International Journal of English

and Literature (IJEL)

ISSN(P): 2249-6912; ISSN(E): 2249-8028
Vol. 4, Issue 6, De c 2014, 73-78
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

ARABUTTAMIL/ARWI: THE IDENTITY OF THE TAMIL MUSLIMS

YUN US H AHAMED MOHAMED S HERIF
Research Scholar, Depart ment of Cu ltural Studies, the English and Foreign Languages University,
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT
It is claimed that the India Office Library, London has around 60 Arabuttamil/Arwi books in its possession.
In India and Sri Lan ka alone, around 2,000 books written in Arabuttamil/Arwi have been identified and it is still believed
that many more books are yet to be discovered. Arabuttamil/Arwi was a unique language which is a mixture of both Arabic
and Tamil languages, written in the Arabic script and following the Tamil grammat ical pattern and was used by the Tamil
Muslims for a long time. Th is article will focus on issu e like, the relationship between Tamil language, Muslims and
Arabuttamil/Arwi, the role p layed by Arabuttamil/Arwi among the Tamil Muslims and the reasons for its decline during
the first half of the twentieth century. The Muslim Tamils who used Arabuttamil as their identity transformed into Tamil
Muslims with Tamil as their identity in order to cope with the polit ical and social changes that were taking place during
that time. This paper will try to analyse this transformat ion of the Tamil Muslim identity with particular focus on the
Arabuttamil/Arwi.

KEYWORDS: Sociolinguistics, Identity, Arabuttami/Arwi, Endangered Language

INTRODUCTION
The role of language in maintain ing the identity of a society is immense. Part icularly in the context of India,
where around 22 official languages are there, it wou ld be a mistake if we ignore the importance of a language in
maintaining the identity of a society or a community. But language used by any society doesnt stay with them for infinity,
there will be mo ments when a community has to sacrifice their language in order to survive or for some other benefits like
emp loyment, political force, etc. This sacrifice can both be conscious as well as unconscious, for instance, in India, after
independence it has been decided that English will be the official language for 10 years, and after that it will be
reconsidered. But till today English continues to dominate the linguistic scenario of the country and many Indian s learn
English at the cost of their mother tongue. Because of this reason many people who are concerned about the loss of their
mother tongue, are trying various measure to make the young learners learn their mother tongue. But despite their best
efforts, language still disappear fro m being used. The present paper will elaborate one such scenario where a variety of a
language used by the Tamil Muslims slowly loses its hold and was replaced by another language.
Arabuttamil/Arwi
Tamil Muslims constitute 5.6% of the total population of the present day Tamil Nadu. Apart fro m Tamil Nadu,
Tamil Muslims can be found in other parts of the world like Sri Lan ka, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Next to Tamil Nadu, Sri
Lanka has the largest concentration of Tamil Muslims. Though they form a small minority in the state of Tamil Nadu, they
have a history as old as Islam itself. One of the oldest mosques in the world is situated in Kilakkarai, Tamil Nadu which is

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Yunush Ahamed Mohame d She rif

claimed to have been constructed in the 7th century (628 630 A.D.) 1 . This is one of the evidences to prove that Islam had
reached the shores of Tamil Nadu during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammed. Well before the advent of Islam, Tamil Nadu
had trade contacts with many countries in the world and Arabia is one among them. So, when Prophet Mohammed started
advocating Islam, the Tamil people also might have been influenced by it and converted into Islam. We can find in the
Tamil literature references to prove the presence of Muslims in Tamil Nadu as early as the 12th century2 . Even before that,
during the Sangam age (1000 BCE 300 CE), Purananuru, a collection of poems that belongs to the Sangam literature,
points out about the trade contacts between the Arabs and the Tamil people.
When Mohammed started spreading Islam among the people of the world he did his propaganda in the Arabic
language. Among the Muslims it is mandatory for them to learn Arabic. They consider Arabic language as sacred, and it is
a necessity for every Muslim to learn it because of three reasons: The Quran is in A rabic language, the Prophet Mohammed
spoke in Arabic language and the language of the Heaven will be in Arabic. So, wherever Islam spread the Arabic
language also accompanied and similarly it reached Tamil Nadu too. The Tamil Muslims started learning Arabic in order
to perform their Islamic duties.
But the Tamil culture or the Dravidian culture which the Tamil Muslims belonged before their conversion was
very ancient and powerful with its own literature and language. Therefore the Tamil Muslims were not able to leave their
Tamil culture behind and adopt Islam co mpletely. As an outcome of this situation a unique culture of the Tamil Muslims
evolved through the intertwining of Tamil and Islamic culture. One of the oldest mosques in India as mentioned above,
The Old Ju mma Masjid of Kilakkarai, is constructed using the style of Dravidian arch itecture. Similarly we can observe a
seamless integration of Dravidian and Islamic culture among the Tamil Muslims. During the 9th to 11th century period a
large scale ethnic cleansing took place in the southern part of India in order to eradicate Buddhism. During this turmoil
many of the Buddhists converted into Islam in order to escape the cruelty perpetrated upon them. Many of the words that
the Tamil Muslims use today, such as palli (Mosque), nonbu (fasting), thozhuga i (prayer) and perunaal (festival) are
influenced by Buddhists traditions (Anwar, 2006). But there were no recorded violence or conflict between the Tamil
Muslims and other Dravidians even after this incident and until the late 20th century. This is a remarkable feature
considering the fact that the Tamil Muslims were almost always ruled by Dravidian Kings.

Figure 1
1
2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_the_oldest_mosques_in_the_world
Kambaramayanam, 112

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Arabuttamil/Arwi: the Identity of the Tamil Muslims

Apart from these remarkable features, there is another point that highlights the assimilation between Dravidian
and Islamic culture, which is also the focus of this paper. It is Arabuttami, a linguistic variety used by the Tamil Muslims.
As the term Arabuttamil indicates, it is a mixture of Arabic and Tamil. But it is not just Tamil written in the Arabic script.
Along with the 28 alphabets of Arabic, 13 new letters added and used as Arabuttamil. Though it used the Arabic script, it
followed the Tamil grammatical pattern. It is interesting to analyse the origin of this variety. When the two community
similar in religion but different in language came together, the necessity for a link language arose. Arabuttamil was the
outcome of this necessity. There was another reason which might have given rise to Arabuttamil. The Tamil language
doesnt have all the sounds that are there in the Arabic language. Therefore wh ile exp lain ing the basic tenets of Islam to the
Tamil Muslim in the Tamil Language, it might have been difficult to render it into Tamil language and moreover the
concept of translating the Quran was not accepted by the Muslims until recent ly. Therefore they had to use Arabic words as
it is and Arabuttamil facilitated this.
Though it is very difficult to pin-point the period when Arabuttamil came into use, Tayka Shuayb Alim claims
that it was being used by the Tamil Muslim as early as the 9 th century onwards. Apart fro m Arabuttamil, this variety was
also identified as Lisanul Arwi (the language of Arwi) or just Arwi (A lim, 1993). But it is very difficu lt to trace the origin
of the word Arwi. Robert Caldwell claims that the Tamil language is called Aravam by the Mussulmans of the Dekhan,
the Telugus, and the Canarese and the Tamil people were called Aravas (Caldwell, 1875). Another instant where the
term Arwi was used is in the Modi documents written by the Maratta rulers of Thanjavur (Subraman ian, 1989). In one of
the documents, there is a reference to a book which is in the Arawi bhashai (Arawi language) and the editor points out
that Arawi refers to the Tamil Language. Therefore we can say that either Tamil language was also known as Arwi or
the Arabuttamil variety was identified as another way of writing Tamil.
The Tamil Muslims produced many works using this variety of language. Both prose and poetry was written and
apart fro m religious subjects, secular subjects like med icine, sports, astronomy, dictionary, arch itecture, history, etc. were
written using this variety. Despite being so widely used by the Tamil Muslims, it is very difficult to find Arabuttamil/Arwi
works today. Tayka Shuayb Alim points out that the Portuguese colonisers might have been the reason behind this; they
were antagonistic towards the Muslims and might have destroyed everything related to the Muslims during the 16th century
(87). But during the 18th century it started flourishing again and many people started using it again.
Many of the Arabuttamil/Arwi works that survive today are works that were written during the 18 th and 19th centuries.
The earliest Quran translations were not done in the Tamil script; inste ad they were translated into
Arabuttamil/Arwi. In the year 1876, Habib Mohamed Alim Saheb translated the Quran in to Arabuttamil/Arwi.
This is considered to be the first ever attempt to translate Quran in the Madras presidency. In the years 1896 and 1922 two
more t ranslations into Arabuttamil/Arwi were published. It must be noted here that all these translations were not a
complete t ranslation of Qu ran and attempts to translate Quran into the Tamil script were also undergoing. In the year 1910,
parts of the Quran were translated into the Tamil script not directly fro m the Arabic source, but through English.
In the year 1931 Dawood Shah, who was considered to be the father of Tamil Muslim reformat ion (Anwar, 2011) , also
published his translation of the Quran in the Tamil script fro m English sources. Though he published three volumes of it, it
was not a complete translation of the Quran. Only in the year 1929, the first complete translation of the Quran in the Tamil
script was done by A.K Abdul Hameed Saheb Baqawi.
During the early 19th century, things began to change not only for the Tamil Muslims, but also for other
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Yunush Ahamed Mohame d She rif

communit ies. The colonial practice of categorizing people into groups began to impact the Tamil Muslims.
The colonizers used the practice of taking census in order to identify and categorize people into groups so that it will make
their administration of the natives convenient. While doing so, the colonialists considered the north Indian or the Urdu
speaking Muslims as real or pure Muslims and the Muslims of Tamil Nadu were considered as low converts
(Bay ly, 1992 and McPherson, 2010). Th is attitude by the colonisers might have created some unrest amon g the Tamil
Muslims and they were forced to join a category defined by the colonialists.
During the same period, around 1835, print was liberalised and the native people were allowed to use printing
technology. This gave way to an unprecedented rise of printed works and this increased use of printing technology
necessitated the standardization of the languages. The current style of writ ing Tamil language was standardised and any
other way of writing Tamil language was discouraged. Among all these changes, the Tamil Muslims with their hybrid
identity and hybrid language, might have felt the necessity to fit into any of the categories defined by the colonisers.
This might have been the reason for some of the Tamil Muslims to adopt Urdu and become Urdu Muslims during the early
20th century (McPherson, 2010). But it was not a major event and very less number of Tamil Muslims adopted Urdu.
In the early 20th century, when the Dravidian Movement gained mo mentum, the Tamil Muslims were influenced
by it. One of the major reasons for the influence was the ideas advocated by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy. He considered the
Tamil Muslims too as Dravidians and suggested that Islam is the only anti-dote for caste discrimination and therefore the
lower castes and untouchables should convert to Islam in order to escape discrimination based on caste .
This propaganda by Periyar motivated the Tamil Muslims and they started identifying themselves more with the Dravidian
Movement and as an outcome they moved towards Tamil language so that they may become part of the Dravidian identity.
These were some of the changes that took place during the colonial period that changed the identity of the Tamil
Muslims. They transformed fro m a community of Muslims to Tamil Muslims with a hybrid identity of Tamil as well as
Muslim. And in this transformation they had to lose one of their identity markers, the Arabuttamil/Arwi, in order to fit
into the categorizat ions of the colonial ad min istration. Other modern developments like the introduction of print
technology, standardizat ion of languages, etc. also contributed to the decline of Arabuttamil/Ariw and eventually it lost its
importance among the Tamil Muslims.
In the 21st century, there is a reviving interest among the Tamil Muslims on Arabuttami/Arwi. It is used in the
basic books which are meant to teach Arabic for the beginners. Though it is not identified as Arabuttamil/Arwi, but it is
known as Arabic. University of Naleemiah situated in Sri Lanka, is in the process of collecting and categorizing works
written in Arabuttamil/Arwi. Despite some minor efforts like this, Arabuttamil/Arwi still remains a less known variety
among the Tamil Muslims.

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper I have tried to trace the transformation of the Tamil Muslim identity fro m Muslims in the Tamil
country with Arabuttamil/Arwi as their identity, to Tamil Muslims with the Tamil language as their identity.
This transformation in their identity has helped them to adapt to the rapid changes that took place during the late colonial
period. John Ed wards in his book Language, Society and Identity, points out since identity essentially rests upon the
continuation of boundaries which, in turn, depends upon a maintained sense of groupness, the erosion of an original
language does not inevitably mean the erosion of identity itself. Similarly the loss of Arabuttamil/Arwi didnt mean the

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.0867

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Arabuttamil/Arwi: the Identity of the Tamil Muslims

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loss of Tamil Muslims Identity. John Edwards, while quoting Heinz Kloss, provides three ways in which a language death
might take place, 1) when its speakers die out, 2) when its community of speakers gradually shift to another language and
3) when a language is downgraded to that of a dialect and ceases to be used in its written for m. In the case of the Tamil
Muslims, the second situation took place. Because of the social and political necessity, the Tamil Muslims slowly shifted
fro m Arabuttami/Arwi to the Tamil language.

REFERENCES
1.

Alim, T. S. (1993). Arabic, Arwi and Persian in Sarandib and Tamil Nadu. Co lo mbo: The M inistry of State for
Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs.

2.

Anwar, S. (2011). Tamil Muslims and the Dravidian Movement: Alliance and Contraditions. In V. K. Jairath,
Frontiers of Embedded Muslim Co mmun ities in India (pp. 199 - 219). New Delh i: Routledge.

3.

Bayly, S. (1992). Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society 1700 - 1900.
Cambridge: Camb ridge University Press.

4.

Caldwell, R. (1875). A Co mparat ive Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family o f Languages. London:
Trubner & Co.

5.

Edwards, J. (1985). Language, Society and Identity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

6.

Hardgrave, R. J. (1965). The Dravidian Movement. Bo mbay: Popular Prakashan.

7.

McPherson, K. (2010). 'How Best Do We Surv ive?': A Modern Political History of the Tamil Muslims. New
Delh i: Routledge.

8.

Tschacher, T. (2001). Islam in Tamil Nadu: Varia. Halle.

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