Cutting edge of Hindu revivalism in Jaffna
By PK Balachandran
After about 300 years of intense persecution under the
Portuguese and the Dutch, the Hindus of Jaffna heaved a
sigh of relief when the British took over at the fag end of the
18th century.
The era of forcible conversions to Catholicism (under the
Portuguese) and to Protestantism (under the Dutch) was over.
In the liberal atmosphere created by the British, most
converts reverted to their traditional religion, namely,
Hinduism.
Daniel Poor, a pioneer of the American Ceylon Mission (ACM)
noted that with the Dutch yoke off their shoulders, the Hindus
of Jaffna returned to "sweet idolatory" and temple building
was resumed at a frenetic pace.
As Dr Murugar Gunasingam says in his book, Sri Lankan
Tamil Nationalism: A Study of its Origins (MV Publications,
Sydney 1999), there were as many as 329 Hindu temples in
Jaffna in 1814. Many had come up in the first few years of
British rule.
Earlier, the Portuguese had destroyed as many as 500
temples. In Dutch times, temples were in disuse, as the
Brahmin priests had been chased out.
Threat from a new quarter
But British rule did not turn out to be an unmixed blessing.
It had created a new danger, the danger of conversion
through education and systematic propaganda through the
use of the new print medium.
The new political and economic order established by the
British was creating employment opportunities for the Hindus
of Jaffna, which necessitated an education.
And the Hindu Tamil youth of Jaffna were eager to seize
these opportunities and acquire an English education for that
purpose.
Seeing a potential in this for gaining converts, the new
Protestant missions which followed the British flag, set up
schools and boarding houses, including some for girls.
Printing presses were established to churn out easily
accessible Christian literature on a large scale.
The new British rulers handed over government-run schools
to the missionaries, and gave grants-in-aid to
non-government schools. The latter was a great help to
missionary-run schools.
The missionary-run schools and medical missions, with their
dedicated and selfless staff, presented a very new and
beguiling face to the people of Jaffna, who, under Portuguese
and Dutch rule earlier, had been dragooned into accepting
Christianity and economically exploited thereafter by the
state-backed missionaries.
Missions fail to make headway
However, despite possessing all the necessary tools for mass
conversion, the Protestant missionaries did not make much
headway.
According to Dr Gunasingam determined evangelisation by
the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) from 1816 to 1839 had
yielded only 492 converts.
Success eluded the Wesleyan Mission and the Church
Missionary Society (CMS) also.
Gunasingam says that conversion was low because, unlike
the Portuguese or the Dutch, the British did not make
conversion a necessity for obtaining government jobs or state
patronage.
The British had also declared that they would not allow
forcible conversions.
Missionaries create insecurity
But many Jaffna Hindu Tamils, mainly of the elite Vellala,
Chettiar and Brahmin castes, felt that the power of the
missionaries was insidious.
They feared that if the Hindus, mainly Saivite, were not
careful, they could be overwhelmed by the missionaries
armed with all the tools of modern propaganda then
available, namely, a virtual monopoly over the educational
system and the printed word.
The liberal education, which the mission schools provided,
had created awareness among the Saivites and sharpened
their critical faculties.
While the missionaries hoped that education would make the
young Saivites see the truth of Christianity and the falsehood
of Saivism, it had the opposite impact, notes Gunasingam.
Often, education made the student critical of Christianity and
see the danger that it posed to his own indigenous religion.
But this, by itself, did not make the Saivites take measures to
assert their faith and oppose the proselytising activities of the
missionaries.
What triggered active resistance was the stepping up of vile
anti-Saivite propaganda by the missionaries.
According to Gunasingam, the missionaries started attacking
Saivisim and Saivite practices viciously because they were
frustrated with the poor rate of conversion.
In his article entitled Arumuga Navalar and the Hindu
Renaissance Among the Tamils in the book "Religious
Controversy in British India" edited by Kenneth W Jones, D
Dennis Hudson gives a particularly telling example of the
missionary view of Saivism.
He quotes the Protestant periodical Morning Star as saying:
"There is nothing in the peculiar doctrines and precepts of
the Saiva religion that is adapted to improve a man's moral
character or fit him to be useful to his fellow men".
"If the world were to be converted to the Saiva faith, no one
would expect any improvement in the morals or the happiness
of men."
"Everyone might be a great liar and cheat, as great an
adulterer, as oppressive of the poor, as covetous, as proud,
as he was before without the purity of faith."
The "Skandapuranam" one of the most sacred texts of
Saivism, was denounced as a set of "extravagant fictions
many of which are of immoral tendency."
The Morning Star and other publications were also making
disparaging remarks against the famous Kandaswamy temple
in Nallur, saying that it was a den vice.
The attacks on this temple, which was the nerve centre of
Saivisim in the Jaffna peninsula, was seen as a frontal assault
on Tamil culture and Tamil pride.
Rise of Hindu protest
The first to protest against such characterisations and write
against Christianity was Muthukumara Kavirajar (1780-1851).
His works, which were printed later, became an important
weapon in the armoury of the Saivites.
The first collective action on the part of the Saivites of Jaffna
was a meeting held by a group drawn from the elite Vellala,
Brahmin and Chettiar communities, at the Siva temple at
Vannarpannai in September 1842.
Among the leading lights present were Sathasiva Pillai,
Swaminatha Iyar, Viswanatha Iyar, Arumuga Pillai,
Kandaswamy Pillai and Arumuga Chettiar.
The group decided to set up a "Veda-Agama" School to
teach children the Vedas, the Agamas (temple worship) and
the elements of Saivisim.
The plan was to discourage parents from sending their
children to Christian mission schools.
It was also decided to purchase a printing press to counter
the media war unleashed by the missionaries.
Though the purchase of a printing press took time, the Veda
Agama school started functioning in 1842.
Enter Arumuga Navalar
It was at this time that Arumugam Pillai (1822-1879) entered
the scene with a bang.
As Arumuga Navalar or simply as Navalar, he was to become
Sri Lanka's foremost Saivite or Hindu revivalist; the harbinger
of Tamil nationalism; and the cutting edge of the long, and
successful campaign against Christian proselytising.
Navalar was unique among the campaigners for Saivism in
Jaffna in as much as he was into it full time.
He had stubbornly remained unmarried to retain his
independence.
Having been a student of, and a teacher in, the Wesleyan
School, where he was the favourite of the Missionary cum
Principal, Peter Percival, Navalar, came with a good
grounding in Christianity. This helped him argue against it
authoritatively.
He took to Christian methods of preaching which had been
effective. Like the Christian pastors, he preached in the
places of worship. [HindustanTimes.com]
