A Study Of Caste In Sri Lanka

Caste is an important social-cultural phenomenon in the Sri Lanka society. The Sri Lanka castes are composed of the Sinhalese and the Tamil, two caste systems with both connections and differences. Originating from India, Sinhalese and Tamil came into being and developed against the specific historic and realistic background of Sri Lanka, and eventually formed a secular caste system different from the Indian caste. In the research into Sri Lanka’s social structural shift, economic development pattern, beliefs and values, castes provide a very important analytical dimension. From both macro and micro perspectives, this essay applies a comparative sociology method to expound the evolution line of Sinhalese and Tamil and generalize the characteristics of the Sri Lanka caste through contrasting the similarities and differences between Sinhalese and Tamil. This essay also discusses in depth the role and position of caste in Sri Lanka’s history, and further summarizes the general feature of the Sri Lanka culture.The introduction of this essay introduces the meaning of choosing this subject; a comprehensive review of the relevant domestic and foreign researches on the Sri Lanka caste; the research method mainly applied in the essay.The main body of the essay consists of five chapters. Chapter one expounds the caste factor during the process when the Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil come into being. Their ancestors were Indian immigrants who believe in Hinduism. When they came to Sri Lanka, the Indian caste system was rather mature, so caste was not the result of Sri Lanka’s civilization development, but already a main factor in the social structure when the nation was founded in the first place.Chapter two explains in details the historical trajectory of Sinhalese and Tamil castes and their main patterns and features. The structure of Sinhalese caste shows a totally different situation from the Indian caste: namely, the Brahamin caste has completely disappeared; Govi, a peasant caste, stands at the top of the caste order; caste standards and social courtesies become relatively weakened and mild, while the Tamil caste could not undergo such metamorphosis as has happened to the Sinhalese, for the caste has kept their Hinduism belief. But Tamil’s structure demonstrates a similar characteristic to that of Sinhalese, namely, the peasant caste Welalla is the dominant in the real social life. The difference between the peasant caste and Brahamin is reflected in Tamil’s inclination to be secular. The Highland Tamil people were hired by the colonists as workers from South India to Sri Lanka. Secluded in the tea factories and plantations for a long time, their caste system was loose and incomplete, but the sense of hierarchy and discrimination still existed.Chapter three touches upon the reason for the creation of Sri Lanka’s caste system. The introduction of Buddhism ridded the Sinhalese of its religious core and made it a purely secular social system; but also due to Buddhism’s certain qualities, the caste system had the possibility to survive without the existence of Hinduism. Through thousands of years of exchange, the Sinhalese and the Tamil constantly collided with and interfused into each other. The differences between the Tamil caste and the Indian caste were not completely due to their separating from the Indian environment, and especially, the role of Sinhalese culture was not negligible. Over four centuries of colonial rule, the caste system in Sri Lanka was first artificially strengthened, and then passively disappeared in the social discourse, and finally became an invisible existence. The colonial policy and the western cultural impact further weakened the caste system objectively.Chapter four discusses the characteristics of the Sri Lanka caste. First, national differences and the imbalances between the developments of different regions resulted in the pluralism within the Sri Lanka caste system. These non-uniformities were respectively reflected in various aspects of the caste including its nature, type, order, relation, and rules. Second, the biggest difference between the Sri Lanka caste and the Indian caste is its secularization. The Sinhalese caste that is no longer religious becomes a secular social labor distribution system; although the Tamil caste could not extricate itself from the core of Hinduism, its religious meaning has separated from the social and economic demands. In addition, the caste system become loosened and weakened, indicating the inclination to turn from religious to secular.Chapter five expounds the Sri Lanka castes’ influence on the modern social life, politics and national disputes. On social life, blood relationship, identity and status recognition represented by the caste have never disappeared, and they continued to effect Sri Lankans’ judgment and choice in marriage, exchange, employment, etc; on politics, caste acted as an manipulative hand behind the birth of Sri Lanka’s family politics, the operation of party and election system; on national disputes, the Tamil extreme ethnic nationalism current and movement was bom against the profound background of caste, while, during the post-war peaceful reconstruction, caste played a negative role in the social resource distribution and social order restoration process.Through analyses and summaries of the Sri Lanka castes, this essay comes to the conclusion: the feature of the Sri Lanka society and culture determines the necessity of caste’s existence, while the unique social development trajectory of Sri Lanka causes the caste’s secularization that is obviously different from the Indian castes. During the Sri Lanka’s social development, the influence of caste is permanent. But such influence is mostly negative, and plays a restrictive role on Sri Lanka’s social development.