Karaiyar

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Karaiyar, also known as Karayar, Karaiar or Kurukulam is a fishing-related caste found in the Tamil Nadu state of India and coastal areas of Sri Lanka.

1 Origins
2 Traditional occupation
3 Sanskritisation
4 Position in Sri Lanka
5 Karaiyar and their politics
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Origins

The Karaiyar, along with Mukkuvar and Paravar are one of the oldest inhabitants of the coastal region of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. They are predominantly found in the coastal area known as Coromandal coast. These three fishing related social groups are regionally distributed, with each group dominating a certain coastal belt. Karaiyar are found north of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu and well into the Andhra Pradesh coastal areas.

A significant part of this community consists of the traditional Warrior and Naval community of Sri Lanka, which were disempowered after the fall of the northern and southern kingdoms to Europeans. For information on the martial race of Sri Lanka see Karava.

[edit] Traditional occupation

Karaiyars have traditionally been fishers, engaged with activities related to boat building, overseas trading and providing mercenary forces to local kings in India and Sri Lanka. A great many of them were simple fishers and a significant minority were petty and wealthy chiefs and merchants in both countries.

[edit] Sanskritisation

Along with many so called Shudra castes of Tamil Nadu they have sanskritized their name to Kuru Kulam indicating an origin from North India and Kshatriya. It should be noted that related Paravas have upgraded their name to Bharathas and other depressed groups such as Sakkiliar have changed their name to Arunthathiyar and Parayar to Sambavar to enable social up- gradation.

[edit] Position in Sri Lanka

The Karaiyar's relative social position in Tamil Nadu has not improved much despite their various efforts and they are currently considered to be a politically and socially insignificant group. In Sri Lanka, where they form over 10% of the country's total population, they are an upwardly mobile and relatively upgraded caste amongst the majority Sinhalese and minority Sri Lankan Tamils (see Caste in Sri Lanka). Amongst the Sinhalese they are known as the Karave. Analysis of family names and traditions of Karaiyar castes in Sri Lanka indicates that it has accepted within its fold many indigenous and migrant peoples from India and abroad. The Karaiyar of Sri Lanka and India differ from each other in significant manner due to their relative social and political positions.

[edit] Karaiyar and their politics

The Karaiyar amongst Sri Lankan Tamils are currently 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. Some sociologist have commented that the current civil war in Sri Lanka has become a vehicle by which both the Karaiyar and Karave have attempted to marginalize the traditional elites by taking extremely partisan but opposite views.