If Pariahs are Equal to Vellalar then Toilet Cleaner and Vice Chancellor must share the same workspace.
by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
(July 22, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to ‘Dr Hoole opens the can of ugly caste worms’ by Ms Pearl Thevanayagam of Jaffna Holy Family Convent. Ms Tevanayagam says ‘Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole’s article The Class Perspective recently in the Sri Lanka Guardian will no doubt open a can of ugly worms wriggling through the academia, public institutions and politics not to mention societal intercourses such as marriage and mingling in general.’
Academics like Dr. Hoole who aspire to be Vice Chancellors – need to ask themselves whether they are ready to share the same space as the Toilet Cleaner of their University. At the University of NSW where I fought against Unjust Discrimination which was Racial as per my belief – even Accountants from unpopular Faculties were allocated ‘standing space’ or the back seats if the meeting organizer was close to the Vice Chancellor, leave alone the Vice Chancellor himself!
Many males of our Community including from Kayts – an area which was the source of recruitment for the Catholic Church – if my interpretation of Ms Thevanayagam is correct - said that the lower castes were allocated seats at the back of the class. During one such conversation, during which a well educated person from Kayts patted his group on the back by saying that this was not the case anymore. I then said – ‘but we still do not marry across caste’. Then a strong Tiger supporter who himself is of Vellala caste and who married a lady from Vellala caste said ‘They also do not want to marry into our families’. I did not argue the point because my intuition said that he was right.
Later when I started living in Thunaivi in Vattukkottai District - as part of the people of Thunaivi who are almost a 100% Nalavar (Toddy Tappers) – I better appreciated what my friend above had said in Sydney. One day one of the few young ladies who achieved well enough to go to University said to me that someone of Sangarathai – the village on the other side of road to Thunaivi – had asked for her help in relation to her daughter’s academic work but when she had heard that this young lady had said she lived in Thunaivi across the road – that lady had asked ‘Aren’t you afraid to live there?’. The young lady attending University of Jaffna – shared her pain with me. I then asked her ‘What do you expect with your people picking up the knife when they don’t have their way?’ My advice to her was to come out of her local circle and see herself as the next higher level of society would see. They may not be higher in real terms. But we need to start with the majority view and work and/or sacrifice to bring about a zero base – where both sides are seen to be Equal. If the person complaining sees it as higher – then it needs to be taken as higher.
Today I received the following message from an Australian of Sri Lanka Sinhala origin – apparently associated with one of our leading Universities:
‘Dear Gaja Param
This really upsets me a lot. I asked you to delete my name from your email list three times now over the 3 months. you keep on sending these emails. I don't know what to do. If you send any more email i'll run out of my patience and might use bad language you know what mean!
regards
Dr........’
This Academic who writes articles about his social research, is threatening me with bad language. What does that mean to me? He does not have enough substance to argue with me at my level. His natural habitat is bad language speaking people and despite being at a University – he is not able to cure himself of those lowly qualities. Had he remained within his natural habitat in the secular world – he would not have received my emails. Had he elevated his intellect to my level – he would have debated my points and remained silent until he enough substance to debate in one of the public forums such as Sri Lanka Guardian.
In the same delivery I received a request from a UN related person with the subject heading ‘KIND REMINDER: Please delete my email address from your list’. The message was authoritative but without any express threats.
In both cases – I have decided to continue through my own knowledge of what I would do under the circumstances – from their positions. I would have deleted messages if they were not relevant or if they were a nuisance I would have used the appropriate email tool to block the sender. It is obvious that these to seniors who hold high positions do not have what it takes to become a ‘facility’. In other words they are not connected to the facilities in their email systems. One needs to be humble enough to submit excess status and money into the common pool – to become a facility. If Mr. Murdoch had done this – he would have been saved the current humiliation that he is thought to be going through. What is our excess? The excess is the difference between our status and the total status of the ‘other’ side – in this instance the readers. It’s this submission into the Common Pool that gives us the authority to Govern through Administration and / or Facility – as appropriate.
Most of these academics – be they Black or White – are pampered and hence they do not become facilities. Hence they continue to ‘tell’ those who seem less significant than themselves. If therefore Lower Caste are pampered into higher jobs they are likely to be more miserable than their parallels in their birth communities. It is like migrants who fail to adapt in Australia through the Common Secular system. If there is Affirmative Action as happened in India – there must be enough credit for the Government that brings about this change through. In India – Gandhi accumulated this credit by living as one of the Harijans and yet thinking at the National and Global levels. Those who formed Government in India – believed in Gandhi and hence shared naturally in that credit.
In Sri Lanka, especially in North until there is someone within the Government with such credit – the country would continue to suffer from unjust discrimination. Law alone would not bring about the Balance. One needs practice – through the Secular system on merit basis and/or through submission into the Common Pool.
To the extent Caste was /is related to work – the hierarchy is right. Sometimes we are born into lower caste the same way we are born into minority race. Ms Thevanayagam says ‘The simple truth is no one can predict the class or race into which one is born and no one can be proud of being born into this caste or that since one’s birth is purely accidental.’
To me my birth is no accident. I was born in my family, community and nation due to a reason. I believe that that reason is the essence of my karma – to be helped by others in my environment who had more strengths than I in certain areas and for me to help others in that same environment who had less strengths than I. When we are born into a family, community, nation in that order, our birth naturally brings about this balance towards ‘Freedom’ as per our parents’ belief as to which family, community, nation they belong to. That is how, as per my belief – the Universe is balanced through birth and death. It is no accident.
To those of us who have excess status through caste – my advice is go back as much as you can to your place of birth and bring about this caste balance by pooling your excess. If you have achieved this Balance through your family – then this would be natural extension. Similarly – in terms of Race – including through our current labels as “Australians, Canadians, British” etc. Until we reach this Balance and therefore completion of that cycle – we are likely to bring forward our old credits and debits as they are into our new environments and suffer and/or abuse as the case may be. Completing the cycle is Independence at that level.
When we come to Australia, we need to submit our caste based debits and credits back in Sri Lanka. We may however bring forward race based debits and credits – to the extent majority Australians continue to practice racism habitually. Our credits would then help balance their debits so that we do not have race based wars and violence as we had in Sri Lanka. If Sri Lankan Tamils from the North had carried forward their caste based credits and debits – into Colombo – to Balance the debits and credits brought forward by Sinhalese who lacked wisdom in the secular system but were in Colombo due to majority vote - we would have prevented the war through intellectual balance. Instead, we matched their violence through ours. Discrimination outcomes evolve naturally and so long as the next environment is a higher environment it would be positive carry forward in the same form or higher. All lower forms need to be pooled into the local areas that we leave behind.
Sometimes our new environments are lower – for example a professional working in clerical area due to lack of recognition of foreign professional knowledge. Under those circumstances we need to become facilities through which they could complete their old cycles and then together we become global. This to me was the essence of GG Ponnambalam’s 50:50 proposal.
Ms Thevanayagam says about a Yoga Swami devotee ‘It was the late Manik Sandrasagara who proudly proclaimed that he could tell a person’s caste from their noses. But Manik had a squat nose in a square podgy face and he is of mixed parentage. He should talk.’
I met Manik during my Tsunami Reconstruction work at Mankerni in Batticaloa District. Manik spoke about the traditional arts of that area and I admired his vast knowledge. I learnt also that Manik was not a strong planner but wanted delivery quickly. Despite this, Manik helped the descendents of Veddhas and Fisher folk in Mankerni by funding our project which helped the locals reconstruct new homes. This in turn helped them not dwell too much on their losses through the Tsunami as well as the war. To me, in action, Manik did not discriminate on the basis of caste or even race. He got cross equally with all castes and races.
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