There are 2 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: On Tamil Militarism ; a 11 part essay by D.P.Sivaram written in
1992
From: Rajendhra Cholan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2. Fw: Digest Number 361
From: "Thangavelu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 01:50:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rajendhra Cholan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: On Tamil Militarism ; a 11 part essay by D.P.Sivaram written in
1992
In my personal opinion, a person should be Valorous and and Good.
Tamils are usually very compassionate and this had been a problem, at many
instances. I do not know, about our Eezham brothers, but in Thamizhagam, this
is prevalent. This had made them friendly with all others but, sometime, not
between Tamils.
Even, today, traditional Silambam, is losing its identity slowly. And same with
other tamil martial arts.
Rajendhra Cholan!
þ᧺ó¾¢Ã §º¡Æý!
Å¡ú¸ ÅÇ÷¸ ¾Á¢ú! Å¡ú¸ ÅÇ÷¸ ¾Á¢Æ÷! ±ý¦ÈýÚõ ´í̸ ¾Á¢Æ¸õ!
To read, type and use Thamizh http://www.tamil.net/newtamil/ekalappai_1.html
RVS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Tamil Militarism ; a 11 part essay by D.P.Sivaram written in 1992
Part 4: Militarism and Caste in Jaffna
by D.P. Sivaram
[courtesy: Lanka Guardian, July 1, 1992, pp.9-10 and 14; prepared by
Sachi Sri Kantha, for the electronic record]
Tamil secessionism and Tamil militarism are two sides of the same
coin. Both are legacies of the attempt by the British to demilitarize
Tamil society in the 19th century. Tamil militarism arose from the
grievances of the disfranchised Tamil military castes. Tamil
secession was the result of the political ambitions of the classes
which were promoted by the British to consolidate the gains of
demartialization. Therefore it is necessary to understand the
colonial strategies which were aimed at depriving the traditional
power and status of the Tamil martial castes in Tamil society.
In those regions of India where military service was confined to
specific castes, other castes had no desire to abandon their
traditional occupations for soldiering or for violence. Since the
ability for violence was caste bound, disfranchising or removing a
region's military caste could negate its potential for violence and
rebellion. The earliest attempt to thus demilitarize Tamil society
was made by the Portuguese in Jaffna. A brief examination of their
effort and its impact on the subsequent evolution of society in
Jaffna will help understand better the social and political
consequences of demilitarization in Tamilnadu two centuries later
under British rule.
The Maravar were the traditional soldier caste of Jaffna when the
Portuguese arrived. Once they took control, they set about
dismantling the feudal military system of the peninsula. Military
titles such as Rayer, Athirayer were banned. The traditional soldier
castes were seen as a threat to Portuguese control. In 1627 Lancarote
de Seixas, Captain Major of Jaffna, put forward the idea that the
peninsula's security lay in having none there, but cultivators. Thus
began the rise of the Vellalas in Jaffna. The Portuguese seem to have
also favoured another caste called the Madapalli. The Vellalas were
not only cultivators, but a section of them which had developed
scribal skills, provided the local officials, interpreters and
karnams (accountants). Successive colonial powers found Vellala
scribal groups useful where Brahmins were not forthcoming. Histories
of Jaffna were written and presented to the Portuguese, which showed
the Vellala and the Madapalli as the original and dominant community
of the peninsula.
The Kailaya Malai and the Vaiya Padal, the earliest works on the
colonization of Jaffna, appear to be such histories. They name the
chieftains of Tamilnadu who had brought Tamil colonists to the
peninsula with them. All of them are described as Vellalas. But
eleven of them have Kallar and Maravar caste titles. The Jaffna
Maravar were able to resume their caste occupation under the Dutch,
who met troop shortages through Jaffna's feudal military system which
the Portuguese had attempted to dismantle. The Dutch governor and
director of Ceylon, Thomas van Rhee informed his successor Gerrit de
Heere in 1697, that in the Jaffna peninsula "the Marruas are bound to
serve the Company as Lascoryns (native soldiers) and pay t[w]o Fanams
a year without anything more". But 93 years later, a Dutch census
(1790) of all males between the ages 16-70 in Jaffna recorded that
there were only 49 Maravar males in the peninsula, as against 1,570
Vellala males. This was due to a widespread process in Tamil society
where military castes, finding their traditional status gone, simply
adopted the Vellala caste title and returned themselves as peaceful
Vellala cultivator, to the colonial census; and in time became
endogamous subdivisions of that caste.
In 1834, Simon Casie Chitty recorded in his Ceylon Gazetteer, that
Kallar, Maravar, Ahampadiyar and Palli (Vanniyar) were sub-divisions
of the Vellala caste. It is clear that the Tamil martial castes of
Jaffna had swelled the ranks of the Vellalas when faced with
unfavourable conditions under colonial rule, as they later did under
the British in Tamilnadu. This gave rise to the saying in the
peninsula, "Kallar, Maravar and Ahampadiyar came slowly, slowly and
became Vellalas." But, unlike their counterparts in Tamilnad, the
Jaffna Vellalas didn't generally change their military caste
titles. "In former days the Vellalas had the titles of Rayan, Thevan,
Kizhan and Mazhavan."
Today, one of these military caste subdivisions of the Jaffna Vellala
community, bearing the Kallar caste title Mazhavarayar is a dominant
land owning clan in the peninsula. The Mazhavarayar clan is also
connected with the history of Thambiluvil in the Eastern province.
The Mattakkalappu Manmiyam, a work which deals with the colonization
of Batticaloa, mentions the mazhavar frequently among the groups
which peopled the Eastern province. Although the `vellalization' of
Jaffna's Tamil military castes predates the same process in south
India, Vellala cultural hegemony was achieved in the peninsula only
during the early decades of the twentieth century. The persistence of
endogamous subdivision identities was one reason for this.
The Vellalization of culture and religion in the peninsula began with
Arumuga Navalar's attempt to convert the Jaffnese from their folk
religion which was dominated by the heroes and godlings of the Tamil
martial castes. The martial caste elements also figures in narratives
related to the founding of Valvettithurai and Myliddy – Karaiyar
caste villages on the Jaffna coast, which are key. Whereas the Sri
Lankan karava (Karaiyar) caste in general has claimed kshatriya
status – that they are descended from the Kuru dynasty – a strong
narrative is found among the Karaiyar of Myliddy which states that
three Marava chieftains who were brothers came with their caste-men
from Tamilnadu, married among the karaiyar and founded the village.
Its dominant clan, known as Thuraiyar – the others are known as
Panivar – was connected by marriage to Ramnad, the home country of
the Maravar, until recent times.
The martial arts of Maravar were popular among the Thuraiyar of
Myliddy, before their youth were introduced to modern methods of
military training in the last decade [i.e., 1980s]. A narrative
related to the founding of Valvettithurai, based on folk etymology
states that the village arose on land given to a Marava chieftain,
called Valliathevan, by the eponymous founder of the Tamil kingdom of
Jaffna. But a strong tradition was prevalent among the Karaiyar of
Valvettithurai that they had fought the Portuguese as the soldiers of
the last king of Jaffna, Sankili. This tradition, as we shall see
later, was greatly exploited by TULF propagandists to mobilise people
in that part of Jaffna. The tradition seems to be related to the
trade wars between the early colonial powers and the Maravar kings of
Ramnad.
The Portuguese, Dutch and the British tried to wrest control of the
profitable rice and chank trade between Burma, Bengal and Ceylon
which was in the hands of the Thevars (title of the Ramnad kings) and
their Muslim and Tamil tradesmen, on either side of the Palk Strait,
among whom were many Karaiyar schooner proprietors of Valvettithurai,
Point Pedro and Thondamanaru. The British found that one
Vaithianathan of Jaffna was among the few confidantes of the Thevar,
who were looking after his chank trade in Calcutta. Karaiyar families
carried on with the rice and chank trade in collaboration with
Muslims, Chetties and military caste families on the south Indian
coast from Ramnad to Tanjore, even after the British finally wrested
control of it from the Maravar kings of Ramnad.
A large number of Thandayals (traditional navigators – captains of
ocean going craft) from Valvettithurai, Point Pedro were employed in
the Thevar's domain of sea trade. This became the basis of a
vast `smuggling network' between south India, Sri Lanka and southeast
Asia, after independence in1948. The powerful Vandayar family
(Maravar) of Tanjore maintained very close relations with a leading
business house of Valvettithurai until 1983. Sometimes such
connections between the coastal military castes of south Tamilnadu
and the Karaiyar of Jaffna were cemented through marriage. Although
Jaffna Tamil society was the earliest to have been de-martialized,
and was the only part of the south Indian Tamil region where
traditional Tamil military castes were completely subsumed by Vellala
identity, it has become the ground in which the most fierce
manifestation of Tamil militarism has taken root in modern times. How
was this possible? Three reasons can be identified.
(A) The pro-colonial politics of the Jaffna Vellala was not
formulated as an attitude against traditional militarisms because the
Tamil military castes having assumed the Vellala identity early, were
not present as a social threat in the peninsula to the consolidation
of colonial authority, after the Portuguese period. Furthermore, the
nature of the Vellala caste composition in Jaffna was in itself not
amenable to the scribal-agrarian conservatism of the pure Vellala
elites, which the British found useful in Tamilnadu. The pseudo-
Vellala component of Jaffna was large. A fundamental distinction
between the Vellala elite of Tamilnad and Jaffna would illustrate the
point.
Arumuga Navalar campaigned against the activities of Christian
missionaries and his efforts received support from Ponnuchami Thevar,
the chief Marava noble of Ramnad. In former days, the Maravar had
opposed the spread of Christianity, by massacaring missionaries. On
the other hand, in Tamilnad, an ideologue of Vellala elitism –
J.M.Nallasami Pillai, who like Navalar worked for the propagation of
saiva siddhanthism among the Tamils, was closely associated with and
supported by Anglican missionaries in his efforts.
As we shall see later, while Nallasami Pillai carefully and
deliberately played down the martial component of Tamil culture and
history, attempting to establish that Tamil civilization was
constituted by the peace-loving Vellalas, his counterpart in Jaffna,
Mootootambi Pillai lamented the decline of the peninsula's martial
heritage. He wrote in 1912,
"When Sankili – the last king of Jaffna – fought the Portuguese, most
of his soldiers were warriors of Jaffna. Even the Portuguese have
praised their valour. The victory of the Portuguese was not gained
through their bravery, but through Kaakai Vanniyan's treachery.
Wasn't it the warrior of Jaffna who conquered the whole of Ceylon?
The people (of Jaffna) who are descended of those warriors have lost
their martial traits and become a despicable race, having been
subjugated long under the Portuguese and the Dutch and as a result
having become weak and losing their self-identity."
Mootootambi Pillai was reflecting a sentiment that had been expressed
in the Madurai Tamil Sangam – established by the Marava noble,
Pandithurai Thevar (the son of the noble who had earlier helped
Navalar) that the decline of the Tamil nation was caused by the
deterioration of its ancient and unique martial heritage.
(B) The closure of the avenues by which Vellala upward mobility and
conservatism under successive Sinhala governments in Sri Lanka. The
colonial powers opened these avenues to promote the class and culture
of Vellala conservatism as a bulwark and gurantee against the
turbulence of Tamil feudal militarism. The restrictions placed on
university admissions and on government jobs seriously undermined the
class and culture of Vellala conservatism and its politics of non-
violence and compromise. The other narrative that was contending at
this juncture, for Tamilian identity – Tamil militarism – began to
assert itself as the bulwark built by colonial powers against it
crumbled.
(C) Non-Vellala pockets in the peninsula where the values of Vellala
conservatism had made little impact.
http://www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=1013
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 22:16:10 -0400
From: "Thangavelu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fw: Digest Number 361
Raveen
It starts from part 4!?
VT
----- Original Message -----
From: <varalaaRu@yahoogroups.com>
To: <varalaaRu@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 8:01 PM
Subject: [varalaaRu] Digest Number 361
There are 2 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. On Tamil Militarism ; a 11 part essay by D.P.Sivaram written in
1992
From: "RVS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2. Part 3: Tamil Militarism - The Code of Suicide
From: "RVS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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