{"id":103763,"date":"2020-06-20T16:06:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T23:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103763"},"modified":"2020-06-20T16:06:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T23:06:25","slug":"dayan-backs-vellala-caste-fascism-disguised-as-tamil-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/20\/dayan-backs-vellala-caste-fascism-disguised-as-tamil-nationalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayan backs Vellala caste fascism disguised as Tamil nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It\nis curious how the unfortunate Sinhalese, to whom the credit of the decorations\n(of a dance hall for a visiting British dignitary) was due, are always\novershadowed by the more widely known Tamils who are their fellow islanders.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Ceylon in Early British\nTimes, <\/em><\/strong>J. P. <\/em><\/strong>Lewis, CMG, Government Agent of the Northern\nProvince. Left Ceylon in April 1910. Printed and published by the Times\nof Ceylon<\/em><\/strong> Company, Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\ncommunity in Sri Lanka has dehumanized their fellow-man and reduced him\/her to\nthe lowest depths of wretched slavery as the Vellalas\u2014the dominant casteist\nelite of Jaffna — who ruled Jaffna with a fascist fist from feudal times. Nor\nhas any other leadership used its powers to massacre its own people on a mass\nscale as the Tamil leaders. The first mass killer of Tamils was Sankili who\nmarched down to Mannar on the Christmas eve of 1544 and massacred 600 Tamils\nfor not recognising him as sole representative of the Tamils. As Catholics the\nMannar Tamils owed allegiance to the King of Portugal.  The second mass killer\nof Tamils was Prabhakaran, the first- born child of Vadukoddai (Batakotte)\nResolution, written and proclaimed by the Vellala leadership on May 14, 1976.\nBased on the Saivite casteist ideology the Vellalas devalued and degraded their\nown people, the non-Vellalas, to sub-human levels. The Vellala supremacists put\nthe knee to their necks and choked the oppressed Tamils under the hierarchical\nSaivite casteist system, leaving hardly any oxygen for them to breathe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna\nTamil political culture born out of (1) systemic oppression and persecution of\nthe non-Vellalas endorsed in the Thesawalamai <\/em><\/strong>, (2) Saivite\nrituals that determined the Jaffna-centric lives from the womb to tomb,\nand  (3) casteist dogmas of the Vellala Guru, Arumuka Navalar who elevated\nthe Vellalas and anointed them as the God-given rulers of Jaffna, enabled the\nVellalas to tighten their grip on the peninsula. The Vellalas who monopolised\npower and leadership \u2013 no one else was given space to counter their power \u2013\nwrote the darkest chapter in the history of Sri Lanka making Jaffna the\nhell-hole of discrimination and oppression of Tamils by Tamils. In Gramscian\nterms the Vellala hegemony concretised Vellala power which, in its last days,\nturned into Tamil mono-ethnic extremism, which in turn turned into Tamil\nnationalism\u201d \u2013 the last refuge of the decadent and feudal Vellala casteists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconsequences of extreme Vellalaism had frozen Jaffna into a feudal gulag,\nfenced by thatched cadjan leaves. Vellalism warped Jaffna society. In the last\ndays of the British raj, the Vellala hegemonists, moving reluctantly out of the\ndecadent and dying casteist framework into a class, were confused and were\ncasting around looking for a solid ideology to hold the Jaffnaites under their\nhegemony. They realised that the two primary forces that sustained them —\nfeudal casteism and colonial patronage \u2013 were slipping out of their grip.\nBesides, with market forces and modernity creeping into Jaffna, the Vellala\npower-base run on hierarchical casteism, was losing its validity and the\nVellalas were fighting with their backs to the walls for survival. The\nlow-castes too were beginning to assert themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the\nnumerical superiority of the Vellalas (53%) gave them the upper hand. They were\nalso entrenched in their casteist bases because they owned the land, the\nkovils, and schools. They were also in control of local councils and as\nobedient subalterns to the ruling colonial masters, which made  them close\npartners in running the imperial regimes, they had accessibility to preserve\ntheir privileges and push their agenda. Being at the peak of the hierarchical\nHindu-Saivism, the ruling ideology, also gave them the power to enforce the\nrituals that controlled the daily behaviour of the Jaffnaites from the womb to\nthe tomb.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by the\nsecond decade of the 20th<\/sup> century Vellala supremacists were\nbeginning to feel the rising heat against Vellalaism. Creeping modernity was\nundermining its feudal power. Besides the Vellalas were in the process of\ntransiting from a caste into a class. The norms, the bonds and the\nHindu-Saivite ideology that gave them power and held them together were coming\napart slowly but surely. The rise of the English-educated Jaffna youth in the\ntwenties against casteism and communalism was the first organised resistance to\nVellalaism. Retreating from feudalism into modernity was not easy. In the\ntwenties the Tamil youth were ready to make the great leap by abandoning\ncasteism, communalism and feudalism. But the  counter-revolution came\nswiftly from the Vellalas. G. G. Ponnambalam, who was thrown out of Jaffna,\nreturned by shaping the new Vellala agenda. He swung to the other extreme and\nlaid the foundations of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism with his demand 50-50\u201d\nfor 12% of Tamils. The very first racial riot was sparked by Ponnambalam\u2019s\nprovocative anti-Sinhala-Buddhist speech in Navalapaitiya in June 1939. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEnglish-speaking Saivite Jaffna Vellala leaders, who were ensconced comfortably\nin the British administration, were confused and looking for a way out. They never\ntook to liberalism, humanism, socialism, pluralism, multiculturalism etc. Not\neven nationalism. They were only out to protect and consolidate the threatened\npower of the Vellalas. Their first reaction was to ask for one extra seat for\nthe Vellala elite in the Western Province causing the first Constitutional\ncrisis when Governor Manning was in  the process of reconstituting the\nconstitution of the Legislative Council. The demand for an extra had nothing to\ndo with Tamil nationalism\u201d. In fact, one Tamil Legislative Councillor argued\nthat the extra seat was needed to represent the Tamils who had settled down in\nthe Western province to ensure their Thesawalamai<\/em><\/strong> rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a\ntime when nationalism was rising right across the colonised world. It was the\nrage in India. But the Vellala leaders were obsessed with only preserving their\ncasteist rights encoded in the Thesawalamai \u2013 the Bible of the Vellalas. Tamil\nnationalism\u201d, which would have meant an independent movement pushing a\nseparatist agenda, never featured either in their rhetoric or their ideology.\nThe Vellala leadership was jockeying for Vellala casteist  rights encoded\nin the Thesawalamai and not for the rights  of the Tamils which would have\nmeant going into partnership with the low-castes. Nationalism involved a\nsubstantial cross-section of the population. But the Vellalas consistently\nspoke only for the Vellalas and not for the low-caste non-Vellalas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As everyone\nknows, the non-Vellala low-castes were excluded from Vellala society as pariahs,\noutcasts. Besides, in India, one of the key items in the nationalist movement\nwas against oppressive casteism. Nationalism went all out to embrace all layers\nof society. The Vellalas wouldn\u2019t have a bar of it. The Vellalas did not demand\nan extra seat in the name of the oppressed low-caste. They asked for it only as\na demand of the Vellalas by the Vellalas for the Vellalas. Later they would\nclassify it as the grievances, demands and aspirations\u201d of the Tamils.\nPro-Tamil propagandists are now trying to interpret this demand for an extra\nseat for the Vellalas as the first signs of the birth of Tamil\nnationalism\u201d.  But it was the first move of the Vellalas to demand a\ndisproportionate share of power to be equal with the majority. It was a naked\ngrab for power by the Vellala elite as seen in the demand for 50\u201d per cent\nshare of power for 12 % of the population. In fact, the Vellala leaders who\nwere unable to justify the disproportionality of the demand for 50% for a\nminority of 12% argued that 50 percent\u201d demand was not for Tamils only but for\nall minorities. But Tamil nationalism\u201d as it turned out was for the Vellala\nelite only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider\nalso the launch of the separatist movement by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the\nfather of Tamil separatism. It was not done in Jaffna \u2013 the heartland of\nthe  Tamils, as they claim. On December 18, 1949 he launched it in the\nGovernment Clerical Service Union in Maradana. He was addressing the\nEnglish-educated Vellalas who dominated the public service. When he cried\ndiscrimination\u201d he meant jobs for the Vellala boys in the government service\nand not the Tamils \u2013 a medley of Tamil-speaking people with characteristic\nregional and cultural differences. Chelvanayakam\u2019s federalism\u201d,\nself-determination\u201d, Eelam\u201d etc., were ideological labels minted to cover-up\nVellala hegemony that denied  he non-Vellalas their basic rights and rally\nthe oppressed masses around them by pretending to be their saviours when in\nreality their main political objective was to use them as cat\u2019s paw to retain their\ntraditional casteist power, prestige, positions and perks. When in the last\nlines of the Vadukoddai (Batakotte) Resolution they urged the Tamil youth to\ntake up arms and never cease until they achieved Eelam they meant that the\nVellala elders were going to ride on the backs of the youth to power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since they\ncould no longer rule Jaffna on an outdated ideology of casteism in the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury the decadent and feudalistic Vellalas latched on to mono-ethnic\nextremism, crying that the end of the Tamil language and culture is coming.\nThey wrapped themselves round Tamil nationalism\u201d targeting Sinhala-Buddhist as\ntheir bogeyman. They could no longer lay claims to the divine right to rule\nJaffna on Saivite casteism. But they could claim legitimacy as defenders and\nsaviours of the Tamil language and culture which cut across caste divisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dying\ncaste resurfaced as a class, retaining their feudal power, as Tamil\nnationalists\u2019.  It worked for them. They had survived in electoral\npolitics of the post-Donoughmore period only by demonising the\nSinhala-Buddhists. Success in Jaffna politics depended on how effective each\npolitical party was in demonising their Tamil rivals with anti-Sinhala-Buddhist\nhate politics. Those who ran the most effective anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hate\ncampaign won the day. No political ideology that went outside the\nVellala-dominated, mono-ethnic extremism targeting the Sinhala-Buddhist had any\nchance of surviving in the electoral politics of Jaffna.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the\nbeginning of ethnic rivalry, beginning with the one-seat demand in the 1920s,\nthe Vellala leadership paraded on the political stage with unwarranted\narrogance. Their arrogance rose to the point of claiming to be one of the two\nmajorities. Prof. K. M. de Silva in his brilliant analysis of the split in the\nCeylon National Congress wrote that Arunachalam shared the prevailing opinion\nthat the Tamils were not a minority but were one of two majority communities.\u201d\n(p.113 \u2013 Ceylon National Congress in Disarray, 1920 \u2013 1: Sir Ponnambalam\nArunachalam leves the Congress\u201d<\/em> ; The Ceylon Journal of Hisotiral and\nSocial Studies Vol ii, July-Decemeber, 1972, No.2)<\/strong> , K. C. Nithiyandanda,\nthe Secretary of the then powerful Government Clerical Service Union, (the\nuncle of Douglas Devananda), summed it up when he told me: You govern, we\nrule!\u201d.   He meant that the Tamils had the tools of the\nadministration (the executive \u2013 the public service) in their hands to rule\nwhile the Sinhalese had the political power in the legislatures to govern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arunachalam\nsplit the National Congress by pushing a claim for an extra seat for the Tamils\nin the Western province, in addition to the seats given to them in North. (See\nProf. K. M. de Silva\u2019s incisive analysis cited above). The Vellala leadership\nnever stopped increasing their demands since then. They had increased their\ndemands from one seat in the Legislature of 1920 to Federalism (meaning 2\/3rd<\/sup>\nof the North-Eastern coastline and its hinterland (Eelam)) in 1940-50s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark you,\non the eve of independence (1948) the English-speaking Saivite, Jaffna Vellalas\n(SJVs) were the most powerful and privileged community in Sri Lanka. Holding\nkey and disproportionate positions in the public service, professions, economy,\nelevated them to commanding heights of power. When the sun was going down over\nthe British Empire the Tamil father in Jaffna was reaping the harvest of the\nson shining in Colombo. The young English-speaking Vellalas who colonised\nColombo suburbs like Wellawatta(m), were highly priced items in the Jaffna\nmarriage market. In Jaffna the Vellala landowners and political manipulators\nclosed the doors of the peninsula to prevent the other\u201d (asangha) from\nentering their domain. When they replaced casteism with mono-ethnic extremism,\nthey withdrew into their domain excluding outsiders behind the ubiquitous\ncadjan curtain. They resisted the slow but steady invasions of Marxism, which\nswept the South, and stopped it before it could cross the Jaffna lagoon. They\nsuccessfully blocked the invasion any non-Vellala ideology from crossing the\nJaffna Lagoon into the peninsula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nVellalas succeeded in retaining Jaffna as their exclusive domain. But while\nthey kept Jaffna as a mono-ethnic enclave, they had no compunction in\ncolonising the south demanding more jobs, space and power. They were, for\ninstance, demanding pluralism and diversity in the south while excluding any\noutsiders from stepping into Jaffna. Though the Marxists emerged as the biggest\nthreat to the state in the early forties, the Vellalas soon outstripped them\nand turned into the most divisive and disastrous force in the post-Independent\nera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nLeft-wing petered out with the collapse of the Marxist morons in the JVP who\nmisled the Sinhala youth into a premature death. But the Vellalaism gathered\nmomentum as they incrementally escalated their demands pushing mono-ethnic\npolitics to the extreme end of the political spectrum. At its height Vellalaism\nturned into the most critical factor in the post-independent decades. Though\nthey spread their tentacles down South, going right into the heart of Colombo,\nthey never abandoned Jaffna as their base \u2013 the only enclave that gave them all\nthe casteist privileges in the Thesawalamai.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With one\nfoot in the Thesawalamai North, where their laws prevailed, and the other in\nthe South the Vellalas consolidated their power to the maximum possible limit.\nNo other force had challenged the democratically elected state at the centre as\nthe Vellalas. They were the most formidable force that motivated, directed,\nfinanced and organised their political children, the Tigers, to form a state\nwithin a state. Without the Vellala backing the Tigers would have crumbled soon\nafter they began killing their fellow-Tamils (e.g., Alfred Duraiyappah) in the\nseventies. Whether it is inside Jaffna, or outside the Jaffna, or even in the\nDiaspora it is the Vellalas who ran the agenda for the Tamils. At the core of\nall Tamil politics there is an omnipresent Vellala. The financing,\ninternationalising, propagandising, were all done by the Vellalas, taking cover\nin safe havens in the West. The non-Vellala Prabhakaran and his gang merely\ncarried out the killing, torturing, persecuting and the general leg work for\nthe Vellalas who were manipulating the Vadukoddai agenda in the background. It\nis the Vellala global networking and lobbying that enable them to rise as the\ndeadliest terrorist force\u201d (FBI). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, no\nother political group had organised themselves into destructive juggernaut as\nthe Vellalas. The failure to factor in the Vellalas as the overdetermining force\nthat exacerbated the North-South relations distorted the political realities\nbeyond recognition. Their monopoly of power inside the peninsula and their\ncapture of the commanding heights of power in the state bureaucracy,\nprofessions and private sector in the South enabled them to manipulate national\npolitics, particularly to project and propagate the Vellala grab for power as\nthe Tamil nationalism\u201d. Besides, the key issues in the Vellala agenda which\nwere presented as Tamil grievances,\u201d Tamil aspirations\u201d and Tamil demands\u201d\nhad nothing to do with the basic issues of non-Vellala Tamils of Jaffna, nor\nthe Tamil-speaking people in the East, Central Hills or in the Muslim\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\nonly a miniscule fragment of the unwritten, untold history of Jaffna that\nexacerbated North-South relations. It was the Vellalas who prepared, organised,\ninternationalised and financed the forces that led to the futile war declared\nby them in the Vadkoddai Resolution. It was they who violated the crime against\npeace \u2013 the first charge faced by the Nazi criminal at the Nuremberg trials.\nThey committed war crimes and  crimes against humanity. Most of all crimes\nagainst their people. And it is the Vellala moralists who are demanding justice\nfrom the world. This is  like the  Nazis demanding justice from the\nJews! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers would note that the focus so far has\nbeen exclusively on the Vellalas and not on the Tamils. Tamils, as defined\nlater by Chelvanayakam to increase his electoral clout, included all\nTamil-speaking people. It included the Batticoloa Tamils in the East, the\nIndian Tamils of the central hills, the Tamil-speaking Muslims located mainly\nin the East and Western coast. I took care to separate the Tamils from the\nVellalas because they had categorised themselves as a superior caste who\nexcluded some of the Tamils. Since they elevated themselves from the rest of\nthe Tamils with their arrogance and with notions of casteist supremacy,\nostracising the their fellow  Tamils as pariahs \/ untouchables, they\nshould be considered as a separate society entity with a political agenda of\ntheir  own. They were the prime decision-makers at the top. They belong to\nan exclusive political class. As revealed by Jane Russell (Communal\nPolitics Under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931 to 1947)<\/em><\/strong> the low\ncastes were kept out of the Vellala political circles that made the key\ndecision. The Vellalas virtually monopolised power, wealth, and privileges,\nincluding front row seats in the Church!. Chelvanayakam began his separatist\ncampaign only with the Vellalas in the Government service.  Only they had\nthe internal and external political network, manipulative skills, the\nexperience and the connections to organise and pull the levers of power. I use\nthe word Tamil in the larger sense to  include the low-castes. The\nVellalas I consider to be a parasites who sucked the  blood out of the\nTamils to protect and nurture  their  own self-interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though\nthe Vellalas maintained their distinct identity in practically every area, they\nwere conscious of the political need to liaise with all the Tamil-speaking\npeople to increase  their political clout in the electorates. In fact, S.\nJ. V. Chelvanayakam, the father of Tamil separatism, realising the need to form\na Pan Tamil front to present a formidable Tamil force to confront the\nSinhalese, launched the Iyakkum<\/em><\/strong> (movement) of Tamil\nPayasoom Makkal<\/em><\/strong> (the Tamil-speaking people) trying to create a unity\nof all Tamil-speaking people in the whole island inclusive of the\nTamil-speaking Muslims.\u201d (p.70, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of\nSri Lankan Tamil Nationalism (1947 \u2013 1977),<\/em><\/strong> by A. J. Wilson, son-in-law\nof Chelvanayakam).  The non-Vellallas realised soon that the Tamil\ngrievances\u201d, Tamil aspirations\u201d and the Tamil demands\u201d of the Vellala\nVadukoddians had no relevance to their political circumstances, grievances,\naspirations or needs and they left the Iyakkum<\/em><\/strong> for the\n  Vellalas to run it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\nalso meant to be a prelude to examine Dayan Jayatilleka\u2019s political science.\nLike all political scientists \/ commentators he has never factored in the most\nevil and destructive force that came out of Jaffna to exacerbate North-South\ninter-ethnic relations. In fact, his writings have never shown any in-depth\nknowledge of the Vellala factor that made all the difference to peaceful\nco-existence of the nation. He is shedding copious tears to the Tamil\naspirations\u201d, Tamil grievances\u201d, and Tamil demands\u201d which originated from the\nmost privileged bloc in Sri Lanka. As a Marxist he is rooting for the most\nexploitative, cruel, oppressive caste\/class in the history of the nation. What\nis his knowledge of Marxism worth when he can\u2019t distinguish between oppressors\nand the oppressed? Can he explain how the alleged issue of job discrimination\nin government service affected the non-Vellala low-castes in Jaffna who were\nnot even allowed to drink water from the Vellala wells? If he were to shed\ntears should it have been for the Vellala priviligentsia or the persecuted\nTamil slaves kept under subhuman conditions by the Vellala oppressors? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history\nof the Vellalas dovetails neatly into the Marxist and Gramscian models of a\nruling class distorting and exploiting ideology to hang on to power. Clearly,\nDayan has shown no originality in his thinking. He is parroting Tamil\npropaganda which is sophomoronic. He takes to anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hate\npolitics because he has not done his homework. He must have read the Prison\nNotebooks<\/em><\/strong> of Gramsci. But how many books on Tamil history has he read?\nIn expectorating anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hatred, without analysing the dialectics\nof history which rejects mono-causal theories, he comes down to the level of a\nperverted intellectual whose best efforts are in displaying his colossal\nignorance garnished as profound political philosophy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nhappened to the dialectics of the Marxists whose interpretations of history is\nbased on the clash of thesis and anti-thesis? Dayan, the Marxist, is now writing\nhistory as the sound that comes out of a clap with one hand? Like the other\ncommentators he is blaming  only the Sinhala-Buddhists. It is time that\nsmug theoretical humbugs like Dayan gave up theorising for the world to regain\nits normalcy, sanity and peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala It is curious how the unfortunate Sinhalese, to whom the credit of the decorations (of a dance hall for a visiting British dignitary) was due, are always overshadowed by the more widely known Tamils who are their fellow islanders.\u201d \u2013 Ceylon in Early British Times, J. P. Lewis, CMG, Government Agent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}