24 April 2023
Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
CASTE
IN VADDUKODDAI
Is caste a current
problem in Sri Lanka?
This question was raised
through the UN also according to BBC report at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCKVCuPh8s4
The
BBC report specifically focused on Vaddukoddai. Given my contribution to that
area, I rejected it at first. Then I was reminded of its existence by a
Facebook posting by Ms Rani Sinnathamby, daughter of our celebrated family elder
Mr Karthigesan (known as Communist Karthigesan).
In that posting Ms Sinnathamby gave credit to the family of Yohananda Sabanathan
– son of Mrs Saraswathi Sabanathan who is my husband’s sister. Rani stated that
they had all gathered to celebrate the festival of Sangarathai Pathrakali Amman
temple. Published also was a family photo taken at Rani’s daughter Sinothaya’s
new home. After that event Rani said to us that ‘blood was thicker than water’.
In
the chapter headed ‘UNTOUCHABILITY’ in my book Different Logics, I wrote
as follows:
Thunaivi
is an independent village of Toddy Tapper / Nalavar caste origin. In terms of hierarchical
status, toddy tapping work ranked low and hence the Nalavar caste ranked low in
the caste based hierarchy. My father
bought a temple at the cusp of Thunaivi and Sangarathai. Sangarathai is a
farmer-caste village. My Aachi / grandmother took care of the temple. My parents
inherited the tiny temple and I have inherited the temple from my parents. With the exception of Rani Karthigesan Sinnathamby, none
of Param’s family come there due to caste based separation. Rani herself inherited the sense
of Commonness from her father who is remembered
and celebrated as an English teacher at Jaffna Hindu College. He is known as Communist Karthigesan. We are now effectively low class
citizens in Vaddukoddai, Northern Sri Lanka. But I feel that Mr Karthigesan lives
with us in Thunaivi, as our Elder. Our living there has freed us from negative
caste based karma which also mutated as Racism, after the expiry of ‘correct by’ date.’
It
was therefore upsetting when Rani stated that ‘blood was thicker than water’. If that were true, I would have celebrated my
side of the family and not Param’s side which Rani was part of. Param’s sister
wrote to us that she did not have to account for funds collected from the estate
of her brother – because my husband was her ‘blood brother’. This is our family
parallel of the Rajapaksa family. This is also the source of caste based
discrimination.
As
per the article ‘UN report highlights caste-based discrimination in
SL’ at https://www.ft.lk/article/533194/UN-report-highlights-caste-based-discrimination-in-SL :
The
report by the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsak-Ndiaye
specifically mentions Sri Lanka in two paragraphs, which describe varying caste
structures in Sinhala, Tamil and Up-Country Tamil communities and the types of
social exclusion lower castes in each group face.
The report notes that despite differences in
caste structure between ethnic groups, a commonality of experience exists
between lower castes of all ethnic groups including “ the avoidance of
inter-caste marriage and the link between lower castes and greater levels of
poverty”. In an official address at the Human Rights Council Izsak-Ndiaye said
that she decided to base this year’s report on caste following information she
received regarding “incidents of discrimination in caste-based and analogous
systems of inherited status”.
A
scathing response by the Sri Lankan Government bashed the report claiming
factual inaccuracies while stating that the term Dalit has“no relevance
whatsoever in the context of Sri Lanka”……………..
Sri
Lankan anti-caste activist and University of Peradeniya Professor Kalinga Tudor
Silva told the Daily FT that neither the UN report nor the response by the Sri
Lankan Government was reflective of the situation on the ground.
Noting the contention between the report and the
Sri Lankan Government, Silva mediated: “In the contested two paragraphs in the
UN report, caste is correctly identified as a continuing social problem in Sri
Lanka as have also been reported by a number of researchers working on caste
here. However, the use of the term Dalit which is typically used to identify
the social outcastes in India is not used in Sri Lanka.”
“The continuing caste problems in Sri Lanka
relate to dignity, social exclusion and continued social recognition of
hereditary social distinctions rather than due to any explicit coercion from above to
carry out hereditary caste occupations as stated in the relevant paragraphs in
the UN report,” explained Silva.’
The
blood connection is the lay person’s version of ‘hereditary social distinctions’ used by Professor Kalinga Tudor Silva.
As
per my discovery, through life in Thunaivi, caste alone is harmless. It needs to
be combined with breach of an accepted merit based system to cause real damage.
In our family testamentary case – that system was/is Thesawalamai law which
also include caste as merit in earlier versions. As I kept stating to our lawyer,
seeking to ‘win’ – to me the Court Proceedings was Memorial Service in honour of
the deceased. But our opponents – the sisters of the deceased lied in court
that they did not get dowry. This resulted in the court ruling that the Estate
was to be shared equally. This was in breach of Thesawalami
law. But due to us continuously challenging the Court process, the Sri Lankan
part of the Estate is yet to be distributed. The UK part that was distributed without
an account, on the basis of blood relationship will cause conflict within the
Vaddukoddai community in UK who seek current benefits from caste. The BBC
report is such a trigger. At the family level two siblings who supported Mrs Sambanthan
in court have passed away. We have opposed the substitution of their children
on the basis that the High Court ruled that the succession is on ‘per-capita’
basis and not on ‘stirpes’ basis.
On
Easter Sunday, we held a memorial service within the Development secretariat so
this Brother Yoganathan’s soul would merge with the Universal Spirit of Truth.
Brother
Moorthi was the only ‘relative’ to attend. Even though the Sabanathan family –
the so-called Blood Relations were attending festival (according to Rani) of
the Sangarathai Pathrakali Amman temple just a few hundred meters from our
temple they were not at the Memorial Service.
This
effectively divided the Vaddukoddai part of our family on caste basis. Would
not have happened if the cultural law of gratitude had been followed or if the heritage
law of Thesawalamai had not been breached by the sisters who double-dipped into
the common wealth. This will happen to all those who did treat the
junior-castes as lower castes. When a junior is cheated by a senior, the junior
becomes an outsider and hence the armed rebellions in Northern and Southern Sri
Lanka. Where the junior is ungrateful to the senior who has provided ‘service’
that has benefited the junior, the standard of ethics of the group that the
junior belongs to goes down. That is the way of Natural Justice. So I wrote on Rani’s
page of Facebook against the positing with Mrs Sabanathan and her son Yohanantha’s
family as follows: - (note Sivam is my husband who has been known as Param after he entered university)
- If not for me and my husband this family would not be in Australia
today. But they cheated us of that higher status and have been separated
by us due to their desire for money. Sivam and I have never been
celebrated by you also Rani on Face Book. As you said recently we relate
to each other differently. As my cousin Kathiravel Anna said to Sivam when
Sivam said to him about my goodness, 'one should not say good or bad about
one family member to another.' This is because one is free to form her/his
opinion within the family. We never influenced you or anyone else for or
against this family. But in action you and your branch of the family have
shown that you prefer this group as family above us. Good to learn that we
are less than this group’
The posting by Rani
with the family photograph and the responses is now missing. I thanked Brother
Yoganathan for the lesson learnt about how the caste virus returns to the true
owners if it is not able to mutate as Racism if it is not cured within its
birth electorate. When the Sri Lankan government addresses race based
discrimination, it automatically addresses the original caste virus also. The Sri
Lankan government has the right to apply the principles of res judicata to
diffuse the UN allegations of casteism. Tamils who continue to effectively
practice the caste system weaken their eligibility to use UN resources for race
discrimination actions’. This ought to have been recognized by the fact that majority
in the Tamil armed rebellion groups were of junior caste. Now all Tamils who
accept their rule have the opportunity to practice reverse discrimination,
facilitate the junior caste to become even. That is the internal measure available
to us.
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