Tamil National question; does it exist?

Tamils in Sri Lanka have equal rights and dominate certain trades in Colombo and also run mega businesses (Picture AFP)

The talk about ‘full implementation of 13th A’ is in the air. Various articles appear arguing that 13th A should be fully implemented with land and police powers to meet the ‘aspirations’ of Tamils who have been under the ‘rule’ of the majority community after the British.

Some ‘plead’ for a ‘plural and egalitarian’ nation. They try to depict Tamils as an ‘oppressed’ and a ‘suppressed’ community, discriminated against by the Sinhalese majority, to justify a ‘separate/federal state’ in the North. 

The natural question is, if a federal state is given to North to fulfill the aspirations of the Tamils, what about the Tamils, (more than 50% of population) living in the South? Does it mean that those who fight for Tamil rights are not concerned about them or, they are fully satisfied that ‘aspirations’ of Southern Tamils have been already met?

Sri Lanka is a unitary country and the ‘Motherland’ of all ethnic groups.  If we think as ‘Sri Lankans’ why a separate state in North only for Tamils? The LTTE, backed by separatist Tamil politicians, resorted to  ‘ethnic cleansing’ and massacred/threatened/chased away a large number of Sinhalese and Muslim families who lived in North. At present Jaffna is predominantly Tamil. If the Tamils can live anywhere in the island and if Sinhalese and Muslims are not allowed in the North, isn’t it hilarious to hear that Tamils are under the rule of Sinhalese majority?

Is there any person in this country, belonging to any ethnic group, who doesn’t enjoy equal rights as others? Where in our legislature or in our constitution are people treated differently based on ethnicity? If constitutionally and legally the Tamils in Sri Lanka have equal rights, if the government jobs held by Tamils are way above their population ratio, and if the Tamils could dominate the trade in Colombo and run mega businesses, how can one plead for an ‘egalitarian’ nation implying that Tamils are denied of their equal rights?

Sri Lanka’s history is rich. We are the only nation to have built scientific irrigation systems and giant reservoirs. Our cultural heritage continues to be a tourist attraction. Only those who are proud of their nation will bravely come forward to defend it. 

Throughout our history, there had been many invasions. Forces of Pandya, Chola, Kerala, Rashtrakuta, Pallawa, Jawaka, Kalinga, Vijayanagar, lead by Sena Guttika, Elara, Sath Dravida, Karikala, Chola, Kalabra, Shad Dravida, Kuloththunga, Kalinga Magha etc. invaded the country. From 1505 onwards it were the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British and in all those invasions the Sinhalese were the ones who came forward to defend the nation. They have sacrificed their lives in large numbers throughout the years to preserve the ‘unitary nature’ of the country.

The latest attempt to separate the country by LTTE was thwarted by the armed forces in which, 29,000 soldiers were killed and14,000 wounded. That was how the country’s ‘unitary aspect’ was protected whenever it was challenged by both external and internal forces. Anyone who knows this history will never allow the country to be separated by any means; let alone giving it on a platter.

For more than 2000 years the rulers of our country followed the Buddhist Precepts of Dasa Raja Dharma. In pre-colonial times there were no ethnic tensions/clashes.

The Colonial rulers resorted to ‘divide and rule’ policy that divided people who were previously living in harmony together. They discriminated against the majority who were defending the nation and showered perks and privileges on the minorities loyal to them. The number of Tamil, English and Christian missionary schools in Jaffna were very much higher than that in other parts of the country. In some Sinhala areas there was not a single school. 

After the 1818 and 1848 freedom battles, the British took every action possible to ensure the Sinhalese would never again rise against them. On instructions of Robert Brownrigg the Governor, the British gangsters killed all Sinhalese men aged between18-35. In Sinhalese villages they destroyed all paddy fields, tanks, dairy farms, cut all fruit trees and poisoned all wells maintained for the purpose of drinking. That was how the Sinhalese suffered at the hands of the colonial rulers. 

The official language used in Sri Lanka before 1815 was Sinhalese and Buddhism was the state religion. The demand to make Sinhalese the official language after independence was solely to rectify the injustices done to the Sinhalese by the foreign invaders and nothing to do with denying Tamils because, Tamil was never the official language before 1815 or during the British rule. British handed over the governance to a handful of Sinhalese and Tamil elite who were English educated, but 99% of the populace didn’t know English. Even S.W.R.D Bandaranaike, they say, could not read or write in Sinhala and Tamil leaders too suffered the same plight. However later the Tamil language too was given official language status. 

The high caste Tamils were denying their own low caste the right to education, enter restaurants, or even kovils to worship. The caste discrimination in Jaffna was so acute that S.W.R.D Bandaranaike introduced the ‘Social Disability Act’ in April 1957, which criminalised discriminating Tamils by caste. Anyone trying to blame the Sinhalese for discriminating against Tamils on ‘Sinhala only’ issue, must first explain as to why the high caste Tamils vehemently opposed the Social Disability Act? The Tamil leaders even travelled all the way to UK to demand the UK government to annul it. 

Sir P. Ramanathan, a Tamil elite, pleaded with the Governor not to grant voting rights to low caste Tamils and demanded separate carriages to low castes when the train from Colombo to Jaffna was launched. 

The Tamil leaders have been vying for a separate state even before independence. They created an ethnic based political party called “All Ceylon Political Party” in 1944, implying that they didn’t want to live in harmony with other communities. In 1936, they demanded 50-50 representation in parliament, (for which Soulbury Commission responded as “mockery of democracy”) and Chelvanayagam formed ITAK in 1948 with the objective of forming a ‘separate Tamil state’.  In 1977 TULF asked the Tamils for a mandate to secede as a separate state of Tamil Elam and armed militancy began in early 70’s. A separate state was their dream even before we got our independence from the British.  Hence a grievance like “Tamils have no other option other than asking for a separate or a federal state because they don’t see themselves as equal citizens in this nation” is untrue. 

If ‘reconciliation’ is re-establishing friendship and harmony between communities, what has been the contribution of Tamil politicians and Tamil writers towards same so far?  Is it by portraying the Sinhalese Buddhists majority as selfish, dishonest, incorrigible group of people who don’t like to grant equal rights to minorities? Or is it by continuing to harp on ‘federalism’ to North to meet the so called ‘aspirations’ of the Tamils when more than 50% of them live in the south with Sinhalese? Or is it by maliciously preventing the building of a Buddha statute at the famous Nagadeepa Temple in Nainativu Island in the North?