{"id":53929,"date":"2016-04-20T21:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T03:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=53929"},"modified":"2016-04-20T02:25:27","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T09:25:27","slug":"tamils-in-sri-lanka-are-recent-arrivals-from-malabar-coast-and-coromandel-coast-of-south-india-thesawalamai-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/04\/20\/tamils-in-sri-lanka-are-recent-arrivals-from-malabar-coast-and-coromandel-coast-of-south-india-thesawalamai-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamils in Sri Lanka are Recent Arrivals from Malabar Coast and Coromandel Coast of South India (Thesawalamai Law)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Tamils are certainly recent arrivals from the area that is part of today\u2019s Kerala and Tamil Nadu. According to the regulation No. 18 of 1806, the law applicable to The Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna\u201d is the law of Thesawalamai. This very clearly proves Jaffna Tamils are people that came to Sri Lanka from Malabar coast of Kerala. Apart from a very few changes, Thesawalamai\u00a0 law found in Sri Lanka is a carbon copy of Marumakattayam law of Malabar Coast, Kerala. In detail, Jaffna Tamils came from the west coast of South India – states of Travencore (tobacco plantations capital in the 17th century) and Cochin and the Districts of Malabar and South Canara.<\/p>\n

Another wave of Tamils came to Sri Lanka from Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu. They too followed Thesawalamai law in Sri Lanka brought by Malabars with a slight change. They too came to be known as Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna.<\/p>\n

In addition to Malabars (Jaffna Tamils), other Tamils in Sri Lanka\u2019s coastal areas were known as Mukkuwas. Mostly fishermen, they too came from Malabar coast of Kerala and inherited the Mukkuwa law which is very similar to Thesawalamai.<\/p>\n

Further readings on Thesawalamai law – Influence of Hindu Law and Marumakattayam Law on the Laws and Customs of the Tamils of Jaffna by J.M. SWAMINATHAN.<\/p>\n

Calling this law Thesawalamai\u00a0 is deceptive as it means the law of the land\u201d whereas it has absolutely nothing to do with the law of the land in Sri Lanka. Even today, Tamil accent of Jaffna Tamils is very close to Kerala than Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n

Given repeated south Indian (mostly Tamil) invasions since the introduction of Buddhism to the island (all Tamil invasions took place after Buddhism was introduced), it is extremely unlikely that Sinhalas allowed Malabar and Coromandel Coast people to land in the island and continue to live in the island. Their attempts to settle in Lankan territory would certainly have resulted in massacre. However, when the Portuguese, Dutch and British invaders neutralised Sinhala military power, South Indians could have safely landed in the island. Even today, all Tamils in Sri Lanka totally rely on Tamil Nadu made songs, films, artwork and everything that can be called part of Tamil culture.<\/p>\n

The artificial Ceylon Tamil\u201d or Eelam Tamil\u201d ethnicity was created only in 1911 by a Tamil who was in charge of the census. As such, Eelam Tamils have a history of only 105 years in Sri Lanka and half of it is soaked in blood of Sinhalas, Muslims and Indians in their racist quest for a mythical nation called Tamil Eelam\u201d (interestingly another artificial concept created in 1922 by the very same person who created the Eelam Tamil ethnicity in 1911).<\/p>\n

Given these facts, it is utterly absurd for Tamils to claim they lived in Sri Lanka for over 500 years in a Tamil homeland within the island. If at all Tamils had a homeland, it was in Kerala and Tamil Nadu of South India.<\/p>\n

Tamils are entitled to equal individual rights in Sri Lanka but are not entitled to a province, Tamil official or national language and a homeland in the island. Any attempt to carve out a separate nation, federal state or province for Tamils must result in war and the neutralisation\u00a0 of separatists. Ideally the Sri Lankan constitution must clearly specify this defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Tamils are certainly recent arrivals from the area that is part of today\u2019s Kerala and Tamil Nadu. According to the regulation No. 18 of 1806, the law applicable to The Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna\u201d is the law of Thesawalamai. This very clearly proves Jaffna Tamils are people that came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53929","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=53929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}