Ethnographical Approach in Srilanka Tamil Novel – The Study Based on T. Genasegaran’s Novel ‘KURUDHIMALAI’

Abstract

Anthropology is the systematic study of humanity, with the goal of understanding our evolutionary origins, our distinctiveness as a species, and the great diversity in our forms of social existence across the world and through time. One of the departments of Anthropology is Social-Cultural Anthropology. Cultural anthropologists study how people who share a common cultural system organize and shape the physical and social world around them, and are, in turn, shaped by those ideas, behaviours, and physical environments. Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. In the book Kuruthimalai by T.Gnanasekaran - the author writes in detail of his vast experience, working with Upcountry Estate people. This book which was released in 1978, was published in Virakesari Newspapers Establishment. This novel speaks of the Nationalization of Tea Estates and the denied rights of the workers, and the protests raised by some of the book characters. The life pattern of estate workers is compared to the workers in other fields. The so-called Up countries were brought to the central highlands of Sri Lanka by the British in the nineteenth century to work on large plantations. Their way of life is slightly different from other Tamil communities living in Sri Lanka. In this way, the main objective of this study is to reveal how Sri Lankan plantation workers' habitat, their work methods, food, rituals, oral literature, religious beliefs, hobbies, traditional products, dialect words, and caste systems distinguish them as a unique ethnic group based on the Kurudimalai novel. This study is done using the descriptive analysis method, and the primary source for the study is the novel Kurudimalai written by T. Gnanasekaran. As supplementary sources, the articles published in relation to the hill people, Magazines and articles published in relation to ethnography are taken. This study will help those who want to understand the unique life aspects of the Upcountry Tamil people in relation to ethnography in the future and will be useful for those who primarily study the lifestyles of the Upcountry Tamil people.