Page 107 - ROHANA_Journal_No_11-2019-ok

Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 11, 2019

They could not use a bicycle or car. They were badly discriminated against in public
affairs even in the 1970s, and prevented access to water resources, laundries,

barbershops, cafés, and public transport. They could not enter certain temples as

Vellalahs felt that if depressed caste people entered temples, those places would
become unclean. Even when depressed caste people were able to enter some temples

at the time, strong discrimination existed inside the temple in the presence of
Vellalahs. An elderly Tamil citizen of VVT from a lower caste gave the following

account of his painful experience in connection with temple entry.

“If Vellalahs entered the temple we could not face them directly. My brother who
was eight years old at the time, talked to a Vellalah child in the temple. Angered by

this, the Vellalah mother thrashed my brother and severely admonished my mother”
Key Informant 2 (13.11.2018).

Therefore, it is clear that the depressed caste Tamils suffered from intergroup

discrimination over thousands of years. There were no positive developments that
occurred in their livelihoods in the 1970s. So, they continued to live under the worst

social restrictions of the traditional caste system.

Majoritarian Sinhala Political Community and Tamil Youth

As pointed out earlier, high caste Tamils occupied high positions in the professional
and educational fields even during the colonial period. This enabled them to

maintain themselves at a higher social level (Tambiah, 1986; Spencer, 1990;

Bandarage, 2009; Hoole et al., 1990). High caste Tamils were able to stay in the
forefront, ahead of the Sinhala leaders in the political agitation movement during the

colonial period (Wickramasinghe, 1995, p. 25). During those times Tamils were not

regarded as a minority community either by others or even by themselves; rather,
they were on a par with the majority Sinhalese community (De Silva, 1967, p. 90).

As pointed out by Wickramasinghe (1995),

100