50 Responses to “Danger Signs We Ignored for 105 Years are Ominously Back on the Horizon”

1. douglas Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 2:18 pm

   Thank you Kumar – True, we still don’t see it is coming. When the Govt. gave a welcome hand to expatriates to come back, it would be interesting to investigate the people who came and who received their dual citizenship and better late than never it was decided to withhold the scheme until some 35,000 cases were to be reviewed. Who are the people who obtained such status and how did they find the required foreign currency investments to open up hotels and other businesses. buy or claim properties in the North and East at such speed and fast tracked the proceures. It is unmistakable to assume that most of such people had amassed wealth through unconvential means and among them we will definitely find the LTTE fund custodins and collectors. Have we done any back-ground checks of these people from the respective countries where they are presently domiciled? We Sri Lankans doubt this very much because of the sudden suspension of the scheme and also no explanation has yet been given by the authorities.

   With this glut of expatriates rushing to North and East , we also find a large scale community development activities are being undertaken by a host of NGOs funded by Foreign Governments. In addition, the Govt. has sent out a large number of ex-LTTE combatants who are supposed to have been “rehabilitated”and they are spread out in these areas from where still large quantities of arms and ammunitions are being unearthed periodically. Also with all the good intentions, the Govt. is also pumping massive funds in the name of development of the infrastructure and development work. In the political arena, we find TNA the once appointed and still the PROXY of the LTTE acting on the same agenda. Don,t we see their tactics in full display in the negotiations with the Govt.? The same tactics of LTTE viz. “to buy time” in attending meetings on the pretext of negotiations and then suddenly withdraw and make statements, and then again go for discussions, send delegates to other countries and hold meetings and discussions with foreign Governmental authorities and diaspora outfits, are very visibly demonstrated. Also in the absence of LTTE the mandating task of the TNA has been taken over by “Prominent members of the Tamil civil society of all walks of life”as reported and captioned “TNA leadership faces admonition from civil society of Eezham Tamils” in Tamil Net on 13 December 2011.

   So, is’nt it time for us to make a good assessment of what is going on around us and see for ourselves what is due to come again, could be in an unthinkable manner and as a surprise too.? At least now, we all peace loving people must tell our Govt. and its mouth pices to stop, merry making and bragging about the victories and image building of heros, and act very cautoiusly and decisively on matters of security of our country and the nation. At least now the Govt. must seriously plan out a strategy to establish a well equipped “Intelligence Unit” comprised of people from all walks of life, such as Professionals (Doctors, Educators, Engineers, Accountants….) Businessmen (Large to Small types) to collect vital information, eqip and straiten the Govt. machinery and the Judiciary to face any danger that is looking in the future.

   The people of Sri Lanka are ready for this presently “invisible threat”, provided the Govt. plays its role sincerely and honoustly. So we request the Governing Authorities to do an honourable task of Governance, by establishing a “NO NONSENSE ADMINISTRATION” without any delay. Now say “enough is enough”.

2. gamunu6 Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 2:28 pm

   THANK YOU Kumar MOSES!
   Very thorough out article with dates, facts & fugures & solutions to relove the PROBLEM NOW. As I mentioned & many more agreed & argued that POLITICAL Parties with RACIAL overtones, Seperation, Racist Slogans & Titles, names under Tamil political parties should be BANNED forthwith.

   JAFFNA should be made to accept any race SINHALESE, MUSLIMS, BURGHERS & other minorities from South & other provincies in Sri Lanka. As in the Western Province / Colombo many TAMILS have constatntly encroached in Wellawatta, Kolpetty, Bambalaitya which are prime land, closer to the sea front.

   WHY do we Sinhalese ALLOW such careless acceptance of mostly Tamils who are hell bent on breaking up the Country. JAFFNA University must be managed by Sinhalese EVEN if they protest & there are enough trained tamils among Sinhalese who would NOT advocate breakuing up the country.

   USING words like TAMIL NATION should be banned( theres ONLY ONE nation-Sri Lanka). Let the Western conpricaries & Govt. stooges who are threatening with HUMAN RIGHTS actions come OUT publicly state their agenda.

   These are ALL accusations, protests done by LTTE & othet tamil sympathisers WHO HOLD Successive Sri Lankan Govts HOSTAGE to grant their unacceptable DEMANDS.

   Even in so called Liberal Canada, this type freedom of associations to DISRUPT democratic way of LIFE, which is accptable to the majority 60% + is curtailed by passing in the parliament of Canada the CLARITY ACT. According to that any resolution & Govt. allowing a condition or benefite MUST first be acceptable to the MAJORITY of CANADIANS.

   Majority in Sri Lanka ARE Sinhalese & Budhists. So Govt. is quite correct these TWO conditios MUST be met before any other resolution or GRANT of concessions be afforded.

   Your article is an EYE OPENER to present Govt. & Tamils tha MILITARY will be there ALWAYS top protect the lower caste TAMILS (because Tmail are racists) & other disadvantaged poor people in NORTH & EAST. This WILL NOT happen again if people like you & other Sinhelese as well as Tamils who support our IDEAS, get together and be more vigilant so that ANY MEETINGS of the kinds mentioned in your article SHOULD NEVER be allowed, in the future.

   At prsent at least from what we gather MILITARY is always there in any peaceful protets, as well to check on candlestine operations mushroomong under different names. That UPSETS Tamils who want to get paid by OUR GOVT. but WORK against the welfare of the Govt. that feed them.

   Thanks again for your contribution. I hope our political leaders, LISTEN & take NOTICE that if the Govt. tries to please the TNA hoping that that would be the end, ITS NOT, its the beginning of FURTHER DEMANDS. If they are UNHAPPY go to Indian TAMIL NADU or South Africa and sette their. SRI lanka is or law abiding people. ONE NATION UNDER ONE FLAG.

   ~ Gamunu Alahakkone. retd Engineer- Canada

3. Lorenzo Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 3:10 pm

   I LOVE this part.

   “In April, 1971, Thangathurai, known as mama ( uncle) and some 15 others were making explosives at the Thondamanar high school when a bomb went off, seriously injuring Chinna Sothi.”

   May be they got it from the JVP. But the fact that they were making bombs in a GOVERNMENT HIGH SCHOOL is simply awesome!!!

   Both JVP and LTTE use schools and universities to do their dirty work.

4. mario_perera Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 7:08 pm

   “The only political solution is ethnic integration, especially in the north by creating multi ethnic colonies. Any other political solution will fail and end up in war again.” This is it, Kumar. This is the solution, the only solution.

   Thank you Kumar for pinpointing over and over again what is in store for the country if things continue “as if nothing happened”. In short why the hell did the government fight the bloody war which ruined the country if the same pre-war scenario us cropping up again and no sounds of alarm emanate from government sources?
   Articles appear incessantly highlighting the cancer-like corruption and violence that has gripped the governing circles, near and far, like ripples on a lake, but life goes on like the band on the titanic.
   But every ruler has his Achilles’ heel. The failure to see the writing on the wall, as Kumar has revealed will bring Rajapaske down. The people will forgive all his sins, but not this one, because there is hardly a rural family that has not sacrificed a child or similar to win this war. Continuing as if ‘nothing occurred’ is a sin that has no forgiveness.
   I repeat your phrase that counts: “The only political solution is ethnic integration, especially in the north by creating multi ethnic colonies. Any other political solution will fail and end up in war again.”
   NB. A query… That the Vellahlas ruled the roost in Jaffna is written in blood. Kumar brings out some hard facts on that count. My query is: would a kind reader remember the ‘temple incident’ (of the 1950’s?) when the Sunderalingam family forcibly prevented low caste Tamils from worshiping in a Kovil, which resulted in violence and blood-shed? There was even a case that followed this outrageous episode.

5. geoff Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 7:43 pm

   @Mario

   It was Suntharalingam family. Sundaralingam was the good policeman who went on to join Interpol.

   The wretched of the earth
   Into the turbulence of Jaffna Part 7
   (a chapter extracted from the author’s unpublished memoirs, titled “Dilemmas”)

   By Neville Jayaweera

   In the early 1960s, a black psychiatrist from Martinique named Franz Fanon wrote an explosive little book titled the “The wretched of the earth”. The book provided a centre of integration for much of the New Left thinking of that era, and equally, fuelled many of the insurrectionary movements in Africa and Latin America of that time. The wretched of the earth were the faceless, anonymous, underclass of various societies, who for centuries had been crushed, degraded and marginalized by a dominant class. Generation after generation, the dominant class had programmed their minds to believe that their degradation had been ordained by the natural order of things, and in the case of the Tamil underclass by God himself, so that all self-belief and a sense of self-identity on which they could build their lives had been squeezed out of them.

   Fanon’s work was based mostly on data he had collected while working as a psychiatrist in Algeria where the oppression of the local people by the French was one of the most brutal chapters in the history of colonialism. Fanon could as well have written that book had he collected his data from among the so called pariah casts of Jaffna.

   The hyperbole here is deliberate. It is the only way I can draw the attention of my readers to the appalling tragedy of the Tamil underclass, at least as it was in the mid 1960s when I discovered it, and as it had been for thousands of years before that. The Tamil underclass of Jaffna was referred to variously as the depressed, scheduled or pariah castes. However, throughout the rest of this chapter I shall refer to these unfortunate people simply as non-Vellalas because on principle, I do not refer to people by names that connote inferiority or are pejorative of them. In the 1960s the underclass constituted almost 60% of a population of 700,000 Tamils in the Jaffna District.

   What follows is a narration of how I got drawn into a study of that phenomenon, and a record of my paltry efforts at alleviating it.

   Denial of temple entry

   Once the political storms had subsided and my administration had resumed course on a seemingly calm sea, I sensed another storm cloud gathering over the horizon. However this time, it was not a conflict with the government that was rearing its head but an internal conflict, between the Brahmin and Vellala owned temple authorities on one side, and the non-Vellala castes on the other.

   The Brahmins, who were at the apex of the caste ladder, were primarily a priestly group, mostly officiating in temples, and their numbers among the people of Jaffna were too minuscule to provide a basis for power.

   The Vellalas were the next rung on the caste ladder. Although they constituted only about 40% of the total Tamil population, they were the dominant caste, but they were more than merely a dominant caste. They also constituted an economic class, a formidable power system, owning most of the means of production, and exercising total social, economic and political control.

   The non–Vellalas were all those castes who fell outside the Vellala fold, and included even the fisher folk. They owned little or no land and had no basis for economic or social power. For thousands of years, first when they lived in India before they migrated into Jaffna, and later, throughout their sojourn in the Jaffna Peninsula, the non-Vellalas had been subjected to an existence of anonymity and degradation, and had been deprived of access to any means whereby to improve the quality of their lives. One of the most outrageous deprivations they suffered was the denial of access to temples, which was another way of saying that they did not exist even in God’s mind. They were non-persons!

   By the mid 1960s I sensed that the consciousness of the non-Vellalas was hardening and that they had begun to strain at their shackles. The first overt manifestation of unrest was, a demand from them to be given access to all temples, and a readiness to force the issue through civil strife.

   The Prevention of Social Disabilities Act of 1957 had made the denial of entry into places of worship on grounds of caste, an offence. However, as late as 1964 the practice of denying the non-Vellalas entry to temples in Jaffna continued, as if the Act had never been passed. Several delegations from these castes began to see me and protest the refusal of temple authorities to give them access to temples and said that if I did not take action to enforce the law they will take the law into their own hands. Significantly, there were no protests from any of the 11 MPs of my district over my failure to enforce the Social Disabilities Act, and of course they were all from the Vellala caste! Equally sinister was that all 14 DROs of my district seemed to pour cold water on any move by me to even look into the problem, and needless to say the DROs were also from the Vellala caste! I realized I had to do something, but I was hemmed in, without any space for manoeuvre. Therefore I decided that before resorting to law enforcement procedures, I should do some independent probing.

   The responses I got from every leading Hindu citizen of Jaffna whom I consulted was that the denial of entry into temples, and indeed the whole Tamil caste system, was deeply embedded in the Hindu religion, and that any attempt by me to enforce the law will not only be resisted, but will be interpreted as an act of sacrilege, and furthermore, that it will embroil me in a confrontation which will be far more problematic than the attempt to enforce the Sinhala Only policy. Needless to say, all those whom I had consulted were also Vellalas!!

   On the other hand the Christians whom I consulted were all of the opinion that the caste system was evil but they also conformed to it willingly and would not violate its boundaries.

   I realised that the issue that was now confronting me had potential for turmoil on a horrendous scale, especially because I was a Sinhala, and it was easy to allege that that a Sinhala GA was trying to divide Tamil society for political ends.

   On the other hand, I also realized that those whom I had consulted were very sincere in their belief that their religion did really sanction their rigid caste system. However, I was also aware that what they believed was not consistent with the Hindu scriptures that I knew of, but my knowing the truth subjectively was not sufficient. I had to prove it to them objectively. I reasoned therefore that my first priority must be to research the Brahmin/Vellala claim seriously and confront them with my findings before resorting to law enforcement procedures.

   Research

   During the ensuing two years, i.e. between 1964 and 1966, I spent nearly all of my leisure hours in the Jaffna Library (that was the one that was burnt down in the 1980s) with a pundit by my side, pouring over Hindu religious texts, most of which were available in English translations, but some only in Tamil. The outcome of these studies was a monograph running into over 15,000 words in which I proved to any unbiased and rational mind, that the claim that Hindu scriptures sanctioned the Tamil caste system or that they warranted the exclusion of any group of people from temples on grounds of case, had no basis either in the Vedas or in the Saiva scriptures.

   Just when I had finished my work I received transfer orders, so I did not have the opportunity to use my research as a platform to mount any serious programme of social engineering. However, in order to ensure that it got the widest possible readership I released my work to the press, and the Daily News serialized it in a series of articles during the first week of February 1966. I also released copies of my monograph to all the protagonists of the system, especially to Professor C. Suntheralingam, who was their chief ideologue and theoretician, and sent copies to every one of the non-Vellala delegations who had interviewed me. Thereby I ensured that my research findings had been sown as widely as possible, and hoped that even after I had left Jaffna they would bear fruit.

   The monograph setting out my findings on Hinduism and the Tamil caste system, involve references to a great many scriptural texts which will be out of place in the body of this chapter. However, to satisfy the curiosity of those who are driven by a deeper interest, I am attaching the monograph as an appendix to this chapter.

   The storming of Maviddapuram

   My research bore fruit sooner than I expected. Two years after I had left Jaffna, in June 1968, having armed themselves with the scriptural facts that I had uncovered, the non-Vellalas had finally organized themselves effectively into a mass movement, and stormed the great Maviddapuram Temple, the bastion of Brahmanism in Jaffna. Vernon Abeysekera who had succeeded me as GA, and R. Sunderalingam, who had succeeded Jack van Sanden as Suptd. of Police, had tried their best to negotiate a settlement between Prof C. Suntheralingam who was the chief protagonist for the temple authorities, and the non-Vellala crowd, but to no avail. Prof Suntheralingam had stood at the entrance to the temple, flailing his walking stick over his head and threatening anyone who came within striking distance. Eventually, the protestors stormed the temple en masse, carried the day, and once and for all, a terrible injustice that had stained Hindu worship for thousands of years was finally erased.

   The police prosecuted Prof Suntheralingam under the Social Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court fined him Rs 50. In return Prof Suntheralingam filed a private suit against the R. Sunderalingam the Suptd of Police, but the case was thrown out, and Sunderalingam went on to be a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and later the Head of the narcotics division of Interpol.

   The temple entry problem was merely the tip of an iceberg, floating on a vast ocean of unrest. Hidden from view, was a mass of people harbouring deep resentments which had been accumulating for thousands of years without an opportunity for expression, and more than 60% of the population of Jaffna constituted that mass. No one from the outside world had ever given them a thought. Worse still, no one from inside either! They were Franz Fanon’s “The wretched of the earth”.

   What it meant to be a non-Vellala

   Up until the mid 1960s when I was GA, the non-Vellalas performed all the mundane or menial tasks of Tamil society. They were the artisans, the merchants, the potters, the toddy tappers, the tenant farmers and farm labourers, barbers, road sweepers, etc, and not least the warriors. Even the fisher-folk, who among the Sinhala have a preeminent place, were in the eyes of the Vellalas, outcastes. According to a classification done by Simon Casie Chitty of the CCS in the 19th century, there were 152 of these non-Vellala castes in Jaffna, all of them categorized as pariah and the workers and their functions were permanently locked to each other by heredity.

   The central characteristic of Jaffna’s caste structure was the congruence of heredity with economic and social deprivation. That is to say, if someone was born into any of the non-Vellala castes, he was permanently locked into his prescribed role, and was also inextricably tied to his village. He had no opportunities for betterment, or for upward or territorial mobility, however clever or entrepreneurial he may be.

   This was in sharp contrast to the Sinhala caste system, where anyone outside the dominant Goigama caste could not only match, but often excel the Goigama in economic and social power. That was not possible within the Tamil caste system, within which no one outside the hallowed Vellala caste could aspire to heights that were the preserve of the Vellalas.

   Even in the mid 1960s, the following principles defined what it meant to be a non-Vellala.

   1. Regardless of natural endowments, anyone born a non-Vellala was frozen into his particular station for all of his life, be it fishing, tree climbing, road sweeping or whatever. Heredity was a cast iron frame from which there was no escape.

   2. They dared not marry anyone from the Vellala caste.

   3. They were not allowed into premises occupied by the Vellalas except for doing the tasks they was born into.

   4. They did not have access into temples owned or managed by Brahmins or Vellalas. In other words, they were non-persons.

   5. They did not have access into Hindu schools or to proceed for higher education. This barrier was breached effectively only when missionary schools began to proliferate, much to the consternation of Hindu leaders.

   6. They could not reside outside their villages.

   7. They could not drink at the village well nor use any other public amenity outside their own villages.

   8. They could not wear jewellery, nor ride in carriages nor use drums at any ceremony.

   9. When they died they could not be cremated or buried on land reserved for the Vellalas.

   Perhaps things have changed now, but in the 1960s, the Tamil caste system was nearly as oppressive as that in India.

   The awakening of the non- Vellalas

   In the midst of this powder keg of disaffection the missionary schools were like a slow burning fuse. For the first time in the experience of the non-Vellalas, the mission schools opened to them the benefits of education, treated them equally with the Vellalas, and gave them self-respect and dignity.

   In the 1860s Arumuga Navalar, the great Hindu nationalist of Jaffna, led a campaign against the mission schools because they were destabilizing the rigid Hindu social structure. The non-Vellalas, who obviously found the mission schools a means to liberation from centuries of degradation and anonymity, opposed Arumuga Navalar’s campaign, but it was not only the non-Vellalas who opposed Navalar. So did the Vellalas, who found that the mission schools gave them access to government service which was fast becoming their main economic power base.

   Modern communication technologies fanned the fuse ignited by the mission schools into a leaping flame. Even though the people could not travel beyond their villages, these technologies enabled them to travel in their minds and a radical transformation of consciousness got under way.

   Working in tandem, the mission schools and modern communication technologies set in motion a spiral of rising expectations, but because the social and political structures within which the non-Vellalas were trapped gave them no scope for fulfilment, rising expectations rapidly mutated into rising frustrations.

   As the consciousness of the non-Vellalas ignited it was only a matter of time before their rage would burst into a conflagration. The first evidence that the flame was taking hold came in 1970 when two youth organizations called the Marnavar Peravai and The Tamil Liberation Organisation (TLO) were founded with the declared purpose of arming their people and one of those who joined them was a young 18 years old school dropout by the name of Velupillai Pirabakaran. The flame spread rapidly and by the mid 1980s burst into a conflagration. That fire is still burning.

   Two Tamil nationalisms

   One of the dominant fallacies of our times is the claim that Tamil nationalism is a single, undifferentiated, and all encompassing phenomenon, which can be dealt with at a single level. I think not. There are in fact two Tamil nationalisms, the Vellala-led, bourgeois democratic nationalism which focussed primarily on the language issue and the non-Vellala led, insurrectionary, violent nationalism, which focussed on a much wider set of issues. Often they are as much in collision with each other, as they are in contention with the state. Up until about the mid 1980s, the non-Vellala insurrectionary nationalism was content to follow in the wake of the Vellala-led bourgeois nationalism, but as the latter proved increasingly impotent to deliver on the expectations of their people, the former wrested the leadership of the Tamils’ struggle. In a dramatic reversal of roles, the Vellala led bourgeois democratic nationalism started piggy-backing the non-Vellala led insurrectionary violent nationalism.

   Link – island.lk – http://www.island.lk/2008/11/16/features4.html

6. mario_perera Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 7:59 pm

   My dear Geoff,
   When I posed my question I never thought I would received such an exhaustive answer.
   I thank you ever so much.
   Mario
   Mario Perera, Kadawata

7. geoff Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 7:59 pm

   Before Sinhalese messed with the Tamil caste system, Vellalas were with the Sinhalese. There were no major problem. Sinhalese were most welcomed by Vellala people.

   I know it is cruel but why did we mess with it? It was a Tamil internal affair. Caste discrimination was very important for them. Why did SWRD Bandaranayake and others mess with it? They didn’t gain anything. Only trouble.

   On the other hand Tamils never interfered with the Sinhala caste system.

   Sometimes good thinigs have to be done in a good way.

   As Neville says, implementing the social disasbilities act was more difficult (impossible) than the Sinhala only act.

   If you were a Vellala in 1950s this is what happened to you.

   1956 – You lost your language and English supremacy
   1957 – You lost your superpower status, low castes started to come equal to you (I’m not saying it was bad. Only saying.)
   1958 – You lost your security and riots

   Not good.

   SWRD Bandaranayake should have stopped with the Sinhala act.

8. geoff Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 8:02 pm

   You are welcome Mario.

9. Ananda-USA Says:
   January 5th, 2012 at 11:45 pm

   Well said, Kumar Moses!

   A nicely researched article with the correct conclusion, to wit, ETHNIC INTEGRATION with settlement of other communities in the North & East to create a uniform demographic distribution is the ONLY SOLUTION. The GOSL should implement ethnic integration without delay. Fostering intercommunity empathy and harmony by making racial discrimination impossible through settlement and demographic homogenization is the key to a secure future for Sri Lanka.

   Geoff:

   I disagree that eliminating the Sinhala caste system, and allowing the Tamil caste system to continue unabated would have been the right thing to do. We have to be consistent in our policies against discrimination of ALL types, irrespective of whether it is based on ethnicity, religion, caste, sex or wealth. That CONSISTENCY is critical to defending the human rights basis of our policies against Tamil Racism and devolution of power on communal bases geared to transforming Sri Lanka into a discrimination free society.

   Allowing Vellala people to blithely continue their discrimination against other Tamils in the hope that they will develop an enduring friendship for Sinhala people on a non-competing basis is a FALSE HOPE. Moreover, it is downright MORALLY & ETHICALLY WRONG. Once high-caste Tamil discrimination consolidates power, and they feel secure of their position in Tamil society, THEY WILL TURN ON THE SINHALESE, because of the underlying discriminatory ATTITUDES are common to both casteism and racism: commthat inhunal erited attributes and wealth are more important than our intrinsic abilities as individuals and our shared humanity.

   The opposition of the great majority of Sri Lankans to discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste, language, sex or wealth is what makes Sri Lanka stand out in the otherwise culturally related group of South Asian nations. It is that which has laid a solid foundation in Sri Lanka for our hope of becoming the New Wonder of Asia.

   I call this the Buddhist Mindset of the vast majority of Sri Lankans (either directly by practicing Buddhism or by being immersed in a culturally Buddhist society); it has allowed Sri Lanka to attain the highest Human Development Index in the region. In this context, it is appropriate to refer you to my Comment on “The appalling endemic poverty of the Indian masses and its little-explored religious roots. by R Chandrasoma at LankaWeb.com”.

   Whatever jaundiced people of any community may think, caste discrimination within all communities of Sri Lanka must be eradicated irrespective of what SHORT TERM benefits may accrue. Attaining the goal of the New Wonder of Asia, and assuring a secure and satisfying life to our future generations of all communities HINGES on developing a discrimination free society. If Tamil Racism and Tamil Caste Discrimination stands in the way, it MUST BE STAMPED OUT without hesitation.

10. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 1:05 am

    //Since ancient times Tamil invaders tried to take over the island nation. They were violently defeated. Sri Lankan policy makers since 1948 let the past bury its dead and carried on regardless of the imminent danger that was unfolding around them.//

    Moses the Fool:
    Can you show me a single Sri Lankan King or queen married outside of the Royal houses of Tamil Nadu? So, those members of the royal houses fought for their property rights in the past. I think you know the Royals owned the countries in the past.

    After the arrival of nasty Portugeuse only a Don Juan Dharmapala gave Sri Lanka to Pererars and Silvas of Portugal not to Sri Lankan Pererars or Silvas!

    Even the author of Maha Vansa came from Pallava Royal house of Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. King Datusena married two princes from the Pallava Royal house. Bhikku Mahanama was the brother of first wife of King Datusena and came from Tamil Nadu.

    Pallavas ruled Tamil nadu for more than 6 centuries. Everytime Sri Lankan Royal houses had dispute over the throne, they went to the Kings of Tamil Nadu. Story of Mana Vamma or Moggalana the same.

    Dont bring the old Royals into the current British created language mockery.

    Present mess is the result of the colonial rule. Ranil, a Malayalee descendant, a Christian carved out Vanni to LTTE which was under another Malayalee Prabhakaran. A Christian family still control Kelaniya historic Buddhist temple which became the “vampire” house to plan and kill S.W.R.D.Banadranayake.

    Now what are the Sinhala leaders doing to cheat the Sinhala masses? Swindling billions and runaway from the country are the main issues for the so called Sinhala champions!

    LTTE was supported directly and in-directly by UNP Sinhalese because the Tamil and UNP leaderships are always under the control of UK and USA. That is why Ranil and Sambanthan run to UK all the times!

    Moses is silent about the involvement of the Catholic Church in the Bank robberies with Prabhakaran gang. Catholic Church is the loot-keeper of the LTTE even today!

    Those go to Jaffna from South, bend to the Bishop of Jaffna who sit on billions of LTTE loot!

    Catholic Church wanted to carve out Sri lanka using this damn Tamil-Sinhala divide and tried to establish another EAST TIMOR.

    Now the Catholic Church is reaching the power house through the Kitchen. The same Catholic Church was distributing money to all Tamil militant groups at the start in the 70s. One match box is enough to burn down a house. That was given by the catholic church to the Tamil EELAM gangs at the start.

    Is this idiot tell Sinhalese have no caste system? Even the Buddhist “Nikayas” are based on the caste system while Buddha denounced it 2500 years ago!

11. geoff Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 3:13 am

    @Ananda-USA,

    My head agrees with you but my heart is not so sure. When will this end? Kumar says it is repeating. In other words, the solution didn’t resolve the problem fully after 100,000 deaths and USD 1.5 billion every year.

    I’m losing heart for hard action now.

    I agree with Kumar but just that I am losing heart.

12. Christie Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 5:31 am

    There were hardly any Tamils (High caste indians) in the north of the island nation before the arrival of British and Madras Regiments to take over Dutch possessions in 1792.

    Later the British brought high caste Indians to administer the new dominion. Remeber British administered Ceylon for 5 years from 1792 from Madras. All these new arrivals settled in Jaffana as the climate was similar to where they came from. The local Sinhalese were reduced to lower castes. Even today lower castes in India are not allowed to leave their villages by the high castes.

    For Hindus everyone else is a lover caste. I am saying this from my personal and friends experiences. So for all Indians in the island nation everyone else is a lower caste.

    Gong back to the article, there is hardly anything to show Indian involvement in affairs of the island. This is a way of misleading the readers and others.

    Even after the wiping out of the Indian sponsored Tamil terrorists, India has not given up. India and its Persons of Indian Origin and Non Resdent indians are actively pursuing the war crimes against the leaders of the island nation.

    A lower caste may be allowed to rise up to be a high caste but not accepted socially or are never alloed to marry the pure.

    I have heard Mr Vernon Abeyasekara migrated to a western country and was an ardent supporter of Tamil terrorists. Something I have heard about both of them was that when customs from Colombo officially informed their arrival to intercept drugs coming from India the smugglers were tipped off by them. (This may be hearsay but may have some truth)

13. Fran Diaz Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 7:44 am

    As Sri Lankans, we should for the sake of our own survival, ‘divorce’ ourselves from Jaffna/Tamil Nadu caste wars. Jaffna & the East must become multi-ethnic for the sake of us all.

    The Caste System is really a kind of ‘forever slavery’. Until modern day robotics develop to take over menial tasks, the caste system may continue for some time, at least in Tamil Nadu & the rest of India. Robots are already doing a lot of the repetitive, so called menial work. That is why Sc&Tech is very important for India & the SE Asian region. It will set free human beings there & everywhere else. (See Sci-Fi film “Bicentennial Man” with Robin Williams as a bionic servant).

    We should reserve/spend our energies to Develop & Grow within some Ethics & Morality.

14. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    Christie:
    Jaffna had Kings and Queens. Are you telling their relatives are low castes?

    Dutch and English brough converted low castes from Tamil nadu to run schools. Later they become Bishops and so on!

    Check the census of Simon Casie Chetty of 1830. You will find a caste known as MADAPALLAY which was a SOLDIER caste and came with Kalinga Maga from Orissa and they were the dominant caste in Jaffna. At that time vellalas were only 4%.

    Further in Hindu system Vellalas are low caste and Soldier caste is upper caste than Vellaala.

    You tell some cock and bull story. Did you get it from Christians who are the low castes and converted to Christianity?

    Sir.P.Ramanathan belong to the MADAPALLY caste and never converted!

15. Lorenzo Says:
    January 6th, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    Mu-Dalit,

    After a long time.

    As your name says, you are Dalit.

    “There were hardly any Tamils (High caste indians) in the north of the island nation before the arrival of British and Madras Regiments to take over Dutch possessions in 1792.”

    100% true. Vellahlas are Dalits. Their language, religion, culture, practices, traditions, etc. are all Dalit. But Dalits are a RESPECTABLE group of humans. In fact more respectable than what they have become today – Vellahlas.

    Madapallay caste is lower than Vellahla caste!! They were brought by the Dutch for tobacco cultivation in Jaffna.

16. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 2:48 am

    Lorenzo the Peetha Parangiya:

    No Tamil High castes but HINDU High castes were there!

    You are a Tamil Dalit descendant. That is why you are with a name of a Parangiya.

    Athulath Mudali clan also a law caste ?

    Idiot! Madapally were from Orissa and not from S/India. Madapally is a variation of Magadha Pali.

    I think Catholic Church, where most of the Bishops are coming from converted low castes, start history from the times of PORTUGEUSE only.

    Can you tell the origins of madapally if you know?

17. Christie Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 4:39 am

    Tamils and otrher Indians from southern part of the Indian cintinent try to settle in the island nation. It is natural process and it happened to British Isles.

    But those arrvals were always expelled by the people of the island nation.

    Tamils in the island nation are the only group of people in the world who can claim that they have lived in the island for thousands of years and still have the same physical, cultural, relegious, langusge etc that are exactly the same as that of the 70 million or more of Tamils accross the Palk Strait. Something that the English are not.

    Those Vikings and Frech who arrived in the British Isles have integrated wit the locals. Any Tamils or other Indians who have arrived in the island nation have integrated with the locals to form the Sinhala nation. Because before the 18th century sea travel was hazaradous and only the men ventured and settled with the locals.

    The things changed by the time British started to venture. British found gold in India, the colonial parasites and they took this gold, first to Ceylon, then to Mauritius, South Africa, the West Indies, Malaysia, Fiji and other African countires.

    All these colonial parasites when they re-migrate to Western countries they congress to act against the locals of their hosts.

    I am sure most of the Sinhalese have observed this phenminon. Tamke Yamin Sooka who wrote most of the UNSG’s report on Sri Lanka’s conflict. She is a colonial parasite from South Africam Same appiles to Navi Pillai a Tamil.

    So Tamils and other Indian colonial parasites are the super humans of the world.

18. aloy Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 7:21 am

    As JRJ once said, if we do not occupy the borders the borders will occupy us. So, I think the solution is to relocate the capital back to Anuradhapura. The Sinhalese can settle in Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mulaithivu etc. and commute to the capital with an improved road network just as they are doing from Puttlam, Galle and Kegalle today.

19. Lorenzo Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    Mu-Dalit,

    My Dalit friend, there were no HIGH CASTE Tamils in SL before the Dutch introduced this nonsense!!

    If you understand Sinhala, you will know that even your name means that you are a Dalit. (Mu=you). Mu-dalit = you are Dalit. Dalits are a respectable group of people and you should be proud of it. We are very proud of you.

    Only the LOW CASTE Tamils were displaced by the Dutch from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. High caste Tamils were untouched. When LOW CASTE Tamils crossed the sea and landed in SL, they realized there were no OPPRESSIVE high caste Tamils in the island. Then they ASSUMED the high caste. That is what happened.

    All the Vellahlas in SL have DALIT roots. It is perfectly all right for us. We respect all Tamils, etc. IRRESPECTIVE of caste. But you seem to have a problem which is understandable!

    We are making use of this caste nonsense that has infected your mind to divide and rule you. Because of caste you don’t integrate with low caste Tamils. We do. And we pit them against you and put low caste Tamils in charge of high caste Tamils (Dalits). Who has more power Karuna/Douglas/Thonda or Sambandan/Sumanthiran?

    Low caste Tamils will be the RULERS of Dalit (Vellahla) Tamils in SL.

20. Lorenzo Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    Aloy is right. JR to his credit was one of the FEW leaders who didn’t give into Tamil demands.

    DS Senanayake and JRJ were the only leaders who never gave into Tamil demands. JR gave into Indian demands because he was powerless against the invaders.

    Those who gave into Tamil demands ALL died politically thanks to that. Voters never forgave them.

21. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    Lorenzo has DALIT roots becuase DALITS are the target of the missionaries even today for conversions.

    Caste non-sense is always the subject of the Catholic/Christian monkeys!

    You cried about Madapally but you do not know the origins or anything about Madapallay! hehehe.

    Why are the Catholic morons like Rayappu and others hang on with LTTE? You pray a Nazi in Vatican. That is the problem.

    Christians always want their white masters to come and rule Sri lanka. That is why the whites now bark for LTTE!

22. Lorenzo Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 8:26 pm

    Mu-dalit,

    Your language is typical Dalit! There is a Tamil saying that says it takes seven generations to change the caste related behaviour. I don’t believe that but you may well believe it!

    Good work.

    FYI no one prays to anyone in Vatican. Those in Vatican are only human.

    The problem with Rayappu and you is not Catholicism but Tamilism (Dalitism).

23. aloy Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    MUdali,
    Let us stay on the high ground.
    You seem to know some facts about Mahavamsa. Nobody has contested what you said in your comment on 6th January 1.05 am so far. It is true that the person who authored that book entered absolute rubbish in the first chapters by trying to connect a lion to the origin of Sinhala nation. Do you have an idea how the name sinhala came about?.

24. Dham Says:
    January 8th, 2012 at 6:36 am

    Jaffna Tamils are naturally violent aggressive people compared to Tamil Nadu coolies. MS Mu-Dalit proved that.
    We can live well with JTamils, no problem but we must have proper rules to control the lot.

25. Ratanapala Says:
    January 8th, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    The Sinhala place names now Tamilized show the presence of Sinhalese – those who spoke Sinhala in the Jaffna Peninsula. Jaffna Pattnam is a Dutch variation of the word Yapa Patuna – meaning the peninsula ruled by a sub-king. The “J” in dutch sounds “ya” is the “Ya” in sinhala the dutch used.

    Historians during the early Dutch period recorded that there were – more “foreigners’ in Jaffna than the local inhabitants – in this they are referring to the large contingent of Tamil laborers brought from the Malabar coast of South India to tend the tobacco plantations. At that time they were a migrant community with no firm foot hold in the peninsula. After having earned money they used to return to their homelands in South India.

    The same situation prevailed with the so called ” Indian Tamils who were later brought into tend – initially the coffee plantations and later the tea plantations. In order to get the Indian labores to stay on a more permanent basis the Dutch introduced the South Indian Muslim law of Thesawalamai to the peninsula so that those who come to possess land could hold into it indefinitely and then stay on and work. This is the history of the majority Tamils in the North and East today.

    The Sinhalese who stayed were dispossessed of their lands were gradually tamilized and made lower caste. I have personally come across tamil speaking Sinhalese with ge names such as Herath Mudiyanselage Nathan. Nathan’s son will not carry the Sinhala ge name, instead he can take a name such as Nathan Sinnathamby. Tamils have no tradition of carrying on the family name. The genealogy of the Tamils in the North and East will reveal their true identity in time to come.

    The “Upper Class” in Jaffna as well as in the court of Kandy, spoke in Tamil. This is similar to the early Royals in Europe who spoke in French – this included the British as well as the Russian upper classes among others. It was just fashionable to speak in another tongue to show one’s learning and most importantly apartness from the ordinary classes. Several of the Kandyan Chiefs signed the 1815 Kandyan Convention in Tamil!

    “The only political solution is ethnic integration, especially in the north by creating multi ethnic colonies. Any other political solution will fail and end up in war again.” This is it, Kumar. This is the solution, the only solution.

    The following assertions are also true.

    Catholic Church is the loot-keeper of the LTTE even today!

    Catholic Church is still trying to carve out Sri lanka using this damn Tamil-Sinhala divide and tried to establish another EAST TIMOR.

    Now the Catholic Church is reaching the power house through the Temple Trees Kitchen.

26. Dham Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 1:39 am

    ratnapala,
    Are you sure ? I thought this one never visit the kitchen. Bed could be a better place ?

27. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 4:04 am

    Ratnapala:
    Jaffna Kingdom was under MUDALIS who were neither Tamils nor Sinhalese like Kandy or Sigiria.

    Christian missionaries under Dutch Tamilized Jaffna. When Dutch took control of the SL maritimes, they changed the HQ from GOA to Madras. Later they brought teachers to run schools from Tamil nadu.

    Majority Orissaa population and Malayala population of Jaffna became TAMIL after the Christian missionaries in Jaffna.

    Further the KINGS of the old days had no problems of Language. They always worried about the country and the people.

    Ratwatte Dissawe too signed in Tamil in the Kandyan convention. Are we going to cry that Sri Mavo was a Tamil?

    Many Tamils and Sinhalese sign in ENGLISH now. Is it mean those Bandas and Kathasamys are from Britain?

    Catholic Church still make claims over Jaffna and Colombo because both cities were populated during the times of Portugeuse. Further Catholic Church makes a claim that they are still the owners of Sri Lanka because of DON JUAN DHARMAPALA!

    Herath = SERA(th) =KERALA
    MUDIYAN(se)= Elders

    Can any Sinhala Pandit explain what the hell is this “HERATH MUDIYANSELAGE” if I am wrong?

    Sri Lanka is more closer to Kerala than Tamil nadu. If you go to Kerala you will see it.

    My question is:
    We are closer to India and why should we have a “HATE” against India?

    Better bury the Language based problems and try to live in a peaceful way.

28. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 4:25 am

    Dham:
    hahaha.. 1983 was done by all Sinhala soorayo! How is that violence which discredited SL as a nation of Parayas all over the world!

    Aloy:
    Mahavansa was written by the uncle of Sigiri Kasyappa because Bhikku Mahanama hated his own relatives of Kanchipuram who backed Moggalana. Kasyappa was a killer of his own father. The Pallava relatives in Kanchipuram did not support him.

    Why should the Sinhalese of the present day hang on to Tamil Bhikku Mahanama and his story?

    LION was the first emblem of the Pallava Royals. How can we say it is wrong to say that the British ensigninia too has a LION? In the old days it was a custom to compare power with wild animals. Hindu mythical stories have more non-sense than this lion story.

    I challenge anyone on this regard because Bhikku Mahanama, Sigiri Kasyappa and Moggalana were my ancestoral relatives.

29. aloy Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 4:48 am

    Ratnapala,
    I think the only solution is to move our capital back to Anuradhapura or a nearby suitable place. However much we try to send our people to the North they will not go and stay permanently as long as our capital is Colombo or far away Hambanthota. The climatic conditions are hash. Perhaps one of the grievance of the Tamils is this which nobody can solve. The upcountry tamils are quite ok where they are and they do not want to make any noise thinking that they will be ousted. The Jafna Tamils want to have a permanent place inthe north and come and work in Colombo.
    As for the statement by MuDali, that all Sri Lankan kings married from Royal houses of tamilnadu, are there no Sinhala historians to challenge this?. Is it a fact that Bikku Mahanama who wrote Mahavamsa a tamil?. The name mahavansa is not confined to Sri Lanka, there are schools in Brunei named Mahavamsa. Their official greeting is Dirghayu and Kings throne is Singhasana. Hundreds of sinhala/sanskrit words are mixed in Malay language. Does it mean that we had connections to this part of the world also.
    Some twenty five years ago I was presented with a book by a principal of a Colombo school who had done some research work. According to his book the majority of people who established Sinhala colonies in different parts of Sri Lanka came from an area occupied by Pakistan today. The name Sinhala came from there with the connection of a Greek princess around 320 BC (during the reign of Chandra Guptha Maurya). Perhaps Mahavamsa story is not that accurate.

30. Christie Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 6:47 am

    Tamils in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) are the only grpoup in the world who can claim that they lived away from their mother land accross the ocean and have exactly the same characters after thousands of years as they claim.

    Definitely they are super humans and should be allowed to enjoy the priviledges they enjoyed since their actual arrival with British Raj i 1792.

    Similar claims are made by other Indian colonial parasites in the British Indian Empire.

31. Ananda-USA Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 11:28 am

    An Indian Tamil now OPENLY proposes to ECONNOMICALLY ANNEX the North & East of Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu!

    Empower Sri Lankan Tamils Economically & Set up industrial training and engineering institutions in the North & East of Sri Lanka by India TO WHAT END?

    “For economic integration of the markets in these areas with that of Tamil Nadu”!!!!

    Therefore,

    1. India now has the RIGHT to “Set up Training & Engineering Institutions in Sri Lanka” … not by INVITATION of the GOSL but by a UNILATERAL DECISION.

    2. Integration of the North & East of Sri Lanka into Tamil Nadu … economically first, politically second, territorially next? … is the OBJECTIVE.

    Sound very much like ANNEXATION of the NORTH & EASYT of Sri Lanka into Tamil Nadu to me.

    The GOSL should take note of the IMPENDING LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY of Sri Lanka being PLOTTED by Indian Tamils … and take action IMMEDIATELY to ERECT IMMIGRATION, TRAVEL, CUSTOMS, ECONOMIC & SECURITY BARRIERS to these plots to TAKEOVER Sri Lanka.

    EELAM economically by the BACK DOOR is just as bad as EELAM militarily by the FRONT DOOR!

    It is NOT FOR THIS our Brave Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Police … the sons & daughters of Sri Lankan CITIZENS FOUGHT and DIED for the MOTHERLAND!
    …………..
    “Rethink policy to empower Sri Lankan Tamils economically”

    TheHindu.com
    January 09, 2011

    “An alumnus of the College of Engineering, Guindy, Mr. Parthasarathy suggested setting up industrial training and engineering institutions in the North and East of Sri Lanka that would, within a generation, result in the economic integration of the markets in these areas with that of Tamil Nadu—something that Sri Lanka could be persuaded to see as not beneficial merely for Tamils but for the greater common good. “

32. Lorenzo Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    Mu-Dalit,

    SL had HUNDREDS of kings. Just because a handful married from South India (in addition to getting queens from north India, etc. too) doesn’t mean you Dalit can generalise.

    Stop using Tamilnet style “etymological” creations. We have a written history and we know what happened.

    “I challenge anyone on this regard because Bhikku Mahanama, Sigiri Kasyappa and Moggalana were my ancestoral relatives.”

    Not true (unless some rowdy army personnel went on rampage in Jaffna!). Your ancestors came from Tamil Nadu after 1792. No problem.

    There is no evidence to say Mahanama who wrote the Mahavamsa was a Tamil! Look at all the people with the name Mahanama. NONE of them are Tamils! Your version of history is HILARIOUS as Velupillai Prabakaran’s worship of REAL sungods! :)

33. Lorenzo Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    Ananda-USA,

    Very dangerous. GOSL should take a stand.

34. May182009 Says:
    January 9th, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    Re: Sinhalese not settling down in the north willingly

    This is not true.

    1. Harsh climate – Except a very small stretch from Mannar to Delft, the entire Northern Province falls within the DRY ZONE. Hambantota, parts of Matara and Monaragala districts fall within the ARID ZONE!

    For people in the ARID ZONE, the DRY ZONE is like the wet zone!

    2. Water problems – There are NO water problems in Jaffna and Vanni districts! The island’s LARGEST underground water reserves are in Jaffna. You don’t have to dig deep to get water in Jaffna wells.

    Vanni has more rivers per 100 square kilometres than anywhere else in the country.

    3. When Father of the nation DSS settled people in the east under COLONIZATION schemes (for which we should be very grateful for him), came across many obstacles mainly within the Sinhala community. This type of losers should be punished as Tigers were punished. However, he did it.

    Mahaweli the same story. Now what? Those people are there DESPITE LTTE attacks.

    Based on the discussions in Lankaweb, Asiantribune, Defencewire, Defence Analytics, Sri Lanka Defence Forum, etc. the following courses of action have been arrived at.

    What should GOSL do?

    1. Give army families land from the north near army camps. They need not live there. May be there poor relatives, older people can live there. Then a momentum will begin. Register them in the north elections register to vote. They will not vote for TNA!

    2. Give prime mining, farming, fishing lands in the north to Sinhalese. They will go. Expand these. Don’t touch flood prone lands.

    3. Use agricultural produce, fish from newly created Sinhala villages (like this) to supply to the army. This way these villages will do better.

    4. Jaffna has too many schools for too little percentage of people. Convert some of them to Sinhala medium near new settlements.

    5. Follow Premadasa’s Gam Uthawa concept to build new Sinhala villages (Tamil villages are already there).

    6. Give Sinhala speakers incentives in the north.

    7. Resettle ALL Sinhalese and Muslims who were displaced with land. Doesn’t matter they live there or not.

    8. Introduce Sinhala Thesawelamei for the north.

    9. Stop illegal immigrants. Deny medical, educational facilities to illegal immigrants.

    10. Encourage disgrntled Tamil Tiger cadres, etc. to leave the country. Some may leave as asylum seekers. With a few creative solutions, they may NOT necessarily reach their destination! They may lose their way and end up in Tamil Elam!

    11. Ban all race based parties Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Moor, etc.

    12. Divide Tamils into areas, caste, politics and rule them. NEVER allow them to unify. Unifying agents should be eliminated.

35. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 10th, 2012 at 9:57 am

    Lorenzo the Parangiya:
    You do not know anything about your ancestry. You are still in mess whether your ancestry is in Lisbon or Amsterdam.

    I know very well about Tamil/Sinhala history.

    Catholic/Christian mongrals create history of Sri Lanka. That is the worst scenario. They always start history with arrival of criminal Portugeuse.

    Maha Vansa was written in Pali and not in Sinhala or Tamil. The court language of Pallavas were Pali and they left thousands of inscriptions in Pali.

    //As for the statement by MuDali, that all Sri Lankan kings married from Royal houses of tamilnadu, are there no Sinhala historians to challenge this?. //

    This is a challenge because Tamils and Sinhalese are realtives for thousands of years. Kings never worried about the Language.

    The Language problem is a creation of CHRISTIAN rule. Sinhalese/Tamils must understand why Christians still put their nose in the Sri lankan affairs.

36. Lorenzo Says:
    January 10th, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Mu-Dalit,

    You know ONLY about Tamil Nadu history, not SL history.

    That too particularly relating to DALIT history which is your history.

    Pali is the CLOSEST language to Sinhala!!

    If your so called “pallavas” used Pali, that means they were NOT Dravidians! If your so called “pallavas” used Pali, they were obviously NOT Tamils!

    Before the European invaders came SL was SINHALA ONLY. Alien languages – Tamil, English, Portuguese, Dutch were introduced AFTER that. This is a common problem not just in SL but also in Malaysia, Fiji, etc. Tamil alien language was introduced by the DALITS brought by these invaders.

    If your mother tongue is Tamil and was born outside the Tamil homeland Tamil Nadu, chances are you are a Dalit which is a noble community anyway commanding respect just like any other.

37. aloy Says:
    January 10th, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    Lorenzo, MUDali,
    I am not a historian. I only state here what I have read and try to analyze critically.
    It is said that our ancient kings of Anuradhapura period are descendants of Maurya clan(same as King Asoka’s ) of India which is from North(west). Before Chandra Guptha Maurya unified India from Asam to Afganistan there was a King named Sinhala who had given the biggest fight to Alexander the great’s forces and who could not be defeated. So they became friendly with him and gave one of their General’s daughter ( a princess) in marriage. This king had ten children from her and they all came to Sri Lanka via Mangalpura (Mangalore) with their followers when he was pushed out by ChandraGuptha. Sinhala himslf did not set foot in Sri Lanka. They set up colonies in different parts of Sri Lanka. Anuradhapura, Ruhuna and Deeghawapi followed their names. We now know that there had been a Greek settlement at Anuradhapura. Perhaps they helped that princess’ son to plan that city so well complete with sewerage systems in some buildings.
    Has there been anything like it in Tamil Nadu?. Even after almost three thousand years they still carry night soil on their heads!. If we had continued matrimonial alliances with Tamil Nadu Royal houses, what have we got from them as dowry?. Only misery. They complicated matters in our Kandyan kingdom that led to it’s surrender to the British. If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu why is that there is so much of animosity towards Sinhalese?. I was watching a live debate on TV between SL army spokes person and some Chennai intellectuals orchestrated by New Delhi . They were behaving like a pack of heynas. If we had good relationship haw can this happen.
    If Mahawamsa was written by a tamil that cronicle is a concocted story( at least the part written by him). There is a bias towards the people from Vijaya’s clan, the Bengali people.

38. Lorenzo Says:
    January 10th, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    Aloy,

    “If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu why is that there is so much of animosity towards Sinhalese?”

    Exactly!

    If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu, Tamil people would have jumped in joy in streets in 1956 when “their” Sinhala was made the official language replacing “Aangilam”.

    If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu, Tamil people would have jumped in joy in streets in 2009 when “their” Sinhala army defeated Tamil Tigers.

    If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu, Tamil people would never have invaded us like Elara, Chola, etc.

    If we are related to the people of Tamil Nadu, we won’t be talking about some UNKNOWN “Pallavas”. In Sinhala “Wala Pallava” means toilet pit or funeral pit!! Pallava! My foot!

    In Tamil Pallava = Ballava. Ballava means dog.

    e.g. ballawa balannago means please look after the dog.

    Only very few Kandyan kings’ family members from TN. More were from Kerala/Andra. The last king (NIGHT WATCHMAN) was a Tamil! :))

    Mahavamsa refers to Tamil invaders “Damida” which means “barbaric outsider”.
    Mahavamsa was writted by Rev Mahanama under the direction of the Sinhala king in 4 century BC. Mahavamsa is the history of SINHALA!
    BTW Roshan Mahanama is a Sinhalese.

39. aloy Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 2:55 am

    Lorenzo,
    I disagree on what you wrote at the end of your above comment. Mahavamsa was written not in 4th century BC but 4th AD. May be during Kasyapa’s time. If you google, the Wikypedia account says it was written by Monk Nagasena using Dipawamsa and Attakatha which seems to have been lost. Mahavamsa was discovered by the then government agent of Ratanapura, George Turnour, an Englishman in 1826. Everybody believes that what the monk wrote is a true account and starts from there. Mahavamsa itself says Vijaya and his men married again from Royal houses of tamilnadu. What is the guarantee that this version of events recorded is not a concocted one. There had been a wave of migration from the west of India. This is not recorded in it. If it is Vijaya+ TN that originated the Sinhala race then there cannot be a problem with Tamil Nadu now.
    Leaving aside all that let us look at the ruins of Anuradhapura. Do we see anything like it in anywhere in India. People do not try to do things they are not familiar with. Did Vijaya’s people bring that experience from Sihor, their ancestral place. In my opinion our people copied from somewhere, perhaps from Greece.
    Lankaweb should invite a reputed historian to write on this subject.

40. Dilrook Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 3:45 am

    Mahavamsa was written in the 3 – 4 centuries AD. Deepawamsa is an older account. So is Sihala Vattu Puranaya.

    Mahavamsa doesn’t say Vijaya and the crowd married from Tamil Nadu. All it says is they married from “south” or “south of” Madura. This depends on translation and interpretation. There are 2 Madura cities. One is Madura in the very north and the other Madurai in south India. To add to the complexity the king of Madura is referred to as Pandava. North Indian Madura was the centre of power of legendary Pandavas. Madurai in South was the seat of power of Pandyans. Other historical accounts say Vijaya and his crowd married an Kshasthriya princess which means North Indian.

    Anyhow Vijaya and Vijaya (queen’s name was also Vijaya) didn’t have any children.

    Sinhalas were in Lanka before Vijaya’s arrival (543 BC).

    For instance Mahabharata refers to the Sinhalas associated with events that took place much earlier (1100 BC). Although Mahabharata contains many fabrications, reference to Sinhalas and many other real ethnic groups cannot be doubted. Mahabharata also says Sinhalas were the natives of the island of Lanka.

    The Sinhala language is an Indo Aryan language whereas Tamil is a Dravidian language. So one cannot be the origin of the other. Some Tamil extremists try to portray that this region is Dravidian which is hilariously wrong. The entire South Asian region is dominated by Indo Aryan languages. India has over 75% speakers of Indo Aryan dialects. Sri Lanka 85% today. Maldives 100%. Pakistan 100%. Nepal and Bhutan 100%. Bangladesh 100%. Afghanistan 100%. Iran 100%.

    Indo Aryan languages are the norm not the exception in the entire South Asian region. Dravidian languages are the exception which are only found around south India. These are veritable facts.

    Young prince Gemunu once snapped at his mother cursing that his country is trapped between the “Tamil” south India and the sea. Had he only knew geography better at that time, he would have realized that “Tamils” were the exception in the region. However, evidence shows Sinhalese had close contacts with North India despite south Indian invasion of the north during Elara. Velusumana an able horseman was given a number of horses brought from the Sindh region famous for horses.

    Sinhala kings married from various parts of the subcontinent. Kalinga (Orissa) was also a popular place where princesses were brought from. Needless to say this too led to complications later. Sinhapura in the far north east of India and modern day Nepal were other places.

41. Dilrook Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 3:51 am

    Aloy

    Greece and Alexandria were closely connected to ancient Lanka. That is true.

    So was China.

    In the 1 century AD Fa Hien a Chinese Buddhist monk travelled to Lanka. He refers to the island as “Sinhela”. Even today most countries with a longer history than 500 years are referred to by the people of that country. Russia, China, Japan, England, Ireland, Greece, Malaya, Thai, Persia, Arabia.

    Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon to Europeans. People were called Ceylonese (pronounced Silanese). The majority community was known as Sinhalese (pronounced Sinalese). It is not difficult to see that Silanese and Sinalese were one and the same.

42. Christie Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 4:33 am

    Tamils in the island are the only group of people who can claim that they lived away in an island for more thousands of years and have the same physique, color, language, religion and other characters and exactly the same as 80 million Tamils across the sea.

43. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    Aloy:
    Animosity is exists in both sides. No langauge problem before this damn Christians rule of both India and Sri lanka. So, the problem is a new creation and not the fault of the OLD Kings and Queens of both countries.

    Check the Tamira Bharani of Tamil Nadu and Tamba Panni of Sri Lanka. Then you will understand the Pandiya/vijaya story!

    Parangiya Lorenzo:
    Damida =Tamil

    Wala Pallama and not Pallava.

    Your Catholic sakkili explanations about Mahavansa is for more laugh. Talk about your NAZI POPE of Vatican. We will laugh more.

    The same thing the Catholic morons cry about Buddhism! Bhikku Mahanama was from Pallava Royal clan. Only Historians who read the Mahavansa can explain about it and not a coolie tamil catholic convert like you!

    All these are for Buddhists and Hindus. You better shut your rear end! Nasty smell coming from a Catholic moron!

44. M.S.MUdali Says:
    January 11th, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    Dilrook:
    Sri lanka is home for Sinhala Language. No doubt about. But no Sinhala in any part of India at anytime. How? Some traces of Sinhala still exists in Kerala.

    Can you show me a single Srinkan king/queen married in Orissa or any other part of India except Tamil Nadu?

    Maha Bharatha never mention any word as “SINHALA” anywhere. I have read Maha Bharatha well!

    Now Sinhalese try to destroy their own history because of the Christian made Language problem.

    Madura is right. Madura in Tamil Nadu always known as Southern Madura.

    Mahavansa mentions about the formation of a Kingdom by Vijaya. It does not mean all Sinhalese came from Vijaya’s family! Vijaya married SOUTH of Madura. Tamira Bharani =Tamba Panni is located South of present day Madura of Tamil Nadu. Northern Madura vanished under the sea after a Tsunami long ago.

    Tamils claim PANDIYA was TAMIL. Sinhalese claim VIJAYA was Sinhalese. But both were neither Sinhalese nor Tamil.

45. Lorenzo Says:
    January 12th, 2012 at 2:21 am

    Mu-Dalit,

    How can you have a history when you don’t even have a country?

46. Ratanapala Says:
    January 13th, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Aloy, Mudali

    By and large the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are an admixture of various racial groups, mainly from India. What is important, is not where we came from, but who we are today. The fact that a people who spoke Sinhalese inhabited the island is without challenge. They also spoke a language without a hint of a dialect from Point Pedro in the North to Dondra head in the South goes out to show the strength of this language and its linguistic community. At the same time there were pockets of non-Sinhalese communities in different areas of the island. However over millennia, most newcomers and immigrants to the island, ended up becoming Sinhalese and a majority of them Buddhist. This is in summary the history of Sri Lanka prior to the arrival of the Western Christian powers.

    Majority of Tamils now living in the North and East of the island are recent additions to the island of Sri Lanka, mainly during colonial times. The immigrants from earlier times having already integrated and become Sinhalese; this trend reversed during colonial times in the Jaffna peninsula and in the Northern and Eastern coastal areas – Sinhalese speaking people ended up Tamil speakers and finally Tamil. Just as immigrants to America, became American and spoke English, those who came to Sri Lanka became Sinhalese and went on to speak Sinhala. Even today the so-called Colombo Chettis are intermarrying with the Sinhalese and are in the process of becoming Sinhalese!

    As for the names many Sinhalese carry Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and English names. Majority of Sinhalese still sign their names in English. This does not make them any less Sinhalese – just imitators after a fashion less proud of their origins! During early colonial times – Portuguese and Dutch, there were South Indian soldiers who came to fight on the side of the Sinhalese kings who stayed back and became integrated to the Sinhala community. Many of these peoples are from Kerala and some of the ge names show their origin.

    As for the royalty, beginning from King Vijaya times, as we are told the kings married from the Indian Royalty, be they from Madura, Kalinga, Orissa or even Kerala. The fact of the matter is that all these royalties too are interrelated and had little in common with the common man in the regions they reigned. A good example is the British Royalty. A student of history will find that majority European Royalty are descended from a certain person through many lines of descent, such as the numerous European royalty and nobility descended from the British Queen Victoria or King Christian IX of Denmark. The current royal family, now more and more given in to marry commoners for political reasons, has more German blood than English in their veins. In a similar fashion the Sinhala royal families married into South Indian royal families, were actually marrying into the same Kshastriya royal families of India all interrelated through bonds of marriage. After a fashion the spoken language among the European Royalty was French, and in the court of Kandy during the Nayakkar Kings reign it was Tamil. This did not make the language of the British – French nor those in Sri Lanka – Tamil!

    As for the language of the common people, just as English has many latin words in its lexicon, Sinhala too has many Sanskrit and Pali words or their derivatives. This is the same with most of Indochina countries including Malaysia and Indonesia. The language spoken in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, derived from Bahasa Malayu are very much influenced by Sanskrit and Pali as these regions were formerly Buddhist and later Hindu countries before becoming Muslim. Also it is noteworthy to recognize early Buddhist missions to these countries from India during Emperor Asoka times and later from Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka being the repository of Theravada Buddhism. Languages are living mechanisms and constantly evolve to meet challenges on the way.

    Bhikku Mahanama wrote Maha Wansa or Great Dynasty at first, after a fashion that existed in Sri Lanka at that time. The sources for this chronicle were Deepawansa and Sinhala Atta Kata that predate Maha Wansa. As the author Bhikku Mahanama says it was written for the “Serene joy and pleasure of the pious” and contains many exaggerations while also containing many historical truths. Since its discovery it has been a great source of information for the identification of archaeological findings and their dating and most importantly of the history and the hydraulic civilization of the Sinhalese and their rulers. It also helped in the identification of Emperor Askoka for the Indians. Just as Latin was used as the medium for writing the Christian Scriptures, Pali was used for the writing of Mahawamsa and the Tripitaka. Use of dead languages is a practical way to preserve their authenticity for they hardly evolve and thus carry their original meanings intact.

    As for the moving the Capital of Sri Lanka elsewhere, I would suggest that it would be a good idea now to look towards the East and Eastern Countries, rather than the West, and move the Capital to Trincomalee with its great seaport. I would hate to see the Great Buddhist City of Anuradhapura polluted by the presence of a myriad of Christian Churches and Islamic mosques and minarets.

    I agree with Mudali that it was the Portuguese and the Dutch who Tamilized and Christianized Jaffna, the North and the East. The present population of Tamils in the North and East include in the majority South Indian plantation workers were brought to tend the tobacco plantations and the remnants of the Sinhalese who lived there from earlier historical times.

    Sinhala presence in the North and East is sine qua non for the continued peace in Sri Lanka!

47. jimmy Says:
    January 13th, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    Solution to Srilankan problem is to make Meditation mandatory for all Srilankans from age 5- 100
    Thoughts are important than words
    People should learn to replace bad evil thoughts with good thoughts
    I can tolerate any one but not racists
    when a person think he or she is superior to another human being he or she becomes a racist
    when a person thinks other person is inferior to him or her he or she becomes a racist
    When a person thinks good, he does good things , he becomes a good human being ( child of God)
    when a person thinks evil or bad he or she becomes an evil person ( child of Satan)
    The choice for All Srilankans is either to become a child of God or child of Satan

    I have a dream oneday All srilankans will live together without fear or intimidation as a family
    look after each other , help each other be kind to each other, respect each others cultcure and each others religion

48. jimmy Says:
    January 13th, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    (a) Patriotisim of Srilanka should be taught all over the country

    (b) National anthem / Srilankan Flag/ Budhisim should be given importance all over the country

    (c) Spoken sinhala and spoken tamil should be taught at schools

    (d) zero tolerance against racisim. Bring capital punishment for hate crimes
    Sue the monsters who write or speak against any race or cultcure or the Country

    (e) equal opportunity to all Srilankans on Merit

    (f) More important thig is to make meditation compulsary for all ages for next 10 years till people are cured

    as I said before when bad thought come replace with good thought

    This damn life is too short and People should accept each other and live in peace and harmony

49. aloy Says:
    January 13th, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    Ratnapala,
    Thanks for the lengthy explanation. I think our capital should be moved to Trincomalee. Perhaps Gota is the one to take action as he is the one in-charge of urban planning.
    Jimmy,
    Thanks also for your dream.
    Just for curiosity’s sake can anyone suggest how a magnificent city like Anuradhapura sprang up from nowhere, complete with sewerage systems etc. Are there similar ruins in contemporary India?. Where was Vijaya’s capital?. I read Mahawansa about forty years ago. I cannot get hold of the book now.

50. Naram Says:
    January 16th, 2012 at 9:29 am

    I read recently a book about the times of Weliwita Sarananka Sangharaja Thera – 1620 – 1700. After doing much analysis of records of the period in Various temples, and other archives the write Kotagama Vachissara thera had come to the conclusion that the Kandy Kings of the period were Buddhists by name only. THey preferred the company of Saiva priests, ucated Catholic priests, Fathe GOnzales from Andra Pradesh, Pedro Gascogne athe son of a Frenchman and a Portugese lady brought up in Kandy but of Calvinist faith perhaps inherited from father. KIngs liked to hear sharp arguments but remained Hindus in theirinner being the religion of their Nayakker clan, clinging to the tradition of applying ash in the face early morning every day. Weliwita Thera was credited with bringing a Buddhist revival improving the learning and education and weaning the populace away from worshipping various gods – a practice brought by Aandis- folks from Andra pradeshh. Also the caste segregation that became more and more established with Indian Gurus coming in large numbers. He quotes Bandarawaliya, and many books in his thesis and the beliefs in Pattini, Kalu Kumara, Aiyanayake etc of the period.

    Gascoigne, he poet and the secretary to the KIng, himself was beheaded while in prison for conducting a amorous liaison with a queen, but those who killed G also suffered at the hands of the king as they were blamed for not forwarding the plea in verse. e Thera had learnt Pali from Lewke Bandara while he was in the death row for killing Gascoigne.

    Maha Sangha THera oo was to earn Kings displeasure later for not passing the rumour of a plot to kill the King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha a lad whose rise to the throne was helped by the Thera at the start . He was the brother of the queen who had learnt BUddhism from the Thera, and the competition from locals included Kings own son by a local wife. THe KIng helped to to te-institute BUddhism bringing educated Bhikkus from Siam but was not liked by Aristocracy for still clinging on to Hindu and Christian modes. Eventually the Maha THera and learned Bhikkus were banished to forest dwellings.

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