{"id":93655,"date":"2023-03-27T07:06:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T07:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=93655"},"modified":"2023-03-28T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T13:56:13","slug":"confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years-by-michael-roberts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years-by-michael-roberts-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years &#8211; By Michael Roberts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px; color: #800000;\"><strong>Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years &#8211; By Michael Roberts<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-88737 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Michael-Roberts-eLanka.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Roberts\" width=\"160\" height=\"184\" \/>Charlie and I go back a long way \u2013 to Ramanathan Hall at Peradeniya University where we were freshers together in 1957 and thus were ragged together.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn1\"><b>[1]<\/b><\/a> Charlie was known then as Charlies Ponnadurai, but he is now a \u201cSarvan\u201d and resides in Germany with his German wife after years of work in Zambia and the Middle East. He has done me a singular honour in basing an essay on \u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d purely on my work. The reference is to \u201cPejorative Phases: the Anti-Colonial Response and Sinhala Perceptions of the Self through Images of the Burghers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Readers may have been misled into thinking this was either a book or an independent article. Not so. The title is that of a chapter, \u201cPejorative Phrases\u2026.,\u201d which is the first chapter in the book <i>People Inbetween. The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformations within Sri Lanka<\/i>, <i>1790s-1960s<\/i>,\u201d \u2013 a large tome published in Sri Lanka in 1989 by Sarvodaya Book Publishing Services. This book was one part of a longer projected series involving myself, Percy Colin-Thom\u00e9 and Ismeth Raheem. That venture was inspired in part by our discovery of a treasure trove, namely, the Lorenz Collection at the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in Colombo. It has not seen the fullest fruition;<b> <\/b>but the first step was <i>People Inbetween<\/i> which was almost wholly my work, albeit aided by citation-aid and other inputs from Colin-Thom\u00e9 and Raheem.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn2\"><b>[2]<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Many people have mistakenly considered that book to be a history of the Burghers. Not so. It is a social and political history of the period 1790s to 1960s, one which focuses on the growth of the Sri Lankan middle class and marks some of the political currents of that era. Central to this process was the establishment of capitalist market relations by the British colonial dispensation and the transformation of the island through the creation of a road, rail and communication network, the establishment of cash crop plantations and a modernized administration. The \u201cmiddle class\u201d is conceptualized as a \u201cstatus group\u201d that overlapped with an emerging indigenous capitalist class without being synonymous with the latter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">A command of the English language and a gentrified life style was a critical aspect of the indigenous middle class, an emergent body of people who worked under and within the shadow of the ruling British functionaries, merchants and planters in the colonial order. The upper layers of the Burgher population secured a major role in the emerging indigenous middle class because (a) they were located in key urban nodes such as Colombo. Galle, Jaffna, Kalutara; and because (b) they had the requisite language skills and life practices to fulfill some of the intermediary roles created by the new dispensation; while yet being (c) deemed inferior by the race-conscious British, who kept them at a social distance for the most part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">It was from such circumstances that a few Burghers initiated the journal <i>Young Ceylon<\/i> in 1850-52, a literary and political magazine that provided the first sign of Ceylonese nationalist thinking opposed to \u201ccolonial subordinations.\u201d Again, when the Ceylonese assembled a cricket team to challenge the local Europeans in a Test Match in 1887 in what was a form of sports nationalism the eleven players were all Burgher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Our reading of such developments would also profit from attention to the demographic backdrop. Note that in 1921 there were 14,863 \u201cBurghers &amp; Eurasians\u201d in Colombo, making up as much as 6 per cent of the people in the city as it was then constituted \u2013 even though they were less than one per cent of the total population in British Ceylon then (see <i>People Inbetween<\/i> for the statistical and other details).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">In fact <i>People Inbetween<\/i> is as much a history of Colombo as anything else. One chapter is devoted to examining the place of that city in the capitalist-cum-political transformation of the island. The contention is that Colombo became a dominating hegemonic centre, one that loomed over the island economy at the same time that it established the guiding life styles and served as ideological epicentre.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">That, then, is the broader setting within which \u201cPejorative Phrases\u201d as opening chapter elaborates on the ethnic differentiations that developed in the course of the occupation of the island by various European powers beginning with the Portuguese. The emergence of mixed blood indigenous residents who came to be identified from the British times as \u201cBurgher\u201d<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn3\"><b>[3]<\/b><\/a><b> <\/b>\u2013 by selves as well as others \u2013 was one consequence of this process. That is why the book, that is the first segment in chapter One, begins with a conjectural hypothesis on my part, a deciphering of the famous tale delineating how the local Sinhalese expressed astonishment when sighting the first Portuguese conquistadors: \u201c<i>kudugal sap\u0101kana le bona minissu<\/i>!\u201d<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn4\"><b>[4]<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">This context, in its turn, is essential background for our comprehension of such terms as <i>para lansiy\u0101<\/i>, <i>k\u00e4rapott\u0101<\/i>, <i>parangiy\u0101, thuppahiy\u0101 <\/i>and thus to further extensions embracing other non-Sinhalese \u2013 for example, <i>para demal\u0101<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-AU\">Pejorative Phrases: <\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-AU\">\u201cPejorative Phrases\u201d is a long chapter of some 21 large-size pages. It is not easy to summarize. While Charlie\u2019s essay does not misread as such, the brevity of his article inadvertently misleads through absence of context. His emphasis runs thus: he pinpoints the Sinhalese hatred towards things foreign in order to \u201cpreserve what is believed to be pristine \u2026 and therefore sacred.\u201d He then says that this emphasis was due to \u201ca conviction that they are a chosen people\u201d \u2014 a conviction that led to \u201can emphasis on purity\u201d (all my words in quotation).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-AU\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">This particular summary is from page 14 of <i>People Inbetween<\/i>. It is not a misquotation. However, it is without its particular context. That specific theme was presented by me within a sub-section entitled \u201c<b>Weapons of the Downtrodden<\/b>.\u201d Here, at the outset of this sub-section, I commence by stressing that \u201csuch pejorative phrases as <i>paralansiya <\/i>and <i>karapotu lansi \u2026 <\/i>were counterpoints.\u201d I then go on to say: \u201cthe pejorative expressions are (were) one part of the anti-colonial response.\u00a0 As such, they are (were) part of the armoury of liberation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_93652\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93652\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-93652 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai.png\" alt=\"Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years\" width=\"243\" height=\"298\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-93652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Piyadasa Sirisena<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">It is at this moment that I inserted a Chart depicting the pejorative phrases in schematic form that clarified there linkages and context (see below). It is, I emphasise, on this foundation that I highlighted the emphasis on somatic purity (blood, race) in some strands of nationalist thinking. That is, I marked the emphasis on \u201cdebasing mixtures\u201d of blood in the literature and essays produced by some Sinhala nationalists. I amplified this theme by focusing on the writings of the highly influential journalist, novelist and activist, Piyadasa Sirisena (1875-1946), whose thinking in my surmise was of greater consequence in his own time than that of Dharmapala. As I emphasised: \u201cto be <em>samkara<\/em> was to be debased. Behind this was a crystallization of caste thinking in ethnic terms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Indeed, the central thrust in this chapter is about the manner in which caste ideology fused with the specific forms of racial thinking that had been introduced and consolidated by the colonial powers \u2013 so that the sub-section that follows is entitled \u201cCaste Ideology within the Ethnic Stereotype.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">In brief, to repeat, the chapter cannot be readily summarized. But readers here can gain some sense of its breadth if I delineate the sub-headings in their temporal order:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><em>Parangi <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Analogic Extensions<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The Contexts of Banter and Abuse<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><em>Parad\u0113sakk\u0101ra<\/em>: Towards 1956<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Burgher Airs and Prejudices<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Weapons of the Downtrodden<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Caste Ideology within the Ethnic Stereotype<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Disordering, Craving<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The Outside-Inside Metaphor and the Sinhala Body Politic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The two charts I have composed for this chapter also serve as shorthand tools that clarify the context and the implications. The message, then, is that (1) the colonial context and its varying histories provided the enabling conditions for the creation and implementation of these forms of differentiation and disparagement; and that (2) these usages were part of a complex world of interchange and confrontation, a vortex where all parties were guilty of prejudice and intolerance. These prejudices could be on class lines. Thus, in the early decades of the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century for instance there was differentiation among the Burghers, between the superior <em>lansi<\/em> and the inferior <em>tupass<\/em> or<em> thuppahi<\/em>; and in the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century one found distinctions between \u201cfront door Burghers\u201d and \u201cback door Burghers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-93653\" src=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-2.png\" alt=\"Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years\" width=\"502\" height=\"376\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-93654\" src=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-3.png\" alt=\"Piyadasa Sirisena\" width=\"602\" height=\"436\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The further point (as an addition here in this new essay) is that the Sri Lanka Tamils were not bereft of extreme prejudices either and that some Vellalar in particular are known to have had extreme caste and\/or racial prejudices. \u00a0There is anecdotal evidence of considerable weight<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn5\">[5]<\/a> regarding the extreme forms of disability faced by the dalit castes<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn6\">[6]<\/a> of the Jaffna Peninsula even in the third quarter of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, evidence supported by some studies.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn7\">[7]<\/a> So, the issue then is this: what of the Tamil-speaking world of disparagement? From anecdotal conversations I am aware that the term <em>parangi<\/em> was part of the Tamil order. It referred to \u201caliens and \u201cforeigners\u201d and could be highly disparaging. We are in need of a historical sociology which unpacks the use of demeaning ethnic and caste terminology among the long-resident Tamil peoples of Sri Lanka over a period of time. The gentility of the Tamil people of Jaffna and elsewhere remains unstained only because such aspects are clouded by silences\/absences; and by lacunae in the surveys of contemporary literature in Tamil.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Extensions: <\/strong>That then is the backdrop to the particular motifs that Charlie has gathered from my chapter to illustrate the use of the term <em>para demal\u0101<\/em> in our generational time from the 1950s and thereafter. The use of that phrase, I add, was one facet of a whole corpus of pejoration that goes back to the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century. These disparaging acts of denigration were not confined to interpersonal banter or verbal confrontation. The foreigners who were targeted in news item or, on occasions, public platform in the colonial period included the British, the <em>kocci<\/em> (the Malayalis), the<em> hamba<\/em> (Indian Moors), the <em>marakkala<\/em> (all Moors), the <em>hetti <\/em>(Chettiyars),the <em>javo <\/em>(Malays) the <em>bhai <\/em>(Borahs, Afghans) and the <em>para demala<\/em> (low and vile Tamils).<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn8\">[8]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Such practices of intolerance and ethnic prejudice certainly provide food for thought and grounds for criticism. Such data also enables contemporary writers opposed to the present Sinhala-dominated order to cast Sinhala society in an unfavourable light. So Charlie\u2019s little piece is par for the course in the prevailing propaganda war. To those attuned to little signs, his passing shot at my recent writings<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn9\">[9]<\/a> indicates clearly where he is coming from.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Other essays and communications from time to time encourage me to position Charlie as a Tamil nationalist, one who is not on the extreme end of the scale, but who is yet far from moderate and somewhat to the right of centre.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn10\">[10]<\/a> There are many shades of Tamil extremism and even those of \u2018lighter shade\u2019 provide fodder for continued strife and hinder reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Charlie\u2019s concluding note in \u201cPara Dhemal\u0101\u201d provides further proof of prejudiced readings of history in ways that serve a campaign of insidious warfare. He underlines his emphasis on the strands of racial superiority and purity in Sinhala nationalist thinking by alluding to the use of the term \u00a0\u201cIndian Tamils\u201d in Sri Lankan nomenclature and moving to this concluding sentence: \u201cthen one should also speak of \u2018Indian Sinhalese\u2019: polluted or pure, the roots are the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">This is poor sociology, mindless stuff. The term \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d came into being and took root in British times in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century. When Tamil-speakers from southern India were promoted and induced to travel to the hill country in the southern half of the island from the 1830s to work on the plantations and a large mass gathered in those parts, they were distinguished from the locally resident Tamils in the island by this term, namely \u201cIndian Tamils.\u201d It was not \u2018merely\u2019 a bureaucratic classificatory term adopted in the Blue Books, censuses and administrative language. The term derived from manifest differences in life ways, as well as phonetic dialect differences and other linkages. The differentiation was founded and girded by subjectivity forged in daily interpersonal exchanges (as with most collective identities). Most \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d remained aware of, and attached to, their <em>ur<\/em> back home in India.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn11\">[11]<\/a> Even as late as the mid-20<sup>th<\/sup> century Muttiah Muralitharan\u2019s grandfather went back to his <em>ur<\/em> village, Namakkal, even though his\u00a0 son (Murali\u2019s father) had advanced his fortunes and become a confectionary producer of some magnitude.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn12\">[12]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">In brief, there were subjective as well as manifest differences between the recent migrants from southern India and the Tamils long-resident in the northern and eastern parts of the island. This differentiation was underlined by the force of caste prejudices amongst the local Tamils, those identified as \u201cCeylon Tamils\u201d (now Sri Lanka Tamils). As some Ceylon Tamils gained jobs in the plantation sector as apothecaries, tea-makers etcetera or moved into the hill-country as state functionaries, their sense of superiority and their prejudices towards the \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d were only too evident. This is a well-established fact in the oral history carried in the memories of older Ceylonese\/Sri Lankans. If one has any doubts one should ask Sebastian Rasalingam, the octogenarian of non-Vellalar caste who happened to marry an \u201cIndian Tamil\u201d (Estate Tamil, Malaiyaha Tamil) and lived in Hatton for a while; and whose tales about Vellalar practices of superordination are as deadly as revealing. Notions of superiority, whether based on caste prejudice, gentility or otherwise, do generate recoil.\u00a0 That was my point about Sinhalese reactions to White colonial ideas of racial superiority. This does not justify the xenophobic lengths to which the Sinhalese recoil was taken and\/or its further extensions to other outsiders. Parenthetically, I note here that the issue NOW is whether the type of recoil among Tamils of the diaspora displayed by Charlie in his occasional public writings serves the cause of the Tamils who have chosen to live in Sri Lanka today and the cause of Sri Lanka writ large.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn13\">[13]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Be that as it may, the emergence of the category \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d in British times did not displace the widespread understanding that Sinhala-speaking peoples had migrated from India way back in the last millennium BC and subsequently. That was the overpowering theme in both the <em>vamsa <\/em>chronicles and the oral traditions of the Sinhalese. This theme was absorbed by the British writers and colonial administrators. A sub-theme referred to Tamil invaders at specific times in the distant past, while oral traditions indicated that there had been migrants from India who had been absorbed into the Sinhala-speakers in medieval times.<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_edn14\">[14]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">Thus, Charlie\u2019s concluding note about Indian Tamils and racial\/blood lineages is a form of one-upmanship inspired by Tamil extremism in the present context of propaganda war. It also happens to be arrant nonsense that defeats its purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 REFERENCES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Bass, Daniel <\/strong>2001 <em>Landscapes of Malaiy\u0101ha Identity<\/em>, in A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 8.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Daniel, E. Valentine<\/strong> 1997 <em>Charred Lullabies: Chapters in an Anthropography of Violence, <\/em>Princeton: Princeton University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Dharmapala, Anagarika <\/strong>2010 \u201cKocci Demala,\u201d <em>Sinhala Bauddhaya<\/em>, 14 January 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Jayatilleka, Dayan<\/strong> 2010 \u201cCharlie Sarvan\u2019s War,\u201d 28 Nov. 2010, <em>Sunday Leader<\/em>, http:\/\/ <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thesundayleader.lk\/2010\/11\/28\/charlie-sarvan%E2%80%99s-war\">www.thesundayleader.lk\/2010\/11\/28\/charlie-sarvan%E2%80%99s-war.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thesundayleader.lk\/2010\/11\/28\/charlie-sarvan%E2%80%99s-war\">Jayawardena<\/a><strong>, Elmo<\/strong> 2011 \u201cA Different Voice: Review on \u2018Public Writing on Sri Lanka\u2019 by Prof Sarvan,\u201d <em>The Island<\/em>, 29 Jan. 2011, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=17095\">http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=17095<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Jayaweera, Neville<\/strong> 2011 \u201cThe Caste Factor in the Tamil Nationalist Uprising,\u201d 22 Jan 2011, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2011\/01\/the_caste_factor_in_the_tamil.html\">http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2011\/01\/the_caste_factor_in_the_tamil.html<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Malalgoda, Kitsiri <\/strong>2010 \u201c1505 and All That: Varied Views of a First Encounter,\u201d in <em>Home and the World. Essays in Honour of Sarath Aunugama<\/em>,\u00a0 Colombo: Ace Printing &amp; Packaging Ltd, pp. 227-57.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Pfaffenberger, Bryan<\/strong> 1982 <em>Caste in Tamil Culture. The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Sri Lanka<\/em>, Maxwell School of Foundations and Comp Studies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Pfaffenberger, Bryan <\/strong>1994 \u201cThe Political Construction of Defensive Nationalism,\u201d in C. Manogaran &amp; B. Pfaffenberger (eds.) <em>The Sri Lankan Tamils<\/em>, Boulder: Westview Press, pp. 143-68.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Rajasingham, Narendran 2011 \u201cCaste in the Jaffna Peninsula,\u201d<\/strong> 1 July 2011, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/01\/caste-in-the-jaffna-peninsula\/\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/01\/caste-in-the-jaffna-peninsula\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1989 \u201cA Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka,\u201d <em>Ethnos<\/em>, 55: 69-82.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1994 \u201cMentalities: Ideologues, Historians and the Pogrom against the Moors in 1915,\u201d in Roberts, <em>Exploring Confrontation<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 183-212.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2001 <em>Sinhala-ness and Sinhala Nationalism<\/em>, in A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2002b <em>Primordialist Strands in Contemporary Sinhala Nationalism in Sri Lanka: Urumaya as Ur<\/em>, in A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 20.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2003b \u201cLanguage and National Identity: The Sinhalese and Others over the Centuries,\u201d <em>Nationalism and Ethnic Politics<\/em>, Summer 2003, 9: 75-102. Also in http:\/\/www.academia. edu\/3793599\/Language_and_National_Identity_The_Sinhalese_and_Others_over_the_Centuries<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2012 \u201cCaste in Modern Sri Lanka Politics,\u201d 22 February 2010, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2010\/02\/caste_in_modern_sri_lankan_pol.html\">http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2010\/02\/caste_in_modern_sri_lankan_pol.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Russell, Jane<\/strong> 2012 \u201c<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/13\/jane-russells-reflections-on-oppression-violence-and-the-paths-of-response-available-to-us-all\/\">Jane Russell\u2019s Reflections on Oppression, Violence and the Paths of Response available to Us\u00a0All<\/a>,\u201d 13 Sept. 2012, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/13\/\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/13\/<\/a> jane-russells-reflections-on-oppression-violence-and-the-paths-of-response-available-to-us-all\/<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Sarvan, Chales <\/strong>2011 \u201cReign of Anomie\u201d in Sarvan, <em>Public Writing on Sri Lanka,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Sarvan, Charles<\/strong> 2013 \u201cPara Dhemal\u0101,\u201d 16 August 2012, in <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi\/\">http:\/\/thuppahi<\/a>.wordpress.com \/2013\/08\/16\/para-dhemala\/#more-10208.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Thambinayagam, Pearl<\/strong> 2011 \u201cPernicious Caste Curse of Tamils living in the Dark Ages,\u201d 30 June 2011, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2011\/06\/pernicious-caste-curse-of-tamils-living.html\">http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2011\/06\/pernicious-caste-curse-of-tamils-living.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><strong>Tiruchelvam, Nirgunan <\/strong>2006 \u201cMurali scales the Summit,\u201d in Michael Roberts, <em>Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/em>, Colombo: vijitha yapa Publishers, pp. 241-43.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> On one occasion I found myself assembled together in one room of a Thomian second year with Charlie. Anton Tissera, and Neville de Alwis where we four were subject to verbal ragging by a cluster of Thomian seniors. To this day I remain puzzled as to HOW I was among the Selected. I was never ever a Thomian!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref2\">[2]<\/a> For another step, see Raheem and Colin-Thome, <em>Images of British Ceylon<\/em>. <em>Nineteenth Century Photographs of Sri Lanka<\/em>,\u00a0 Singapore: Times Editions, 2000, ISBN 981 204 7786.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref3\">[3]<\/a> In Dutch times in the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> century the term Burgher referred to the free European settlers and did not encompass the VOC officials and soldiers. Thus, the reference in this article and in <em>People Inbetween<\/em> is to its modern post-British usage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref4\">[4]<\/a> This section has been improved and expanded in a separate article \u201cA Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka,\u201d <em>Ethnos<\/em>, 1989b 55: 1-2:69-82. For a fascinating criticism directed at my thesis, see K. Malalgoda 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref5\">[5]<\/a> For instance from the written web comments from Jane Russell presenting her experiences of Jaffna in the 1970s (one example is Russell 2012) and from the autobiography by Neville Jayaweera\u00a0 describing his time as GA Jaffna. Also see Rajasingham 2011 and \u00a0Thambinayagam 2011<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref6\">[6]<\/a> That is, those called \u201clow castes\u2019\u2019 and \u201cpariah\u201d in the generic\u00a0 sense of the latter term.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref7\">[7]<\/a> E.g. Pfaffenberger 1982 7 1994; Russell 2012; Rajasingham 2011 and Thambinayagam 2011<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref8\">[8]<\/a> See Roberts 1994: 199-201 and Dharmapala 1911.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref9\">[9]<\/a> \u201cI think even those who have recently expressed disappointment with him [in recent times for his recent essays]\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref10\">[10]<\/a> My reading of occasional essays and notes sent to me in recent times, but also see Dayan Jayatilleke 2010 and especially the moderate review by Elmo Jayawardena 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref11\">[11]<\/a> See Bass 2001. Also note Daniel 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref12\">[12]<\/a> Tiruchelvam 2006: 241.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref13\">[13]<\/a> Note Elmo Jayawardena\u2019s review of <em>Public Writing<\/em> (2011).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/18\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years\/#_ednref14\">[14]<\/a> Thus, segments of the Karava, Salagama, Durava castes were widely believed to have migrated in late medieval and early modern times.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years &#8211; By Michael Roberts Charlie and I go back a long way \u2013 to Ramanathan Hall at Peradeniya University where we were freshers together in 1957 and thus were ragged together.[1] Charlie was known then as Charlies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":93652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,42710],"tags":[45051,44140,687],"class_list":{"0":"post-93655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-aside","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"category-michael-roberts","9":"tag-para-dhemala","10":"tag-sarvodaya-book-publishing-services","11":"tag-sri-lanka","12":"post_format-post-format-aside"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years - By Michael Roberts - eLanka<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charlie and I go back a long way \u2013 to Ramanathan Hall at Peradeniya University where we were freshers together in 1957 and thus were\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years - By Michael Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charlie and I go back a long way \u2013 to Ramanathan Hall at Peradeniya University where we were freshers together in 1957 and thus were\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years-by-michael-roberts-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eLanka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eLanka.com.au\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-27T07:06:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-28T13:56:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"243\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"298\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eLanka admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"eLanka admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"16 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years-by-michael-roberts-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years-by-michael-roberts-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"eLanka admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/f6e635b74ab35ef88a68a9973cacc5bd\"},\"headline\":\"Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying the Context of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets in Sri Lanka over the last 180 years &#8211; 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