Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

30 July   2021

 

IS PATTI TAMIL OR ENGLISH?

 

 

 

We are a generation of Sri Lankans who complain about discrimination by majority race.  The question that I ask now is whether we of Sri Lankan Tamil origin are practicing ‘Reverse Discrimination’ and hence are trying to become One Tamil group? To me that is un-Australian.

 

The question arose through the Tamil video about how to fill out the Census form? – at How to answer CENSUS QUESTIONS 2021 ft Ash & Shaz - YouTube

My comment was as follows:

[When young ones explain to us 'oldies' what to do - that confirms reversal of our culture - where young ones sought our blessings instead of 'telling us']

This was this morning. Last night, our granddaughter sent me the following message:

[Hi Patti,

I watched this video as homework for my ‘Intercultural Communications’ class, and I thought you would enjoy it! 

It’s a short film called Babakiueria - it goes for about 30 minutes.

Here’s the link:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqcFg4z6EYY

Love,

Aanza :)]

To my mind, the two happened almost at the one ‘time bubble’ – not by chance but due to my commonness. In the Tamil video the young lady says – if your foot gets hit by a stone and you shout ‘Ammah’ then you must say that you speak Tamil.  In my case – my husband and I speak Tamil at home but with our children and grandchildren our language is English. At the same time – none of my children and grandchildren would ‘tell me’ as Ash & Shaz in the Tamil video are doing.

Which one is therefore the real Tamil culture? As per my measure – I am real and they are fake. This morning, I realised also that it was because I pay my respects to my elders that I had the need to need to learn about the law of Thesawlamai applicable to Jaffna Tamils, when my husband’s brother in law – Mr Subramaniam Yoganathan passed away in Vaddukoddai, Northern Sri Lanka. I doubt that Ash & Shaz know about this particular law applicable to Jaffna Tamils. If they did – they would not promote ‘Just Tamil’ to effectively assimilate so that we would also be seen as a majority force relative to Sinhalese. This happens when we apply the seen at surface level. In this instance it is reverse discrimination – confirming we and the Sinhalese have the same value system.

The Human Australian Human Rights Commission presents (unjust) Discrimination as follows :

[Discrimination happens when a person, or a group of people, is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their background or certain personal characteristics. This is known as ‘direct discrimination’……

It is also discrimination when an unreasonable rule or policy applies to everyone but has the effect of disadvantaging some people because of a personal characteristic they share. This is known as ‘indirect discrimination’.]

The above recommendation by young Tamils, confirms indirect discrimination on the basis of proficiency in Tamil. In other words, between an English speaking family and a Tamil speaking family, the above group would allocate more credit to the latter. But during the time I grew up in Jaffna – it was the other way around. Even now, my generation Tamils ask me how come I write well in English? My sister in law – Mrs Saraswathy Sabanathan of Seven Hills – NSW is likely to speak in Tamils with majority in her family. The strange commonness highlighted is that in both cases – money is the driver. Mrs Sabanathan lied in Northern Sri Lankan court – that she did not get dowry. The reason – so she would have a share of Mr Subramaniam Yoganathan’s intestate estate. The reason given by Ash & Shaz is also money specifically for Tamils. If Tamils as a community are valuable and I believe we are – then the rarer we are the more attractive we would be. That is the law of nature.

As per my experience – each time I bear the discrimination pain – rather than take revenge – my intelligence about the whole is heightened. This was the reason why Tamils entered University at a higher rate than other groups in Sri Lanka – until we had our own Universities. Wikipedia confirms this as follows – about the group that included my husband:

[In 1969, the Northern Province, which was largely populated by Tamils and comprised 7% of the population of the country, provided 27.5 percent of the entrants to science-based courses in Sri Lankan universities.]

The parallel of the University of Jaffna is the Tamil Community Centre in Toronto which is reported to have received high level of funding from the Canadian government. This was shown as an example by Ash & Shaz. This would then become another University of Jaffna where students ‘tell’ management.

Some may prefer that to intelligence of the whole. I am an intelligent Tamil and I seek to keep it that way. Hence to the census question about the language spoken at home – my answer is ‘English’ and to the ancestry – it would be Jaffna Tamil ancestry.