Perspectives on Caste and Militant Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka: The LTTE and Resistance Against Vellalah Hegemony
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Abstract
By analyzing the intersection of caste and militant Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka, this article considers whether the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was a transformative force that disrupted the caste order, including the hegemony of the Vellalah caste. Tamil political leadership in the early twentieth century was dominated by Vellalah elites who carefully upheld caste privileges. The emergence of the LTTE in the late 1970s, led largely by non-Vellalah militants, disrupted this order and asserted a revolutionary Tamil identity transcending caste. Drawing on Vellalah-centered ethnographic fieldwork and testimonies, as well as media accounts and LTTE documents, the study scrutinizes how caste was both repressed and reconstituted within the militant nationalist project. The findings of this study suggest that the LTTE pursued radical measures to dismantle caste hierarchies via outlawing discrimination, imposing egalitarian discipline, valorizing martyrdom, and encouraging inter-caste marriage. These interventions were perceived by Vellalahs as having destabilized their hegemony and enabled wider social and political participation of intermediate and depressed castes. Yet caste has persisted subtly through private practices, silent discourses and enduring social divisions. The study maintains that while the LTTE’s actions destabilized Tamil caste structures, they failed in permanently altering the underlying logic of the caste system, leaving a legacy marked by both disruption and the resilience of caste.
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