Some Critical Notes on the Non-Tamil Identity of the Muslims of Sri Lanka, and on Tamil–Muslim Relations

Abstract

The ethnic civil war between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities that ravaged Sri Lanka in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and which ended in May 2009 has attracted great interest from scholars of ethnic identity. Both the Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic groups employ language—Tamil and Sinhalese—as their primary ethnic marker to support their distinct ethnic formations. As for the Muslims, while the vast majority living in the north and east share many things with the Tamils there including the Tamil language, Muslims in the south have divergent interests based more on trade and commerce. Under a predominantly southern leadership, the Muslims who speak the Tamil language with some borrowed Arabic words seek a social formation based on religion to win a distinct ethnic recognition—distinct from the Tamil ethnic group. The result has been a deep rift between the Muslims and the Tamils, making a permanent solution to Sri Lanka's problems elusive. These issues have been relatively under-researched. This study looks at Sri Lankan Muslim identity and the Muslims' relations with Tamils. In particular it interrogates some aspects of the identity discourse developed over the years by the south-centred Muslim elites who align with the Sinhalese political class. We argue that the Tamils' northern leadership has been insensitive to Muslims—that they have played into the hands of the Colombo government by persecuting Muslims in their midst on the pretext of responding to government-instigated violence among local Muslim youths.

Keywords:

• Arab
• Muslim
• Moor
• Tamil
• identity
• symbols
• violence

Notes

¹No census has been conducted in the Northern Province since 1981 because of the war.

²H.W. Codrington, A Short History of Lanka (London: Macmillan, 1926), Chap. 2 [http://lakdiva.org/codrington/chap02.html, accessed 30 Jan. 2010].

³Andrew Scott, ‘Christmas in Ancient Sri Lanka’, in The Sunday Observer (20 Dec. 2009), Features page [http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/12/20/spe12.asp, accessed 20 Jan. 2010].

⁴P.K. Balachandran, ‘Lankan Muslims’ Historical Links with India’, Hindustan Times (3 April 2006), p.5.

⁵Imtiyaz Ahmed, Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978).

⁶Douglas Allen, Religion and Political Conflict in South Asia: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 1992), p.52.

⁷A.R.M. Imtiyaz, ‘Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solution’, in Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol.44, no.4 (Aug. 2009), pp.404–27.

⁸Department of Census and Statistics–Sri Lanka, ‘Statistical Abstract of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’ [http://www.statistics.gov.lk/Abstract_2006/abstract2006/table%202007/CHAP%202/AB2-12.pdf, accessed 19 Mar. 2008].

⁹The term Moor is said to have its origins in Mauritanians or Maurs—the Muslims of the mixed Berber and Arab peoples of North Africa—whom the Portuguese, arriving late in the fifteenth century, took Sri Lankan Muslims to be similar to.

¹⁰R. Vasundra Mohan, Identity Crisis of Sri Lankan Muslims (Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1987), p.9.

¹¹Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987).

¹²Department of Census and Statistics–Sri Lanka, ‘Statistical Abstract of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’.

¹³Rajan Hoole, Sri Lanka: The Arrogance of Power—Myths, Decadence and Murder (Colombo: University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 2001).

¹⁴Dennis B. McGilvray, ‘Tamils and Muslims in the Shadow of War: Schism or Continuity?’, in South Asia, Vol.XX, Special Issue (1997), pp.239–53.

¹⁵Ameer Ali, ‘The Muslims of Sri Lanka: An Ethnic Minority Trapped in a Political Quagmine', in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol.5, no.3 (2006), pp.372–83.

¹⁶The older Northern and Eastern Provinces were merged under the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 into the North East Province, and then broken up again in October 2006 under the orders of the Supreme Court which described the merger as ‘unconstitutional, illegal and invalid’. Thus the terms Eastern Province, Northern Province and North East Province are to be understood in this context. See ‘Judgment on North East Demerger’ [http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/2578, accessed 15 Mar. 2011].

¹⁷‘President Outlines Peace Strategy’ [http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200709/20070920president_outlines_peace_strategy.htm, accessed 12 Feb. 2010].

¹⁸ The National Post (23 Sept. 2008), p.5 [http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=832374#ixzz0dSLHeoCQ, accessed 23 Jan. 2010].

¹⁹ Daily News (19 July 2008), p.3.

²⁰‘We Want Muslim Terrorism Probed—JHU Front’ [http://www.muslimguardian.com/pls/portal/mpnews.mp_gl_sum.set_newsid?p_news_id=10995, accessed 9 Dec. 2008]. The JHU was founded by Buddhist monks in February 2004, and is inherently pro-Sinhalese in its ideology. The party's major goal is ‘to promote the interests of the Sinhala-Buddhists and to make Buddhism a guiding principal of state affairs, as well as to wipe out Tamil violence by force. The JHU shuns non-violence as a means to seek political alternatives for the Tamil national question, and has been urging young Sinhala-Buddhists to sign up for the army’. The party has broad appeal among Sinhalese, particularly urban Sinhalese, and thus was able to form an electoral coalition with the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance led by the SLFP. See A.R.M. Imtiyaz, ‘Politicization of Buddhism and Electoral Politics in Sri Lanka’, in Ali Riaz (ed.), Religion and Politics in South Asia (London: Routledge, 2010), pp.146–78. Furthermore, the JHU completely opposes the United Nation panel report on the Sri Lanka war which highlights ‘credible allegations’ that the Sri Lanka military and the LTTE had both committed violations that could constitute crimes against humanity. The report claims that the Sri Lankan military ‘knowingly shelled in the vicinity of humanitarian actors’ and systematically killed some tens of thousands of Tamil civilians. The report also alleges that between January and May 2009, the Sri Lanka military forces indiscriminately shelled civilian hospitals located in the government-established no-fire zone. See ‘Reports of the Secretary General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka’ (31 March 2011) [http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf, accessed 3 May 2011].

²¹F. Zackariya and N. Shanmugaratnam, ‘Communalisation of Muslims in Sri Lanka: An Historical Perspective’, Women Living Under Muslim Law (WLUML Dossier 22 November 1999), p.1 [http://www.womenandislam.net/srl/articles/20051218205515.pdf, accessed 14 Mar. 2011].

²²‘Sri Lanka Tamils’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka_Tamils_%28native%29, accessed 10 June 2007].

²³A.R.M. Imtiyaz and Ben Stavis, ‘Ethno-Political Conflict in Sri Lanka’, in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol.25, no.2 (Fall 2008), pp.135–52.

²⁴Mohan, Identity Crisis of Sri Lankan Muslims, pp.23–4.

²⁵Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Riots and Martial Law in Ceylon, 1915 (London: St. Martin's Press, 1916).

²⁶Ramanthan's claim that Muslims share common physical features with Tamils is somewhat true at village level although features such as the Arab nose can be seen there. Among the elites however blue-grey eyes and very light complexions are more common.

²⁷P. Ramanthan, ‘Ethnology of the Moors of Ceylon’, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch), Vol.X, no.36 (1888), pp.234–62.

²⁸Quoted in Nadesan Satyendra, ‘Muslims & Tamil Eelam, The Forced Evacuation of Muslims in 1989: Some Reflections’ (1996) [http://1seythi.wordpress.com/2006/09/09/forced-evacuation-muslims-1989-tamil-eelam/, accessed 3 May 2011]. Also see Dennis B. McGilvray and Mirak Raheem, Muslim Perspectives on the Sri Lankan Conflict (Washington: East-West Centre, 2007), Report 41, p.14 [http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/ps041.pdf, accessed 25 Jan. 2010].

²⁹McGilvray, ‘Tamils and Muslims in the Shadow of War: Schism or Continuity?’, pp.239–53.

³⁰Wikipedia on Answers.com: Anagarika Dharmapala [http://www.answers.com/topic/anagarika-dharmapala#cite_note-33, accessed 22. Jan. 2010].

³¹ Ibid.

³²Mohan, Identity Crisis of Sri Lankan Muslims, p.22.

³³Mohammedan Marriage Registration Ordinance No. 8 of 1886 and No. 2 of 1888.

³⁴M. Vythilingam, The Life of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Vol.1 (Colombo: Ramanathan Commemoration Society, 1971), pp.261–6.

³⁵See A.M.A. Azeez, Criticism of Mr. Ramanathan's Ethnology of the Moors of Ceylon (Colombo: Colombo Moors' Union, 1907) [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/∼lkawgw/ethnomoor.html, accessed 3 May 2011].

³⁶Qadri Ismail, ‘Unmooring Identity: The Antinomies of Elite Muslim Self-Representation in Modern Sri Lanka’, in Pradeep Jeganathan and Qadri Ismail (eds), Unmaking the Nation: The Politics of Identity and History in Modern Sri Lanka (Colombo: Social Scientists' Association, 1995), pp.55–105, italics added.

³⁷This was well before thousands of Muslims escaping from the Dutch in the sixteenth century were given shelter by the Kandyan kingdom headed by King Senarath.

³⁸Balachandran, ‘Lankan Muslims’ Historical Links with India’.

³⁹Azeez, Criticism of Mr. Ramanathan's Ethnology of the Moors of Ceylon.

⁴⁰Imtiyaz, ‘Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solution’, pp.404–27.

⁴¹Dennis B. McGilvray, ‘Muslim Folklore in Sri Lanka’, in Margaret Ann Mills, Peter J. Claus and Sarah Diamond (eds), South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (London: Taylor & Francis, 2003), pp.421–3.

⁴²Dennis B. McGilvray, ‘Arabs, Moors and Muslims: Sri Lankan Muslim Ethnicity in Regional Perspective’, in Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol.32, no.2 (1998), pp.433–83.

⁴³M.A.M. Shukri, Muslims of Sri Lanka: Avenues to Antiquity (Beruwala: Jamiah Naleemia Institute, 1989), p.iv.

⁴⁴Izzeth Hussein quoted in M.A. Nuhman, Sri Lankan Muslims: Ethnic Identity within Cultural Diversity (Colombo: ICES, 2007), p.5.

⁴⁵Imtiyaz, ‘Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solution’, pp.404–27.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷Sufism, or Tasawwuf as it is known in the Muslim world, is a mystical form of Islam.

⁴⁸‘Mosque Demolished as Mobs Attack Sect in Kattankudy’ [http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=13277, accessed 12 Dec. 2008].

⁴⁹‘Payilvan's Remains Exhumed, Sufi Building Demolished’ [http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=20628, accessed 12 Dec. 2008].

⁵⁰Author interview via telephone with some Eastern Muslims who practise Sufism, 15 May 2009. It is important to point out that unbelievers are described by the Quran as ‘the vilest of animals’ and ‘losers’ and the Quran plainly commands believers not to take unbelievers as friends. See Quran verses 5:51, 5:80, 3:28, 3:118, 9:23, 53:29, 3:85, 3:10, 7:44 and 1:5–7.

⁵¹McGilvray, ‘Arabs, Moors and Muslims: Sri Lankan Muslim Ethnicity in Regional Perspective’, pp.433–83.

⁵²K.N.O. Dharmadasa, Language, Religion and Ethic Assertiveness: The Growth of Sinhalese Nationalism in Sri Lanka (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 1992), p.246.

⁵³In an arrogant display of caste hegemony, Tamil-language school books, the same books used by Muslims and members of other castes, teach that only the Vellalas truly live. This is done through Kural–1033, which in G.U. Pope's translation reads: ‘Who ploughing eat their food, they truly live: The rest to others bend subservient, eating what they give’ [http://tamilweek.com/news-features/archives/1889, accessed 26 Jan. 2010].

⁵⁴ The Hindu Organ (1 and 19 June 1939) cited in Sebastian Rasalingam, ‘Tamils Must Ask for What is Reasonable and Accept Their Role in the Conflict’, The Island (27 Feb. 2008) [http://www.island.lk/2008/02/27/midweek5.html, accessed 20 Jan. 2010]. Also see Jane Russell, Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution 1931–1947 (Dehiwala: Tissara Prakasakayo, 1982).

⁵⁵S.R.H. Hoole, ‘Caste as a Hate Crime: Reassessing Arumuka Navalar and Vellala Dominance in Sri Lanka’, in Indian Church History Review, Vol.XLIII, no.2 (Dec. 2009), pp.113–47.

⁵⁶S.R.H. Hoole, ‘Sri Lankan America: Caste’, in Jonathan H.X. Lee and Kathleen Nadeau (eds), Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife, Vol.3 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), pp.1049–51.

⁵⁷Rajan Hoole, Sri Lanka: The Arrogance of Power—Myths, Decadence and Murder, Chap. 2.

⁵⁸Both Thangathurai's and Mustapha's statements were made in interviews with Rajan Hoole in 1993, Mustapha in Nintavur and Thangathurai in Colombo.

⁵⁹Robert Mackey, ‘Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka's Srebrenica?’, The NY Times News Blog (17 April 2009) [http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/is-the-world-ignoring-sri-lankas-srebrenica/, accessed 30 Jan. 2010]. As the government of Sri Lanka gained the upper hand by Dec. 2008 in its battle against the Tigers, the latter began forcibly arming Tamil civilians in the Vanni, the LTTE's last stronghold. These included the very young, women and even the deaf. The LTTE remnants forced these Vanni civilians to retreat with them into an ever-shrinking zone, thereby using some 300,000 civilians as a human shield. Nevertheless the government still fired on the LTTE killing many civilians, seemingly intent more on victory over the LTTE than the safety of its own citizens. According to civilians interviewed by S.R.H. Hoole, they tried to leave but were refused permission by the LTTE, which fired on those who persisted in trying. During loud demonstrations in Western cities, overseas Tamils, dominated by the Jaffna leadership, could find fault only with the government and did not say anything about the sufferings of the Vanni Tamils. For further information, see International Crisis Group, ‘War Crimes in Sri Lanka: Asia Report No. 191' (17 May 2010) [http://www.crisisgroup.org/∼/media/Files/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/191 War Crimes in Sri Lanka.ashx, accessed 30 Mar. 2011].

⁶²The other brother is Dr. M. Ratnarajan R. Hoole, commonly known as Rajan Hoole. Amnesty International, ‘Sri Lanka: Fear for Safety: Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole’ (2006) [http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA37/010/2006, accessed 10 July 2009].

⁶³S. Sivanayagam, ‘Who is this Man called Ratnajeevan H. Hoole? Here is an Introduction to the Man Inside Out!’, Oru Paper (7 April 2006), p.7, italics in original. This newspaper is also available in Canada.

⁶⁰Confidential testimony in 2009 to S.R.H. Hoole from several former members of the English Unit now residing in North America. Others in Jaffna have since confirmed this information.

⁶¹S.R.H. Hoole, ‘The Tamils of Sri Lanka: The Problem of Religion and Identity’, in Indian Church History Review, Vol.XXVI, no.2 (June 1992), pp.88–135.

⁶⁴Thai Pongal usually falls on 14 January (called Thai in Tamil). It celebrates the harvesting of the rice crop from the September–December monsoon rains. Rice is boiled in thanksgiving to the sun god, timed to boil over (pongal) at the auspicious time as the sun begins to show itself at dawn. It is important for the froth to not only pour out but to do so in the direction of the sun or it will bode ill for the household, so expert elders ensure that this happens by manipulating the pot and the fire. Thai Pongal therefore is a Vellala (agricultural) caste festival replete with religious significance. However it was unique to Tamil Vellala Hindus while other Hindus in India did not generally celebrate it. Tamil Vellalas being dominant in Tamil intellectual and nationalist life, it was easy for them to put one over the others by claiming the celebration as purely Tamil. Despite the flaws in the argument claiming it to be free of religion, many Tamils looking for a common unifying symbol and perhaps to caste elevation, have bought into it as being the only pan-Tamil festival.

⁶⁵Sachi Sri Kantha, ‘Expulsion of Jaffna Muslims: A Response to the Claim of Cultural Genocide’ [http://www.sangam.org/traki/articles/2005/12-10_Expulsion_of_Jaffna_Muslims_A_Response_to_Cultural_Genocide_Claim.php?uid=1365, accessed 20 Jan. 2010].

⁶⁶Telelphone interview by A.R.M. Imtiyaz, 20 Jan. 2010.

⁶⁷Rajan Hoole, Sri Lanka: The Arrogance of Power—Myths, Decadence and Murder, p.218.

⁶⁸‘Tigers Finished as Military Force’, BBC News (18 May 2009) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8055138.stm, accessed 18 May 2009]. See also ‘Political Parties Salute Valiant Security Forces’ [http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=49210, accessed 18 May, 2009]. This page is no longer available.

⁶⁹International Crisis Group, ‘Sri Lanka's Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire’, pp.3–10.

⁷⁰Badiuddin Mahmud was minister of education in the United Left Front Government of 1970–77. He went to the extent of making Sinhalese the medium of instruction almost everywhere outside the northeast, except perhaps in the Puttalam and Chilaw areas.

⁷¹Asiff Hussein, ‘The Obvious Link between the Muslims and the Sinhalese’, Sunday Observer (10 June 2001), p.7.

⁷²Izeth Hussein, ‘State Terrorism’ (July 2007) [http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/07/09/opinion/02.asp, accessed 2 May 2009]. This article is not available at present. Witnesses prove some Muslim involvement in the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils in Colombo South. Some supporters of a leading Muslim politician, attached to the then ruling party, the United National Party, led a gang consisting of poor Muslim youths who robbed Tamil-owned grocery stores and restaurants in the areas of Armour Street and Grandpass. Similar Muslim involvement occurred on the outskirts of these areas. These Muslims also actively lent a hand to Sinhalese thugs in Colombo in their bloodthirsty campaign against Tamils from 25–27 July 1983. Telephone interviews by A.R.M. Imtiyaz, 17 and 18 November 2008, with some Muslims who actively participated in the pogrom. The respondents spoke on grounds of anonymity. Imtiyaz himself witnessed the Muslims' role in aiding Sinhala thugs in Central Colombo areas such as Layards Broadway, Grandpass and Armour Street.

⁷³ Ibid.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁴In 1977 Ashraff stood for the TULF and campaigned for Tamil Eelam. He later vowed that even if the late TULF leader, Appapillai Amirthalingam, had not achieved Tamil Eelam, he would do so.

⁷⁵Interview with undergraduate students at the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka on 14 Oct. 2007. See also R.Hariharan, ‘Rise in Muslim Discontent: M.H.M. Ashraff's Leadership is not Filled Yet!’ [http://www.muslimguardian.com/pls/portal/mpnews.mp_gl_sum.set_newsid?p_news_id=8384, accessed 18 Dec. 2008].

⁷⁶V. Ameerdeen, ‘A Separate Muslim Administrative Unit: A Revolution or Disaster?’, paper presented at the South Asian Anthropologists' Group (SAAG), 4 July 2006, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London.

⁸¹Nirupama Subramaniam, ‘LTTE and Muslims’, The Hindu (21 Oct. 2003), Op-Ed page [http://www.thehindu.com/2003/10/21/stories/2003102101211000.htm, accessed 20 Jan. 2010].

⁷⁸McGilvray, ‘Tamils and Muslims in the Shadow of War: Schism or Continuity?’, pp.239–53.

⁷⁹‘The Expulsion and Expropriation of Muslims in the North’, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Report 6 (4 Feb. 1991), Chap. 3 [http://www.uthr.org/Reports/Report6/chapter3.htm, accessed 28 Jan. 2010].

⁸⁰ Ibid. See also Imtiyaz, ‘Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solution’, pp.404–27.

⁸²Telephone interviews by A.R.M. Imtiyaz on 12 and 17 Feb. 2010 with some Muslim youths from Samanthurai and Sainthamaruthu who have knowledge about these incidents, and their savagery. They declined to reveal their names for their own safety. The interviews strongly suggested that some Muslim young men sexually abused and raped several poor young Tamil women in Karaitivu. It was rival communal politics associated with ethnic and religious symbols which played a significant role in motivating these young men.

⁸³International Crisis Group, ‘Sri Lanka's Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire, Asia Report 134’ (29 May 2007), pp.3–10.

⁸⁴Zdzislaw Mach, Symbols, Conflict, and Identity: Essays in Political Anthropology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.37.

⁸⁵S.J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp.29–47.

⁸⁶Imtiyaz, ‘Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: Special Problems and Solution’, pp.404–27.

⁸⁷‘Sri Lanka may “Take Action” over Opposition Candidate’, BBC News (29 Jan. 2010) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8486025.stm, accessed 30 Jan. 2010]. Cf fn.17.