Thursday , 14 March 2013

“We are police in civil clothes not attired in Kakki dress” was described by the movement named “Pothu Bala Sena”

This movement emerged after the war period, with Sinhala racism concept recently is disclosing tough stances against the minority community.

 ”Halal” emblem which is embossed in productions was requested by this movement to expunge and strong protest were advanced.

A media briefing was held yesterday in Colombo, and a representative from the Pothu Bala sena said, “Don’t look at us as racist but observe us as police not attired in Kakki uniform”

Green leaves can grow in rubber field, but due to the growth we do not name it, the garden of green leaves, similarly minority can live in Sri Lanka, but there should not be hindrance to the majority community, Bouthu Balasena said.

This article is a reprint of chapter 8 in Roberts, Exploring Confrontation, Reading: Harwood, 1994

Introduction: Categorical Clarifications¹

In the course of 9-10 days in May-June 1915 segments of the Sinhala population drawn from a wide occupational spectrum systematically attacked the property and at times the person of Mohammedan Moors residing in the south western quadrant of the island—a region containing the majority of Sri Lanka’s population at that point of time. This event has since been referred to in Sinhala as the marakkala kolahālaya and in the English rendering as “the 1915 riots” or “the communal riots of 1915.” Because disputes in front of mosques are known to have been one of the reasons for these “riots”, it has been interpreted as a “religious conflict” between Muslims and Buddhists (Nissan & Stirrat 1990: 31-32; Spencer 1990: 5, 8). By itself, this characterisation is misleading and a corrective is in order.

Those whom we refer today in Sri Lankan English as “Muslim” were described till about the 1930s as “Mohammedan.” “Mohammedan” (or Muslim) takes its meaning from its context of usage. In juxtaposition with the categories Burgher, Sinhalese, Tamil, Malay, it is an ethnic label. Where aligned in distinction from Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, it is a religious category. It therefore carries a duality of meaning. This dual-sidedness is accentuated by the Sinhala usage. The Sinhala word, marakkala (Moor), is often used to refer to Mohammedans as well. Though there is ambiguity on this point, marakkala does not, unlike the English word “Mohammedan” (Muslim), usually encompass the jā (Malays). Indeed, the more erudite Sinhala word for Moors is yon (yona) in distinction from javun, javo, ja.

Given such dualities, and the ambiguities attached to the everyday usage of such terms, it is not surprising that one finds the terms “Moor” and “Mohammedan” being used interchangeably in the official literature, sometimes in the same document (eg: Tyrrell 1907). Indeed, it is probably because of such ambiguity, and because the category Mohammedan is both an ethnic and a religious label, that the term “community” has become such an important part of the English vocabulary in Asia.                                            Read Mor