Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Further on the deep relations between the Eelam Tamils and India, Balasingham said: 'Even before the Liberation Tigers were formed, India had shown interest in the Eelam Tamils. This is because even though we are in Eelam, ETHNICALLY WE (SL TAMILS) ARE INDIANS. OUR (SL TAMIL) ANCIENT HISTORY BEGINS IN INDIA.'

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1670664,000500020002.htm

Besides, Lula prefers to confront with Moras rather than with Kanayas.

So, right from the 12 CAD, with 22 Tamil kings ruling the Jaffna Patanam, only a very few people lived there, and also, without any identity.

The Dutch brought a 'considerable amount' of Tamil slaves from Coromandal and at the same time, a 'considerable amount' of Malabars also came in and settled. The 'considerable amount' of Malabars were more than the 'considerable amount' of Tamils from Coromandal plus the native population living in Jaffna at that time, so the Europeans called the entire population of Jaffna as Malabars, but later they all became Tamils (NOT Malabars).

Let me remind you that not only the Cholas and Pandyans (both Tamils) but also the Cheras (Malabars) came to Sri Lanka from time to time. During the 10th and 11th CAD, after the Chola invasion, both Tamils and Malabars settled in the entire Island from North to South, and they also converted the Buddhists (mostly Tamils and some Sinhalese) into Saivisim (Hinduism).

The Eela Tamil race originated in the North from *THESE NATIVE TAMILS*, Sinhalese and *those Tamils* and Malabars who settled in the North.

The Tamil language spoken in Jaffna is not Tamil but a combination of Tamil, Malayalam and Sinhalese. This dialect is unique only among the Eela Tamils.

The Dutch brought a large amount of slaves from Coromandal (some Malabars also would have come with them) to Sri Lanka especially to the South for Cinnamon, coffee and coco plantation and as domestic servants for the Dutch, some of them (NOT considerable amount) were also settled in the North for tobacco plantation.

Encouraged by the ambiguities in Dutch law, which interpreted adimai or bonded status of landless laborers as slave labor, vellalar landowners claimed ownership of these landless laborers, similar to western slavery. There was also in existence some enslavement by purchase, as a result of the periodic occurrence of dreadful famines in southern India. During these periods, starving families came to the ports and offered themselves for sale into slavery. The Dutch transported thousands of people in this manner and settled them in the PENINSULA. Private individuals from Jaffna also bought slaves in this market for their own personal services. (Arasaratnam, Sinnappah; The Sri Lankan Tamils - Ethnicity & Identity, 1994, Emphasis added)

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the preservation of law and order by peaceful civilian government contributed to a gradual expansion of population, occasionally augmented by migration from the politically unsettled districts of south India. Consequently, the populations of the densely populated provinces of Valikamam and Vadamarachchi increased. Older villages, with their intensively cultivated and subdivided land, recorded populations of as much as 5000 each. The population pressure seems to have forced people to move into new villages in the less densely populated Thenmarachchi and Pachilapalai and on marginal lands where the level of subsistence was very low. The off-shore islands of Kayts, Nedunthivu and Punkuduthivu were also settled. (Arasaratnam, Sinnappah; The Sri Lankan Tamils - Ethnicity & Identity, 1994)

The Tamil race (people) were living in Sri Lanka and worshipping those five Ishwarams of Siva long before Prince Vijay was born.

The recorded history of the island begins with Devanampiyatissa (252-212 BC), (Theva Nambiya Thesan, a name which has a real meaning in Tamil).

Of course, those who lived there had an identity. But it was more or less the identity of South Indian Tamils, but nothing else.

In simple terms, the Coromandel and Malabar identities became prominent in Jaffnapatnam at the time, and Europeans generalized the way they identified the inhabitants accordingly.

The simple, harsh, bitter, undeniable and sad truth is that an identity of a nation/ ethnicity cannot be deprived or overlooked, as long as they are accounted to a considerable majority, if the identity is their own. What went wrong with those inhabitants of Jaffnapatnam at the arrival of Europeans was they neither had their own identity nor accounted to a considerable majority.

Why on earth they called these same native longstanding Tamils of Jaffnapatnam as Coromandels simultaneously.

the problem I have is who are these *THESE NATIVE TAMILS* if what you meant by *those Tamils* are Cholas and Pandyas.

let me also remind you that if that is the case, then you are also indirectly admitting that Batticaloa Tamils are not Eela Tamils, given the differences of the Tamil they speak.

Can you please give any evidence to show when these are built.

let us get Theva Nambiya Thesan fixed first.