| |
Sinhala / Tamil New Year
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 - 6:00 PM SL Time |  | |
Why is it that, a concerted effert is beening made to depict the Sinhala / Tamil New Year as Sinhala / Hindu New Year? The word Tamil is taboo in certain quarters I suppose. I have seen some newspappers and websites made references as the Sinhala / Hindu New Year.
I understand that different Hindu sects follow different days as their New Year. But the New Year for both the Tamils and Sinhala is the same. It is another portent evidence that both the communities coexisted since the early times!
|
Source(s)
Ariyalai_SB after seeing the Kapruka advertisment |
Ariyalai_SB
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1114
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 11:10:33 GMT Report for Abuse
|
| Sorry, correction: it should read effort is being made |
Robins
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 3873
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 11:44:37 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Who cares? If it is Hindu Christian Tamil Sinhala whatever!!!
Its a new year lets celebrate! |
Ariyalai_SB
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1114
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 12:17:19 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Robins,
I completely agree; I am not being pedantic here, but pointing out a concerted effort by some to disassociate the word Tamil! |
Dauntless
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 602
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 13:12:54 GMT Report for Abuse
|
A_SB... not to defend anyone here and i too agree with robins but just for argument's sake...
is it because tamil christians don't celebrate this and it's only tamil hindus who does?
I'm a Catholic and a Sinhalese... as much as i get partying with my friends during the period... i don't necessarily get into the whole mood if that's the word :)
not like Xmas for me...
just a thought |
Kulakottan
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 2455
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 13:37:22 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Dauntless,
is it because tamil christians don't celebrate this and it's only tamil hindus who does?
I do not think that this is the reason. If it was so, I would believe even the Sinhala Christians do not celeberate this as their New Year.
Do they????
One explaination could be that in the ancient times all those who lived in this island were Hindus and even after the majority became Buddhists, Hindu rituals were still practised. Even today the Hindu practices are prevalent among the Buddhists.
Over a period of Time this would have been purposely or otherwise being used only in the South as Sinhala Hindu New Year. In the North East even though it is celeberated by Hindus it is known as 'Chithirai Varusha Pirappu'( April New Year) rather than Hindu or Tamil New Year
Logically it should be either Sinhala/Tamil new using the ethnicity or Buddhist/Hindu New Year using the religion.
Kula
Edited By - Kulakottan - 10 Apr 2007 13:38:18 GMT |
tamilcanuck
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 11668
Member Profile
|
10 Apr 2007 23:03:54 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Logically it should be either Sinhala/Tamil new using the ethnicity or Buddhist/Hindu New Year using the religion.
As Kula anna pointed out it should be one of the above not Pick one from the each category. MR and his cronies always playing with words and fooling the locals.
maybe someone should dial 116 (another BRILLIANT idea to fool the locals!!) and report this! |
Shakti
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 2433
Member Profile
|
11 Apr 2007 05:53:17 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Ariyalai_SB,
There is a historical reason.
(I tell this from memory and cannot remember the source. So I may be wrong. Please correct me if I am wrong)
The day was first declared as an official holiday as a result of the attempts of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. It was him who had added the term 'Hindu' to what had just earlier referred as the 'Sinhala New Year'
Perhaps he might have been thinking in terms of the elite Colombo Tamils, a large percentage of whom have been Christians then, and he did it to exclude the Christian Tamils. Or perhaps he might have thought the use of the term ? Hindu' might have had more clout when the proposal is presented to colonial rulers. (requesting a holiday for religious festival is easier)
Anyway, since then we call it Sinhala-Hindu New Year...
I do not think we should take this seriously, because the terms ?Sinhala?, ?Tamil?, ?Hindu?
etc have been used in very different contexts in different times. For example, many early British books refer ?Hindoos? as the people live in India while anybody from South was wrongly called ?Madrasi?.
. |
Ariyalai_SB
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1114
Member Profile
|
11 Apr 2007 10:41:20 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Dear Kula and Shakti,
Thank you for your contributions. I am not particularly bothered about this issue, but feel that some quarters promote the New Year as Sinhala - Hindu one with an agenda.
No disrespect to the Christians; the Christians came into being in Sri Lanka only after the Europeans arrivals. The fact is that the Sinhala - Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka is based on the Tamil Calendar.
I said Sinhala - Tamil, with Sinhala first because the Sinhalese are the majority. |
Kulakottan
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 2455
Member Profile
|
11 Apr 2007 11:11:36 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Shakti,
Thank you and your explanation which looks plausible. It is possible that Pon. Ramanathan would have only thought of the Colombo Tamil Hindus and in any case Tamils have been predominatly Hindus.
Now its my turn to add some historical perspective:
For example, many early British books refer ?Hindoos? as the people live in India while anybody from South was wrongly called ?Madrasi?.
Originally, Hindus refer to those who were from the Indus valley that is how all the Indian cam to e known as Hindus and even India was known as 'Hindustan' and even the name for the language 'Hindi'.
In the British India, the entire south came under an 'administrative unit' known as 'Madras Presidency'. That is how everyone from the South came to be known as Madrasi's under the British and it continued for a while. |
Shakti
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 2433
Member Profile
|
7 May 2007 09:49:30 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Ariyalai_SB,
Okay, I know the real story now.
As I told you Sir Ponnabalam Ramanathan was the one who was instrumental in getting this holiday first.
However, the colonial government at that time objected a holiday because Vesak had already been made a holiday for the Buddhists. The colonial policy was one holiday per one religious group.
Fortunately there no holiday had been declared at that time for Hindus.
So Sir Ponnabalam Ramanathan (on the basis that it is celebrated in Jaffna too) presented his case naming it a Sinhala and Hindu holiday.
As I told earlier, those days the ethnicities and religions of people have been used in very different contextes and it would have been perfectly normal to be called it Sinhala and Hindu, rather than Sinhala and Tamil.
. |
|
