{"id":120075,"date":"2021-11-06T15:14:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T22:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120075"},"modified":"2021-11-06T15:14:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T22:14:32","slug":"low-caste-malabaris-pretending-to-be-high-caste-jaffna-tamils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/06\/low-caste-malabaris-pretending-to-be-high-caste-jaffna-tamils\/","title":{"rendered":"Low-caste Malabaris pretending to be high-caste Jaffna Tamils"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The year 1505 is a memorable date etched in the minds of those who knows\nanything about the history of Sri Lanka. It is the year in which the Portuguese\narrived and opened up a new chapter in the history of the nation. But hardly\nanyone remembers 1215 \u2013 the year in which the Malabaris of S. India invaded\nJaffna and paved the path for changing the history of the peninsula. A new\nhistory of the Tamils began to unravel in the Northern peninsula of Sri Lanka\nwhen the island was invaded by the Malabaris in 1215.  It is a date\nunder-played and under-reported in the history of the nation. Even the Tamils\nof Jaffna do not make a fuss about this date because it blasts their myth of\nTamils occupying the nation form the dawn of time\u201d, as stated in their famous political\nmanifesto, the Vadukoddai Resolution. The importance of 1215 is in the fact\nthat it is the first year in the history of the Tamils of Jaffna. There was no\npermanent settlement or Tamil kingdom before that. It is the year in which the\nancestors of modern Tamils in Jaffna first set foot in Sri Lanka to settle down\nand make it their permanent home. Jaffna Tamils of today came from the womb of\nthe Malabaris who invaded Sri Lanka in 1215.  As new migrants their\nantecedents do not run beyond 1215 into the classical Sinhala-Buddhist era when\nthe Chola colonialists and other political adventurers ruled Sri Lankan for\nbrief intervals.  That was a different period with no connection to Jaffna\nas the homeland\u201d of Tamils. It was separated not only by time but also by\ngeography and history. For instance, the oldest archaeological finds of burial\nurns in Ponparippu are in  the mainland and not in the peninsula. Jaffna\nowes its existence as an exclusive ethnic enclave to the year 1215 when the\nMalabari invaders opened the gates for the other Malabaris to flood Jaffna and\nbecome permanent settlers.  It was in 1215 that the Jaffna Tamils began to\nmake a history of their own. The fact that there were Tamils in other parts of\nthe island before 1215 doesn\u2019t entitle the Jaffna Tamils who came after 1215 to a\nheritage dating back to pre-Christian times. There is no connectivity between\nthe new migrants who came from Malabar and the old Tamil settlers. They are as\nfar apart as the Jaffna Tamils are from the Indian Tamils in the estates. Just\nas much as the Indian Tamils can claim their heritage from the 19th<\/sup>\ncentury the Jaffna Tamils can claim a history that starts only from 1215 and\nnot from pre-Christian times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrival of the Portuguese in 1505  had a far less impact than the\ninvasion of the Malabaris 1215.  The Portuguese introduced Catholicism,\nthe baila culture and trade with the West on a mass scale \u2013 all of which\nchanged the culture of the nation marginally. Its 114-year occupation (1505 \u2013\n1619) did not lead to the creation of a sizeable enclave of Portuguese which\naccumulated political power to make extreme ethnic  demands. The Western\ncolonisers were only temporary occupiers but not permanent settlers.  Nor\ndid they aim to change the demography of the colonised domain into ethnic\nenclaves packed with their compatriots. Their aim essentially was to exploit\nthe resources for profit. But the Malabari invasion of 1215 was aimed at making\nof Jaffna a permanent colony for Malabari settlers. It is their invasion and\nsubsequent importing of Malabaris on a mass scale that changed the demography\nof Jaffna into a Vellala colony. The mass migration of Malabaris who\ncontributed to the making of modern Jaffna has not received the attention it\ndeserves. The Malabaris are the last invaders who came from  S. India.\nUnlike the other previous invaders from S. India they decided to settle down as\ncolonists in Jaffna. This separates the Malabaris from previous migrants from\nS. India. They were an entirely new category of migrants with no historical\nlinks to previous Tamil-speaking migrants. In settling down as colonists the\ninvading Malabaris began a new history not connected to other Tamils who came\nbefore as merchants, mercenaries, marauders, and political adventurers. It was\nthe Malabari invaders in post-1215 period who increased the Tamil-speaking\npopulation to a dominant demographic position in the peninsula.  It is the\nflooding of Jaffna with the Malabari Vellalas that made it a homeland for the\nVellalas.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The homeland\u201d concept of modern-day Jaffna Tamils began with the\nMalabari settlers. As direct descendants of the Malabaris who had given up the\nidea of going back to their homes in Malabar,  the only option available\nwas to make Jaffna their homeland\u201d.  It was natural for the homeland\u201d\nconcept to develop firmly in the minds of the new colonisers. They eventually\nslipped into the prevailing culture of Jaffna dominated by the Tamil language.\nThere were no major obstacles  for the Tamil-speaking Malabaris to merge\nwith the Tamil-speaking Jaffnaites. The Tamil identity grew with the rise of\nthe new Tamil consciousness created by Arumuka Navalar, the Vellala guru in the\n19th<\/sup> century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As new settlers, with nowhere else to go,  the necessity of making\nJaffna their homeland\u201d gathered a political momentum. Some were imported as\nslaves to the native land owners, who were the early Malabari settlers, and the\nDutch. Their situation was similar to that of the English convicts who settled\ndown in Australia. With no way of going back to their motherland in England\nthey developed an attachment to the new land and became Australians.  They\ngot acclimatised to the new environment. Their new consciousness came out of\nthe new Australian environment. Likewise, the homeless Malabaris became\nJaffnaites. Because they came with the idea of settling down the idea of making\nJaffna their homeland\u201d  turned into a compulsive ideology. They came in\nlarge numbers, wave after wave,  and paved the path for the establishment\nof a permanent settlement for the new colonists. The Dutch colonial masters too\nengaged in importing Malabaris for cheap labour. These migratory waves\nstrengthened the power of the Vellalas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vellala factor that dominates modern Jaffna too came with the\nMalabaris. The Malabaris  were the Sudra Vellalas, lowest-caste in the\nclassical social hierarchy of India. It is the continuous flood of \nMalabari migrants that turned Jaffna into a colony dominated by the Sudra\nVellalas. The other three high castes \u2013 Brahmins, (priests\/intellectuals),\nKshatriya (warriors) and Vaisyas (merchants) \u2013 stayed behind because the Indian\nsastras<\/em><\/strong> (holy texts) forbade high castes to leave the shores of\nIndia. The low-caste Sudra Vellalas came in waves after the first invasion in\n1215. The influx of  Sudra Vellalas swelled the ranks of the\ndemographically miniscule Tamil community in Jaffna. Jaffna then was a\nmulti-ethnic territory shared by the Sinhala-Buddhists and the Muslims. There\nwas a numerically formidable community of Sinhala-Buddhists in Jaffna. It was\nthe flooding of Jaffna with the low-caste Malabaris that led to the rise and\ndominance of the Vellalas in Jaffna. The (1) increased migratory waves of\nMalabaris and (2) the subsequent ethnic cleansing of  the peninsula by the\nJaffna kings of the Buddhists and Muslims tilted the demographic balance in\nfavour of the Vellalas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is these two factors that  led to the creation of near a\nmono-ethnic enclave of Jaffna dominated by the Vellalas. The Jaffnaites of\ntoday are not the direct descendants of the Tamils who came in the first\npre-Christian Mesolithic wave, or later with the imperialist invaders of the\nChola period. Contemporary Jaffna, which the Tamils call their homeland\u201d, was\npopulated by the Malabaris who came in migratory waves from Malabar in the\npost-1215  invasion. Today the Vellalas stand as the majority in Jaffna,\nnearly 52 %. The  Vellala caste increased rapidly from 37 % of the\npopulation of Jaffna in early nineteenth century to over 50 percent today\u201d\nindicates that people of other castes were incorporated into the caste system\nof the Vellalas. (The Ambivalence of Freedom : Slaves in Jaffna, \nSri Lanka in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,<\/em><\/strong> Nira\nWickramasinghe and Alicia Schrikker, in the Journal of Asian Studies<\/em><\/strong>,\nVol. 78. No.3, (August) 2019). For instance, the Madapallis, a caste that was\ncompeting for supremacy in the caste hierarchy, merged with the Vellalas in\ntime and virtually disappeared from the existential demographic map. Besides,\nHindu Jaffna was a land without the Brahmins \u2013 the priest\/intellectual caste\nthat stood at the peak of the Hindu caste hierarchy of India. It is the\nVellalas that stepped in as the substitute for the missing Brahmins at the top.\nThis made Jaffna a mediocre copy of the classical Hindu society of India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hindu society without the Brahmins was like the Roman Catholics without\nthe Pope who derives his sanctity from St. Peter, the original founder of the\nCatholic Church. There is sanctity and legitimacy in coming down directly from\nthe original sacred source. In other words, Vellalaism manufactured in the 13th<\/sup>\ncentury lacked the essential sacred ingredient that made ancient Brahmanism the\ndivinely ordained authority in India. Vellalaism lacked authenticity and\nsanctity of Brahmanism. However, amidst all the contributory strands that led\nto rise of the Vellalas as the dominant force in Jaffna the major factor that\npushed the Vellalas to the top was the flooding of the  Jaffna with the\nlow-caste Vellala colonisers from Malabar. The Malabari demographics made them\nthe formidable force initially. The political power acquired later made it the\ndominant force. The available evidence makes it clear that despite the boasting\nof the high status of the Vellalas, mainly with fake historical claims of\nsanctity drawn from antiquity, they are, by and large, the remnants of the\nlow-caste Malabaris from S. India. In short, the high caste Vellalas of Jaffna\nare the low-caste Malabaris from India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Malabaris invaded Jaffna in 1215 it was occupied by Hindus,\nBuddhists and Muslims. The massive migratory waves of the Sudra Vellalas that\ncame subsequently enabled them to outnumber the coeval communities.  Until\nthe arrival of the Malabaris Jaffna was a multi-ethnic society. The invader,\nMagha Kalinga, became the first king of Jaffna in 1215. It was the Malabari\ninvasions that paved the way to make Jaffna a near mono-ethnic community. It is\nthe descendants of the migrant Malabaris that constitute the majority in Jaffna\ntoday. They were known as Malabaris during the Dutch and the early British\nperiods. Even Hugh Cleghorn, whom the Tamils quote often, referred to the \nTamils as Malabaris. The Malabaris were also imported by the Dutch for cheap\nlabour like the way the British imported new waves of indentured labour from S.\nIndia — Tamils who are not connected to the other Tamils of Sri Lanka except\nin the use of the Tamil language.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first permanent settlement of the Tamils began with the invaders\nfrom Malabar occupying Jaffna, says Prof. K. Indrapala, the first professor of\nhistory of Jaffna University. This  makes the contemporary Jaffnaites the\ndirect descendants of the Malabaris who invaded the North after 1215. They have\nno links to the early Tamil migrants who came in the pre-historic\nMesolithic  wave, or later as Chola invaders. Those migrants either went\nback to India, or settled down in small merchant colonies in Anuradhapura,\nPolonnaruwa, Mannar etc., or assimilated with the Sinhalese. They did not\nsettle down in Jaffna as their homeland. If they considered Jaffna their\nhomeland they would not have settled down outside Jaffna.  The early Tamil\nsettlements of the Mesolithic and the post-Chola periods  were below the\nneck of Jaffna. The early settlers in the mainland were merchants, mercenaries,\nmarauders and political adventurers.  Prof. Indrapala labels the two early\nusurpers Sena and Guttika and Elara as political adventurers\u201d. (p. 46 \u2013 Journal\nof the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,<\/em><\/strong> Vol. XIII, 1969)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, Jaffna became a homeland\u201d for the Tamils only after Magha\nKalinga invaded Sri Lanka in 1215 and made it a colony for the Malabaris to\nsettle down. Jaffna was not the homeland\u201d from the dawn of time\u201d as the\nTamils would like to imagine. Yalapana Vaipava Malai<\/em><\/strong> ((YVM) — a\nhistorical garland) mentions the numerous waves of Vellala migrants from S.\nIndia to Jaffna. Before Jaffna was invaded by the Malabaris, it was shared as\ncommon territory both by the Tamils and the Sinhalese.  The prominent\npresence of Sinhala-Buddhists in Jaffna is known by the numerous Sinhala\nplace-names, says Prof. Indrapala. The presence of the Sinhala-Buddhists must\nhave been significant because YVM mentions several inter-ethnic clashes between\nthe two major communities. Mylvakanam, the historian, also mention the\nSinhala-Buddhist rebelling against the Tamil kings. A political rebellion\nagainst the Tamil king could have taken place only if there was a substantial\nconcentration of Sinhala-Buddhists in Jaffna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later the Jaffna kings ethnically cleansed Jaffna by forcibly dislodging\nthe Sinhala-Buddhists. The insane fury\u201d of Sankili (p. 33 — YVM) turned\ntowards the Sinhala-Buddhists after he exterminated the Tamil Catholics in\nMannar in 1544. After expelling the Sinhala-Buddhists the Tamil insane fury\u201d\nturned against the Muslims. Jaffna became a near mono-ethnic enclave only after\nthe ethnic cleansing of successive Tamil kings. It is this ethnically cleansed\nJaffna that the Jaffnaites call their homeland\u201d now. Jaffna was the homeland\u201d\nof all communities before the ethnic cleansing. After the ethnic cleansing they\nclaimed it to be a mono-ethnic homeland\u201d of only the Tamils. It is to\nreinforce the exclusive claim of Northern territory to the Jaffna Vellalas that\nthe Tamil intellectual industry is engaged indefatigably in rewriting history.\nFor instance, they believe that they are the descendants of the original\nDravidian migrants who came in the Mesolithic era when the recorded historical\nfacts confirm that the Jaffnaites are the descendants of those who arrived only\nafter 1215. So how can they claim a heritage from the dawn of time\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time when the Tamils arrived first is a complex issue that is lost\nin the mists of time. But what is indisputable is that the modern-day Tamils of\nJaffna are the descendants of the Malabaris who are not connected in any way to\nthe early Tamil settlers in the mainland, below the neck of Jaffna. \nAccording to historical facts, Jaffna today is occupied mainly by the\nTamil-speaking Malabaris who flooded Jaffna in the post-1215 invasion and\nsettled down to make it their home.  The descendants of these Malabari\nsettlers are far distant from  the original Tamils who settled down in the\nMesolithic and post-Chola periods. They are as far apart as the Indian Tamils\nin hills are to the  Tamils of Jaffna. Just as much as Jaffnaites of today\nare historically, culturally and politically separate from the Tamils of the\nhill country Indians, the Malabaris who migrated in the 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup>\ncenturies had no links to the early Tamil settlers who domiciled in the\nmainland. The Malabaris are an entirely different wave of Indians, some of whom\nwere imported by the Dutch like the way the British imported indentured labour\nfrom S. India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The different waves of migration from S. India, though they all spoke\nTamil, did not lead to the consolidation of the migrants into one solid front.\nThe Tamils who came in the classical Sinhala-Buddhist era, the Malabaris who\ncame after the invasion of 1215 and the indentured labour imported by the\nBritish are three different waves of migration not linked to each  other.\nTo begin with they came at different periods in time and settled down in\ndifferent regions creating their own cultures. Their cultural differences\nseparated them into different political units, each with their specific needs\nand interests. They failed even to form a cohesive front that would link them\norganically into a formidable common force. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, realising\nthe necessity  to confront the majority Sinhalese with  large\nnumbers, launched the iyakkum<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (movement) of the Thamil\nPayasam Makkal<\/em><\/strong> ( the Tamil-speaking people). But it collapsed as the\nVellala political agenda clashed with the interest of the other Tamil-speaking\nMuslims and Indians. Besides, the regional differences that generated different\ninterests, motivations, and objectives were far stronger than the Tamil\nlanguage that linked them. Other than language, the Malabaris, who later\nbecame  Jaffna Tamils in the 19th<\/sup> century, adopted an ethnic\narrogance that looked down upon all the other Tamil-speaking people. This\nincludes the Batticoloa Tamils who are territorially located in the eastern\npart of Tamil Eelam. Chelvanayakam referred to them superciliously as the\ntrousered people of Batticoloa\u201d. (p. 32 \u2013 S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the\nCrisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947- 1977, A Political Biography<\/em><\/strong>\nby A. J. Wilson.) The arrogance of the low-caste Malabaris who later became the\nhigh-caste Vellalas knew no limits. They went all out to grab the leadership of\nthe proposed pan-Tamil movement which failed because its political agenda was\ndriven by Vellala arrogance and interests. The idea of the Iyakkam\u2019 was to\nunite the Tamil-speaking people against the Sinhalese. But the political agenda\nconsisted mainly that of Vellala issues. They were muscling in to dominate the\nIyakkam\u201d \u2013 a move that did not appeal to the other Tamil-speaking Indian\nestate and Muslim leaders. Even the Vadukoddai War\u201d (a.k.a. Eelam War\u201d)\ncracked wide open and foundered eventually on the regional differences between\nKaruna Amman of the Eastern and Velupillai Prabhakaran of the Northern Province\n\u2013 the arrogant king makers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A close  scrutiny\nof Northern politics will reveal that it has failed repeateadly because they\nhad pursued intransigent and arrogant politics. G. G. Ponnamabalam,\nrepresenting 11 % of Tamils, insisted on getting 50 % of power when he was\ngiven 45% . Prabhakaran who was given maximum power, with international\nguarantees, rejected all offers insisting on 100% of power.  His insane\nfury\u201d (YVM) made him believe that he possessed invincible power to\nachieve  all what he wants. It is the Tamil people that eventually paid\nfor the intransigence and arrogance of their leaders. The Tamils went down the\nwrong track mainly by misreading their history. They still continue to believe\nin a glorified history that is not there. Theirs is an eternal struggle to\novercome the inferiority of their mediocre  history. The perennial agony\nin their psyche is caused by their inability to forget their inglorious\norigins: they can\u2019t accept the historical fact that they are the low-caste\nMalabaris who are pretending to be high-caste Vellalas. It has made them\ncongenital idiots\u201d. (Prof. Kumar David). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fundamental flaw in the Vellala political culture is that they are\nintransigently dressed in Emperor\u2019s clothes, refusing to accept the prediction\nof the revered Tamil prophet  Supathidda-muni who told the Jaffna King:\nThe sovereignty (which has gone to the Portuguese, Dutch and British) \nwill never again come back to your descendants.\u201d  (p. 29 — Yalapana\nVaipava Malai<\/em><\/strong>, translated by C. Brito, 1879.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t it time for the misguided Vellalas to come out of their delusional\ndiadem and face the grim realities of history?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala The year 1505 is a memorable date etched in the minds of those who knows anything about the history of Sri Lanka. It is the year in which the Portuguese arrived and opened up a new chapter in the history of the nation. But hardly anyone remembers 1215 \u2013 the year […]<\/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-120075","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\/120075","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=120075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}