“The island could be situated about 18 miles east of Pamban. However I have no idea the place Pamban is situated,” India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru advised the Higher Home of the Parliament in 1960, when some members raised considerations over makes an attempt by Sri Lanka to annex the little barren island within the Palk Straits historically utilized by Indian fishermen to relaxation, dry their nets in.
Inside 14 years, the little island between Tamil Nadu and Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka grew to become the topic of a maritime boundary settlement, which the 2 neighbours signed. In keeping with the settlement, the uninhabited island named Katchatheevu, all 1.6 km lengthy and a bit over 300 metres large, belonged to Sri Lanka, however Indian fishermen would proceed to have their conventional rights over it.
Positioned north-east of Tamil Nadu’s temple city of Rameswaram, and south-west of Sri Lanka’s Delft Island, Katchatheevu is uninhabited. A shrine devoted to St Anthony of Padua (a Twelfth-century Portuguese Catholic priest and a friar of the Franciscan order) is the one construction right here and attracts followers from each nations throughout an annual church pageant.
Legends abound among the many trustworthy in Latin nations, significantly Portugal, Spain, and Brazil over St Anthony’s potential to reconcile {couples}. He’s thus designated because the saint of matrimony. This potential is sorely being examined because the boundary settlement of the 2 neighbouring nations has became a political slugfest. Nevertheless, the church, which has endured many years of ethnic conflicts between Tamils and Sinahlese of Sri Lankan descent, can be approaching a important interval in its historical past.
Regardless of the downfall of the LTTE and cessation of ethnic battle in Sri Lanka, the church stays on the centre of ongoing tensions involving the Sri Lankan Navy and fish labourers from India’s south-eastern border.
A Sri Lankan courtroom sentenced two fishermen from Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, to 6 months in jail on February 17 for working two vessels in a way that violated the Worldwide Maritime Boundary Line. Regardless of having been beforehand launched, one other fisherman was deemed a “repeat offender” and acquired a one-year jail sentence for contravening the situations of his parole. The courtroom, in the meantime, launched 20 others To protest these arrests, boat homeowners of Tamil Nadu determined to boycott the annual pageant that was held on the church in February. The three jail sentences are simply the tip of the iceberg, stated Xavier Sahayam, president of the Mechanised Boat Fishermen’s Affiliation of Ramanathapuram, alleging “fixed harassment” of fishermen from the Indian coast who enterprise too near the island by the Sri Lankan navy.
Previous to the boycott, over 3,000 devotees from varied areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had already reached Rameswaram, from the place they might have launched into trawlers to the island barely 20 nautical miles away. Anthony Bakyaraj, a Bengaluru resident, stated that he was dismayed when the organisers cancelled the journey after buying all the mandatory documentation for the pilgrimage.
Issues weren’t at all times like this.
Final 12 months, 2,195 devotees departed for Katchtheevu on 59 mechanised vessels and 11 nation boats with a view to partake within the ceremony. The pageant flag was raised subsequent to the arrival of 2800 Sri Lankan devotees. All through the evening, devotees from the 2 nations mingled, speaking about fishing and relished renewing their ties, Bakyaraj stated.
Excluding the years of the coronavirus pandemic, the Catholic church buildings of Jaffna and Tamil Nadu have collectively hosted the annual pageant on the shrine in Katchatheevu since 2012.
The shrine reopened to devotees from each nations a bit over a decade in the past following a prolonged interval of 27 years that was marked by violent ethnic conflicts between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. At the moment, clergymen hailing from each India and Sri Lanka officiated the ceremonial automotive processions and carried out the holy mass for the pageant.
A brief historical past of the island…
In keeping with Sri Lankan historians, Kachchativu Island has been underneath the management of Sri Lanka for the reason that time of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. In colonial instances, the British additionally used the island as a follow vary for naval gunnery.
Throughout the mediaeval period, the island, together with Pamban Island, the place Rameswaram is situated in the present day, was managed by the Jaffna kingdom. From the seventeenth century onwards, the island was a constituent of the Ramnads, a zamindari property that was established within the Ramnad subdivision of Madurai district in present-day Tamil Nadu. It was dominated by the native Rajas who got the title Sethupathi.
Subsequently, underneath British rule, the island was included into the Madras Presidency. The battle relating to the island between the Sri Lankan and Indian colonial administrations emerged within the 12 months 1920.
The Ramnads’ declare of historic possession was contested by B. Horsburgh, a Scottish hydrographer working for the British East India Firm, who said that the Jaffna diocese was in control of Katchatheevu Island and the St. Anthony’s Church there.
Each events got here to a border settlement in 1921, which resulted within the inclusion of the island inside Sri Lanka’s territorial limits.
The Maritime Boundary Settlement signed in 1974 between India and Sri Lanka a part of a prolonged and substantial dialogue and helped set up clean diplomatic relations, stated Madurai-based historian D Devaraj Athisayaraj. It included a particular provision allowing Indian fishermen to partake within the feast of the church. Indian fishermen had been allowed to dry their nets on the island, and Indian pilgrims might go to the church of St. Anthony, the patron saint of seafarers, without having a passport.
Nevertheless, in 1982, the feast ceased after the island grew to become off-limits. Colombo imposed safety restrictions in its northern seas on account of the civil battle and ethnic battle between the Sinhala majority and the Tamils of Sri Lanka origin.
When Tamil militants began utilizing the island as a transit level between Tamil Nadu and the island nation following the ethnic conflicts in Jaffna Peninsula-, the Sri Lankan navy took full management of the area and Indian fishermen had been denied entry there.
Even the island’s church remained closed for many years — the fish employees in northern Sri Lanka too had been unable to enterprise past a kilometre from their shore as a result of restrictions imposed by their navy. Consequently, Katchatheevu remained an unattainable island even for them.
…And of the shrine and the pilgrimage
The church of St Anthony was constructed by an Indian Catholic Tamil chief who labored among the many fish employees Srinivasa Padaiyachi in 1905. The Bishop Justin Gnanapragasam of Jaffna is at the moment entrusted with the executive duties of this church.
In keeping with the Ramanathapuram district administration, the annual pageant at St. Joseph’s Church is organised by the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna. Indian pilgrims are invited to partake within the pageant by means of the principle Catholic church in Ramanathapuram city.
“The native parish priest serves because the pilgrimage’s coordinator and organiser,” an official stated, and added that the district administration and different businesses merely facilitate the ocean voyage and make sure the pilgrims’ security.
The annual pageant usually spans three days and happens in the course of the season of Lent; this 12 months, it befell from February 22 to 24.
Individuals aged 5 to 70 are welcome to attend the pageant. Previous to and subsequent to their arrival on the island, devotees are subjected to quite a few rounds of inspections and doc verifications.
The prayers within the 1905-built church are rendered in Tamil. En path to the church, stalls promote mementos manufactured from seashell, in addition to meals of cuisines from each nations.
The Sri Lanka Navy oversees electrical energy, safety, meals, infrastructure, and inner transportation for the devotees all through the length of the pageant. Moreover, medical groups and lifeguards are being deployed for the devotees’ comfort.
Annually, the event commences with the ‘Approach of the Cross’ procession and a ceremonial automotive procession, throughout which the statue of St. Antony is carried across the church. Each Indian and Sri Lankan clerics presided over the mass and in a ceremonial automotive procession.
Sometimes, prayers are provided for the welfare of people residing on each side, with a specific deal with fishermen within the perception that St. Antony bestows hope. The church authorities additionally recite petitions made by the pilgrims. Most petitions are from people wanting to journey overseas, to discover a companion and discover a secure technique of subsistence.