Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

28 April 2021

 

 

ABUSE OF DOWRY SYSTEM

This morning, after receiving a copy of the certificate of heirship dated on 26 June 2018, from Mallakam Courts, I spoke to Mrs Indrani Balasundaram and she said that god gives everyone as per their own rights and wrongs. This is true. But the question is whether it is positive or negative for us. I rang because we used our status with her son in law – Mahadevan Sritharan to finalise  the marriage with Indrani’s daughter Shangeetha. We sponsored Sritharan as part of our family but it is now a clear case of immigration gone wrong.

The system of Karma works on truth. When we are therefore true to our conscience and live within the guidelines of that conscience, we connect to Universal power of Truth. Hence the voting system is recognised as Universal Franchise.

The LTTE paved the way for Tamils to emigrate and thus abandon the structures developed over generations. The Dowry system was abused by Mahadevan Sritharan’s family who effectively ‘stole’ the traditional home of his mother Sakthidevi. When a property is passed through a particular system – it becomes ‘common’ to all those in a particular family unit that is considered to be ‘sovereign’. Hence the importance of law and order in any country that has attained nationhood. Tamils are claiming to be such a nation. The LTTE fought on that basis. But this is not true and this case is also an example of such false declarations.

We tried many times to keep them connected to the core sovereignty of the system regulated by Thesawalami Law – as applicable to Jaffna Tamils. Accordingly, Sritharan’s mother Sakthidevi received the traditional home as dowry but claimed in court that she did not get any dowry. Effectively it was made out that whatever she now has was earned by her and her husband – Sellathurai Mahadevan who has custody of the traditional home. Effectively Sritharan Mahadevan disconnected with his community elders and the legacy he left behind in Northern Sri Lanka is one that makes orphans of his elders. In other words he also contributed to government takeovers of lands. Today, I wrote as follows in this regard:

[As per my knowledge – LTTE killed political elders and hence they disconnected with political elders’ powers – including that of SJV. They formed their own unit – headed by their armed power. This may not be in harmony with your knowledge and experience. But I write within the truth known to me. Mine is not an opinion but experience based conclusion. As individuals I do like them very much. But beyond that as a system they lost their way. To me that was due to the curse of killing elders. If not we ought to abandon the ceremonies for respecting our parents and elders during marriages and funerals.]

If we are to be independent / sovereign,  we need to pay our respects to our elders or begin from zero base – without any inheritance. In Tamil Hindu philosophy Ganesh did the former and Murugan did the latter. As minorities we earn the right to self-rule only when we renounce – including our common educational titles as Sri Lankans and begin with zero base.