Caste transformation. A case study on Vellalah identity in relation to the Tamil nation project in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Sammanfattning: The study explores the meanings and practices associated with Vellalah identity in relation to the Tamil nation project in Jaffna, in the northern part of Sri Lanka, with a focus on caste transformation. Given that caste is a culturally sensitive identity and practice of Tamils, the inescapable engagement with the Tamil nation project is investigated here via a case study on Vellalah, the protagonist and hegemonic caste among Tamils. The study in a sense tries to unpack the Sri Lankan conflict as an inside account of Tamils who, as one of the major conflictants of the ethno-national war of more than three decades. It also theoretically sheds light on dynamics, interplay, networking and articulations of a cultural identity while national identity was being sharpened. Three main research questions were addressed in order to capture Vellalah identity transformation: What is meant by Vellalah identity? How do Vellalah perceive caste transformation in terms of their identity and power? How has Vellalah identity been influenced by the elite? Field work was conducted in Jaffna during the period 2004-2007. Narrative methodology has designed the entire project, based on an emic perspective. At a theoretical level, this study discusses the articulations of identity, identity in relation to power, collective identity and thus identity in relation to identification. The nation project is as a comact pack, in this study encompassed by national elite, cultural homogenity, modernity and post national forces, which examines the inter-manoeuvrings of caste. Caste identity in this study is understood through the theoretical notion of habitus, which Bourdieu articulated, together with the theory of cultural schema. As its conclusion , the study highlighted the implicit dimension of identity lingers in the mental stucture lasts longer and is more defiant since it has been internalized compared to the external carriers of identity. The study also showed identity as not being prominent or vigorous in a sense as it is highly tabooed and discrete, has vivacious dynamics in national identity. The Tamil nation project, when it transformed from a constitutional to a militant phase in tha late 1970s, especially in the hands of LTTE, caste was forced to sit on the back seat of the national room. Yet this study captured the motion of caste during this phase, which was vigorous, multiplex and insurmountable, and hence it could not be alleviated. It also showed how Vellalh, as a hegemonic identity construction of Tamil culture in Jaffna had dominated the domains of politics, leadership, relgion, education, land ownership, and thus others castes with their unique lifestyles. It has shown overall how a cultural construction of hegemonic identity had been reproduced the superiority via caste, and hence an 'us and them' within through multiple ways.