Dr Hoole opens the can of ugly caste worms

Almost all the scholarships to study in Rome were allocated to students from Kayts thanks to the Bishops who thought Vatican was their personal property. The boarders at HFC and St Patricks’s were from Kayts and most did not pay. It is worthy to note and I am sure past pupils would vouch for the fact the Kayts students arrived in these institutions as virtual yobs and left with polished English and education to match.

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(July 21, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) takes absolute honesty, exceptionally great mind and much soul searching to write openly about the injustice meted out to Professor Sivathamby. Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole’s article The Class Perspective recently in the Sri Lanka Guardian will no doubt open a can of ugly worms wriggling through the academia, public institutions and politics not to mention societal intercourses such as marriage and mingling in general.

It is a crying shame and an indictment on civil society that the wealth of knowledge and intellect of Prof. Sivathamby, Mr Sebastian Rasalingam and many more scholars and professionals were obfuscated and suppressed all because they were seen as belonging to lower castes.

Perhaps the Sinhalese are indeed more civilised after all because Lord Buddha preached equality 2,500 years ago and many are practising this concept shedding the ancient caste system and moving with the times.

From the French revolution to the spawning of communism around the world, new religions and of course insurgencies; these are by products of one class claiming supremacy over others they perceive as underclass.

The simple truth is no one can predict the class or race into which one is born and no one can be proud of being born into this caste or that since one’s birth is purely accidental. But there will always be one class superior to yours. I recall my Uncle Sellathurai proudly saying he would not allow the queen to eat at his table because she eats beef!!!. This from an uneducated never do well, lazy layabout.

Caste in India is banned in most parts of India by legislature but in Sri Lanka caste is inherent in the daily lives of every person especially among Tamils. Attending a convent I counted among my friends who belonged to different castes and was able to hear some interesting perspectives of their respective castes. My friend who belonged to the Nalavar caste told me that they had a kingdom in Jaffna purely for Nalavar and they were actually given this name because they were Nallavar (good).

Since as children we were made to be conscious of one’s caste I too developed an automatic exclusion for those my family regarded as untouchables. For instance in my teens I quite fancied this handsome boy called Julian who lived in the neighbourhood and attended St Patrick’s, my brother school, until some one told me he belonged to a low caste. To my surprise I stopped fancying him because I was brain-washed by this notion of caste consciousness. And I can tell you honestly I still do not know to what caste I belong since there had been such a hotch-potch of different castes due to marriages outside the family.

My father’s cousin had seven children by his legal wife but it was open secret he fathered several more through the woman (perceived to be low caste) who came to pound rice at his house. He generously gave them his name and some lands. This is not an exception but it is tolerated the masters of the household in Jaffna often had affairs with servants and the mistresses looked the other way as long as their stature in public as the legal wife is assured and they are well cared for.

The sons too systematically had sex with servants (many under-aged) and this exploitation largely went un-noticed and even encouraged so that they are well-initiated into the rites of manhood before they enter into permanent wed-lock through an arranged marriage with handsome dowries.

In this day and age they would be hauled up in court for paedophilia and adultery and listed as sex offenders.

And this mindset among Tamils cannot be shaken off so easily. If we are to come out of our narrow prejudices we need to educate the elders and this education should be included in future curriculum in schools as to how castes came about and how Tamils kept on exploiting this system for their own aggrandisement and benefits.

It was the late Manik Sandrasagara who proudly proclaimedthat he could tell a person’s caste from their noses. But Manik had a squat nose in a square podgy face and he is of mixed parentage. He should talk.

Leaving these snippets aside, until Rt Hon. Bishop Savundranayagam became the head of Jaffna Catholic diocese the post was held exclusively by Kayts clan which the mainland Jaffnites called the islanders. They somehow wriggled their way into seminaries and convents and obtained virtual monopoly over the Catholic churches and schools and promoted their relatives.

From Fr Peterpillai to Bishop Emilianuspillai Bishop Leo and Bishop Theogarajah, the Bishop’s House became their fiefdom. I still recall Rev. Sr Josephine Tynan, the Irish principal of Holy Family Convent Jaffna, when I was playing tennis with her admonishing a nun from Kayts asking her for an admission to her relative from Kayts. Mother Josephine as we used to call her turned red in the face and admonished, “One more request from Kayts for school admission and I am kicking you out”.

Almost all the scholarships to study in Rome were allocated to students from Kayts thanks to the Bishops who thought Vatican was their personal property. The boarders at HFC and St Patricks’s were from Kayts and most did not pay. It is worthy to note and I am sure past pupils would vouch for the fact the Kayts students arrived in these institutions as virtual yobs and left with polished English and education to match. They even mastered the knife and spoon with which they ate even string-hopper breakfast and it was thanks to the initiation at HFC Boarding that they can now hold their own with the West in etiquette.

I do not begrudge them their betterment in their lifestyle but it is how they plundered lands from those people whose caste they cited to do so which irks me. I hope we have more serious discourse on this caste system and bring the subject to public scrutiny. Far too many minds of the young have been traumatised by this caste curse and far too many girls remained spinsters and boys bachelors since caste barriers stood between love and marriage.