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三千
Three Dispositions Touards the Past :
One Sinhala, Tavo T
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This essay was published in Social Analysis, panel of Social Analysis for granting us pern
1992 Studies in Society and Culture,
ISBN 955-9
This essay was original

989, No. 25:22-41. We thank the editorial hission to reprint it.
85 Ward Place, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka.
195-01-8
ly published in 1989

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THREE DISPOSITIONS
ONE SINHALA
E Valentil
199 Studies in Society and Culture in associat
THE NATIONAL LIBR

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TOWARDS THE PAST:
, TWO TAMIL
he Daniel
2
: Sri Lanka Past and Present
ion with -
ARY OFSRI LANKA

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In this paper I discuss two polar, albeit idea assume towards the past. The one, I shall ca shall argue that in the SriLankan ethnohistol history, whereas the Sri Lankan Tamils pri more extensive section of the paper will be group, the "Estate Tamils", who may be se the past in the process of defining who
consideration are held to be an integral part ceptions, but they are more, embodying pra
The Major Players There was a time when the location of resid The Sinhalese, who now make up 74% of consciously divided and defined themselves Kandyan Sinhalese. The more recentlingu importance of locality to language, thereby under which all speakers of Sinhala are contribution to the rise of linguistic national or "Indigenous" Tamils. This group now population. For perspectival reasons, to be I call them "Jaffna Tamils".
Members of the third ethnic group, a either directly or indirectly linked to the tea census this group made up 5.6% of the popu constituted 12% of the island's population, c Jaffna Tamils. They also exceeded the Jaffn fact, their numberislikely to have been high accused of illicit residence in the island pror the census takers. I shall, for reasons that "Estate Tamils" and foreground them in this point of view.
The identity of the "Estate Tamil", m caught in the throes of change; a change thati Ishall enter into the problematique of histo. considering the nomenclatural discomfiture The reason for my choosing such an entry taught us that in addition to their ordinary r. (1960:56-78). A name is such a term. A refe it does merely by virtue of what it refers to
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al-typical orientations a people may all history, and the other, heritage. I rical context, the Sinhalese privilege vilege heritage. The Second and the : concerned with a third ethnic suben to combine both stances towards they are. The dispositions under of ethnic identity. They entail peractices as well.
lence mattered more than language. f the island's population, had selfas either Low Country Sinhalese or istic nationalism has subjugated the making linguistic identity primary, united. The other group whose ism are the "Ceylon", "Sri Lankan”
constitutes 12.6% of the nation's explained shortly (q.v. footnote 3),
ll of whom are Tamil speakers, are plantations. According to the 1981 lation. At its peak (1953) this group nepercent more than the number of la Tamil total in the 1946 census. In er then (as now) since fears of being noted many of these Tamils to duck will become clear, call this group, essay, privileging an "Estate Tamil”
ore than that of any of the others, is implicates both history and heritage. ry, heritage, identity and change by Lihat these Tamils find themselvesin. point is as follows: Gottlob Frege eference referring terms have sense rring termis presumed to mean what ... "That is, their contribution to the

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meaning of sentences they occurini (or sets of things) they name"(Mart is the conceit of the objectivity ( objective thing. A theory of sens certain circumstances of its use in prevailingpoliticalandhistorical di tion is that what matters ultimately about (for example, who came firs others are taken to be beyond ref 'Sinhalese' or "Tamil” refers to a resort to language philosophers" má myself with names and naming as it “right name” by which they wou generally how and why sense matt
What’s is a Name? The worldly wise in Sri Lanka desc as an inter-ethnic conflict. More sp Tamil conflict, implying thereby th Sinhala ethnic group on the one ha group on the other. When political { for a third group, the Muslims (See Muslims consider themselves as nei past, identified themselves now wi However, in discussions on distinct identity and lumped togeth Most Estate Tamils I have interv extended to them by the Sinhalesca as serving the last two groups' res Tamils see it, the Jaffna Tamils ch rubric only in times of crisis in or periodic communal riots, since am potential Indian citizens, which has For the Sinhalese, viewing the in parallel, two opposed but compler Tamii. The Jaffna Tamils take care (aste conscious, calculating, giver miserly. Estate Tamils on their part Tamils. Tamilsingeneral (for the Si

sentirely to "tie" these sentences to the things in 1987:143). Built into a theory of reference |f meaning; the realization of an external e by contrast implicates an expression and eople's habits of thought and action. In the Scourse in and about Sri Lanka, the presumpis reference. While some terms are argued t to the island, the Sinhalese or the Tamil), erential doubt (for example that the name 1 unambiguous "set of animate objects” (to inner of phrasing the matter). In concerning pertains to the "Estate Tamils' quest for the ld like to be called, I hope to show more 2rs more than reference.
ribe the current turmoil in that island nation ecifically, the conflict is called the Sinhalaat the parties to the conflict are a monolithic nd, and an equally monolithic Tamil ethnic xpediency calls for it, an exception is made K.M. de Silva 1986: 227-235). Nowadays, ther Tamils nor Sinhalese, but have, in times th the one, and then with the other.'
ethnicity, the Estate Tamils are denied a er with the rest of the Sri Lanka's Tamils. iewed resent such a simple identification und the Jaffna Tamils, an identification Seen pective political interests. As these Estate oose to include them under a single Tamil der to force Indian intervention during the ong these Estate Tamils are some actual or
justified such intervention in the past. setwogroupsofTamilsasonehelpssustain nentary stereotypical characterizations of all of the onestereotype: Tamils are privileged, to usury, intelligent but crafty, rich and believe this to be true, but true only of Jaffna nhalese) and Jaffna Tamils in particular (for
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the Estate Tamils) are the ones who professions, control the economy, haveh wear the most gold jewelery and exper pamphlets proclaim that "in the economi industrial ventures to the smallest entre achieved signal success", this is the stere Publication 1983). And again the Estate 1 Tamils but not of themselves. Not all or { stereotype. But then popular perceptions notentertaincomplexity. The very label,' of this simplification, named after the not as the cultural center or capital of all Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Mannar, and V. easily equated with the Tamils of Jaffna, a of the peninsular Tamils over themarenc points of view, seen as being any differe “Jaffna Tamils'. The Estate Tamils ex stereotypy about Tamils. According to t poor, live infilth, are uneducated, wearra who are docile domestic Servants.
If Estate Tamils resent the failure O provide them with a distinctidentity, they are called when the others do choose ti Tamils. Ishall bring out the nature of this of the names by which this ethnic group is these names against the Fregian distincti What are some of these other names names such as kallattoni ("illicit boat-p jungle-man"). But my concern here is w Tamils' used to be the official, and designation. But one needs to distingu Tamils of India. The former and their an had never left this island of their birth; the birth. Therefore, the expanded “Tamils failed to differentiate these Tamils from t (even as the Sinhalese do) claim to have albeit, "a very long time ago.” As a solut "Tamils of Recent Indian Origin," was su to the less cumbersome, "New Tamils". T
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hold the best jobs, monopolize the uge bank accounts, and whose women lsive silk sarees. When government ic sphere, ... ranging from the largest preneurial enterprise, the Tamils have otype they promote (Ministry of State Camils hold that this is true of the Jaffna 2ven most Jaffna Tamils fit this simple are popular precisely because they do Jaffna Tamil”, is in itself anothermark thern peninsula of Jaffna which is seen these other Tamils. The Tamils of avuniya, who would not wish to be so nd whoresent the cultural "hegemony” it, from the Sinhalese and Estate Tamil nt. For the Estate Tamils, they are all emplify the opposite pole of Sinhala his stereotype, Tamils are wretchedly gs, are good coolies and brced children
of the Sinhalese and the other Tamils to resentequally the names by which they o differentiate them from non-Estate resentment by briefly reviewing some called and also calls itself, considering on of sense and reference. s? There are the few openly derogatory arson”) and tottakkattan ("plantationith the more “proper” names. “Indian still is the most popular unofficial, ish these Tamils from the 50 milion cestors of two to five generations deep ; latternever left India, the land of their of Indian Origin” was tried. But this he other Tamils of the island who also come to the island from the mainland, ion to this problem the even lengthier, bstituted, and subsequently contracted This, reflexively, gave the other Tamils

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the appellation, "Old Tamils". In r Tamils and some Jaffna Tamils, dissatisfaction with, all these labe impelled initially by an apparent cc accuracy, unfolded to reveal a conce it was with the last choice, "New" concern with sense began to separate with reference.
I found it intriguing that whe Jaffna Tamils was "Old,” most of my the word “New”. Of course, the poi in question were English educated “New” as English words. My Est reacting to the various connotations Here is a Jaffna Tamil School teache
We are a new and vibrant people.
modern. We are not old fashionec the estate workers. ... The future
'New Tamils'. Other informants were not as articul similarly troubled by the connotation almostall of them mono-lingual Tam "new", pudiya (tamilar). The nature the following sample of quotes:
Tamil is always called pandaitta. old). To callone a Tamil is to callh or the member of an ancient race) How can one call them (Jaffna Tar tamiragam (the heart of Tamil cou the true Old Tamils. Jaffna is a pla place. We can say of him, "he ca I shall spare you my attempts at exp “new” and “old” as having to do with a commenton these Tamils'antiquity responses which opened with “Yes | similar to the ones represented in the Tamilis’ valorization of “antiquity” a heritage. It is interesting that the ser be the primary connotation of the Eng speaking Jaffna Tamils is not foregrd

my interviews with Tamils, mostly Estate was struck by their resistance to, and ls. But their objections to these names, }ncern On their part for greater referential :rn with the adequacy of sense. Moreover, versus “Old” Tamils, that this underlying itself out from the more superficial concern
reas the word that troubled several of the Estate Tamil informants were bothered by nt of significance is that the Jaffna Tamils and were evaluating the words “Old” and ate Tamil informants, by contrast, were of the Tamil glosses for "Old"and"New".
r:
Our ideas are up to date. Our thinking is
i. Our people are not old and weary like is our's. That is why we must be called
ate as this school teacher but seemed to be of “Old”." The Estate Tamils I interviewed, il-speakers, did not like the Tamil word for of their objections may be abstracted from
mil (which means, Tamil [language] of imapandaittamilan (aTamilofantiquity
.
mils) "Old Tamils?" We who come from
ntry or Tamil Nadu) are the ones who are ce that was a gift to a lutenist in the king's me but yesterday'. laining to my informants the meanings of political matters of anation state rather than or lack thereof. I shall also spare you their but . . . .” and then returned to sentiments : last two quotes. What became evident is and their pride in (their presumed) ancient ise of "old and spent", which happened to glish word "old" for several of the Englishunded in the Tamil gloss, param. Rather,

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the sense of "antiquity” becomes salient. antiquarian identity in connection with T past, a disposition that I shall call an obs Continuing our quest for the name these Tamils, we may ask, what of the na or its equivalent, "Hill Country Tamils" that these Tamils keep using when they ta Tamils, "Hill Country” and "Estate” are most estates are to be found on the hilly suggested to some of the very men and w naturally in ordinary conversation that "E which they identify themselves, most oft such objections was its referential inaccur and not all of us live in the hilly tea count was much ambiguity about this name. Ont and social Stigmatization they hoped to c.
developed loyalty towards the estates worked for generations . . . . despite deplorable condition of living that th plantation system (Bastian 1987:172). To be sure, objections to the name, "Estate discussed in the somewhat specialized However, it was clear that these Tamil defined by life on thc estates. This was t Tamils who were merchants or clerks in the plantations. For this reason, I conclud notwithstanding, was the name that made clear, is especially appropriate with regard towards the past”.
Finding a named identity that ma referential accuracy, is notanend in itself. very identity that constitutes one half of the the past which is what this essay is about. for their objections to the adjective "nev "new", as already indicated, underminess deeply, heritage. Let me now turn to a dichotomy.

I shall return to this fondness for the amils general disposition towards the cssion with heritage.
that makes the most perfect sense to me, “Estate Tamils”, (tottatutamilar) (malai nāttu tamilar), the very names lk about themselves (for most of these
seen as semantic equivalents, since parts of Sri Lanka). Whenever it was 'omen who employed this name most Estate Tamils” be the official name by hem objected. Again, the ground for acy. "Not all of us are estate workers, ry”, they said. Needless to say, there he one hand, itsuggested thchistorical scape: on the other, they had in which they and their families had
the humilitation, oppression and ey have suffered from within the
Tamils", were raised only when it was topic of appropriate nomenclature. s' experience-fraught identities were rue even in conversations with Estate metropolitan towns far removed from ed that "Estate Tamil', the objections the greatest sense, and as will become to the topic of this essay, "dispositions
Kes the greatest sense, regardless of It reveals something further. It is this ese Estate Tamils” orientation towards The other is to be found in the reasons y” in the name, "New Tamils". The omething that all ethnic Tamils value n elaboration of the history/heritage

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Alberuni's Complaint It has been observed by several schol to the “objectivist historian” the raw it this way:
Unfortunately the Hindus do not of things, they are very careless in kings, and when they are pressed what to say, they invariably take History, as a function of linear time events, eludes the typical” historian mythology, and tokens subsumed by that the "General Indian Historical Tr in this respect stand in contrast to In Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Assam, and chronology becomes significant onl In the case of Buddhist Sri Lan like Islam and Christianity, is a histol of Buddha's birth and enlightenme developed the kind of historical con Lanka. In the Hindu Tamil and Sinh be hard putout to deny that, from an' are no chronicles among the Hind Buddhist Mahavamsa, Culavamsa a of these chronicles that concern me that has produced and nurtured these Sense that it can be actually or pote characterizes thc entirety of Sri La whole range from the most So Gananath Obeyesekere (1986) or a historians of the folk such as Cyri E.T. Kannangara. Scholars such as R who foreground the "merely mythic of these chronicles in their finely a discourse as are their nemeses. Or to whether this difference has any c historical consciousness of conten
History versus Heritage Any student of Sri Lankan scholarsh sciences in general, and the disciplin

ars that Hindu Indiais niggardly in yielding material needed for his craft. Alberuni put
pay much attention to the historical order relating the chronological succession of for information are at a loss, not knowing
to tale-telling.' 2, marked by those distinct, non-repeating Events qua events are swallowed up by y types. Richard Salomon (1980) remarks aditions' arc indifferent to chronology, and dia’s peripheral cultural traditions Such as even Kashmir. In the heartland of India, y with the advent of Islam. ka, I hazard the hypothesis that Buddhism, ical religion, marked by time, by the events nt. Consequently, Sinhala Sri Lanka has sciousness not found in Hindu (Tamil) Sri ala Buddhist cases of Sri Lanka one would 'objectivist” historian’s point of view, there u Tamils that are as compendious as the nd Dipavamsa. It is not the historical verity but the insistence on the part of the culture 2 documents that their content is true in the ntially verifica (or falsified). This stance nkan historical scholarship, spanning the phisticated academic scholarship of a K.M. de Silva (1981) to the writing of Mathew, Prime Minister Premadasa, Or .A.L.H. Gunawardana and W.I. Siriwcera, "or "hermeneutically' constructed aspects rgued papers, are participants in the same he needs then to ask the further question as orrespondence, causal or otherwise, in the nporary Tamils and Sinhalese of Sri Lanka.
hip will be struck by the fact that the Social es of history andarchaeologyin particular,
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are overwhelmingly represented by Sinha which are disproportionately representec consciousness is not limited to Sinhales directing their writings to scholarship that The Sinhala-Buddhistnationalisthero oft Dharmapala, is the best known in a line readership were largely if not exclus Mr Cyril Mathew, is the latest figure of p historians. The present Prime Minister, M not the chauvinism of many of these "his plined'history is quite beside the point. W men, a faith that their view of the past will forcefully stated, their faith is that their v. objective past, and in the best of all p unearthable or documentable past, exists, During my fieldwork in Sri Lankai riots of the Summer of 1983, I came upon a of the Sinhala speaking tour guide. In rec alongside foreign tourism. The English, | tour guide has his Sinhala speaking count island's tour-worthy places, mainly the ru 84, I spent Several days with local groups around the ancient cities of Anuradhapura ing tourguides. Overand overagain, the gi palace, temple or dagoba, describe its pas stances of its decay. And time and time a Tamil invaders from India. A certain univ as the source upon the authority of whicht what I am saying. It is thus written K.M. de Silva,” he would punctuate his The effect on the tourist-pilgrims was to along, but confirmed with archaeological: is the enemy ofthe gloriouspastoftheSinh of the present as well. There is also an in newspapers and Sinhalapamphlets that ar. with) issues pertaining to the history of thi Nothing comparable has developed for Ilam(the separate Tamil State), Jaffna lications that attempt to raise a distinctl
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lese, in contrast to the natural sciences i by Jaffna Tamils. This historical Se academics writing in English and extends to readers beyond Sri Lanka. he early part of this century, Anagarika of folk Scholars whose audience and ively Sinhalese. The ex-minister, prominence in this line of nationalistic frPremadasa, is another. Whether or storians of the folk” constitute “discithat is true is that there is, among these pe supported by the past. Oreven more iew of the past exists only because an possible worlds, an archaeologically
in 1983-84 following the major ethnic new historian of the folk in the person ent years, internal tourism has grown German, Italian or French-speaking 2rpart, who guides local tourists to the ins of once-great kingdoms. In 1983of tourist-pilgrims who were guided a and Polonnaruwa by Sinhala-speakuide would point to a ruin, a once-great st glory and then describe the circumgain, the destroyers were identified as Persity professor's textbook was cited he information was based. "This is not in the book of the great professor, often lengthy and animated accounts. confirm what they had suspected all und documentaryevidence. The Tamil alapeople, and the Tamilis the enemy creasing number of Sinhala language e intensely engaged in (if not obsessed 2. Sinhala-Buddhist people and nation. among the Tamils. In the recent call Tamil separatists have spawned puby Tamil historic consciousness with

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respect to a historical Tamil nation w. rings hollow, and is often contradic Whether or not Tamils chooSe to esta there was once a Tamil kingdom in Ilamists included, do not have a st history. In 1983, I asked several ran heart of Jaffna Tamil country, Jaffna names of two Tamil kings of their ov students, only twelve were able to na these students recalled the name of E Jaffna kingdom), the just Tamil k Duttugamunu. Others named the So Pandyans. I was unable to carry out children. But in 1987, informal andra children in the island's South reveale three kings. And as I had expected, th were Duttugämunu (theking of the Si, defeated the Tamil Ellala and united according to the Sinhalachronicles, P great irrigation Tanks and channels th that is being reclaimed now in Sri Mahaweli hydroelectric project) and king to embrace Buddhism), respecti of their own historical past is, to be SI textbooks assigned by the governmer side of Sri Lankan history. However, the 19th and early 20th century cultu pendent Sri Lankan Started assigning the Tamils in general remained subdu so on the Sinhala Buddhistside of the linguistic consciousness and the awar of the Tamils, the consciousness oft before the sun.
In the many days that I spcnt w the separatestate of Ilam, only once w; only to yoke it to the romanticism o outlawed Tamil United Liberation FrC andits ilk have only recently foundite kingdom merely in reaction to Sinhal

hich needs to be reestablished. But the call cted by Marxist hopes for a new nation. blish Ilam has little to do with the fact that the island's north. The Jaffna Tamils, the rongly cultivated sense of their political domly selected high school classes, in the , how many of them could write down the wn historic past. From a total of about 100 me even one king. Furthermore, many of Ellala (who of coursc was not a king of the cing who was defeated by the Sinhala uth Indian dynasties of Chera, Chola and a similar experiment with Sinhala School Indom questioning of about twenty Sinhala !d that not one was unable to name at lcast e kings who were recalled most frequently nhala people's "charter myth," the one who
the island under Sinhala - Buddhist rulc, 'arakramabahu the Great (the builder of the hat are so often recalled as the glorious past
Lanka's ambitious multi-million dollar
Devānampiya Tissa (the first Sri Lankan vely. The Tamil childeren's unawarencss ure, partly due to the content of the history it which has consistently slighted the Tamil , it must be noted that even at the height of al renaissance, (long before the post-indetextbooks), historic consciousness among led (see Kailasapathy 1984). This was not : same renaissance. When compared to the eness of the literary and religious heritage heir political history is as dim as a candle
fith Tamil militants who were fighting for as the Tamil historic past invoked, and then fbourgeois Tamil politicians of the now bnt. These militants claim that the T.U.L.F. 2xpedient to recall the existence of a Jaffna a hyperbole about their ancient kingdoms.
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The militants are right, at least to the extentt concerned about their ancient kings, kingd to such a history, especially to its chronol Hindu religious and Tamil cultural heritage sculpture was not considered bourgeois e
There are other ways of formulating and Tamil views of the past. It may be seer cultural history, or objectivist history and t formulations are reasonable, they are so or it were, by two distinct stances toward to greater Indian cultural traditions share is r one's presentheritage of the past, than of th “heritage” another, the one is sharply defi only in the imagination; the other is a vag
A Semeiotic Formulation of the Distinct Informal semeiotic terms, the Peircelandis signs) and rhematic signs may help us see greater clarity. Dicisigns are signs whoSc ized. Signs of the Sinhala past, the Buddha seen as actualized events; quite literally in of Parakramabahu the Greatis found in hisi isa semeiotic rheme. Whereas dicisignsare of actual fact (the factitiousness of these fa which I shall not take up here), a rheme possibility. Peirce compares a rheme (he proposition with a blank for its subject (2. If parts of a proposition be erased so as t if these blanks are of such a nature that if
name the result will be a proposition thcr which was first produced by the erasure
Or again, "A rheme) is a sign which l Interpretant, to be what it may" (emphasis "heritage” is a sign of possibility, which in and which no number of actualizations can one begins with the idea that without a historical consciousness; with heritage as a without a historical consciousness there former describes Sinhala disposition tow Tamils.

hatmost Jaffna Tamils are not deeply loms and dates. They are indifferent ogy. By contrast, the invocation of : of dance, literature, architecture and ven by these revolutionaries.
this distinction between the Sinhala as one between political history and ranscendental history. Even if these hly because they are underwritten, as the past. What these Tamils and the more a consciousness of the present, e pastas past. "History” is one thing, ined and clearly instantiated, even if ue, though rich, potentiality.
tion tinction between dicisigns (or dicent the difference being drawn here with affects are seen to have been actuala's visit to the island for instance, are his footprint on Sri Pada. The reality rrigation tanks. Heritage, by contrast, !, to the community of believers, signs cts notwithstanding, a Separate issue is not a sign of actuality but one of also calls it a term, or rahema) to a 95).14 o leave blanks in their places, and each of them be filled by a proper the blank form of the proposition is termed a rheme (2.272). eaves its Object, and a fortiori its added; 2.95). As a semeiotic rheme, eeds no actualization to make it real exhaust. With history as a dicisign, past to realize there would not be a lrheme, one begins with the idea that would not be a historical past. The ards the past, the latter, that of the

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Furthermore, dicisigns strive tosynthesizeandprimordialize. Bo But particularization, true toits du and “particle" (as in concrete par "meanings” can be incarnated and time. It is in this sense then that his to concretize. Its objects are doc amply "discoverable” in Buddhist minded people become the subject in the rhematic sense in which I use its verity is affirmed, not in any pa experience of intersubjective bein
Heritage with History The foregoing discussion and distir the one hand, and heritage, on the people who hold to one view of the Tamil-Sinhala contrasts are to be ta than as mutual exclusivities."
While the Jaffna Tamil, fol “heritage”, and the Sinhalese favo past can be apperceived as a palpa Like their Jaffna TamilCOur being called “New Tamils”, Estat people belonging to an ancient civi these Tamils see their claim to this the Jaffna Tamils. The agents who teachers, who have been (until rec These teachers are the ones who in Tamil literature, ir a modern diale alien to the student, is called centa simultaneously brands the Tamils tamir (coarse or corrupt Tamil).'
In Sri Lankan Schools, Relig Jaffna Tamil teacher who teaches a for their examination in Hindu Saiva Siddhanta which Jaffna Tami purity and not allowed to go the way is coarse: a "little tradition", accort

; to particularize or concretize, rhemes tend thare activities of "making real", realization. al meanings of "part" (as opposed to whole) ticle), entails a search for objects in which l the world fragmented at one and the same toriography has been burdened with the need uments and monuments, both of which are SriLanka. The historian and the historically s who see these objects.' Primordialization, 2 the word, is both holistic and non-dualistic; rticular object or objectivity, but in a lived
3.
iction between what I have called history, on other, should not be taken as meaning that a 2 past are incapable of the other. Rather, the ken as general and strong propensities rather
lowing the general Indian pattern, favours ur'history”, the Estate Tamils' view of the ble dialectic entailing heritage and history.
nterparts, and as revealed in their objection to e Tamils think of themselves as an ancient lization with an ancient heritage. However, greatheritage to be openly monopolized by remind them of this monopoly are the School 2ntly) predominantly these "Other Tamils". troduced the Estate Tamil child to Classical ict of Tamil. This dialect of Tamil, which is mir (elegant Tamil) by the teacher while he poken by his Estate Tamil students, kodun
ion is a mandatory subject. Here too, it is the nd prepares the Estate Tamil School children ism. The brand of Hinduism taugh: is ils claim to have preserved and nurtured in its of Saivism in TamilNadu. Estate Hinduism iing to one Jaffna Tamil informant, who has
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read some anthropology (see also Coomar sacred trust of the great tradition is a mati In this regard we may note that the Ja of Tamilor of Saiva Siddhanta is comparab they have been entrusted by Lord Buddha its pristine form against all threats of lat however, is a crucial one. Sinhala Buddhis their hands to have been an actualized eve as living embodiments of a tradition (lingu initiated and which no mere event could el of Tamil they claim to speak and the relig neither beginning nor end.
There is one aspect of the Estate alienated from him; an aspect that he feels Tamil. This consists of poetry, song, drumr. call this the bardic heritage. This bardiche and the other in space. The temporal exten; of the early Christian era, Tiruvalluvar. W Tiruvalluvaras their poet, and many lovec introduced his English translation of the T as having no parallel in any other languag caste of drummers, who lay special claim Tiruvalluvar as their very own ancestor. T. called Valluvars. And as any fieldworker Tamil Estate and especially Tamil life ow and wailing, its rhythm of drums and danc Parayans (see, for example, Egnor 1986: quatrain sung by a Parayan:
Kallans have power Vellalans have wealth Pallans have revenge Parayans have song' (kallanukkupavarirukku vellalапиkkиррататirиkkи pallanukkuppaliirukku paraуапииkkирpattirukkи) If the temporal line of this bardic heritag extension moves inward touching each in clarity of felt immediacy. And what is mo
11

aswamy 1987:84-85). Here again, the er of heritage, not mere history.
ffna Tamils' conceit abouthis dialect le to the Sinhala Buddhists' belief that to preserve and defend Buddhism in ter day corruption. The difference, sts hold the entrusting of Buddhism in 'n, the Jaffna Tamils see themselves listic and religious) that no mere event hd. They, as a people, like the dialect gion they practice, are timeless, with
Tamils's heritage that has not been has not been colonized by the Jaffna mingand the artofstory-telling. Ishall itage has two extensions; one in time, sion goes back to the great Tamil poet hile all Tamils proudly lay claim to :iting the Rev. G.U. Pope (1886) who irukkural by describing its greatness e, it is the Parayans, the un touchable to this famous poet. They consider o this day, the priests of Parayans are is bound to find out in short order, es its musicality - its songs of work :e, its tales of ups and downs - to the 294-344). In the words of a popular
e extends to Tiruvalluvar, its spatial dividual's innermost being with the re, in this inward extension, heritage

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intersects with history, to be nouris
This history is not a histoj yesterday". It is not a finished chap reexperienced if wished, and reclo abstract history nor a history of ab, experience of suffering. And this (Pepper 1942; Turner 1974), them 1970).
In the following two section play between the elements of heritag in labour and pain. In the first sectio a typical oral historian. In the se constructed Peoples' Legend by one late C.V. Velupillai. On the face ofi of history and the second that of heri discourses that bear them, the dialec and the consciousness of heritage is
Suffering: A Catalogue
This is how the typical account run Two years after Sri Wickrama R deposed by the British (in 1815) to kandi from India. The first to c. on plantations but to build roads built the Colombo-Kandy road. Government. They were hired, no Unlike villagers, these men we discipline (Kattuppadu, from the - suffering: thus, to voluntarily su said that many of them died from free to return India whenever the Some stayed on. The British gov read, write and knew arithmetic tic from towns and cities. They cam of these people brought their f became the Colombe Kochchis. Si they are Indian, and have, in re. homes. A few years after Sri Wickrama F in exile, there were many famines gave kanganis' money to take

hed by a common experience.
y of "long ago". It is a history of "just ter that may be reopened at will, looked at, sed; it is still being "written". It is not an stractions; it is anchored in experience, the history is constituted by a "root metaphor" etaphor of labour (uraippu) (see Velupillai
SI shall attempt to illustrate this dialectical e and those of history as they are constituted n, I provide a synoptic sketchin the voice of cond Section I provide a self-consciously : of the best known Estate Tamil writers, the t the first section may appear to carry the flag tage. But within each of them, as within the :tical play between historical consciousness s densely enacted.
s:20
ajasingam, the last Kandyan King' was 'the first group of labourers was brought ome were all men. They came not to work and railroad. These were the men who
These men were hired by the British tfrom India's villages but from her towns. are without kin; mere drifters; without root, kattu - to bind or restrain, and padu iffer or subject one's self to restraint.) It is iseases in those early days. But they were 2y liked. And many who survived, did. 'ernment also brought Indians who could workin the civil service. They too came 2 mainly from Madras and Cochin. Many amilies and stayed. Their descendents ome of these Colombe Kochchis deny that cent riots, burned Tamil businesses and
Rajasingam returned to India to live there
in India.' In those days, English planters labourers from our villages to clear the
12

Page 17
jungles of Sri Lanka and plant coffee Sri Lanka to clear the jungle and plar came here were mostly men. Later, entire families came to theisland toge evenireached the mountains. Some di in a monsoon storm. Others died e northeastern and northcentral provi their drums to keep the wild animals survey the jungles and planhow, wł The wild boar and the leopa Died in the forest fire.
(From a balladre The others cut down the jungle, maki Anuradhapura, and from there to Ka Some died of cholera, typhoid, small wild animals. They cut more roads t way up to Nuwara Eliya and then to B south to the sea. The Sinhalese didir feared the jungles. They stuck to th lazy.27 In 1827 the white man planted coffee. cameo First only mencame. Since ci for labour was seasonal, our forefath India every year after the seasonal w white dorais (bosses) led us to believ At first we were given a small "advan. from the white man. But he told our advanced to them out of the kindness whenever convenient, with a small int us to stay. After the season was over payment. The doraidid this to savehi a new set of labourers the following every year, year after year.
Let me now parenthetically shift fromo order to expand upon what the narrator its expression in a work Song. This sor of Naganalur in the Tiruchirappalli dis repatriated under Sirimavo-Shastri Ind ancestors had worked on Blackwater E how the song goes:
Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Mackenzie whe Marimuttu, Marimuttu, have you see Mr. Wright, Mr. Wright, where is ou Rengamuttu, Rengamuttu I am going

}. That is how our forefathers came to it coffee. In the beginning those who especially when tea replaced coffee, ther. Many died of disease before they edin the sea when their boats capsized 'n route in the dense jungles of the nces. While Parayan musicians beat away, a few bold men went ahead to hen and where to set fires.
ard
scorded by C.V. Velupillai (1970:35) ng a road all the way from Mannar to ndy.
pox and malaria. Some were eaten by hrough the jungle from Kandy all the andarawela, Badulla and downto the not work on these roads because they eir villages. Furthermore, they were
That was when most of our ancestors offee was acrop in which the demand ters thought that they could return to ork was done. The kanganis and the e that this was how it was going to be. ce" by the kangani. He got this money fathers that this was his own money, of his heart, which they could return, erest. But they devised aruse to force and the work done, they delayed our mself the trouble of having to look for year. The dorai's story was the same,
ur typical narrator’s voice to my own in has called the dorai's story by turning to ng was sung for me in the Indian village trict of Tamil Nadu by a man who was o-Sri Lankan Pact of 1967. He and his state in the Ambegamuwa area. This is
re is our pay? in the prices fall?
r pay?
to buy another coffee estate.
3.

Page 18
Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith where is ou Sinnasamy, Simnasamy, come bacl Mr. Kangany, Mr. Kangany where Oh Karmam, oh Karmam, the first The second is paying up the intere This little song which I collected in “Fieldnotes: miscellaneous scraps” un ing note in an appendix in K.M. de S In his evidence before the Parliame on Ceylon 1850 (p303) the Ceylon asingle day in 1840 the following C ha) of land in the Ambagamuwa D The Rt. Hon. J. S. Mackenzie, Gov The Hon. W.O. Carr (Puisine Justi (Commissioner of Roads) F.B. Norris (Survey-General) and G. Turnour (Governor Agent, Cen! that time Acting Colonial Sec1 H. Wright (District Judge, Kandy) Sir R. Arbuthnot (Commander oft
Winslow (A.D.C.) T. Oswin, Esq. (District Judge). C.R Buller(later Government Ager Capt. Layard and others P.E. Wodehouse (Government Ag
Colonial Secretary
It is most intriguing that two of the na the above list, and that these purchas district within which Blackwater Est Records Office in London and in thea evidence directly implicating Gover in the non-payment or delayed paym on their estates. Nor have Ibeen able names from the above list. "Smith" is he was too minor a figure for George be a chronological problem in the sc eaten the coffee plant is an allusion to 1870s, that would place all these even years after the massive purchases of again, the reference could have been

pay?
next year.
is our pay?
half the bugs ate
t you owe.
975, I had relegated to a box labeled
fillast year when I came across the follow
lva (1965):
ntary Committee on Ceylon, 2nd report
planter George Ackland showed that on
ivil Servants bought 13,275 acres (5376
istrict (Central Province).
62O " 1,120 acres ce) and Captain Skinner
862 acres thers 762 acres ral Province, and at 'etary) 2,217 асres and G. Bird 1,715 acres he Forces) and Capt.
855 acres 545 acres nt, Central Prov.) 764 acres 2,204 acres 2nt and Assistant
2,135 асres
13, 275 acres
mes that appear in the song also appear in es were in the Ambegamuwa district, the ate is located. My research in the Public chives in Colombo have not turned up any nor Mackenzie and District Judge Wright 2nt of wages to the labourers who worked to find any songs which include any other in the song and not on this list. Perhaps Ackland's purposes. There also seems to ngs. If the reference to the bug that had the great and final coffeeblight of the late is with their charges and excuses forty odd land described in Ackland's list. Then o an earlier minor crop disease. However,
14.

Page 19
if indeed this were true of these highe be one of the Severest indictments o Tamil labourers. Nonetheless, it rema Several benefits from these irregular, d As Wesamperama notes, "the underly infrequent payment was the shortag planters experienced" (1986:194). M in fact. Coffee prices were notorious capital” extended to entail investmel "Mr. Wright” in the song seems to in expanded their land holdings on the b them went directly into buying mort narrator we find the kanganisupported
more diabolical reasons.
It forced us to turn again to the kang, the first year's payment would be year's work season. By then our foi never even saw the color of these wa accounts by the kangani. They con they could go back home with som What happened at the end of the first third, and the fourth year. Then it forefathers got themselves deeper a forefathers, entire annual wages ha to the kangani. Thus the following song: Speak not of Kandy to me; Nor repeat its name. For in that casteless Kandy The cobbler is the kangany
To this day, many of us are indebt to of us continuing the old debt-obliga returned under the various repatrial this vicious cycle early on by del handed, along the same treacherous bring their wives and children to jo Then in 1878 the coffee blight happ abandoned their land and their debts died of starvation.
In yonder field
Strung with pegs Where coffee plants sprout I lost my beloved brother.

stof officials in colonial Ceylon it would f British colonial exploitation of estate instrue that planters of that period reaped elayed and infrequent payments of wages. ring factor for the planters preference for e of working capital which the coffee ackenzie's excuse does have Some basis for their dips and rises. But if "working it capital as well, as the charge against dicate, then it is clear that white planters lacks of unpaid labourers; the wages due 2 estates. Returning to the voice of our I this policy of delayed payments foreven
ani for the means of our livelihood. So, paid only at the beginning of the next refathers were so deep in debt that they ges. It was directly deducted from their tinued to work the next season so that Le earnings. But that never happened. year was repeated after the second, the became the custom. Each year, our nd deeper into debt; and each year our d to be used to repay loans and interest
(C.V. Velupillai 1970:34) those kanganis and their children; some tion in village India to where we have ion schemes. Some managed to break erminedly returning to India emptyroute. Others went into further debt to in them and their labour. sned in Sri Lanka. Many white planters tous and left. Forthree yearsourpeople
(C.V.Velpuillai 1970:35)

Page 20
Then came tea. We were re-hired. India. More people came to Kandy died thanin any other yearooThis ti were brought to the hills, since pl around the tea bushes a child's job, less than were men. The Sinhalese in the villages bo brought us breadfruit, honey, juggé rice, sugar and dhal with them. We did not understand money and pref money, the Kandyan Sinhalese vil Small traders from the low country those setup by our Vellallas, Chetti Sinhalese cheated Kandyan Sinhale involved. Some of our people la backs, along with the low country Kandyan villager how not to be ch those days, fights between Sinhale occasional story of how one of o Sinhalese villagers. Some times it for not warning them against the lo alow country Sinhala merchantorh the Kandyan peasant that this mud them. Of course the peasant laugh language; we at how they sowed t purpose. But on the whole we had 1 of our people went with some of the and the kangani that we either liked us, beatus, underfed, under-paid au sometimes were kind. And if ours were proud of him. Of all the dora is in the land OUR dorai is the court dorai. The court dorai is a tough man, Get off the road, here he comes.'
After one hundred years, the white right to vote, including us. The foreigners," they saidofus. "They villages in India." Only the Chetti: enough money to send back to Ind Bhais' had enough money to bu citizens. They bank rolled the pol In 1920 all the people of Sri Lanka the right to vote. Ten years later ( usby introducing new and stricter

More of our people were brought from from India in the year Queen Victoria me as many women and children as men ucking tea is a woman's job, weeding and both women and children were paid
dering the estates where we worked ry and arrack. We shared our rations of lso paid them in rupees and cents. They irred paymentinkind. When itcomes to ager is easily cheated, even to this day. setup shops in the hill towns alongside ars, and goldsmiths. These low country se whenever an exchange in money was ughed at their simpleness behind their Sinhalese merchant. Others taught the cated and how to count his change. In se and us were rare. You will hear of an ur men was threatened by a group of was the Kandyan Sinhalese attacking us w country cheaters; and at others it was tishired thugs attacking us for informing alali (shop owner) or that was cheating led at us, and we at them. They, at our heir rice paddy fields without plan nor ittle to do with them, except when some irs to Kadirgamam. It was the white man orhated. They are the ones who worked ld under-housed us, and cheated us; and was a good kanganior a kind dorai we
(C.V. Velupillai 1970:38) man gave all the people of this land the others did not like this. "They are earn moneyhere and senditback to their rs and some Motta Vellala kanganishad ia. They, along with the Borahs and the y the right to vote and the right to be iticians and the white planters.' including the Estate Tamils, were given 1931) they took that right from many of ligibility requirements. Only those who
16

Page 21
possessed a Certificate of Permanents anyone who had gone back to India wi was not allowed to be a citizen. In sp Tamils who voted. This, the Sinhal requirement stricter yet. A voter ha English. But at the same time they privilege of schools. They did not eve could leave their infants and toddl Nowadays there arecreches, but the "t woman who does not even know Tal Rs.500 of immovable property or he h These requirements were made only of we had to prove that we had a permane they made the rule tighter for us while who came and went as they pleased an Andall the Burghers who eventually w We who did not even have money to take the ferry to India even if we wa permanent interest in the island. In qualified to vote. So they made ther were one and half lakhs among us whi did the Jaffna Tamils do? They did C. Suntharalingamo was the brain beh did including our eventual disen G.G. Ponnanimbalam briefly showed i thought that it might help his Tamils the War. We elected seven Indian C members to parliament.' This scarec Tamil capitalists, and the British capit ship and then our right to vote. This v who know about these matters more th was uttered during the independence-n the British were written down. If this about us who made up 13% of this cour there is no record of a single word abol so much before election since 1920 independence was discussed? The re. For if they are found it will reveal aco leftists from coming to power. Then decided, without consultingus, how II us. They arbitrarily decided that 525, C to where we had come from 150 years Ceylon citizenship but whose names w were to be marked. This left 150,000 The horror tales that we hear from tho than anything we could tell you abou

Settlement were allowed to vote. And thin the previous five years for a visit pite of this there were 100,000 Estate ese did not like. So they made the d to be literate in Sinhala, Tamil or would not allow our children the in provide a creche where our women ers when they went to the fields. 2acher' at thesecreches is a Sinhalese mil. A voter had to own more than had to earn Rs. 50 or more per month. fus Estate Tamils. Then they said that int interest in this country. So in 1936 at the same time allowing white men dalways returned to England, to vote. 'ent to Australia were allowed to vote. buy a train ticket to Talai Mannar to anted to were deemed not to have a spite of this, more and more of us les tighter yet in 1940. And still there o were qualified to vote. And what not care about us most of the time. indeverything that D.S. Senanayake ranchisement after independence. interest in our problem only when he too. Then came the elections after congress members and seven leftist i the Sinhalese capitalists, the Jaffna alists, So they took away our citizenwas planned with the British. People han we do tell us that every word that egotiations between Senanayake and s be so they must surely have talked intry’s population. But they tellus that ut us. How is it that we who mattered didn't even warrant mention when cords are either hidden or destroyed. nspiracy; a conspiracy to prevent the in 1967 Bandaranayake and Shastri hdia and Ceylon were going to divide 00 of us were to be sent back to India, earlier and 300,000 were to be given ill appear on a separate registry. We whose fate was undecided. se who have gone to India are worse it our sojourn in Sri Lanka. We are
7

Page 22
cheated off our meagre possessior estate office clerks and some Sinh us in order to release our papers a minor. These people know how p. the Indian High Commission in Ka relieve us of as much jewellery an is as bad as when we land in India is only injustice. The Sinhalese att own Tamils in India attack us e customs officers who treatus like C clerks, and finally our own relativ stories about from our grandparer wealth but even our labour. Many many others have become beggars is said that some of our women he The whole of the above account, espé and post-repatriation years, is a highly felt in this account is a historical cons
Now let us turn to an account
a uniquely historical twist.
Born of Labor What follows is the sketch of a story o last interview with him, in 1984, two it, malayagattamilar puranam (The Tamils).
"Her name was Tamil." She was world. Her other name was Moth daughter of Siva, "the apple of his thirsty, she came to a sea of milk. It was the sea that Lord Vishnu ha she became pregnant. Lord Siva, f to go into painful labor. And her ch also cursed to labor all their lives. birth to a daughter and then died li to this very day. Siva Peruman w grand daughterone of the spears le Skanda), and told her to give it to brother (tai maman). Tell your sc gone to.' And let your daughters be a bush. It will have spread so sons to use this ayudam (means b your daughters their bare hands to thereby make that land prosper. A

seven before we leave the estates. The ala superintendents extract bribes from nd provident funds. But this is usually or we are. But matters get really bad at indy or Colombo. There the clerks try to | cash as they possibly can. But nothing Here there is justice. Over there there |ck us only during the periodic riots. Our veryday in countless ways. From the attle, to the porters, the tasildars, the bank 2s – of whom we have only heard vague ts - all exploit us; not just our material of us have become bonded labourers,' in the cities of Madurai and Madras. It ve even turned to prostitution. 'cially that of the post-disenfranchisement , abbreviated one. But what may be keenly ciousness; history in the making as it were.
hat emphasizes heritage, but heritage with
btained from the late C.V. Velupillai in my years before his death.' He wished to call Legend or Story of up-country heartland
the most beautiful woman (pen) in the er Tamil (tamir tai),' she was the only eye (Sivamani)." One day when she was Delighted, she quenched her thirst in it. d churned. She did not know this. And illed with rage at his daughter, cursed her ildren and their children's children were
After much anguish and pain she gave ke many of our women die during labor as deeply saddened. He held out to his tbehind by his son, Murugan (also called her sons. "It belongs to your mother's ons to follow him to the land that he has follow your sons. In that land there will as to cover much of that land. Tell your oth weapon and instrument or tool) and harvestevery last leaf from this bush and fter the last leaf has been harvested, my
18

Page 23
son Murugan will come to claim his lifted." As soon as his granddaughte one of its sides became the sharpest kavvattu katti (the curved knife used symbol (cinnan): a kavyattu kattian a bud from which tea is manufactur showed me asketch of the symbol-) the pain of labor in childbirth (prasa labor (uraippu vanai) among the b estates.' But that, as Sivaperumanse leaf has been plucked. But the kavya one prunes abush the more luxuriantly life's problem". How will this end? H every lastleaf benipped off? "Thatisc it does, we will go to Kadirgamam. . knife. "And what do you think will h Expecting Siva's boon to be fulfilled acc into a spear!” Mr Velupillai laughedan Estate Tamils he had sketched. "No, over the outlines of the knife, extending whose arc remained three leaves and all
I must restrain myself for now puranam to the variety of mythological: to, including the one that perennially fa “incest”. But I cannot resist myself fron curious significance. The ancestress, N sumably human). But she turns out to b Skanda (therefore, a goddess). But if sh one of the two types of South Indian Sa Virgin Goddesses, whoremain unimpreg 64). Her death is described in humant having been but asketch). Giving birth (especially Vaishnavism) is not the mo Mr Velupillai was educated in a Christ bearing on hispuranam? Could this, con made him end the mythin the somewhat" the last word not going to Siva or the revolutionary struggle and/or victory by, that question of the typicality of a tale an as this. Space does not allow me to respol to make the following observations:

ayudan. Then your curse shall be :r received the spear, its tip bent, and of blades, changing the whole into a for pruning tea bushes). "This is our il the koruntu (the two tea leaves and ed). At this point Mr Velupillai But of course there is that curse where via vedanai) continues in the pain of ushes on the mountains of the tea id, will end only whenevery last tea tu katti prunes a bush, and the more y leaves grow. “This is the crux of our ow will the curse belifted? How will pursecret. It will happen." And when And there we will give Murugan his appen?" cording toplan, I said, “It will turn back il picked up the picture of the symbol of (twill turn into this.' And he sketched g the tip into the shape of a sickle, in bud. from the temptation of subjecting this analyses it is capable of being subjected scinates anthropologists, the subject of n raising at least several small points of Mother Tamil, is called a woman (prebe the daughter of Siva and the sister of e were a goddess, she does not fit either iva goddesses, Consort Goddesses and natable virgins (seeRamanujan 1986:55erms. (Perhaps it was a function of its vaginally, though known in Hinduism st common form of divine deliveries. ian School. Could that have had some nbined with his leftist politics, also have sacrilegious”mannerhedidendit, with : spear to Murugan but to an implied and for his people? Then there is always d the idiosyncrasy of an informant such nd to the latterin any great detail, except

Page 24
(1) Mr. Velupillaisees himself asad to the Valuvansub-caste ofPara figure, andan individual. Thetwç individuals and individuals (pers (b) Mr Velupillai, in self-consciousl his individuality and engaging in Brahmanic Hinduism where auth dividuals. (c) At the same time, in seeing him. century Valluvar, he is negatingh The emphasis is on heritage. In conclusion (and nota recapitulation) people bothinandof history; not condel ideologies and ontologies, or any such Estate Tamils are different from Jaffn come to be different from the Tamilso hundred and fifty years ago.

escendent of Tiruvalluvar. Both belong yans. Tiruvalluvar is seen as a historical pare complementary since historymakes ons and events) make history.
y authoringapuranam, is both asserting a practice that runs against the grain of Lors of puranams are never historical in
self as a token of a type, as a twentieth is individuality as well as his historicity.
, I wish to suggest that Estate Tamils are mned to be moored to permanent cultural Durkheimian moral orders." Even as a Tamils and Sinhalese, they have also f the mainland whom they left fifty to a

Page 25
NOT This paper, with respect to tea estate worke in the years: 1971, 1974, 1976, 1983-84, 1987. TI pre-1983 years and towards older informants. Mu treatment.
1 Unfortunately, space does not allow me
2 See K M de Silva (1986:183) for a discu have given the Kandyan Sinhala region an identity Sinhalese.
3 In Gadamer's formulation, "the standpe illusion" (1975:339). Obviously then, the stand anthropologist. However, I have attempted to pri Tamils because it is their's that gets the least recogi while the other two groups argue about the object this privileging of a “neglected viewpoint" in the n the other points of view, including the "disintereste
* In the late-colonial and particularly in tl identities are seen as opportunism, especially by
Muslims' renouncing of their Tamil-linguistic ide such "Muslim-strategies” represent the vestige of linguistic chauvinism nor linguistic nationalism pr did not unite the various language groups but initia separation. This phenomenon may be more clearl the break up of the former Madras Presidency into example. There, before the dominance of the Er Telugu speakers within the same jati was quite co
See Tarzie Vittachi (1958). The most Lanka's problems goes beyond the justification of
It cannot be denied that all the luminarie cultural revival were concentrated in Jaffna; and Russell 1982:135).
"To be sure, most of my Jaffna Tamil infos gave the word the same connotation given to it by than “spent"). But the exceptions in this case are
* Alberuni’s India tr. Edward Sachau (Lon View of the Problem of Ancient Indian History". this to my attention.
9 The more recent hermeneutic tum, af foregrounding the interpretive nature of all histori history" the rug of innocent conceit upon which he facis qua facts and events qua events, unstained b have called the "typical historian" continues to exe budged from its classical form.
10 See AK Warder's An Introduction to In to these various historical traditions.
11 On this point also see Bruce Kapferer (19 passion invested in defending or attacking the Tennekoon (1987).
12 A casual bibliographic entry count of thes of 15:1.
13 It is telling that our ultra-nationalist tours called a “traitor historian" by a more powerful gre

ES rs in particular, is based on fieldwork carried out ne oral histories I employ are biased towards the ch has changed since 1983, deserving a separate
to develop this point in this essay. ssion of early federalist proposals which would of its own, distinct from that of the Low Country
pint that is beyond any standpoint ... is pure point in this paper is my own, that of a trained vilege the world as seen by this second group of nition in writings on ethnic relations in Sri Lanka ivity of their own perspectives. It is hoped that hanner of a comparative anthropology will place
d" analyst's, in a more enlightening perspective. ne post-independence context such shiftings of
the Tamils who stand to lose the most by the entity. Alternatively it may also be argued that
a common pre-colonial practice where neither evailed. By this argument, the English language ated the beginning of their mutually antagonistic ly seen in several regions of India. The case of e Tamil Nadu and Telangana is such a revealing nglish set in, inte marriage between Tamil and ommon.
recent, post-1983 intervention by India in Sri
protecting Indian or potentially Indian citizens. es involved in the 19th and 20th century Tamil it was a remarkable concentration indeed (see
mants thought "Old” suited them perfectly and the Estate Tamils (as meaning "ancient" rather more revealing than the rule. don 1888), Vol. I pp. 10-11: cited in “A New I thank Richard G Salomon (1980) for bringing
er Dilthey and especially Gadamer, has, by ography, pulled out from under the “objectivist stood and presumed that what he was after were y the subjective presen(1) ce. However, what I 'rcise his craft much as if hermeneutics had not
dian Historiography for a general introduction
187). For an excellent account of the amount of
"historicity" of the Mahavamsa see Serena
inhala:Tamil ratio of historians gave me a figure
uide's historian himself was to be subsequently up of Sinhala nationalists in Colombo because

Page 26
de Silva had claimed that only four Sinhalaki 8).
All references to Peirce employs the Collected Papers.
*Inarecentarticle, Andrew Lass (19 of history by 19th century Czech nationalism, between Lass'sphenomenologicalframewor not go in this paper.
Bruce Kapferer (1987) holds that fraught with evil, and is the antithesis of a h nature then, historiography, being a “particul runs counter to the constitution of a sound B the Buddhist State's very historicity lies the ' A sense of heritage does have a p Tamils. However, the biases are real and ar claim that "for Sinhalese the pastis always in the person and history (forming) a cosmic uni is truer of the Hindu Tamil disposition toward the Buddhist Sinhala disposition different fr one is what I have chosen to emphasize here presence in the present as the dependent Australians ("given to placing history outsi example, several Tamils have entered the di pertaining both to Sinhala past as well as est: 1985 and Satyendra 1985). The debate is ca. employed by the other side (see Coomarasw
"I have been surprised on more than have equated the “prestige” of the Jaffna dia Lankan Tamil speakers) with “linguistic pu Jaffna case to the Appalachian community found them to have retained a remarkable nu which have been lost in contemporary standa their English is "pure" and the rest "corrupt" Jaffna Tamil claim. Iconsider this presumpti to which this conceit has been domesticated which heritage as a phenomenon has been r 'The leader of the biggest trade uni to the Kallan caste. He has been a cabinet I The following oral history has bce historical accounts gathered in the field. Ih because, save for syntactic editorial insertion from informants.
All of my “oral historians" are, or we in the Kandy,Nuwara Eliya and Badulla dist redundant corroboration in written accounts is true only if corroborated by the latter. Un try to find good reasons for choosing one o indicating indifference by the creators of suc which do figure in oral histories. Wherever such oral histories are corroborated by docu but to provide the reader directions for furthe mentary counterpartin every instance is nott

gs had ruled the entire island (Tennekoon 1987:4 and
conventional volume and paragraph number from his
88) uses "concretization" into monuments in the uses However, there are some epistemological differences k and my semeiotic one; differences into which I shall
fragmentation" in a Buddhist State is threatening, is ierarchical and holistic (Buddhist) state. By its very arizing" (potentially or actually fragmenting) activity Iddhist state. In other words, if Kapferer is correct, in seeds of his own contradiction. ace in Sinhala consciousness, and history, in that of 2 to be recognized. In my opinion, Bruce Kapferer's the present and the person is inseparable from history, iy" (1987:213), is only partly correct, and to that extent the past than that of the Sinahla Buddhist. Whatmakes pm the Hindu-Indian one and similar to the European 3 the past qua past as the independent variable, and its variable. The Sinhalese are more like Kapferer's ie themselves" (1987:214) than are the Tamils. For 2bate on the historical verity of this or the other fact ablishing "facts" of their own past (sec Ponnambalam rried out in discursive terms that are identical to those ramy 1987). one occasion when trained Jaffna Tamil sociolinguists lect (a prestige, by the way, that is limited only to Sri rity". If an analogue be needed, one might liken the hat was discovered some years ago by linguists who mber of elements from Elizabethan English, elements ird English. Imagine these Appalachians to claim that , then you'll have the Appalachian counterpart of the on to linguistic purity not a mere measure of the degree among these Tamils, but as an index of the degree to laturalized in this culture. on of plantation workers, Mr S Thondaman, belongs ninister in the UNP government since 1977. in constructed by drawing from over twenty five oral ave rendcred this typical oral history in a block quote s, the account provided is a composite of actual quotes
re at some time, residents of tea estates or small towns ricts. Some aspects of these oral accounts do not find
while others do. This does not mean that the former less contrary versions turn up (in which case one may ver the other), I take a lack of redundancy as merely h documents to those aspects of laborious experience easible, however, I have provided references wherein nented histories. I do so, not to presume verification, r research. Furthermore, my failing to provide a docu) be taken as the non-existence of such documentation.
22

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'Estate Tamils never pronounce this last the terminal 'm'), implicitly making the point th: Whenever calendar years are given in p in general, specify such years.
in fact, the railways were to come muc 'Recall the characterization of these peop anyone with a deep and connected network of kinf identities entailed kattuppadu.
The following were the years in the 19th affected by famine: 1802-04, 1806-07, 1823, 183 (see Lovejoy, 1914) and 1899 (see Ludden, 1985
*A kangani was a recruiter cum leader of in the lives of Estate Tamil workers. At the peak of were extremely dependent on him. From the whit and from the laborer he could withhold payment : 1986, passim).
"This is contrary to fact. Sinhalese did w 1986:9).
That the Sinhalese are indolent is a belief and even by many Sinhalese. This baseless opir deserving of further study, as a cultural artifact "indolence" in question occurs in two distinct dis within the discourse of hard and efficient work. F. of hierarchy and who can and cannot afford such Europeanized Sri Lankans (such as present-day te: the myth of the indolent Sinhalese.
* Most probably, the immigration of India not in 1827, but in 1889. However, arriving at a extremely difficult (see Wesumperuma, ch. 3).
The cobbler (Chakkilian) is the lowest compared to a "casteless” society, which is the sa
I have not located the records for 1903, Ferguson's directory, the first decade of the cen immigrant labor (442,786 individuals), broadly i o The title given to the superintendent (ur Nowadays the women and men of tea subservience of their fathers and mothers. The cur sentiment towards anybody, including the other estate workers in bemused contempt.
Bhais are Sindhi money-lenders whose re his borrower and himself with tactics of terror is
Several members of the Motta Vellala o merchants and industrialists both in Sri Lanka a merchant bankers of Sri Lanka and rice merchani heavily (See D. Wesumperuma 1986; 165-170; 2 S. U. Kodikara (1965 p. 79) puts the n 143,000 in 1936 and 235,000 in 1939.
Indeed, the figure had dropped to 168,0. "A Jaffna Tamil, Professor of Mathemat advisor to Sri Lanka's first Sinhala Prime Ministe ''G. G. Ponnambalam, a brilliant Tamil p party and an eloquent defender of Jaffna Tamil righ in the Senanayake government. This was seen by

Kandyan king's name the Sinhala way (i.e., sans at he was a Tamil monarch. arentheses it indicates that oral accounts do not,
h later, in mid-century. le's ancestors as "drifters", implying thereby that plk could never forget their true identities. Strong
1 century when the Madras Presidency was most 2-33, 1838-43, 1853-55, 1876-78, and 1896-97 i:194-95).
abor-gangs, a very powerful and important figure his power, both white planters and Tamil laborers e man he could withdraw labour at critical times, lmost at will with impunity (see Wesumperuma
ork on clearing the jungles (see Wesumperuma
widely subscribed to by all Tamils of Sri Lanka, hion (in my well studied judgement) is in itself
It is interesting to notic, however, that the cursive arrangements. For the Tamils, it occurs or the Sinhalese who hold this view, it is a matter indolence. The Europeans in Sri Lanka and the a planters) are among the greatest perpetrators of
in labor to the island peaked in the 19th century, in accurate figure with the available statistics is
in the caste hierarchy. A disordered society is me as one in which the cobbler is the kangani. the year Queen Victoria died. But according to tury marks the heaviest net increase of Indian in support of the oral account. til recently, most often, a Briton) of an estatc. estates are embarrassed and resentful of such rent militant mood does not indulge in any such two ethnic groups who have traditionally held
putation for enforcing a verbal contract between egendary in the hill country of Sri Lanka. r Aru Nattu Vellala caste have become wealthy ind India. The Nattukottai Chettiars were the is on whom the early English planter depended 96-299 and W. S. Weerasooriya 1973). umber of Indian Tamils registered as voters at
00 by 1943. ics at the University of Ceylon, politician, and r, Mr. D. S. Senanayake. olitican-lawyer, founder of the Tamil Congress ts, was to subsequently accept a cabinet portfolio Estate as well an many Jaffna Tamils as an act

Page 28
of selling one's birthright for a mess of pota; cynical view of Ponnambalam).
'P. Devaraj, citing H. Wriggins and A election to parliament was influenced by the “o See R. V. Sagar, et. al., The Hur Conditions of Coupe Labourers in Kodaikal typescript copy of this document is availa Development, Madurai Province, Beschi Co 'C. V. Velupillai was a poet and trade As of the writing of this paper, I do not know puranam. As of now, I have not had access t edited version of my fieldnotes and not an ex which were written verbatim, when reproduc o This line, “avalukkuttamir entra pe songwriter named Bharathithasan's poem, w in a Tamil film.
Bharathithasan wrote a poem by this lyrics alone it would be difficult to say whetht well as of the Tamil people, or if he is to be s of tamiltai. Of course, in typical mythologica 1985:45).
* An allusion to Kadirgamam (Sinh Hindus and Buddhists go as pilgrims and whic in the island.
**Raymond Williams notes that in Eng since the 16th century, except in the labor association seems to be recovered, albeit in
* See Kapferer (1988) for such an forthcoming). On the Durkheimianism of su

e (see K. M. de Silva 1986: 106, for an even more
.J. Wilson, estimates that 7 to 20 Leftists' successful Estate Tamil vote in 1947. an Cost of Commercial Forestry: A Study of the al Hills: A Supreme Court Commission Report, (A ble at the Library of the Director, Research and lege, Dindigul 624-004, India). union leader whose roots went back to the tea estates. whether this "sketch" was ever developed into a full his papers. The form in which it appears here is an act transcription of a tape recording. Those portions ed here, have been done so within quotation marks. r", is from a much renowned South Indian poet and ich was made popular in the opening lyrics to a song
title in which Siva is called father (tantai). From the :r this reference is to Siva as the father of tamil tai as een as the father of the Tamil people and the spouse lfashion, he could be all of these (see Bharathithasan
ala: Kataragama) in the South of Sri Lanka where ch is believed to be Skanda or Murugan's main abode
glish, "labour' gradually lost its association with pain of childbirth. In C. V. Velupillai's purdham, this Camil (see Williams 1983:76-77). historical position and my criticism of it (Daniel ch moral orders see Evens (1982).
24

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BIBLIOG
Bastian, S. 1987 "Plantation Labour in a Changing Gunasinghe (eds.), Facets of Ethnicity in Sri Lank Bharathithasan (In Tamil) 1985 Bharathithasa. Daniel, E. Valentine 1984 Fluid Signs: Being a P California Press. n.d. Review of B. Kapferer, Le Anthropologist, (Forthcoming). Devaraj, P. 1979 "Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka", Colombo: Social Scientists' Association. Coomaraswamy, R. 1987 "Myths Without Conso of the 1980s", in Charles Abyesekera and Newt Sri Lanka, Colombo: Social Scientists' Associatic Egnor, Margaret T. 1986 "Intemal Iconicity in P and A. K. Ramanujan (eds.) Another Harmony, B Evens, T. M. S. 1982 "Two Concepts of 'Soc Heterodoxy", Man, 17:205-218. Frege, G. 1960 Translations from the Philosophi Blackwell. Gadamer, H. G. 1975 Truth and Method, New Y Kailasapathy, K. 1985 "Cultural and Linguistic Ethnicity and Social Change, Colombo: Social Sci Kapferer, B. 1987 Legends of people, Myths of Si Lass, A. 1988 "Romantic Documents and Pol History in 19th Century Czech Nationalism”, Ame Ludden, D. 1985 Peasant History in South India, Martin, R. M. 1988 The Meaning of Language, C Ministry of State Publication 1983 Sri Lanka: Tamils, Colombo: Department of Information. Obeyesekere, G. 1986 The Cult of the Goddess P Peirce, C. S. 1931 Collected Papers, Cambridge Pepper, S. 1942 World Hypotheses, Berkeley: Uni Ponnambalam, S. 1983 Sri Lanka: The National Books, Ltd. Pope, G. U. 1886 Kural, London: Allen & Co. Ramanujan, A. K. 1986 "Two Realms of Kanna Blackbum (eds.) Another Harmony, Berkeley: Un Russell, J. 1982 Communal Politics Under the Dor Sri Lanka: Tisara Press. Salomon, R. 1980 "A New View of the Problem Satyendra, N. 1985 "Legitimate Expectation”, in Development, Utrecht de Silva, K. M. 1965 Social Politics and Missionar Longmans Ltd. de Silva, K. M. 1986 Managing Ethnic Tens. University Press of America. Tennekoon, Serena. 1987 "Symbolic Refractions Sinhala Identity", in C. Abeyesekere and N. Gun Social Scientists Association.

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Caraiya “Crying Songs", in Stuart H. Blackburn
erkeley: University of Califormia Press. iety as a Moral System': Evens-Pritchard's
cal Writings of Gottlob Frege, Oxford: Basil
ork: Crossroad Publishing Company.
Consciousness of the Tamil Community", in ientists' Association. cate, Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press. itical Monuments: the Meaning-fulfillment of
rican Ethnologist, 15:456-471. - Princeton: Princeton University Press. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
The Truth about Discrimination against the
Pattini, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. e: Harvard University Press. iversity of California Press.
Question and the Tamil Struggle, London: Zed -
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Wittachi, Tarzie. 1985 Emergency 58, The Velupillai, C. V. 1970 Born to Labour, Col Warder, A. K. 1972. An Introduction to In Weerasooriya, W. S. 1973 The Natakottaic Lanka Tisara Press.
Wesumperuma, D. 1986 Indian Immigra Perspective, 1880 - 1910, Kelaniya: Vidyala Williams, R. 1983 Keywords, New York: C

Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, London: A Deutsch. ombo: M. D. Gunesena and Co. Ltd. dian Historiogrpahy, Bombay: Popular Prakashan. Chettiar Merchant Bankers in Ceylon, Dehiwala, Sri
at Plantation Workers in Sri Lanka: A Historical
nkara Press. )xford University Press.
26

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ALENTINE DANIEL
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Page 32
CASTE AND CONFLICT A - The Rise of a Karava Elite
Michael RC
Caste Conflict and Elite Formation is a study in t does not merely document the remarkable suc acquisition of Western-educated professional skil Karavacaste during the last two centuries; their ad which accompanied this process, are employed as change in Sri Lanka during the last four hundred
The interest of the book extends beyond the m trends and channels of elite formation that are controlled comparisons which reveal the factors 1 elite. Thus the book extends the methodological It emphasises the significance of the patterns of c Sri Lankan politics, and reveals how these pa opportunities which powered the advances of the
This is a major addition to the literature on South in Sri Lanka and South Asian history, but will interaction between economic change, religion a
"The bookseems certain to raise arguments, bo. and breadth, as well as lingering caste sensitiv, the book taken as a whole.... must be judged a - Robert N. Kearne
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WD ELITE FORMATION n Sri Lanka 1500-1931
oberts
he social history of Sri Lanka. However, it ccesses in business enterprise and in the ls which were achieved by families from the vances, and the social and political struggles a window through which a survey of social years is conducted.
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described within its pages to a series of responsible for the formation of the Karava frontiers of the social history of the region. aste discrimination and caste interaction in tterns were central to the incentives and
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