Thread by @CodeNDrive

We are an outcome of a continual movement of people from one place to another, and hence the circulation of ideas, beliefs, fantasies and dreams.

New discoveries of erstwhile trade networks across the globe dismantle our assumptions about the mythical self contained village,

where the inhabitants are assumed to be have been able to carry on with life without any dependance on others.

Even though our Sangam poems (Puranaanooru, Agananooru, Pattinappaalai) for example, talk about this immense zest for exploration and long distance trading,

our fixation towards grand ideas of empire building, and romanticized visuals associated with agriculture makes us assume that great empires are built by warriors who die for valor and honour and farmers who till the land until death, forgetting the outsized role

played by trade guilds, pressures of global trade and the practical shifting allegiances of mercenaries, buffer states.

We conveniently forget that it was mercenaries who fought the intercenary wars of Sinhala kings in Sri Lanka in medieval times and Sinhala kings source

such mercenaries from deep pockets of Tamil speaking region. We also forget that these Tamil speaking mercenaries settled in Sri Lanka and over a period were assimilated in the Sinhala society, with the surviving surnames now serving as an echo of the past.

It is indeed true that identities and stories of common origins often serve as a cerebral strategy to safeguard the integrity of a certain collection of individuals and in turn enable propagation of a certain identity beyond its traditional boundaries. At the same time,

it is critical for us to remember that it is a strategy shaped by the brute force and gentle nudges of human psychological evolution and not a reflection of the actual reality.

For example, while the mainland Tamils might assume that the true blue Tamils are in Jaffna,

an assumption shaped by myths and half truths, it is to be remembered that a good proportion of the present day Tamil speaking populace in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka where from present day Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speaking regions who migrated thanks to

mercenary movements and trade.

Also mainland Tamils harbor a certain low self esteem and inferiority complex when comparing themselves to Jaffna Tamils in terms of social capital including language, culture, educational attainment and in turn attribute that to god ordained

superiority, it can very well be an outcome of the act of invisible hand of global colonization and the accidental demographic advantage lent to farming communities with absence of critical concentration of priestly communities, that enabled a good section of Jaffna Tamils to

take advantage of systematic western education a century before Mainland Tamils under Dutch rule.

This later allowed them to migrate to Malaysia and Singapore as knowledge workers (Clerks, Managers, Post Masters etc) while a majority of their migrant brethren to Malaysia and

Singapore from Cauvery Delta and North Tamil Nadu were farm hands and labourers during 1800s and 1900s. In fact, this advantage enabled Jaffna Tamils to dominate the colonial administrative machinery of Sri Lanka. Their exceptional success as a group in European countries and

Canada in fields of politics, STEM and arts can be attributed to this advantage of accident and the tinge of immigrant ethic, rather than the god ordained cultural refinement and caste characteristic as a section of Indian Tamils would like to believe.

While it is true that we are implicitly taught about past in a certain way that elevates individuals to mythical heights, the reality usually is complex and counter intuitive, something that doesn't fit the linear logic we usually are accustomed to. This makes us overestimate

the capability of individuals like Vasco Da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Stamford Raffles for example.

It is now increasingly clear that it was not Colombus who discovered Americas and in turn paved way for trans-atlantic trade for the first time in human history.

It is now a proven fact that Singapore has always been a critical node in the trade network of Bay of Bengal and South China Sea and it was not because of one great man, a trading point was built from scratch.

Many of our assumptions shaped by perceptions that

elevate select individuals instead of appreciating the sheer diversity of individuals conducting their activities in a certain direction shaped by the sensibilities of the time and space they occupied, makes us fall into the trap that forces us to visualise the past

as a series of fantasies even when we don't wish to do so.

#RandomMusings #GreatFounderTheory #Trade

~ Jeyannathann Karunanithi (fb post)