Right of Reply: Narendra Modi kicks out Kshatriyas and Brahamins? Will the Vanni Vellalas be next?
| by Sripali Vaiamon
( June 3, 2014, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) In view of the article with a bold but harsh heading by Mr.Sebastian Rasalingam published in Sri Lanka Guardian on 30th May 2014 where he etched in the upper caste plutocracy ruled India till Narendra Modi has broken the crust nearly seventy decades after the Indian Independence, is something worth of mediation! According to him he is from a low caste. ‘Oil pressing caste.’Chekkali Mundan’.It was a profession. Not a birthright. If he had possessed an oil Mill could he be called a Chekkali Brahamin? India has twisted what few thousand years back Aryans established four groups of professions in the society. Later these professions have multiplied up to 3000. So now there are more than 3000 castes in India. Earlier terms were Srenis or Varna vadaya. Caste is a Portuguese term. Primitive Indian messiahs have made this a diabolical issue to suppress poor people by powerful groups. The so-called caste hierarchy now has become a cancer. An incurable cancer in this monumental landmass of India. It is an alien subject to western people. If this cancer could be cured, Society and the countries could be easily developed. Otherwise this cancer would be an unbreakable barrier. It is good and praiseworthy if the Hon. Prime Minister could gradually systematize the society and cure this social malady! He has the guts, he has the power, he has the support.Let him in due course of time take a remedial measure to wipe out what is unwanted for the 21st century.
Jaipur Princess Diya Kumari is being welcomed by Narendra Modi then Gujarat Chief Minister, during the Suraj Sankalp Meeting at Amrudo ka Bagh in Jaipur – PTI File
Narendra Damodards Modi was borne and brought up in Vadnagar. A town North of Gujarath with a 2000 years history. It is few miles away from ancient Sinhapur or Sihor where Vijaya,the son of Sinha Bahu and Sinha Seevali, sailed with a retinue of 700 and landed in Lanka in 543 BC. According to Sri Lankan Chronicle, Mahavansa. The author of this ancient piece of literature compiled in 500 AD. Says this event marked the origination of the Sinhala race. This has a controversy, however, Sri Lanka has a long relationship with Gujarath where Modi served well as the Chief Minister for three terms. As Mr. Rasalingam revealed Mr.Modi started his life as a tea seller. It is nothing wrong in it! His dazzling ascent from that low job to the top most job in this vast India is an amazingly rewarding! It is an unprecedented phenomenon where historians will take years to analyze. He is familiar with the masses from bottom to top. Dalits to Brahmins. He will generally look after 1.6 billion of population in India with special emphasis on the lower class whom he has to uplift to uplift the entire vast country for amicable living. Unlike many previous leaders in India Narendra Modi is not from upper Brahamin caste but from lower middle class. He has a modest upbringing that stands in contrast to that of his chief political rivals. I am sure he will deliver the goods what National Congress could not do during the past 60 odd years.
Narendra Damodards Modi was borne and brought up in Vadnagar. A town North of Gujarath with a 2000 years history. It is few miles away from ancient Sinhapur or Sihor where Vijaya,the son of Sinha Bahu and Sinha Seevali, sailed with a retinue of 700 and landed in Lanka in 543 BC. According to Sri Lankan Chronicle, Mahavansa. The author of this ancient piece of literature compiled in 500 AD. Says this event marked the origination of the Sinhala race. This has a controversy, however, Sri Lanka has a long relationship with Gujarath where Modi served well as the Chief Minister for three terms. As Mr. Rasalingam revealed Mr.Modi started his life as a tea seller. It is nothing wrong in it! His dazzling ascent from that low job to the top most job in this vast India is an amazingly rewarding! It is an unprecedented phenomenon where historians will take years to analyze. He is familiar with the masses from bottom to top. Dalits to Brahmins. He will generally look after 1.6 billion of population in India with special emphasis on the lower class whom he has to uplift to uplift the entire vast country for amicable living. Unlike many previous leaders in India Narendra Modi is not from upper Brahamin caste but from lower middle class. He has a modest upbringing that stands in contrast to that of his chief political rivals. I am sure he will deliver the goods what National Congress could not do during the past 60 odd years.
Papers were commenting that after the election people are expecting excellent road net work, nice buildings, better jobs, cars and luxury in modern India. People may have got the inspiration from present Sri Lanka where infrastructure development activities are unprecedented. But he may not kick out Brahmins and upper class. They have the money. They have the power. Without them PM, possibly can’t develop the country. He must be very shrewd and tactful.
What went wrong in Sri Lanka Prabakaran wanted to kick out the Brahmin and upper class, the Vellalas who were harassing the low caste people in the North and East. I wish to quote a few paragraphs from my book `Pre Historic Lanka to end of Terrorism, published in America two years back, where I have with facts and figures substantiated the reasons for a 26 year war. (P.9- Tamil community had valid grounds to create dissension and conflict in the society. In nineteen fifties there was in the parliament a very ferocious Tamil politician who did not allow low caste people to enter their Kovils to make obeisance. They were scolded hammered and driven away. Lots of harassments were meted out to them by their land lords who were mostly Vellalas. In this situation country cannot forget the MP Mr.Suntharlingam in early fifties.
These Vellalas were got down by Dutch from Tanjore for farming purposes. They earned plenty of money and purchased lands. Ultimately became land lords in the region. They treated low caste people most dastardly.One Scandinavian lady made an extensive research in the Tamil society in the North and released a publication where she had highlighted so many harresments to low caste people.For an example in a working place where all of them are working together,if a low caste person accidently touches a food parcel of a high caste,it won`t be consumed.It would be thrown away stating it got polluted.
If an outcaste is in urgent need of transport, usually as a result of accident,illness or complicated childbirth someone has to go to the neighbouring village, perhaps 5 kilo meters away to get a taxi. High caste taxi drivers close by will never oblige,even the person died they are not concerned. She had quoted so many similar situations.
Mostly women and elderly men in high caste category are strongly caste conscious.
Caste system has given rise to serious social evils. It denied certain civil and religious rights to a large number of people and let to the oppressions and exploitations one caste by another, which proved a constant source of discontent or unrest.(p.149 The religion of the Hindus by Kenneth WMorgon)
Classic instant was that of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanaathen, a recognized Tamil leader,who opposed the introduction of Adult franchise on the ground that it would give the lower caste the right of vote. He also against the tradition of equal seating and commensurate in Jaffna schools.(James Russel-Ceylon Tamils and Donoughmore Commission.p.21)
Govt. issued The Social Disability Act, 1957,forbidding caste discrimination by land lords and other upper class and high caste elites but they did not pay any heed.
From the government side there were discriminations too. Perhaps because during the British period most of the higher places in the government service had been offered to them In order to create a divide and rule policy. Later found the qualifications submitted by most of the selected candidates were bogus.
One of the Ministers of the UNP Cabinet,Hon.Minister D.K.Mathew made an extensive research with academics and issued two publications to this effect. However if Tamils have been recognized as citizens of the country, no discriminations should have been meted out to them. They were not second class citizens. Prabhakaran along with 25 other groups started their attack on two targets. To annihilate the so-called high caste elites and against Sinhala government for discrimination. Prabhakaran launched his struggle on both this targets by killing the Tamil Mayor of Jaffna. His brutalities had no bound. Once in a farm in the North, Aranthalawa, if I can correctly remembered, where his Tigers hacked to death several Sinhala poor families including pregnant women and children. One bus load of Buddhist monks who had gone for a religious ceremony was mercilessly shot down. In the Wesak month of 1985,at Anuradhapura in the Sri Maha Bodhiya premises there was a blood bath where 70 Male Upasakas and women who were observing Sil mercilessly shot down. Suicide bombers blasted in many crowded places and massacred so many innocents including their own Tamils.Suicide bombers attempted to massacre former President Chandrika Kumaratunga,Murdered prominent politician viz.Gamini Dissanayake, John Fernandopulle,and several others including brilliant academic Neelam Thiruchelvam. There were no limits for their genocides. At the last stage when they were rounded up to a jungle patch by the military they grabbed over 200,000 civilians as human shields.
One Tamil medical student tried to escape and he was killed, mutilated and displayed stating this would be the outcome if anybody tries to escape. Their brutalities were so abominable. When the Red Cross and Security services made possible attempts to rescue innocent civilians Tiger cubs shot most of them from behind even children and pregnant women.
These horrendous incidents were published in almost all local papers and electronic media. Sometime back with the Norwegian peace Council government offered them a political solution. But Prabhakaran was not prepared to accept it. He was adamant to have military solution. Mainly because, their community supporters in foreign soils pressed him to continue the war by giving assurance to funding sufficiently and provide sophisticated powerful weapons. Money was pouring from Tamil supporters from foreign countries as a result he led a posh life in bunkers and massacred most of the high caste people by tying them to lamp posts.
Even his leader who incited to take weapons against the government, Mr.Amirthalingam was bumped off. Innocent people including Tamils were died in cross-fire. But he didn’t bother at all. His supporters in foreign countries extorted money from Tamil emigrants, retain few percentage and sent millions over to Prabhakaran. They were adamant to have a separate region for prestige sake. If that happened leaders and their henchmen would have been better off, but the ordinary Tamils who find unable to meet both ends will suffer immensely. It would have been inevitable. Perpetuated heinous crimes committed by Prabhakaran were purely on the strength of the millions he received from Tamil Daispora in foreign soils. They too should take the responsibility of devastating Sri Lanka, particularly in the north massacring innocent people, including their kith and kin in the country with sophisticated weapons supplied by them. Moreover ,internal complexity in the Sri Lankan Tamil community has not exploited well as such Tamils themselves are still in a quandary as to what genuine objective Tigers had in their target aimed at the envisaged separatism- war. If the LTTE won the expected separate state for them to govern, they will never allow, never entertain high caste people migrated to other countries of their community to step in because they have well realized the suppression they had under them. If somebody well analyze from the very inception of Velupillai Prabhakaran’s attacks he had selectively aimed at high caste Tamils and generally against Sinhala army. That suggests his bitterness was more towards his own high caste people whom he and his colleagues treated as number one enemy in the Tamil society in the North.
Indian Govt. had a suspicion when Tamil Nadu was giving the LTTE an underhand support whether they had an internal plan to attack the Indian main Govt. with the help of a separate Eelam State created in the North of Sri Lanka and then get amalgamated with Tamil Nadu in order to fight with the Indian Govt. to curve a separate State in the South India. Rajiv Gandhi who smelled this dispatched an IPKF battalion in consultation with the President J.R.Jayawardana in order to crush the LTTE .Tamil Nadu is still obsessed with this dream. It was to revenge this situation LTTE planned and killed Rajiv Gandhi…….
The TNA Leader,Mr.Sampathan ,according to the top-notch news item appeared in the Daily News on 2nd June 2014,has attempted to commemorate the death of LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran,to rouse the people in Jaffna and create disturbances where peace prevails now. The Mayor of Jaffna Mrs.Yogeswari Pathgunarajha has taken timely action and has prevented this.TNA is still trying to create disturbances by giving impulse to sleeping Tigers to create havoc in the Northern Province again.
Primne Minister Modi requested Mahinda Rajapaksha to implement the 13th amendment fully. Now he has agreed to implement it minus police powers but objections are there from Sri Lankan political parties who raised the question that the 13th amendment brought in over a quarter century ago and no Indian politicians today know what it is exactly. Modi’s anti-caste unitary India will irritate Tamil Nadu. So Chief Minister is flexing muscles against the centre. 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 Prabhakarnist Eelamist Chief Minister? Why would sober Vanni Tamils want the 13th amendment to legitimize upper caste local Rajas the land owning Kavarakkadu aristocracy? Rasalingam quarried.
Modi’s External Minster, Susma Swaraj who had visited Sri Lanka earlier and had discussions with Political Leaders, knows the contents in the 13th Amendment. She will advise the Prime Minister before their visit to Sri Lanka as they have already planned the journey but the date is not yet fixed.
Mind you! Being the Prime Minister his prime responsibility is to maintain peace in the entire country. He has to develop the country. Develop citizens, Fatten the economy.
More than anything else he has to be cordial with all the Chief Ministers. Including Jayalalitha. He does not want to antagonize anybody! It is his task. Nobody needs advise him. He is having a brilliant Cabinet. He knows what to do. Let’s wait and see!
