CASTE AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION OF IDPS IN JAFFNA SOCIETY 1 This paper was developed based on a research study conducted for my undergraduate dissertation for the Department of Sociology, University of Peradeniya. The data for this, paper was updated in my visits to Jaffna from time to time. I wish to acknowledge Prof. Kalinga Tudor Silva's continuous and insightful supervision, guidance and assistance, which encouraged engorged me to complete this paper.

Paramsothy Thanges * Assistant Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. E-mail: thangesan@yahoo.com

Abstract

This study provides an empirical case study on caste and social exclusion of war-affected Jaffna society. The initial part of this study is developed through secondary and historical information on caste-based exclusion and all other parts present the contemporary caste-based exclusion with special reference to the selected camps of Internally Displaced People/Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna society. One of the key issues examined in this study was over-representation of certain underprivileged caste status "Panchamar" (five oppressed caste groups in the Jaffna caste system) in the IDP population remaining in welfare centres (IDP camps). Although the war affected all inhabitants of Jaffna irrespective of their caste and class backgrounds, many of the long-term IDP camps emerge from the traditionally underprivileged caste groups excluding the people from the numerically large Vell&acircumflexlar caste population. All remaining IDPs in the four welfare centres in Mallakam belonged to the Nalavar and the Pallar castes. Access to village Hindu temples controlled by the "upper caste" Hindus, access to drinking water from wells owned by the dominant caste families and discrimination experienced by the Panchamars in the land market are some examples of caste-based exclusion in contemporary Jaffna society. Even though caste is not explicitly recognized in many matters and there is widespread denial and silence about caste in contemporary Jaffna society, for the educated middle class in particular, the actual social reality is much more complex and multilayered and demands an understanding that goes beyond the superficial level, and official truths whether coming from the state and non-state actors who are eager to reduce everything to meta-narratives such as terrorism, nationalism and the liberation struggle.

Background

Caste was an important research topic in sociological and anthropological studies in Sri Lanka during the 1960s and 1970s. Most of these academic studies analyzed caste as an operating social system and examined it as an important social institution determining the social order and pattern of social interaction (Banks 1957, 1960, Leach 1960, 1961, Yalman 1967, Ryan 1993, Silva 1982, David 1973, 1974a, 1974b, Arumainayagam 1979, Pfaffenberger 1982). Not much academic attention has been placed on the issue of social exclusion within the institution of caste. According to this sort of functionalist view of society, the continuity of divisions among people and the maintenance of discriminatory attitudes within a society can be understood as an inevitable part of socio-economic and cultural processes. These processes lead to the differentiation of group identities enabling social groups to distinguish themselves from others. However, it is unavoidable that one group in society becomes disadvantaged due to such socio-economic and cultural practices. The main concern of this work is to examine how Jaffna society, which is in some instances internally united in terms of facing the threats of war and violence, is at the same time internally divided and fractured on the basis of caste as well as other social disparities such as gender, religion and region. In fact, certain practices of social exclusion, which can be imagined as part of a traditional framework of increasing irrelevance in the circumstances of conflict, are actually produced in such circumstances. This paper pays more attention to evaluating the (re) production of caste-based exclusion in the new social setting of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) who live in the IDP camps in contemporary war-affected Jaffna society. Moreover, this paper identifies the different forms of caste-based exclusion and discrimination in early and contemporary Jaffna and analyses the reasons for this practice.

Caste has been an important organizing principle in Jaffna society throughout its known history. The caste system among Jaffna Tamil Hindu society is extremely rigid and has clearly defined patterns of inequality, discrimination and social exclusion driven by a religiously defined notion of untouchability. The Jaffna caste system reveals that the notion of ritual purity is far more important in the day-to-day Hindu practice and the social and economic hierarchy with the land-owning Vell&acircumflexlar caste having a hegemonic control over many of the Hindu rituals and the labouring castes in Jaffna society being identified and treated as ritually unclean castes as well. Traditionally, this gave the land-owning Vell&acircumflexlar caste a powerful position in society, the agricultural economy as well as in the ritual order, consigning the dependent underprivileged castes to a situation of disadvantage and servitude. During the colonial period whatever new opportunities were opened up for advancement (such as education, business, commercial farming and government employment) were grabbed by the Vell&acircumflexlar families who were already privileged with a resulting intensification of caste disparities and a solidification of the caste system. The literature on Jaffna society in the colonial era written mostly by Vell&acircumflexlar authors or European authors informed mostly by the Vell&acircumflexlar voices is more or less silent regarding the plight of the untouchable caste groups.

The bottom layer of the Jaffna caste system is collectively referred to as Panchamar, consisting of Vann&acircumflexr (dhoby), Ampattar (barber), Pallar (agricultural labourer), Nalavar (toddy tapper) and Parayar (funeral drummer) castes. Traditionally, this Panchamar group was accorded an untouchable status; its members being strictly prohibited from participating in and performing various religious and other social activities. Through the twentieth century, many of the customary and social prohibitions imposed on Panchamars gradually disappeared due to a combination of factors, including agitations on the part of Panchamars, state and civil society interventions, spread of free education and, since the 1980s, a ban imposed on caste discrimination by the LTTE.

This study mainly focuses on caste-based discrimination, exclusion and caste dynamics in a war affected Jaffna society. In order to examine these processes in the different contexts of disasters in the Jaffna peninsula, a rapid ethnographic research was conducted in one small region (Mallakam) with a significant IDP population living in welfare centres. In order to identify and assess the nature and extent of caste-based exclusion and discrimination in Jaffna society in this complex scenario, this article begins with an analysis of the caste profile in Jaffna and examines the situation of underprivileged caste groups in the context of war and population displacement. The latter part of this paper focuses on caste-based exclusion and discrimination of IDPs with special reference to four Mallakam IDP camps. In addressing the issue of caste-based exclusion in contemporary Jaffna society we have serious information gaps due to the inability of conducting any kind of serious ethnographic research in the affected populations within the current security environment. What is attempted here is to make sense of the available information complemented by first hand information gathered in rapid field surveys.

Caste Composition of Jaffna Society

There are several specificities in the Jaffna caste system. First of all, we should clearly understand that the hierarchical order and features of the Jaffna caste system are somewhat different from those in South India. Brahmins are at the highest position in the Indian caste order, whereas Vell&acircumflexlars occupy the upper most level in Jaffna society. The Brahmins were brought from India by the Vell&acircumflexlars to perform ritual and ceremonial functions in their temples. As Vell&acircumflexlars employed Brahmins in their temples and Brahmins worked for Vell&acircumflexlar landlords, Brahmins in Jaffna were considered in some sense to be lower than Vell&acircumflexlars who as a whole constituted the numerical majority of the population (Pfaffenberger 1982, Banks 1960).

There was a tradition of "caste within caste" in Jaffna society. In other words, there was a hierarchical difference/order within a single caste group. Each caste group contained a few hierarchical divisions within it. For example, the sub-castes such as Akampadiy&acircumflexr, Madappalli, Thanak&acircumflexrar, local Chettim&acircumflexr, small farmers and Chemped&acircumflex Vell&acircumflexlar were identified within the Vell&acircumflexlar caste in terms of social status. The sub-castes such as Thimilar and Mukkuvar were identified within the Karaiy&acircumflexr caste. Maramerikal, Cheruppukkaddikal and Verkkuthippallar were identified within the Pallar caste. Together with the sub castes, the number of castes was thus quite large among Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna. Simon Casie Chetty (1934) lists more than 65 Sri Lankan Tamil castes in his book, 'Castes, Customs, Manners and Literature of the Tamils'. The castes groups declined in number due to the formation of mega caste groups (Sivathamby 2000). Studies by David (1974) and Pfaffenberger (1982) indicated twenty major castes in Jaffna society. They are Vell&acircumflexlar, Brahman, Úaiva Kurukkal, Pant&acircumflexram, Cirpacari, K&ocircumflexviyar, Thattar, Karaiy&acircumflexr, Thachchar, Kollar, Nattuvar, Kaikular, C&acircumflexntar, Kucuvar (Kuyavar), Mukkuvar, Vann&acircumflexr, Ampattar, Pallar, Nalavar, and Parayar. These caste groups, their traditional occupations, and their Atimai-Kutimai (respectively domestic servant and slave) status are indicated in Table 1.

As elsewhere in Sri Lanka there is no accurate information about the size of population of each caste in Jaffna. The dominant caste Vell&acircumflexlars were estimated to be 50% of the total population within the Jaffna Peninsula in the mid-twentieth century research conducted by two anthropologists (Kenneth David and Michael Banks). As for other castes, the Karaiy&acircumflexr were computed at 10%, the K&ocircumflexviyar at 7%, Pallar at 9% and Nalavar at 9%. Thirteen other castes are named, but none made up over 3% of the population in the Peninsula.

Scholars of Jaffna society such as David (1974), Pfaffenberger (1982), Banks (1960), Arumainayakam (1979) and Sivathamby (2000) have classified castes in different ways. For example, David (1973:36) identifies three categories, namely "High Caste", "Good Caste" and "Low Caste". Sivathamby (2000:10) differentiates "High Caste", "Non-High Caste" (intermediate caste) and Kudimakkal (domestic servant). David includes Vell&acircumflexlar, Brahmin, Saiva Kurukkal, K&ocircumflexviyar and Saiva Chetty in the category of "high caste", whereas Sivathamby (2000:10) treats only Vell&acircumflexlar and Brahmin as "high caste". Another important distinction in the Jaffna caste hierarchy is between "Kudimakkal" (domestic servant) and "Adimaikal" (Slave) with several scholars classifying particular castes as either "Kudimakkal" or "Adimaikal", albeit using different criteria and perhaps as a result being inconsistent with each other. For example, Sivathamby points out that according to the assessment of the Dutch government, castes such as K&ocircumflexviyar, Nallavar, Pallar, C&acircumflexntar and Ch&ccedilleviar were included under the term "Kudimakkal". On the other hand, according to David (1974) and Pfaffenberger (1982), K&ocircumflexviyar, Pallar and Nallavar are "Adimaikal" and several other castes, including Thatt&acircumflexr, Tachchar, Kollar, Kucuvar, Vann&acircumflexr, Ampattar, and Parayar, were included under the "Kudimakkal" group.

Critically, the variations in these classifications highlight the different sources scholars have used. More than this, however, the variations highlight the fact that caste status is hotly contested in Jaffna and has a long history of such contestation. This is no better shown than in the distinction favoured by some between "touchable and untouchable" castes. It is generally argued that the notion of untouchability does not exist in contemporary Jaffna society. While the notion is neither strong nor openly practised, it is held by some people. According to Table 3.1, Ampattar, Pallar, Nalavar and Parayar were considered untouchable. Vann&acircumflexr are considered as a touchable caste, as this caste was traditionally permitted to enter temples. Banks (1960: 65) points out that while the Vann&acircumflexr were treated as touchable as they were permitted to enter the temples, the barbers (Ampattars) were excluded from temple entry since they were treated as "untouchable". This reverses the normal South Indian pattern, as clearly recognized by the people of Jaffna. It is generally argued that the notion of untouchability does not exist in contemporary Jaffna society. I do agree with the view that the notion of untouchability is neither strong nor openly practised by contemporary Jaffna Tamils as it was the case in the past.

Caste in Jaffna society has undergone many changes over the past several decades due to war, large scale population displacement and an LTTE imposed a ban on the practice of or even an open discussion about caste in Tamil society in general. At the same time, caste is continuously practised in one way or another in the social, cultural and economic life of the people of Jaffna.
