Country: Sri Lanka

Group: Pallar

Date Finalized: 1 April 2023

Team: Noelle Collings (lead), Juwairiah Afridi, Anthony Un, Ash Pessaran, Hannah Lux, Stefania Lavadao

Content Warning: Slavery, Colonization, Violence

Approximate Time Period: 1658-1844

            The Sri Lankan Pallar are an agricultural caste belonging to the larger Tamil caste, located in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. The Dutch colonized Sri Lanka in the late 17th century. The Dutch East India Company (active 1602-1799) trafficked and taxed the import of enslaved individuals. In the early 19th Century, the Dutch attempted to codify their view of Tamil law (Wickramasinghe & Schrikker 2019). In doing so, the Dutch reorganized the caste system, classifying the Pallars as ‘unfree’ and ‘untouchable’, which led them into forced, bonded servitude (Wickramasinghe 2020). Alongside the Dutch, the higher Tamil castes, such as the Vellalar, forced the Pallars to work as their agricultural and domestic servants (Silva et al. 2009). The East India Company, based on Dutch Law, was entitled to “…one out of five or six children—boys and girls—born of the marriage between a Nalavar or Pallar slave owned by the Company and a slave woman from the countryside” (Wickramasinghe & Schrikker 2019). Slavery was legally abolished in Sri Lanka in 1844. However, ‘coerced’ labor took its place (Wickramasinghe 2020). It is difficult to assess the degree of discrimination the Pallar are currently facing, primarily because the caste system itself comes with implicit bias. There is some evidence that many members of the Pallar do not have access to safe water, electricity, or proper education (Joshua Project, 2023). The Sinhalese and Tamils engaged in armed conflict in the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009), which is thought to have been caused by both ethnic tensions and the effects of British imperialism (Anandakugan 2020). Due to this conflict, many Sri Lankans, especially those of lower castes, were displaced , but there is no evidence of current forced labor (Silva et al. 2009).

Data Quality: The data quality is a ⅓, because there is little information on the Pallars as a caste on its own.

Sources:

  1. Anandakugan, N. (2020). The Sri Lankan War and its history, revisited in 2020. Harvard International Review. https://hir.harvard.edu/sri-lankan-civil-war/
  2. Joshua Project. (2023). Pallan (Hindu traditions) in Sri Lanka. Retrieved from https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/17886/CE
  3. Schrikker, A. & Wickramasinghe, N. (2019). The ambivalence of freedom: Slaves in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Journal of Asian Studies, 78(3), 497-519. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0DA019FA2028635360498C72E37FDE21/S0021911819000159a.pdf/the-ambivalence-of-freedom-slaves-in-jaffna-sri-lanka-in-the-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-centuries.pdf
  4. Silva, K. T., Sivapragasam, P. P., & Thanges, P. (2009). Casteless or caste-blind?: Dynamics of concealed caste discrimination, social exclusion, and protest in Sri Lanka. International Dalit Solidarity Network.
  5. Wickramasinghe, N. (2020). Slave in a Palanquin: Colonial servitude and resistance in Sri Lanka. Columbia University Press.