Ananthan

And if people can write about ethnicity and the ethnic conflict, why should caste be taboo?
Maybe I misunderstood you. Maybe you are bemoaning the fact that there is caste in Jaffna. I too bemoan that and am sure glad somebody is writing about it, and not brushing it all under the carpet,. And also let me tell you, you do not have to go to harvard to write about caste. Some of the foremost writers in Tamil, like K. Daniel, Sengai Aliyaan, Ragunathan and plenty others have been writing about caste for a long time now. Mallikai too, the long standing journal coming out of Jaffna, and the publications of Mallaikia Panthal and their pioneering editor and publisher Dominic Jeewa took up caste in a big way. I doubt that any of these people even have degrees let alone going to Harvard.

Also, interestingly, why do you think people would automatically shed their caste prejudices once they entered Harvard and Yale? these universities are caste ridden ones of a different kind. They would only reinforce caste rigidities among its populace rather than help them to break free. on the other hand, a university like Peradeniya, where Thiruvarangan wrote his dissertation and where ordinary people go to in this country, is a good place to start thinking about caste, in my view.

Anyway, Thiruvarangan’s dissertation was not on caste. It was on the exodus, which was our initial starting point for discussion. He was just quoting Sengai Aaliyaan who had called the Jaffna man, crazy. Isn’t that nice? I kinda liked that.

I dont expect the tamil people to be reconciled in any thorough going fashion, though I hope they don’t kill each other or any one else, for that matter and we could nurture a culture of open discussion and action among the people. There are political and social differences among Tamils like in any other community and those have to be written about as much the ethnic conflict and the issues concerning Tamils vis a viz the state need to be written about.

BTW: Is it okay to write about caste on groundviews?

Eh?

[…] of Govi Buddhist parents living in […] of the same caste and creed for their 24 years old Canadian born pretty […]

Source: http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2010/04/18/c_brides.asp

But I am straying. I studied in the Tamil medium although under Irish nuns and English speaking teachers. My Tamil is on par with a Tamil graduate.

My point here is that Tamils cannot live in peace and harmony among themselves. How would one expect the m to re-concile with Sinhalese? Sinhalese too have castes but they have shed this narrow-mindedness a long time ago.

About the exodus itself, you could look up the UTHR report on it.
Sharika Thiranagama’s forthcoming book ‘In my Mother’s House: the Intimacy of War in Sri Lanka’ carries ‘eye witness’ accounts of the exodus.

A wonderful undergraduate dissertation by M. Thiruvarangan at the University of Peradeniya on ‘Home and Homeland’ is entirely on his and other people’s accounts of the exodus. Interestingly, Thiruvarangan translates sections of Sengai Aliyan’s novel, which is partially on the exodus, where a character says
“This jaffna man is mad. even in the midst of his misery he’s thinking of where I am from, what caste I belong to.’ (Something to that effect. I am just paraphrasing.) So, there are jaffna men and jaffna men.
There could be other accounts. These might be in Tamil. I dont know whether you read Tamil. But unlike in English, there is a lot of critical literature in Tamil, which has been completely overlooked by the academic and NGO sectors working in English.

It’s only when we recognise honest history that we can move forward. I can only vouch for what I have seen, observed and account for the interviews with the cross section of the people in Jaffna.

We have seen destruction and we have seen prejudice all because there was never a meaningful dialogue between the North and the South.

The intelligentsia and the think-tanks who could have intervened were either silenced or chose to remain mute during the crucial times when the people who were pawned in the power-games of those in power, both the politicians and their Tamil sycophants, are still to blame for the recent human misery perpetrated on hapless civilians.

The NGOs were feeding on the misery of the fleeing civilians in Wanni. The politicians and foreign journalists descended on them like vultures to add to their Kudos not to mention freebie holidays in sunny tropical Sr Lanka.

Please note the INGOs only come to Sri Lanka during winter.

So, it is incumbent on us Sri Lankans to get wiser and unite to keep vultures at bay.

My email is [email protected]

As for when I said `rest is history’ I meant the younger generation would remmebr the developments or destruction from then on.

I hope to record the events as it happened in the book I am writing.

I am only a journalist and I write I witness. Nothing more nothing less.

When was Sri Lanka on the right track.
Was it when Bandranaike introduced the sinhala only act?
When a Buddhist monk killed Bandranaike?
Was it when Pacts with Chelvanygam was torn up by Bandranaike. Was it when Chelvanygam and his supporters were beaten by the sinhala community while protesting in Ghandhian fashion.
Was it after State colonisation of the North East driving the residents tamils from their original villages?
Was it on the right track when a sinhala mob with police assistance burnt tamils alive on the streets of Colombo?
What Mr officer of the SLAF doesn’t remember was that Chelvanygam repeatedly offered acceptable solutions within a united Sri Lanka for 30 years after independence only to face violence by the Sinhala common man and State security forces.
There has been protection of minority identity, culture and history especially after government sponsored burning of Jaffna library twice.

What Mr officer in the SLAF doesn’t remeber is that it is Chelvanygam that the Tamil diaspora follow which happened to be what the LTTE followed. Both of which in essence in the will of the tamil people after the last free and fair election in 1977.

If you were really aiming to save the tamil community in Sri lanka then why did you not stick to the B-C and D-C pact.
It is you who are in need of education considering it is the Sinhala community that prevented devolution to tamil people for 60 years.
If the Sinhala people really cared for the tamil community then why didn’t Rajapaske wait for the APRC proposal before killing 40,000 tamils and imprisoning the 100,000 in camps. What happened to the APRC?
If caring for tamils was your objective then why did Ghotabahya say to an international journalists that hospitals and Schools are legitimate targets during the war.

Let us see if You mr SLAF officer will ask for devolution of power to the North east or will you follow the normal line and say there is no need.

If the LTTE didn’t exist for 30 years the Sinhala state genocide of would have already occurred and now the world recognises this conflict where as they didn’t when Chelvanygam pleaded to the commonwealth during the 1950’s

The JVP even took up arms so since independence Sri Lanka has not been on the right track.

I’m highly taken up with the way you perceive things out of the box. First, I thank God and all others involved in exterminating the LTTE, for the mere reason that it saved the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. While many well-to-do Tamils migrated, a few relocated in Colombo leaving the rest to experience the bitterness of the war in the Northern and Eastern parts. The younger generation of these people did not have good education. If any form of education was made, the LTTE ensured that to be LTTE oriented. Imagine of the danger, when when a community’s future generation has no education, but trained only to fight?

Now that the war is over, it’s for us to put the things right back on the track. I believe you could initiate many thing from that end. The war damaged the both communities co-latterally. It led to many ethnic disputes as well. Feelings are sour. We’ve got to educate our people on these lines, but certainly not on politics.

You find many gangsters who are Tamils are the ones, who once worked for the LTTE. Drug smuggling, gun running, human trafficking, money laundering etc were their job to generate money for LTTE. I am sure these disturbed youths you mentioned about are from some similar backgrounds.

Since you interested in educating these stray youths in Canada, you can add these points as well. I like to communicate with you privately (through emails) so that I can give you inputs if you are willing to pursue this further. I gave my email to this blog, but if you are unable to find it, please indicate.