Chelva – The Patriarch Of A Persecuted People

S.J.V. Chelvanayakam

By Karikalan S. Navaratnam –MAY 1, 2021

Karikalan S. Navaratnam

44th  Death Anniversary of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam was on 26th April 2021

Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam (Chelva) passed away on 26th April 1977. He was born in Ipoh, Malaya (now, Malaysia) on 31st March 1898. He was one of the founding fathers of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), which spearheaded the Tamils’ struggle against persecution and majoritarian oppression by successive pan-Sinhala governments in Ceylon (now, Sri Lanka ). ITAK’s prime political objective was to secure regional autonomy for the Tamil-speaking habitats of Northern-Eastern Provinces under a Federal structure of government. For this reason ITAK was also called ‘the Federal Party’ (FP), mainly by the media and the Southern politicians. Chelva was the father figure and the moral force of the campaign for freedom from Sinhala suzerainty.  Since he epitomised the core values of the Tamil crusade for freedom, equality and justice, Chelva was – and is still – adored by Eelam Tamils and the global Tamil fraternity as “Thanthai Chelva”.

1947-General Election

At the 1947 General Elections Chelva was elected as M.P. for Kankesanthurai (KKS) electorate from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) Party, led by  G.G. Ponnambalam  (GGP). GGP himself was elected M.P for Jaffna. That was the maiden General Election held under the Soulbury Constitution and the ACTC, with 7  M.Ps emerged as the main mouthpiece of ‘Ceylon’ Tamils while the Ceylon-Indian Congress (later, in 1950, rechristened as “Ceylon Workers Congress”) led by Mr. S. Thondaman, with 7 M.Ps, remained the sole representative voice of the hill-country Tamils  (“Malayaha” Tamils).

New Masters!

On 4th February 1948, Ceylon attained ‘independence’. It was only a changing of the guards – rather, the masters.  Sinhala Leaders, utilizing their racial numerical strength and exploiting the misplaced trust of Tamil leaders, assumed the role of new masters and became the sole arbiters of the affairs of the country. In the process, Tamils were relegated to live as second/third class citizens. The ‘blessed’ independence had unleashed evil forces of ultranationalist ethnocrats who were determined to brutalize the body politic of this country, maybe, till doomsday !.

Legislative assaults

Our first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, ostensibly called ‘the Father of the Nation’, had ulterior plans to politically eviscerate the ethnic Tamils. He started off auspiciously with deadly legislative assaults on Malayaha Tamils, rendering about one million Tamils stateless. Three pieces of legislation, Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act of 1949  and the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Amendment Act of 1949 effectively stripped the Malayaha Tamils  of their citizenship and franchise. As a direct consequence, their  seven M.Ps lost their seats overnight and, as a corollary, Sinhala representation in Parliament increased by 7 additional seats.

Advent of ITAK – Federal Party

When GGP, with his other M.Ps, struck a deal with D.S. Senanayake, accepted Ministries and supported these legislations in Parliament, two M.Ps –  S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and  C.Vanniasingham (Kopay M.P.) together with Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan  (then, a Senator) protested against this betrayal and  broke away from the ACTC. On 18 Dec. 1949, Chelva and his colleagues launched the ITAK (Federal Party) at the GCSU hall in Colombo.

At this inaugural meeting, Chelva enunciated the ITAK vision for a Federal State:

“This is then the solution that we ask for: a Federal constitution for Ceylon consisting of an autonomous Tamil speaking province and an autonomous Sinhalese province with a Central Government common to both. This is the minimum provision necessary to prevent the smaller Tamil-speaking nation from extinction, or of being absorbed by the larger nation…… A federal constitution is an ideal worthy of being achieved and works no injustice to anybody and certainly not to the Sinhalese people……We have no misgivings about the difficulty of the task ahead of us. The task must be done and can be done.”

Gal Oya colonization

Further, Chelva recounted the government’s various measures which politically debilitated the Tamils and posed an existential threat to them. He sounded an alarm on state-sponsored Sinhala colonization under Gal-Oya scheme as the thin end of the wedge. Tamils feared that Sinhala colonization would change the demographic structure of Tamil areas and render them minorities –an endangered species – in their own habitats. The Gal-Oya project had its savage spin-off:

Gal Oya massacre

1956 Gal Oya massacre was the first organized slaughter of Tamils in independent Ceylon. Sinhalese colonists and Gal Oya Development Board employees commandeered government vehicles, and weapons and went on a killing spree. The carnage continued for five days, from 11 June 1956, claiming the lives of over 150 Tamils. Gal-Oya killings followed on the heels of another attack on Tamils in Colombo on 5th June.

Chelva  defeated

At the 1952 General Election, the FP suffered severe defeat at the hands of the ACTC, which was a UNP surrogate in the North. The pro-government ‘Thinakaran’ Tamil daily from Lake House carried the lead story in banner headlines:

“Samashdikku  Saavumani” (‘Death knell  for Federalism’). Even Chelva himself lost his KKS seat to a UNP proxy S. Natesan, who was backed by ACTC. It was agrim spectre for the fledgeling Federal Party. Mercifully for the FP, even in the midst of dense darkness, there were two sparks that flashed across the Tamil political firmament – one in the North and the other in the East. In Kopay electorate (North), sitting M.P.  Vanniasingam won by a narrow margin of 210 votes and in Trincomalee (East), N.R. Rajavarothayam won by 586 votes. For Chelva and his colleagues the die was cast, and there was no turning back.

1956 Elections

At the 1956 General election, even as SLFP-MEP swept the polls in the South,  the FP emerged victorious in North-East Provinces. Henceforth, until 2020, either the FP or FP-led political configurations – be it the TULF or the TNA – remained the dominant voice of the Tamils. (BTW: Courtesy, Sampanthan-Sumanthiran-Senathirajah troika’s treacherous ‘Yahapalanaya’ cohabitation (2015-19), TNA lost its clout by 2020) . Tamil citizenry at large, cutting across partisan, regional or religious barriers, pledged their loyalty to Chelva and accepted him as their sole leader. It is to their credit, that they have resolutely remained as a secular nation. Chelva had been a practising Christian and it was never an inhibiting issue for his faithful flock – multitude of Hindus who constituted the majority of the Tamils.

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