Sri Lankan Muslims Are Low Caste Tamil Hindu Converts Not Arab Descendants
The recent execution of Rizana
Nafeek in Saudi Arabia has underlined the bogus claim of Arab
ancestry by Sri Lankan Muslims (formerly known as Ceylon Moors). Ms. Nafeek, a
domestic worker from a poor family in the East of Sri Lanka, spoke no language
but Tamil. She requested a Tamil translator but was provided with a
Malayalam-speaking minor employee whose command of the Tamil language was said
to be insufficient. The Saudi authorities showed no clemency. Also, they refused
to recognize her as a person of Arab descent. Her status was indistinguishable
from that of any foreigner in that country.
Ponnanbalam
Ramanathan in 1906 with his future wife, Ms. Harrison (right)
A
fierce controversy has been raging for many years in the country about the
origins of the Tamil-speaking Muslims. In 1885, Sir Ponnambalam
Ramanathan stated in a speech to the Ceylon Legislative Council that
the Tamil-speaking Muslims are low caste Hindus
who converted to Islam. Ramanathan’s thesis was that the Ceylon Moors, as the
Sri Lankan Muslims were then called, were Muslim by religion and Tamil by
ethnicity. Therefore, they did not deserve a separate seat in the Legislative
Council.
In
a paper presented to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1888, Ramanathan said the
Tamil-speaking Muslims share more than just a language with the Tamils. He
provided clinching evidence of the Tamil cultural features of the Tamil-speaking
Muslims in the island. He pointed to Tamil customs such as tying the Tali ,
the eating of Patchoru, and the use of Alatti, that were prevalent among the
Tamil-speaking Muslims. Many Sri Lankan Muslim names such as Periya Marikkar and
Sinna Lebbe are clearly Tamil. Also, he said that the Tamil Hindus and the
Tamil-speaking Muslims were physically indistinguishable.
Ramanathan
later became the first elected leader of the country. He defeated Sir Marcus
Fernando in the famous battle for the Educated Ceylonese Seat in 1911.
Over
128 years after Ramanathan’s speech, his thesis is intensely relevant. In every
part of the Indian subcontinent, the Muslims claim South Asian descent except
for the Tamil-speaking Muslims of Sri Lanka. The Tamil-speaking Muslims in India
identify themselves as Tamils. The former President of India Abdul Kalam, a
nuclear scientist, unequivocally calls himself a Tamil. AR Rahman, the Grammy
award-winning musician states considers himself a Tamil.
Other
leaders of Indian subcontinent have similarly embraced their South Asian
ancestry. In India, many Muslims identify themselves as Kannadigas, Gujaratis,
Kashmiris, Tamils and Malayalees. MA Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, said he
was a Gujarati. ZA Bhutto always said that he was a Sindi. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
stated that he was a Bengali. The vast majority of Bangladeshi say they are
Bengalis. The largest ethnic group in Pakistan are the Punjabis. There is even a
small Tamil Muslim community in Karachi.
Tamil
is the mother tongue of over 99% of the Sri Lankan Muslims. The Islamic sermons
are overwhelmingly delivered in Tamil even in the Sinhalese majority districts
of Kandy, Matara and Galle. Gujarati Muslims in Sri Lanka like myself cannot
follow the Islamic sermons in that inpenetrable Dravidian language.
The
Sri Lankan Muslim claim of Arab ancestry is not corroborated by the Arabs
themselves. They treat the Sri Lankan Muslims as lowly converts speaking a
strange tongue. Many Tamil-speaking Muslims from Sri Lanka have gone to the
Middle-East looking for a homecoming. But, the homecoming was not forthcoming,
as the cruelty inflicted on Rizana Nafeek shows.
There
can be no greater endorsement of Ramanathan’s view than the hysterical response
of the Sri Lankan Muslims. Massive tomes consisting of fake geneology and
spurious theories have published to support the Arab origins. Ramanathan has
been angrily vilified well into the 21st century. Anger often follows an
uncomfortable truth.
The
angry authors include ILM Abdul Azeez, the President of the Moors Union, who
claimed in the Muslim Guardian in 1907 that “Most of the ancestors of the Ceylon
Moors were, according to tradition, members of the family of Hashim.” He did not
explain how the vast majority of the Ceylon Moors do not speak a single word of
Arabic, but overwhelming speak Tamil. Other specious claims have been made by
irate academics such as Qadri Ismail and Mirak Raheem. These include the curious
claim that the Arab traders spoke Tamil because they married Tamil women.
The
anti-Halal campaign of the Bodhu
Bala Sena has put the Muslims of Sri Lanka back in the spotlight.
Former Ambassador Izeth Hussain has written in the Island recently that the Sri
Lankan Muslims are the most servile minority in the country.
Izeth
Hussain is correct. Sri Lankan Muslims have prostrated themselves in front of
the communal Sinhalese politicians. Sir Razik Fareed voted for Sinhala to be
made the sole official language in 1944 and 1956. In 1948-9, Dr. MCM Kaleel and
Dr. TB Jayah, who were both in the Cabinet, supported the disenfranchisement of
the Indian community. In August 1983, Dr Kaleel, then President of All Ceylon
Muslim League, justified the massacre as a legitimate response to the Tamil
demand for separate state. He objected to the walkout in the Indian Parliament
by the Indian Muslim League, who were protesting against the anti-Tamil pogrom.
Dr. Kaleel was blind to the fact that many Muslims were killed in the 1983 as
they were mistaken for Tamils.
The
Sri Lankan Muslim are neither fish nor fowl. The Arabs have rejected them. The
Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus are aghast at their specious claims.
Hence,
it is high time that the Sri Lankan Muslims embrace their Tamil ethnicity. Tamil
is the oldest spoken language in the Indian subcontinent. Islamic Tamil
literature has a thousand year heritage. Tamil is the most secular language in
this region. There is a vast body of Tamil literature that embraces Hinduism,
Buddhism, Christianity, Jainism and Islam. Ramanathan was an apostle of peace
and unity. Following him will bring unity to this island and end the misgivings
of this complexed minority.
