| Karava |
Articles about Karave |
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ORIGINS Along with Mukkuvar and Paravar they are one of the coastal inhabitants of Sri Lanka. They are believed to have originated from the currently insignificant Karaiyar caste of fishers from Tamil Nadu . They are also believed to have come from coastal area known as Coromandal coast in South India . These three fishing related social groups are also found in Tamil Nadu and are regionally distributed with each group dominating a certain coastal belt. Karaiyar are found north of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu well into the Andhra Pradesh coastal areas. TRADITIONAL OCCUPATION Tradionally Karave have been Fishers along with activities related to boat building, overseas trading and providing mercenaries to local kings in India and Sri Lanka. But great many of them were simple fishers as well as a significant minority were petty rulers and wealthy merchants in both the countries. SANSKRITISATION Along with many so called Shudra castes of Tamil Nadu they have Sanskritized their name to '' Kurukulam '' indicating an origin from North India and Kshatriya origins. It should be noted that related Parava s have upgraded their name to ''Bharathas'' and other depressed groups such as Sakkiliar have changed their name to ''Arunthathiyas'' and Parayar to ''Sambavas'' to enable social upgradation. In Sri Lanka too the Karave claim ''Kuru'' ancestry thus assimilating with the Indo-Aryan speaking majority Sinhalese people. Few Karave north of Chilaw still speak Tamil but most of them south of Colombo are native Sinhala speakers and have become devote Catholics and Buddhists with very little vestiges of their former Hindu religion. Along with other South Indian derived castes such as Salagama and Durave they make a sizeable number of people amongst the coastal Sinhalese sub group (See Caste In Sri Lanka ). SOCIAL POSITION In Sri Lanka they are an upwardly mobile and relatively upgraded caste both amongst the majority Sinhalese and minority Sri Lankan Tamils . Ritually they are behind the so called upper caste of Govigama amongst the Sinhalese and Vellalar amongst the Tamils, although self proclaiming to be superior to be both. Karave caste in Sri Lanka has accepted within its fold many Indigenous and Migrant peoples as indicated by the current family names also known as ‘’Ge’’ names. Paravas and Mukkuvas too are assimilating as part of the Karave along with countless service and agricultural castes in the western littoral. Thus it has become a mega composite caste differencing in many aspects from their ancestral Karaiyar caste of India. SOME GE NAMES
Apart from Ge names, they also use Iberian derived surnames such as De Silva, Perera, Fernando and Mendis due to their initial contact with Portugese colonials. FROM NOBODIES TO SOME BODIES Most Karave were initially converted to Catholic religion by the Portuguese colonials after their arrival in 1505 ACE. Thus introduced to the market economy via the colonial connection began their social and economic climb from nobodies to elites as noted by sociologists. Although the strides made thus far by few lineages are impressive, great many of them still languish at the bottom as day to day Fishers with very little opportunity for material wealth. Currently the Karaiyar amongst Sri Lankan Tamils are overwhelmingly represented in the Tamil militant group LTTE where as Karave are very vocal about their Sinhala Buddhist identity and drive the Nationalistic political parties such as the SLFP and JVP both political parties aligned to Sinhala nationalism. Some sociologist have commented that the current civil war in Sri Lanka has become a vehicle by which both the Karaiyar and Karave have sort to marginalize the traditional elites by taking extremely partisan but opposite views. SEE ALSO REFERENCE
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