Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The assumed superiority and hubris of the Vellala class ultimately proved their undoing. They isolated themselves from every other centre of Tamil political power, principally Tamil Nadu, and when they had their backs to the wall, there were no allies to bail them out. They had no leverage, in Sri Lanka or abroad, and as the props that supported their power disintegrated, their demise as a political force in Sri Lanka was inevitable.

yapaney mayathiro hari hondhay. api wada kara yapane..appita padith theela babalath dhunna.

I am off..

The British gave the initial impetus to the Vellala class in their ascent to power. To gauge the extent of that impetus, one has only to read, as I have done, the daily diaries of Acland Dyke, GA of Jaffna for 38 years and of William Twyneham, GA for 28 years. Their patronage of the Vellalas was fulsome, and it enabled their young men who passed out from mission schools in Jaffna to gain speedy entry into government service. That is not to say that these young men could not have managed on their own, or did not merit their appointments. They were very intelligent, entrepreneurial, hard working, disciplined, loyal, and thrifty, qualities which any ruler would value very highly, and on the strength of which they would have progressed even unaided. They are qualities that economists and historians have identified as the driving motor of capitalism and as the foundation blocks of empire. However when the British relinquished power, the Vellalas lost the umbrella under which they had prospered for over a century, and they had to fend for themselves.

The third leg of the tripod began to crumble not under pressure from without, but under assault from within. Post 1983, when the militant groups, principally the LTTE, began to assert power in the peninsula and started demanding monetary contributions from the only people who had money, mostly in cash and jewellery, i.e. from the Vellalas, and also started demanding from their families support for the 'cause' in the form of manpower, that is, at least one son from each family, the Vellala families cut and fled, either to Colombo, or abroad, leaving their properties to be expropriated by the rebels.

Apai wadiye LTTE lamaywa marrna honda nah..ithakotta appita ne husbandla mathi wene...matta wiswasa karanada bah sinhala miniyekutta gahanitta babek dhenda puluwang kiyala!

Apai wadiye LTTE lamaywa marrna honda nah..ithakotta appita ne husbandla mathi wene...matta wiswasa karanada bah sinhala miniyekutta gahanitta babek dhenda puluwang kiyala!

api wada kara yapane..appita padith theela babalath dhunna.