New Delhi's President Pranab Mukherjee releasing postal stamp commemorating Anagarika Dharmapala in October 2014

The fundamental flaw in Arundhatis article is confining the origins of caste exclusively to Brahmanic Hinduism. She also confuses Varna that was theoretically constructed from the Brahmin point of view, especially applied on to them by themselves and imposed on others, with Jaathi, which had altogether different origins. English has only one word, caste, for both.

From time to time there were revolts in South Asia against such oppressive religious constructs and the foremost of them could be seen in the Tamil Bakti movement, in which a woman Kaaraikkaal Ammai, a hunter Kannappan or a Paraiyan Nanthan were shown as attaining salvation straightaway through devotion, defying norms of Brahmanism, Buddhism or Jainism. It later inspired the rest of India but compromising elite oppression was always reconfirming itself.

Arundhati speaks of Dalit Sikhs, Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians, noting that conversion has not changed the status. But, if she wants to talk about Sri Lanka then there exist Dalit Sinhala-Buddhists too. [Dalit is of course a Marathi word, meaning broken people. But it is a word of Dravidian etymology and it has to be. The word, by D/ N interchange, is a cognate of Nalintha or Nalivu, meaning ruin, destruction, affliction, distress etc., in Dravidian.]

However, these are relatively minor issues in getting the thrust of Arundhatis article, Indias Shame written on 13 November and published in the December issue of Prospect Magazine.

Tamils have to read it carefully and absorbingly in understanding the inner mechanism and larger dimensions of the New Delhi-Colombo partnership and the role of Indias leading media houses in the genocide of Eezham Tamils, in the on-going genocide, and in the destruction of Eezham Tamil militancy that sought a new construction in South Asia, achieving something against caste and gender oppression besides ethnic oppression.

Unfortunately, intellectuals in India were blinded from seeing the dimensions when the unprecedented genocide in South Asia was taking place in the island.

C.V. Wigneswaran at World Hindu Conference

A diaspora delegate who attended the conference cited a fellow delegate from Colombo telling him that Buddhism is not a threat to Tamils but Islam and Christianity are worse threats. This is a typical talk that always originates from certain Colombo-centric sections envisaging reconciliation and partnership of traditional elite in the pursuit of material gains and domination. New Delhi Hindutva also thinks in the same way and it is prepared to export a new religion to suit the purpose. A small example is the Gitopadesha panel seen in the renovated hall of the Wesleyan Jaffna Central College, where the Indian consulate in Jaffna held an education marketing meeting recently.

Our forefathers had worked hard to preserve the Hindu society in the face of successive assaults by Portuguese, Dutch and English colonizers, who wielded their religions as weapons against the Hindus, Wigneswaran said at the conference.

More here:
Sri Lanka: Arundhati misses Buddhist casteism, Wigneswaran massages Hindu imperialism