By M. M. Janapriya –JUNE 30, 2021
Dr. M.M. Janapriya
I am a lone ranger and not ‘a barons orderly’. Being a political sceptic sing no songs of praise for any political party. I understand that the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate is in the process of studying a resolution to recognize “a Traditional Tamil Homeland” in Sri Lanka and hope you would be kind enough to read my article giving it the attention it deserves before making any irrevocable decisions on the matter. It is sad that the Sri Lankan government and its diplomats seem to be in a state of ‘slumber of convenience’ on this very serious matter which may well decide the fate of a united Sri Lanka adversely. I am a Sri Lankan belonging to the ethnic group Singhalese (the category often referred to as aggressors by the Tamils), am proud to be that, consider myself to be the last man standing in support of the Sri Lankan cause and hence am writing this appeal to you. To me it appears as if we the helpless and hapless majority are getting discriminated against by the powerful countries who ironically though, vehemently denounce terrorism locally and globally. It is very concerning that the architects of the resolution very likely the powerful Tamil diaspora have conveniently ignored their own unpleasant past spanning decades from early 1970s when Tamil Terrorists with the blessings and backing of the Tamils domiciled in Sri Lanka and the diaspora itself indiscriminately stabbed, slashed and hacked to death innocent civilians including women children and Buddhist monks by storming border villages and waylaying buses carrying passengers. They also planted bombs in many parts of the capital city as well as in other parts of the country targeting civilians and killed thousands. Hence they have no moral justification whatsoever to talk about human rights violations. Need of the hour is not tit for tat or an eye for an eye or grind one’s axe on the ‘offender’ but forgive forget and move on towards a one nation country from where, together, we can build a free and fair society and a prosperous country. My essay would include a brief history of Sri Lanka in general, the history of the Tamil separatist mindset, birth and progress of the LTTE, southern insurrection of the early 1970s, defeat of the LTTE and the aftermath and occult unwillingness of the Tamils to join main stream politics. A summary with a short analysis would follow.
Succinct Sri Lankan History
Ours was a sovereign country ruled almost exclusively by Singhalese kings for around two thousand years. Tamils from South India specially the Cholas had been invading Sri Lanka from time to time for centuries and also ruling parts of the country off and on but never had an unchallenged kingdom as such. Four Singhalese kings re-established sovereignty of Sri Lanka and brought the country under one flag by chasing away the Tamils back to South India. In chronological order they are Dutugemunu (164 BC-140BC), Vijayabahu I 1055-1100), Parakramabahu (I) the Great (1153-1186) and Parakramabahu IV (1410-1467). Parts of the country fell under the Portuguese in 1505 and pushing Tamils back to South India itself got pushed to the back burner. Then the country fell to the Dutch in 1640 and lastly to the British we fell in 1796. We were a dominion state for 442 years till we were given independence by the British in 1948.
Tamil Separatist Mindset
British rule of Ceylon spanned from 1796 to 1948. Legislative council of Ceylon (LC) established by the Colebrook-Cameron Commission was indeed the harbinger of a representative government in British Ceylon. It had 16 members of whom 10 were ex-officio British starting with the British Governor etc. and 6 were appointed unofficial members who had no voting rights at council meetings. The 6 unofficial members comprised of 3 Europeans, 1 Singhalese, 1 Tamil and 1 Muslim. Tamils representation remained on par with the Singhalese. The unofficial members got the right to initiate legislation that did not deal with finances in 1860. The number of members of the Legislative Council kept on increasing with multiple reforms, the last reform leading to a number of 49 but the balance of power always weighed heavily towards the British, the rulers.
The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible in effect, for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in Ceylon. In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils (migrant and immigrant workers employed in the Tea plantations established in the late 19th century), 65% Sinhalese, and ~3% Ceylon Moors. The British government had introduced a form of communal representation with a strong Tamil representation, out of proportion to the population of the Tamil community. The Sinhalese had been divided into up-country and low-country Sinhalese. The majority Sinhalese MPs worked hard to replace the DC by a cabinet model. They finally managed to get rid of it in 1947 when the Soulbury constitution came into being with independence granted in 1948.
Soulbury commission was appointed in 1944 by the British rulers to study how self-governance could be granted to the Ceylonese. The Tamil leadership had by then fallen into the hands of G. G. Ponnambalam who had rejected the “Ceylonese identity”. Ponnambalam opposed universal franchise, supported the caste system, and claimed that the protection of Tamil rights required the Tamils having an equal number of seats in parliament to that of the Sinhalese even though the population of Ceylon at that time comprised of 74% Singhalese, 18% Tamils, 7% Muslims and 1% other ethnicities. This “50-50” or “balanced representation” policy became the hall mark of Tamil politics of the time and in a hidden way ever since. This essentially meant each Tamil being entitled to 4 votes while a single Singhalese could cast only 1 vote. The Soulbury Commission rejected these submissions by Ponnambalam, and even noted their unacceptable communal character. Every Tamil political leader that followed sang from the same hymn sheet. Outwardly they appeared as if they were following mainstream politics but covertly they appeared to be the mouth piece of the emerging terrorist organization the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
How Tamils Justified this Mindset
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