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There is 1 message in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Bishop Edmund Pieris
From: Raveen S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 11:37:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Raveen S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Bishop Edmund Pieris
Dear Mr. Herman.
I dont doubt it either. My father's good friend is
one Dr. Colvin Goonaratne from Chilaw. His parents
read Virakesari till their death, although the good
old doctor was considered a Sinhalese for all purposes
hy his peers.
The assimilative nature of the western coastal belt
used people like Bishop Edmund Peiris as tools but it
is bigger than him. Because
1. Fishers of the coast were a minority within socio
political set up of the whole region (all the way from
PT Pedro to Devundara on both directions)
2. Only in Batticaloa were the particular caste of
Fishers (Mukkuvas) were able to fill all the niches in
the society as cultivators, feudal lords, workers etc
due to extensive depopulation of the area prior to
their settlement.
3. The fishers of the western and southern coast faced
a socio political system that held them to be alien to
the mainstream culture that was Buddhist, Vegetarian
and Sinhalese speaking.
4. Fishers of the North and East coast were
accommodated within a Tamil speaking, Hindu socio
political system thus preserving their identity.
5. At no point in the Western littoral did the
Karave/Bharatkulua/Mukkuva group of Fishers penetrate
beyond a 5 mile radius of the coast.
6. Their customers were always Sinhalese or Sinhalised
(Beacuse Tamils had penetrated the interior too)
cultivators who formed the majority of the interior.
7. Under these circumstances laws of nature will take
over with respect to assimilation ad eventual language
shift.
8. What Edmund Peiris did (irrespective of his
background) was to identify the need to accelerate
this process.
9. His intentions could have been to prevent his
fellow Catholics who were still speaking Tamil (at
least north of Colombo) of the Western and Southern
coast to discrimination and marginalization in a more
strident Sinhalese and Buddhist state, especially
after 1956 elections of a hardline nature.
9. In my view it given that unless Tamils manage to
secede from Sri Lanka in one way or the other expect
in Jaffna peninsula all other regions face the same
reality.
10. Even Jaffna Tamils who have lived in Colombo for
over 3 generations eventually begin to spot Sinhalese
or Portuguese Surnames. Case in point the Kadirgamar
family.
11. Physically we look alike; culturally nothing
prevents Tamils from becoming Sinhalese (like the need
to un-circumcise- just a joke) so Xtian and Hindu
Tamils will over a period of time will assume
Sinhalese identity.
It is like water flowing downhill.
A concerted effort towards this reality is happening
among the emancipated Indian Origin Tamils of the
upcountry. Once they move to Colombo to escape the
grinding poverty most of them send their children to
Sinhalese schools not to Tamil schools as they think
their children might have a better opportunity at
getting jobs.
12. Census has shown that over a period of Time Tamils
in general and Hindus in particular has been a
shrinking minority in Sri lanka due to lower fertility
rates, emigration & assimilation.
--- hermanXXX <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear Mr. Raveen
>
> My father-in-law who passed away last year at the
> age of 95 , told me
> that Bishop Edmund Pieris's father was a Tamil
> Teacher. He mentioned
> that in the context Bishop's ferver to promote
> Sinhala at the expense
> of Tamil. I cannot recall the whole conversation.
> My father-in-law was from Mannar and I have no
> reason to dispute what
> was said to me about Bishop's father profession.
>
> Herman
>
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