppressed castes in the country, popularly believed a \u2018low caste.\u2019 The story was that when some Tamil migrants came to live in the area for some reason, during the early nineteenth century, they were called Demala Gaththera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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