{"id":150700,"date":"2025-07-15T07:34:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150700"},"modified":"2025-07-15T07:34:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:34:43","slug":"malabars-thesawalamai-tamil-identity-time-to-reassess-a-colonial-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/07\/15\/malabars-thesawalamai-tamil-identity-time-to-reassess-a-colonial-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMalabars,\u201d Thesawalamai &amp; Tamil Identity: Time to Reassess a Colonial Legacy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Shenali D Waduge<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"429\" height=\"387\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/shenali1507252R.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150702\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/shenali1507252R.jpg 429w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/shenali1507252R-300x271.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Who are the Malabars\u201d? Who coined the term, and when was it first used? What is its connection to Thesawalamai law \u2014 and did this law exist before these so-called Malabars arrived in Sri Lanka? Why are&nbsp;90% of Tamils&nbsp;excluded from a law that is often portrayed as&nbsp;<em>their own<\/em>? Most importantly:&nbsp;Do even Tamils know the answers? Let us examine the&nbsp;historical and legal origins&nbsp;of this complex issue \u2014 one that continues to shape&nbsp;identity, land rights, and legal inequality&nbsp;in post-colonial Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defining Malabars\u201d: A Colonial Label<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citizenslanka.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Tesawalamai-Regulation-Ordinance-No-18-of-1806-E.pdf\">http:\/\/citizenslanka.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Tesawalamai-Regulation-Ordinance-No-18-of-1806-E.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The term Malabar\u201d was a&nbsp;geographic and ethno-geographic label, coined by colonial traders and powers. It did not represent a specific ethnic group. Crucially,&nbsp;neither South Indians nor Sri Lankan Tamils referred to themselves as Malabars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The term was a colonial construct \u2014 a convenient external label used for categorizing communities during administration and legal codification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the arrival of European colonizers (Portuguese, Dutch, and British) in the 15th and 16th centuries,&nbsp;Malabar\u201d&nbsp;was used to describe the southwestern coast of India \u2014 now known as the Malabar Coast. It was a&nbsp;geopolitical term&nbsp;that found its way into colonial policy, census, and legal systems for colonial convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thesawalamai Law &amp; the Malabars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;connection between the term Malabars\u201d and the Thesawalamai law is explicit and central. Thesawalamai \u2014 formally titled Customs and Rules observed among the Malabar Inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna\u201d \u2014 applies specifically to those labelled as Malabars,\u201d brought to northern Sri Lanka from the Malabar Coast and categorized by the Dutch in 1707.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, both the&nbsp;term Malabar\u201d&nbsp;and the&nbsp;law itself&nbsp;are&nbsp;products of European colonialism, not indigenous Tamil identity. This distinction is critical to understanding how identity and law were shaped \u2014 not by Tamil tradition, but by colonial classification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Tamils lived in Jaffna before these colonially-labelled Malabars\u201d were settled, they likely neither identified with the term nor were governed by this new law. If any such unwritten customary laws existed colonial powers may have used or withheld these&nbsp;strategically, as part of their&nbsp;divide-and-rule&nbsp;policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;origins of Thesawalamai&nbsp;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Was Thesawalamai an Indigenous Tamil Law?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The<strong>formal codified version<\/strong>\u00a0of Thesawalamai did not exist before colonial rule.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Was Thesawalamai Created by Colonial Powers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Dutch codified Thesawalamai in<strong>1707<\/strong>\u00a0based on what\u00a0<em>they interpreted<\/em>\u00a0as customs of the Jaffna Tamils \u2014 applicable to those they labelled Malabars.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The British continued this system after 1808.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Malabar\u201d was a<strong>colonial term<\/strong>, not a native one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If it was merely a localized custom, why was it formalized into law for only a small minority? And why has this exclusivity endured \u2014 ignored even by the majority within the Tamil community itself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Importantly, Thesawalamai did not exist in South India, from where the so-called Malabars and Vellalas originated \u2014 confirming that it was a colonial legal creation, not an inherited Tamil custom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thesawalamai did not exist in South India \u2014 proving it was not an inherited Tamil tradition but a law fabricated under colonial rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colonial Engineering: The Import of Malabars, Vellalas &amp; Thesawalamai<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dutch and later the British did not merely identify and record the customs of Tamil people in Jaffna \u2014 they&nbsp;constructed an entire legal-ethnic framework&nbsp;for their administrative control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From South India, they&nbsp;imported three key elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Malabars\u2013 A colonial label for Tamil-speaking settlers brought or favored by the Dutch in the North.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vellalas\u2013 A dominant South Indian agricultural caste, favored and elevated by the Dutch as intermediaries in Jaffna.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thesawalamai\u2013 A supposedly customary\u201d Tamil law, codified by the Dutch in 1707, but\u00a0with no parallel in South Indian legal tradition.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>There is&nbsp;no record&nbsp;of a law called Thesawalamai\u201d existing in South India. This proves that what the Dutch called custom\u201d was in fact&nbsp;a new legal invention, tailored to manage the population they had settled and stratified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Malabars were a label, Vellalas a favored caste, then&nbsp;Thesawalamai was the legal tool&nbsp;used to entrench both \u2014 for administrative convenience and land control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This colonial construction has since been misrepresented as an indigenous\u201d Tamil legal tradition \u2014 despite excluding 90% of Tamils and being entirely a foreign creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why does a law portrayed as Tamil\u201d exclude 90% of Tamils?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why have Tamils embraced a customary law applicable to only 10% of its people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thesawalamai is a&nbsp;personal law&nbsp;with limited applicability,&nbsp;primarily covering:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Malabar Jaffna Tamil descendants:It applies to those Tamils who are descendants of the Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna\u201d and are domiciled in the Northern Province.\u00a0 Any Tamil living in Jaffna not descendants of Malabars are excluded.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Territorial Application:Certain aspects of Thesawalamai (like the right of pre-emption on land) apply to\u00a0<em>all\u00a0<\/em>immovable property within the Northern Province,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite widespread belief that Thesawalamai is a Tamil law,\u201d it legally applies to only a small minority of Tamils.<br><em>How many Tamils know this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Indian Estate Tamils (Up-Country Tamils):A very large segment of Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil population comprises descendants of the\u00a0indentured laborers\u00a0brought by the British from South India,\u00a0primarily in the 19th century,\u00a0to work on plantations in the central highlands.\u00a0These individuals are generally governed by the\u00a0General Law of Sri Lanka\u00a0(which is based on Roman-Dutch and English legal principles),\u00a0not Thesawalamai.\u00a0These laborers were also called Malabars\u201d in colonial documents \u2014 but were entirely different from the Jaffna Malabars\u201d governed by Thesawalamai.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eastern Province Tamils:Tamils residing in the Eastern Province fall under the General Law.\u00a0Thesawalamai does not apply to them. They too were brought from South India &amp; settler-colonized by British.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other Tamils:Those who do not descend from or reside within the historically defined Malabar\u201d Jaffna community are excluded from its scope. It was in 1911 that they created a new nomenclature for themselves as Ceylon Tamils\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Thesawalamai &amp; Land Inequality: A Constitutional Dilemma?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most controversial legacies of Thesawalamai is its&nbsp;restriction on land ownership in the North&nbsp;\u2014 including&nbsp;pre-emption rights,&nbsp;inheritance limits, and&nbsp;purchase bans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These restrictions effectively deny land rights to non-Jaffna Tamils and non-Tamils \u2014 raising questions of legal discrimination constitutionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can land in a&nbsp;post-colonial, democratic republic&nbsp;be legally reserved for a group defined by a colonial-era identity? This raises not only constitutional concerns but also fundamental questions about&nbsp;equality before the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are questions for the Justice Ministry, Minster &amp; AG\u2019s department to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do even Tamils know the Answers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Among Jaffna Tamils<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Some awareness of Thesawalamai as our law,\u201d especially in land matters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Little knowledge of the term Malabar\u201d being coined by colonials<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Few realize 90% of Tamils are excluded from it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Among Estate &amp; Eastern Tamils<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Directly feel the<strong>impact<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 denied land access (purchase) in Jaffna.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The irony is : A law presumed to represent Tamil identity excludes the vast majority \u2014 yet it is often those excluded who defend it most passionately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How many Tamils have questioned the origin of this law or who it truly serves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its limited applicability,&nbsp;<strong>Thesawalamai remains the only customary law specifically applied to Tamils<\/strong>&nbsp;in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why has this Colonial relic endured?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Especially when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It applies to only<strong>a minority of Tamils<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was based on<strong>an externally imposed identity<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It potentially<strong>violates equal property rights<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It fuels<strong>division<\/strong>\u00a0among Tamils themselves<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Public understanding can also be influenced by broader historical narratives,&nbsp;political discourse,&nbsp;and varying levels of legal education.&nbsp;As with any complex legal and historical topic,&nbsp;simplified or even misinformed views can exist, sometimes shaped by broader societal or communal narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The intertwining of Malabar\u201d and Thesawalamai is a testament to Sri Lanka\u2019s complex colonial inheritance. It reveals how&nbsp;<strong>foreign-imposed legal identities<\/strong>&nbsp;continue to influence&nbsp;<strong>property rights, ethnic relations, and the legal system<\/strong>&nbsp;long after independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Thesawalamai was&nbsp;<strong><em>never<\/em><\/strong><strong>&nbsp;practiced in the land where the Malabars and Vellalas came from<\/strong>, then it is not an imported law\u201d \u2014 but a&nbsp;<strong>colonial creation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In reality, what the Dutch and British constructed in Jaffna was a formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Imported Community (Malabars) + Elevated Caste (Vellalas) + Invented Law (Thesawalamai)<\/strong>&nbsp;= A powerful legal framework for colonial control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, this framework continues to survive into the 21st century \u2014 dividing Tamils, excluding Tamils, and restricting land to Tamils &amp; all other communities too (a key constitutional violation) \u2014 in the name of tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Sri Lanka strives for equality and unity, should a colonial-era law \u2014 applicable to only 10% of Tamils \u2014 continue to divide people and distort justice in the 21st century?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shenali D Waduge<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shenali D Waduge Who are the Malabars\u201d? Who coined the term, and when was it first used? What is its connection to Thesawalamai law \u2014 and did this law exist before these so-called Malabars arrived in Sri Lanka? Why are&nbsp;90% of Tamils&nbsp;excluded from a law that is often portrayed as&nbsp;their own? Most importantly:&nbsp;Do even Tamils [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150700","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=150700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}