Category Archives: anti-racism

Caste & Politics in the Sri Lankan Tamil World

Robert Siddharthan Perinpanayagam, in Groundviews, 22 August 2011, where the title reads “Caste And Politics” …. An article that drew 19 comments including some responses from “Sid”… reproduced here with highlighting imposed by The Editor in circumstances where my friend “Sid” from Peradeniya  days is no longer around to dispute matters … as he surely would have.

Over the years, the claims of the Tamil people for justice, equalty and dignity have been rejected with a variety of specious arguments. It is not necessary to go into these exercises here again. However, the latest attempt in this direction is to raise the issue of caste in Jaffna society. Former civil servants, who spent three or four years being de facto kings of the North, have sought to comment on this issue in many recent hero-stories that they have published in the newspapers. In these hero-stories they report not only how they defeated one departmental head or another or humiliated a hapless village headman, but how they vanquished the evil designs of the Tamils as well. Indeed everything seems to become grist to the mill of Tamil-bashing. Even a casual remark made in a cricket match is used by a famous historian to claim that the Tamils of Jaffna are cravenly caste-conscious. Off-the-cuff social commentators as well as the tribalist pundits in the newspapers have also got into this act. The implication of these commentaries is that the Sinhalese do not have the problem of castism and only Tamils do. One recent commentator is so ignorant of the political history of the island as to invoke Ponnambalam Ramanathan’s castism! It was indeed the fear of Karava ascendancy by the Goigamas that elevated Ramanathan to high stature by making him the representative of the “Educated Ceylonese” in the Legislative Council.

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Gross & Oversimplfied Propaganda Lines in the Australian Press Today

X … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In the Western world, we are taught to believe there are two worlds – a good world and a bad world. There is no in-between. The West is always on the side of good because, we are told, it has “values”, though we are never told what those values are. The word “values” could well relate to the values of colonialism, neocolonialism, liberalism, and exploitation of non-Western societies.  
Analyse this article by Matthew Knott in The Age

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Remembering Revd WJT Small, A Saint In Our Times

Nihal de Alwis, presenting a Memoir on Revd Small, the dedicated Principal of Richmond who became a Ceylonese  …. 

Rev. Walter Joseph Thombleson Small was born on the 4th of July 1883 in Boston, England. He lived in Sri Lanka from 1906 to 1926 and again from 1953 to 1979. He died in Sri Lanka after an accident on the 28th of December 1979. He grew up during the Victorian era and grew up in a Methodist environment imbued with Christian values.

 

 

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Bernard Van Cuylenburg’s Multi-Lingual Skills in A World of Travel

Cam Lucadou-Wells, in eLanka, 31 March 2020, where the chosen title is “A World of Friends”

The well-travelled Bernard Van Cuylenburg’s worldly interests do not only span five languages, but millennia of history.

For two decades this multi linguist has volunteered as an English language tutor for migrants and new arrivals at AMES (Adult Multicultural Educational Services) in Dandenong. His students hail from as far away as Afghanistan, Vietnam, and China. Each a window to history and culture, and each a friend to Bernard. Such is his dedication that since joining AMES he studied Mandarin to better support some of his students. He says “You get more than you give due to the interaction with diverse cultures. They have so much to teach you, and I always fine tune my antenna when dealing with foreign students” says Bernard of his role.

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Vale Harry Belafonte: A Labouring Seaman’s Son …. Superstar & Activist

HILLEL ITALIE in Associated Press, 25 April 2023, ….“Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer, dies at 96” … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a ground-breaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96. Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said publicist Ken Sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Escalation of Attacks on Hindu Shrines in Northern Lanka

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 23 April 2023, whee the title reads thus: Tamils flag escalating attacks on temples in northern Sri Lanka” … with highlighting added by The Editor, Thuppahi

Several Tamil parties have called for a protest on April 25 against the recent Temple attacksTamils in Sri Lanka have witnessed an escalation in the attack on Hindu temples in recent weeks, a trend that they note is part of the State’s “ongoing Sinhalisation project” in the island’s north.

 

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The Hill Country Tamils of Sri Lanka …. & Their Travails

Shamara Wettimuny in Financial Times, 12 April 2023 … with highlighting added by The Editor, Thuppahi

On a muggy Friday afternoon, the auditorium of the National Library of Sri Lanka slowly filled with an eager audience from Colombo, the Hill Country and beyond. It was the launch of a book by Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Mythri Jegathesan, of Santa Clara University.

Maithir Jegathesan

Her book, a work on and of solidarity with the Hill Country Tamils of Sri Lanka, ‘Tea and Solidarity: Tamil Women and Work in Post-war Sri Lanka’ was originally published by the University of Washington Press in 2019 to widespread acclaim. It was awarded the 2020 Diane Forsyth Prize for the best book featuring feminist anthropology research and in 2021, it won the Michelle Z. Rosaldo Book Prize for its significant contribution to feminist anthropology.

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Discernment: The Tulana Resource Centre at Kelaniya Fostering Discernment

TULANA is a Sri Lanka Jesuit Province Apostolate mandated by the Superiors and founded in 1974 by its current Director, the Asian Jesuit Theologian, Indologist and Buddhist Scholar, Fr. Aloysius Pieris, s.j.

“The name TULANA has its roots in Sanskrit and means four things taken together: elevation, weighing, comparing and deciding for the weightier things – in short DISCERNMENT.”

Revd Aloysius Peiris, s.j.

 Its primary founding motivation was as a response to two challenges – the challenge of the spirituality and philosophy of Sri Lanka’s major religion, Buddhism, and the challenge of the socio-political aspirations of the highly educated but marginalised rural youth.

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Chandra Schaffter: A Sturdy Sri Lankan Sportsman and Administrator For All Seasons

Michael Roberts

Sri Lanka has been blessed with generations of talented cricketers over the decades: from

  • the Kelaarts and Saravanamuttus of the 1920s and 1930s … to
  • the Macarthy’s, de Sarams and Heyns of the 1930s and 1940s …
  • the Gunasekeras of the 1950s
  • the Lieversz, HIK Fernandos and Reids of the 1960s
  • Anura Tennekoon, Michael Tissera of the 1960s-1970s
  • Duleep Mendis and the Wettimuny’s of the 1970s/80s
  • Ranjan Madugalle and Arjuna Ranatunga of the 1980s
  • the Aravinda-Ranatunga-Jayasuriya-Kaluwitharana-and-Vaas dynamos of the 1980s and the 1990s
  • the Mahela Jayawardena and Sangakkara duo of the 2000s …..
  • while not losing sight of that unique phenomenon we know as “Murali” in the 1990s-to-2000s.

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For Reflection: Sir John Kotelawala’s Speech at STC Prizegiving in 1954

Mt. Lavinia 1954 Prize Giving-Address by the Right Honourable Sir John Kotelawala, K.B.E., M.P. — with thanks to Harry De Sayrah of Sydney, who added this little preface “When politicians were literate and articulate …………………..” with a few highlights and an arbitrary  selection of photographs inserted by The Editor, Thuppahi 

1954  PRIZE  GIVING.  Presided  by  The  Warden, Canon  R.S.de Saram, MA , OBE.,St. Thomas’  College,  Mt. Lavinia. ……………. *Prime Minister of Ceylon, at the Distribution of Prizes,* …………. *S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, Saturday, 31 st July,1954*

When I played for Royal against S. Thomas’ many years ago my intention, which was shared by my team-mates, was to give the Thomians a good drubbing, and, if that was not possible, at least to give them a test of endurance. Much as I value the opportunity which I now have of presiding at your Prize Distribution, I shall endeavour to do neither this afternoon. I mist congratulate the Warden on his Report, which illustrates what opportunities schools like S. Thomas’ have of continuing to play a leading part in the training of our youth and the moulding of their character.

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