This year, Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka and repatriates in Tamil Nadu mark the bicentenary of their migration as construction labourers and estate plantation workers. When the British advertised for jobs in the neighbouring country in the early 1800s, landless Tamils from the southern parts of the state migrated with the dream of having three meals a day, a better house, and freedom from the shackles of casteism. Even after 200 years, these Tamils, especially Dalits, toil in a land which has witnessed war crimes, human rights violations, and aggressive hate crimes against them.
On this occasion, TNM caught up with N Sarawanan, winner of Sri Lanka’s State Literary Award, who has written about the plight of Tamil Arunthathiyars in the island nation. Sarawanan, who was born and brought up in Sri Lanka, migrated to Norway during the Civil War (1983-2009). His Dalithin Kurippugal (Notes of a Dalit) is technically the first book that talks about the plight of Arunthathiyars in Sri Lanka. His 1915: Kandy Kalavaram (1915: Kandy Riots) won him Sri Lanka’s State Literary Award in 2018. His book Kallathoni (Clandestine Boat) received the Tamil Nadu government’s award for best political book in 2019.
Sarawanan spoke to TNM about the lives and struggles of Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka and why it is politically important to mark the 200th anniversary of their migration.
With the political and cultural links between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka going back centuries, why is 2023 seen as politically significant for Indian-origin Tamils?
This bicentenary year is indeed very important for landless Malaiyaga Tamilargal to let the world know the struggles they went through when they arrived in a strange land where they were confronted with foreigners as well as their colonisers. These are the Tamils who live and work in the tea estates in the hills of the central province of Sri Lanka. They are also known as up-country Tamils or hill country Tamils.
This year is also very important for the Dalit Arunthathiyars – who were brought to Sri Lanka by the British during the same period, the early 1800s, to do manual scavenging, lay roads, construct railway tracts, build offices and residential areas, and renovate the forts – to speak about how their traditions and cultural values are overshadowed by Sinhalese traditions and culture, and how geographic segregation hindered them from gathering politically to fight for their rights.
Why do Tamils who are neither Sri Lankan Tamils nor up-country Tamils find it difficult to voice their needs?
In the last 70 years, at least after up-country Tamils were deprived of citizenship and voting rights through the Ceylon Citizenship Act 1948 and the Ceylon Parliamentary Elections Act 1949, they started political outfits to strongly voice their demands. These anti-Tamil acts were introduced by the United National Party (UNP) government. When Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer GG Ponnambalam, founder of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and former cabinet minister, joined hands with the UNP government, dissidents led by SJV Chelvanayakam walked away and formed the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK). This ITAK laid a strong foundation of Tamil nationalism. This is how a problematic Act that discriminated against Indian-origin Tamils paved the way for the demand for a separate Tamil nation in Sri Lanka in the following decades. Up-country Tamils were politicised this way and they have been repeatedly expressing their needs and demands.
But that was not the case with Arunthathiyars, who live in significant numbers in Kalutara, Gampaha, and Colombo districts. They do not find a voice in Eelam and up-country Tamils’ political propaganda. They were brought by the British to do menial work. They were employed in manual scavenging in all the municipal councils where British people were stationed. Our ancestors lived in cheris (outcaste slums) in every municipality in the country amid the dense Sinhalese population. There was this rule for slums and layams (houses in estates). When a worker retires from the job, they must either vacate their house or a family member has to take up their job. This condition forced them to do the same jobs for generations to ensure that they had a roof over their heads.
Now, up-country Tamils are getting their own houses in the land where they worked for two centuries. But Arunthathiyars have been ignored… our demands never reached the government. We are in a vulnerable position as we live with Sinhalese people. But that did not spare us from riots and clashes during the civil war. We suffered in every riot that targeted us for the language we speak. We are facing an ethnic identity crisis here. We want our own ethnic identity and political propaganda to raise our concerns and problems to the lawmakers.
What kind of identity crisis do Tamil Dalits face in Sri Lanka?
As late as the 1990s, up-country Tamil politicians recognised our plight and tried to include us under the up-country Tamil identity umbrella. The living conditions of both Tamil groups are the same but the problems that we face are different from theirs… and we think our voice is missed.
We are scattered across the country and live among Sinhalese people. In every Predesha Sabha (local government body), Arunthathiyars live in cheris with the Sinhalese majority. We do not have schools where Tamil is taught. Even if the number of students is considerable, hiring a private tutor to teach Tamil is difficult due to economic considerations. So our children are forced to take up Sinhalese at school. We cannot celebrate Tamil festivals as it is equally impossible for us to construct a temple for Tamil gods, so many of us follow Sinhalese traditions.
Read: A Malaichamy: The man who envisioned a Dalit political front in Tamil Nadu
As a Tamil sub-group in Sri Lanka, how did the prolonged civil war, agitation against Tamil ethnicity, and government policies affect Tamil Dalits?
Let us start with the Sirimavo-Shastri pact. It was agreed to send half the Indian-origin Tamils to India. The people who got the red passport were chased, caught, and sent off to the coasts of Tamil Nadu. My maternal uncle who was afraid that he would have to leave his family behind used to sleep on trees for months after the pact was signed. My maternal aunt Esakki left home one day and never returned. We received a letter from her from Tirunelveli a few months after she went missing. She did not know any place in Tamil Nadu as almost three generations of our family had lived in Sri Lanka. Due to the pact, many families lost their loved ones and never knew what happened to them. In some homes, mothers went missing. In some homes, children were abducted.
The civil war and riots against Tamils impacted us in a very different way. As we live amid Sinhalese, we became easier targets during crises. As our Sinhalese neighbours pointed their fingers at our houses, we were beaten, abused, and killed.
During the war, the Sri Lankan government started to settle Sinhalese in the Tamil-dominant Jaffna and other northern provinces in large numbers after many Sri Lankan Tamils fled from there. To ensure that land rights were not taken away from them, Arunthathiyars from other parts of the country were brought by Sri Lankan Tamils and made to settle in the north and east provinces. At the peak of the civil war, Tamil Dalits were abandoned to manage everything on their own. Thousands of marginalised, landless Dalits were killed in the last stage of the war. But there is no record of this, no politician has talked about this, and nobody has acknowledged the deaths of Tamil Dalits in the war.
Do you think politicians in Tamil Nadu understand the intersectionality of the Tamil Dalits in Sri Lanka?
It is really unfortunate that many leaders do not know the distinction between Eelam Tamils, repatriates who now live in the Nilgiris, and the Tamil Dalits of Sri Lanka. They talk genuinely about the welfare of Tamils, but I don’t think they go beyond Tamil nationalism, Eelam, and Tamil glory to really understand our plight. I doubt that they will ever talk about the Tamil Dalits in Sri Lanka.
You might have heard about the atrocities against Dalits in Tamil Nadu. Is there a similar degree of discrimination and caste atrocities in Sri Lanka?
Comparatively, casteism and atrocities among Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka are less due to various factors. The colonisers not only brought Dalits to Sri Lanka but also a handful of caste Hindus so that the oppressive caste system would enable them to abuse and exploit Dalits. But these caste Hindus did not follow the same level of extreme casteism in Sri Lanka because oppressor communities like Pillai, Mudaliyar, and Thevar were also oppressed by the British. However, we cannot deny the sugar-coated discrimination that is ingrained in their minds for generations.
In Norway, my caste Hindu friends do not invite us to wedding functions at their house. They often use a patronising tone and say, ‘We have known each other for 20 years. Have I ever discriminated against you despite knowing that you are a Dalit?’ This reveals how their caste location gives them the privilege to make such statements. They do not understand why it is problematic or how much it hurts people who were historically oppressed for generations.
In Sri Lanka, we were forced to follow endogamy as the caste hierarchy did not allow us to marry people from other castes. Even in Norway, intercaste marriages in the Tamil community are minuscule compared to marriages between caste Hindus and Norwegians. Dalits are not allowed to be part of temple committees. Caste Hindus want to feel the power of oppressing someone. It is not possible here as all of us migrated here as refugees and the country provided equal rights to everyone to get an education and a better life. They do not have many options so they deny our presence in the temple management.