Category Archives: life stories

Michael Roberts

This article is a reprint of chapter 8 in Roberts, Exploring Confrontation, Reading: Harwood, 1994 which inturn was re-printed with the above title in ROBERTS, CONFRONTATIONS IN SRI LANKA,  Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2009 ISBN 978-955-665-035-8

Introduction: Categorical Clarifications¹

In the course of 9-10 days in May-June 1915 segments of the Sinhala population drawn from a wide occupational spectrum systematically attacked the property and at times the person of Mohammedan Moors residing in the south western quadrant of the island—a region containing the majority of Sri Lanka’s population at that point of time. This event has since been referred to in Sinhala as the marakkala kolahālaya and in the English rendering as “the 1915 riots” or “the communal riots of 1915.” Because disputes in front of mosques are known to have been one of the reasons for these “riots”, it has been interpreted as a “religious conflict” between Muslims and Buddhists (Nissan & Stirrat 1990: 31-32; Spencer 1990: 5, 8). By itself, this characterisation is misleading and a corrective is in order.

Those whom we refer today in Sri Lankan English as “Muslim” were described till about the 1930s as “Mohammedan.” “Mohammedan” (or Muslim) takes its meaning from its context of usage. In juxtaposition with the categories Burgher, Sinhalese, Tamil, Malay, it is an ethnic label. Where aligned in distinction from Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, it is a religious category. It therefore carries a duality of meaning. This dual-sidedness is accentuated by the Sinhala usage. The Sinhala word, marakkala (Moor), is often used to refer to Mohammedans as well. Though there is ambiguity on this point, marakkala does not, unlike the English word “Mohammedan” (Muslim), usually encompass the jā (Malays). Indeed, the more erudite Sinhala word for Moors is yon (yona) in distinction from javun, javo, ja. Continue reading →