Will the Vanni Vellalars be next?
| by Sebastian Rasalingam
( May 30, 2014, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) India obtained Independence after a protracted struggle led by the British-educated brown sahibs of the Kshatriya and Brahamin castes. Ever since, their kith and kin ruled India. A few, like Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit Buddhist, was the exception allowed by the Indian plutocracy as a sign of their “open-mindedness”. Laws were passed designating “scheduled castes”, “other backward castes (OBC) etc. An implicit Manu Dharma was there by cemented into the Indian constitution. It is no secret that Indian Universities are restricted to the upper castes, (de facto if not de jure), while a small stratum of the lower castes are allowed if they are wealthy enough.
Thus, the upper-caste plutocracy ruled India till Nardendra Modi broke the crust, nearly seven decades after the Indian Independence. Modi claims to be a tea-cart pusher form an OBC caste. In fact, he is from the “oil-pressing” caste, i.e., a “cekkati”. In Tamil usage, a “cekkati-mundan” is a “strong but senseless man, fit only to work an oil-press” (i.e., a “sekkuva” in Sinhalese) !
Normally, in Indian and Sri Lankan elections, being “lower caste” is a disqualification, especially among the Hindus, and to a lesser extent among the Buddhists and Jains. Indeed, at the turn of the 20th century, Arunachalam Ramanathan’s win over E. W. Perera was based on Ramanathan being considered “more aupper-caste” even by the Sinhalese gentry (who alone had the vote), ruling out their own co-ethnic Perera. Ramanathan himself wanted the caste system inscribed in the Ceylon constitution, and was dumbfounded by the Donoughmore reforms.
Just as the elite Indian plutocracy ruled India for nearly seven decades, the Vellalar Tamils ruled the Ceylonese (both Tamil and Sinhala) as British proxies, at least up to the days of the State council.
Donoughmore, and free-education transferred the proxy power to the “low-country” Sinhalese, although the Vellalar Tamils continued to dominate the public service, the University and the professions. Even the Tamil journalists and Tamil Marxists are from the Tamil upper castes. The Tamil Marxists (with Shanmugathasan an exception) did not want to discuss caste, and the rank discrimination of Tamils by Tamils. There are hardly any low-caste Tamil journalists to argue their case.
The caste grip of the landed upper-caste Tamils (living in Karuvakkaddu – Cinnamon gardens) over the “lower caste” Tamils ensured that the same families continued to come to power in “elections”.
They mounted anti-Sinhala Tamil nationalism against the Donoughmore reforms. After independence, they pushed separatism to counter the Sinhala-language act . The boiling point of this madness was the Vaddukkodai resolution to do battle against a majority ten times bigger than them.
The Sinhalese extremist answer was the 1983 pogrom, supported by J.R. Jayawardene and tacitly also by Prabhakaran who wanted a final break in the “co-habitation” of Colombo Tamils with the Sinhalese.
The militant “boys” assassinated the Vellalar leaders, hijacked Tamil nationalism and spawned a terrorist movement against the brutality of the State. This was in turn hijacked by the Vellalar leaders who controlled the diaspora and the dollars. They talked to Western governments and ran the NGOs.
So, the Eelam wars did not change the leadership. The Northern Provincial elections of 2013 saw the re-election of the kith and kin of the same old families that ruled the Tamils of Ceylon in 1930. The situation was identical in India. The rise of a low-caste Narendra Modi to the top was not expected even an year ago. At best, he was to be a puppet of Jayalalitha and other chief ministers! However, the “cekkati-mundan” has prevailed. Modi is a determined oil-presser ready to squeeze the oil. India is at last moving to what Donoughmore (and the British Fabians) wanted to achieve in 1930-Ceylon!
Tamil society, subject to the Nallur Orthodoxy of Wigneswaran and Sampanthan, will not change until the Vellalars, the upper-caste Jaffna-University Guru-Sisyan, and the Diaspora puppet-masters are overthrown. That is a tall order. But Narendra Modi carried through an even more tall order.
Narendra Modi is said to have egged Mahinda Rajapaksa to implement the 13th amendment “in full”. So, will Nardendra Modi expand on article 370 giving truly special status to Kashmir? What about Nagaland and other s who demand 370? Or is 370 an aberration to roll back? Modi’s anti-caste “unitary-India” will irritate Tamil Nadu so used to flexing muscles against the center. Tamil Nadu will perhaps show Modi that the 13th amendment is Rajiv’s folly. Why should Modi strengthen Tamil Nadu by installing a Jaffna-based, Prabhakaranist Eelamist chief minster?
And why would sober Vanni Tamils want the 13th amendment to legitimize upper-caste local Rajahs from the old land-owning Karuvakaddu aristocracy ? They were brutal enough to put Tamils in harm’s way in a horrific war against a numerically superior, equally brutal state sector. What guarantees that the next set of local “chief ministers” of Jaffna would not become Sankilis, Prabhakarans, or Tamil versions of Mr. Mervin de Silva, a claimed “descendant of Dutugamunu”!
A 2009 video still of Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban's al-Emara Jihadi Studio. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
• Release terms will send five Guantánamo detainees to Qatar
Saturday 31 May 2014
A controversial and, by many accounts, baffling government policy meant to prevent disclosure of classified information has some current and former intelligence agency employees utterly confused and crying foul. Contrary to official statements that the policy is neither new nor overly restrictive, many spooks interpret it as a blanket prohibition meant to keep them from talking to journalists or speaking publicly about national security issues and controversies.
வடமாகாணத்தில் முக்கிய பிரச்சினையாக இராணுவம் தமது நீர் மற்றும் நில வளங்களை கையகப்படுத்தி வைத்துள்ளது என வடமாகாண முதலமைச்சர் சி.வி.விக்னேஸ்வரன் தெரிவித்தார்.
Buddhism is the world’s most fashionable religion. Men and women of the affluent West are seen seeking relief from their living anxieties, in Buddhist practices like meditation and Zen craft. This trend goes along with an increasing decline in Christian Church attendances in these parts of the world.
Some Opposition parties are making frantic efforts to find a common candidate to vie with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the next presidential election expected early next year. The UNP is planning to launch street protests in a few months as part of its strategy to topple the government. But, why should the Opposition big guns expend their time and energy and, above all, brave bullets, truncheons and water cannon to achieve that goal? They are in a position to try to dislodge the government without much hassle.
[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2014, 14:18 GMT]
Britain has said it will continue to encourage the Sri Lankan government to respect human rights, promote meaningful reconciliation and agree to a political settlement with the Tamil and other opposition parties.
It is also an undeniable fact that GOSL has been deploying its own private army to spy on opposition members, ex-President Chandrika, and media personals.[1]Implicitly, the actions of GOSL prove that it will go to any extent to remain in power and propagate any false stories behind the screen.
by G Pramod Kumar May 30, 2014 
Jayalalithaa. Reuters.
