ON THE TAMIL PROBLEM
Posted on August 22nd, 2014
Nalin de Silva
The days when it was claimed that there was an ethnic problem in Sri Lanka are over. It appears that India is of the opinion that the problem in Sri Lanka is linguistic and not ethnic. There were others who said that there was a conspiracy (kumanthranaya) by the West and it was the work of Uncle Sam. Though USA is in the forefront of the activities against Sri Lanka it is not that country that initiated the problem in Sri Lanka.
The conspiracy theorists, they are not theorists in any sense of the word as used in Western knowledge as these people are not capable of creating any new abstract theories on anything, have no explanation of a phenomenon, and just come out with the word conspiracy, without analyzing and offering some appropriate explanation.
These people should be called conspiracy dreamers but often they are considered to be the cream of intellectuals in Sri Lanka by vociferous politicians who have no future in politics involving people (people politics) but continue to be in media politics thanks to proliferation of electronic TV channels and FM radio.
Official Language Act
It is clear that India under the BJP is attempting to think fresh on the problem in Sri Lanka hitherto known as the ethnic problem. It is the duty of Sri Lankans who can think to help India to understand the problem.
In this regard I have made my humble contribution in the form of a booklet published with the title “Prabhakaran Ohuge Seeyala, Baappala ha Massinala” (Prabhakaran, his granduncles, uncles and cousins). It was translated into English as “An introduction to Tamil racism in Sri Lanka”, but is unfortunately out of print. The Sinhala original was first published in 1995, and it is in the fourth edition at present, though as usual was ignored by the so called intellectuals and the media of the country.
 S J V Chelvanayakam |
 SWRD Bandaranaike |
The general opinion among the “intellectuals”, opinion leaders, and most politicians especially of the TNA, and other Tamil racist parties and UNP is that the problem started with the Official Language Act or the Sinhala only Act. The Sri Lankan “intellectuals” and opinion leaders have been made to say so by the English intellectuals who are entrusted with maintaining the hegemony of the Judaic Christian culture and Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya, undermining the Sinhala Buddhist culture and the relevant Chinthanaya.
The Sri Lankan “intellectuals” who cannot think, and who have been discouraged to think by the Western education they receive at schools (the so called Buddhist schools are worse in this respect) and the universities, repeat what the Western masters and mistresses have taught them. SWRD Bandaranaike and the SLFP are blamed for the Sinhala Only policy together with of course the Bhikkus, and lay people (Upasaka Upasika) who are branded as extremists.
It is not difficult to argue why Sinhala should be the only official language of the country. In fact it is easily justified, especially in view of the facilities granted to the usage of Tamil in official activities, and it has to be emphasized that it is only in Sri Lanka that a postgraduate degree could be obtained in Tamil medium in many subjects. In fact research could be conducted in that language leading up to a Ph. D.
Foreign traders
There may be pundits both Sinhala and Tamil who would say that research leading to a Ph. D. or any other postgraduate degree should be conducted only in an “international” language such as English, but we ignore the opinions of those who cannot think and who have been trained to repeat empty utterances including the sentence “Shakespeare never repeats”. No wonder that there is nothing new in the postgraduate theses produced by these “intellectuals”.
It is not my intention to say that if Hindi that is spoken by less than fifty per cent of the Indians could be the official language of India (together with of course English until the government decides otherwise) then why not Sinhala, the language of about seventy five per cent of the population, and the language understood by about ninety per cent of the people of Sri Lanka, be the official language of Sri Lanka.
The concept of official language may not have been there in the ancient days but Sinhala had been the language of raja sabha and from thousands of inscriptions that can be found all over the island it can be easily concluded that the official announcements by the kings had been made in Sinhala.
The late Mr. Gamini Iriyagolla who has been unfortunately forgotten by modern day “patriotic” politicians had evidence to say that the pact between the Arya Chakravartins and the Portuguese in the seventeenth century was made in Portuguese and Sinhala and not in Tamil, indicating that Arya Chakravartins who paid obedience to the Sinhala kings at Gampola and Kotte considered Sinhala to be the official language.
There was a poor attempt by some Tamil racists to show that Tamil was also an official language of Sri Lanka based on the “trilingual” inscription found in Galle. The reason for this inscription to be in Chinese, Persian and Tamil is obvious.
The inscription was meant for foreign traders who came to Sri Lanka, especially on the silk route, and that is why it was written in the above three languages. If the trilingual inscription “proves” anything it is that the Tamil traders were foreign and occupied the same status as the Persian and Chinese traders. Nobody would claim that Persian and Chinese were also official languages of Sri Lanka at that time and Sinhala was not used for communication in the country based on the trilingual inscription.
Anybody who wants to understand the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka has to answer number of questions some of which are mentioned in Prabhakaran, ohuge Seeyala Baappala ha Massinala.
If the Tamil problem commenced with the Official Language Act in 1956, why did Chelvanayakam establish the Thamil Illnakai Arasu Kachchi (Lanka Tamil State Party) way back in 1948 to campaign for a separate state? Why did Naganathan in the debate on the vote of thanks to the “Throne Speech” in the first sessions of the first Parliament state that the Sinhala people have got their independence, now it is time for the Tamils to win their independence from the Sinhalas or words to that effect?
SWRD Bandaranaike was in the UNP then and an SLFP had not been in the dreams of anybody during that period. SLFP was established only in 1951, and adopted the Sinhala only policy only in 1952 prior to the Minneriya elections.
The so called students of the Tamil problem also have to answer why there were communal politics not only in the State Assembly as documented by many “researchers” but also in the Legislative Assembly established in the early nineteenth century. Why did Ponnambalam Ramanathan emphatically state that the Muslims were ethnically Tamil though he could not prove it convincingly?
Western governmental organizations
Why did the Muslims on the other hand state that they had come from Arab and settled down in Sri Lanka after getting married to Sinhala women? However, that hypothesis or story did not explain why the Muslims spoke Tamil. If the Muslims are descendants of Arab fathers and Sinhala mothers they should have spoken either Arabic or Sinhala and not Tamil?
Apart from those questions one has to answer why the English appointed only one Sinhala to the Legislative Assembly with one Tamil and one Burgher member completely disregarding the percentage of Sinhala people in the country, and their history. A good hypothesis or story should not only be consistent with “facts” which are also very often dependent on the story but answer as many as questions relevant to the problem.
The Sinhala Only Act story does not answer any of the above questions but the story that the English did not want to give the proper recognition to the Sinhala Buddhists their culture and their history would answer them and is consistent with the “facts”. It is the English who created the problem, and it is they who maintain the problem using the dispersed Tamils, the Western governmental organizations, the Tamil racist parties and of course the UNP their agent in Sri Lanka with assistance from USA.
August 22nd, 2014 at 4:06 pm
As I said before bloody Endians are at it again. Interfering in SL internal affairs.
We are totally AGAINST a UNITED SL. We want a UNITARY SL. Only Tamil aspirations? What bull is that? How about aspirations of non-Tamils?
” India today reiterated its stance that Sri Lankans need a political solution to the ethnic Tamil issue within the framework of a united Sri Lanka.
India stressed that a political solution to the ethnic issue need to substantially address the aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka when a six-member delegation of Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance, met with India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi Friday.
TNA delegation led by MP R. Sampanthan has made a detailed presentation to the Indian Minister on what they perceived as the current situation in Sri Lanka in terms of political environment and their engagement in the Sri Lankan government, India Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said at the media briefing today.
He said the meeting held between the TNA delegation and the Indian Minister was part of “our effort to engage with all, the government of Sri Lanka as well as all political parties of Sri Lanka with the ongoing efforts towards reconciliation.”
Akbaruddin said the Minister Swaraj stressed the “need for a political solution that addresses substantially the aspirations of the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka for equality, dignity, justice and self-respect within the framework of a united Sri Lanka.” ”
– colombopage
August 22nd, 2014 at 4:48 pm
I know one thing and want to warn….
In the event if President MR or defence Secretary GR were taken to international Courts, that will be the darkest day in Sri Lanka’s history darker than black July in 1983.
Tamil politicians those who are pushing for this with the aid of die-ass-pora and LieTTE left outs should organise to pack all the Tamils from Sri Lanka to TN before that day…
You’d better give your contract to people smuggling department of LieTTE to change the destination to TN.
You do not need a curfew with holiday for Police similar to what JRJ did… This is against the Rana wiruwo who gave their lives to the country against the barbarian LieTTE… They lost their lives by going to save Tamil civilians. But none of these so called innocent Tamil civilians are coming forward to defend our Army… How pathetic is this situation.
If TNA and NGO Dollar hungry teams pursue this UN initiated enquiry, and if our President is prosecuted…. I am waiting for that day so we will solve the Separatist Tamil problem for ever…
Perhaps, US wants this to happen.. Who knows!! Our President will not mind facing death penalty for the bogus claims made by Pillay Nona, if the problem is going to solve back home. They both are true patriots, wants Sri Lanka as one country, similar to what King Dutu Gamunu wished.
August 22nd, 2014 at 4:59 pm
“Our President will not mind facing death penalty for the bogus claims made by Pillay Nona, if the problem is going to solve back home. They both are true patriots, wants Sri Lanka as one country, similar to what King Dutu Gamunu wished.”
– I doubt so but I wish it could have been so. Our president is doing EVERYTHING out of that fake fear, which you also have, my friend Hiranthe. Such this can never happen if our bugger is honest to Sinhala Buddhist who empowered him. But it is not so now. Gradually he is reaching the RuinNil mentality, ruining out country. This is the main problem we are facing now, not THE TAMIL PROBLEM.
August 22nd, 2014 at 6:36 pm
Hirathe,
What king Mahendra doing is exactly what king Kavantissa was doing, that is getting away from Tamil Problem, as long as his regime could go on.
True, some one similar to king Dutugemunu existed before 2010, who was in the forefront of the war, not “in A/C Rooms ” as Gonseka said ( but he too was in a A/C room)” but this Dutugemunu went away after the war or died in the war.
Now we need a new one. So, what is happening is all the foxes have become Lions and talking big on trivial things.
Would Dutugemnumu have let the 13A continue together with the Dasa Maha Yodhayas such as Mervyns, Dumindas, Kudu Dimus , Ashrafs, Rajithas, Pierises, etc. ?
August 22nd, 2014 at 7:27 pm
Nanda,
Yes.. I agree on 13A… It should have made null and void just after Nandikadal victory.. As I heard, some of the so called war professors who were preaching that LieTTE cannot be defeated got closer to MR and they were advising him that 13A should not be removed to maintain relationship with Endia… I don’t know how far it is true.
If we walk into MR’s shoes… we might think differently about those ‘Dasa maha yodayos”. These Kudu politicians were created by MR and GR I heard to get into the drug mafia of LieTTE.
They got their ‘Pathala’ golayas to infiltrate into the Colombo drug mafia which was controlled by LieTTE. Then slowly they got rid of the LieTTE hands one by one and as a result, drug mafia has today controlled by Muslims and Sinhalese underworld mostly connected to those politicians. GR’s end plan would have been different. But now they cannot get rid of the ‘pathalaya’ without annoying these politicians… Probably they might be funding the party..
It is a mess actually.
August 23rd, 2014 at 12:19 am
We are totally AGAINST a UNITED SL. We want a UNITARY SL
Lorenzo you alway support unitary not united (against 13A) , now you do not want support unitry, why ?
My Thamil Sakkiliya brother Nampungal Naalai pirakkum Thamil Eelam (Jesus will back) ?
as I always say Sinhala modayas & Sakkiliya Thamilan never learn !!!
now We listen Indian , WE (include myself) para Sri Lankan thesikka puthas !!
August 23rd, 2014 at 9:53 am
We have talked enough and what what we lack is action.
Mahinda Rajapakse may be from the same pack. Even then, there are so many vultures around Mahinda Rajapakse as well inside the Parliament. First, Sinhala buddhists need to have a plan to get rid of these thieves, drug lords, criminals from the Parliament. Mahinda Rajapkse will not do that because that will strengthen the opposition. Then secondly, all these what these anti-Sinhala buddhists people asking – get rid of the executive presidency, make every religion the equal….- are what needed to be done in order to destroy sinhala buddhists in Sri Lanka. Many things have to be changed. that includes the name Sri Lanka. We may need we need to corporate with Hinduthwa parties in India.
WE need to keep a crtain balance between the relationships with India and China too.
August 23rd, 2014 at 12:33 pm
Mahinda Rajajapse is scared to his life. IF some one does for him, he will be quick to take the credit. Other wise, he will not do it.
there are so many in the parliament and they are criminal, thugs, con-artists and kudu-mudalalis- see how Kudu DIMU talk – Mahinda Rajapske will not remove them on his own. People have to get rid of them and then ask Mahinda Rajapakse to get some important people in the parliament. that should be the first step.
One other thing, Unpatriotic national Party, in it’s present composition is there to destroy Sri Lanka. UPFA is not very different. See how, HAkeen brought legislation to legalize marriage for Seven year olds.
Some. Sinhala buddhists are talking. but, most others are Dead -beats.
August 23rd, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Endia-Pakistan war kills 4 people. Hope they will go for full scale war. Then Endia will not have the time and resources to interfere in SL.
“SRINAGAR, India—India and Pakistan traded gunfire in the disputed Kashmir region early Saturday, killing two villagers on each side and wounding several others, officials said.
Dharmendra Pareek, a top official of India’s paramilitary force, said Indian forces retaliated after Pakistani forces fired guns and mortar rounds on more than a dozen Indian border posts and at least three villages in Ranbir Singh Pura region.
One Indian border guard and three civilians also were wounded, but their injuries weren’t life threatening, he said.
Television images showed Indian villagers taking shelter in bunkers. The area is nearly 300 kilometers (185 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in the Indian portion of Kashmir.
In Pakistan, a senior army officer said two villagers were killed Saturday when the Indian border security force “resorted to unprovoked firing” along the border near the city of Sialkot in the Pakistani portion of Kashmir.”
-wsj.com
August 23rd, 2014 at 2:02 pm
MR is only marginally better than Run-nil now. Both compete to give whatever they can to Tamilians.
August 24th, 2014 at 8:00 am
Persian Chinese and tamil are foreign languages to sri lanka. they are in the same cate.gory.. thanks nalin
August 25th, 2014 at 2:28 am
If Pakistani fishermen want to fish in India’s territorial waters, would Dr. Subramaniam Swamy support it? I would say not, because each country … especially those who have undermined each other for decades … should keep on their own side of the maritime boundaries … if only to prevent claims of “historical fishing rights” being created in the minds of devious people.
Given that there are no more devious people than the political leaders of Tamil Madu who pen poems to late unlamented SunGod, draw maps incorporating parts of Sri Lanka into a Greater Tamil Madu, and even recently called on the UN and the West to CREATE AN EELAM for Tamils in Sri Lanka, it would be a very foolish thing for Dr. Subramaniam Swamy to ask Sri Lanka to allow fishing by Indians (aka Indian Tamils) to fish in Sri Lankan waters for EVEN ONE DAY.
NO THANK YOU, dear Dr. Swamy … we Sri Lankans recognize the THIN END OF THE WEDGE when we see it!
Indian fishermen should fish in their own waters which they have denuded of fish by overfishing, and let us poor Sri Lankans fish in our own waters in which we have wisely conserved our fish.
On the other hand, we would be willing to SELL OUR FISH to any and all Indians, Indian Tamils included, even as we BUY Bajaj 3-wheelers from India!
………………………….
Sri Lanka rejects proposal to permit Indian fishermen to fish in island waters
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Aug 24, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has rejected a proposal put forward by an Indian political leader to provide a temporary license for Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters for 3 years.
Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne turned down the proposal made by the Senior Leader of the Bharatha Janatha Party Dr. Subramanian Swamy at the Defense Seminar held last week in Colombo.
“There is no possibility of agreeing to such a request. Nobody can take an arbitrary decision on this,” Sunday Times quoted the Minister as saying
The BJP leader addressing the fishermen’s issue at the Defense Seminar has said that fish resources have been depleted in the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar and good export value fish and shrimp are on the Sri Lankan side.
He has reportedly suggested granting permission for Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters on certain days of the week until India can restore the fish stock in the Indian side, which according to Dr. Swamy may take three years.
The suggestion has brought strong opposition from fishermen’s associations in Sri Lanka’s north.
President of the Mannar Fisheries Federation (MFF) Justin Zoysa had complained that Tamil Nadu fishermen are using illegal fishing methods and destroying their livelihoods and asked the Fisheries Minister to take action against the poaching by the Indian fishermen.
Meanwhile, officials from the governments of Sri Lanka, India and Indian state of Tamil Nadu are to meet in New Delhi on August 29 to hold a round of official level talks to find a solution to the nagging fishermen’s issue.
The two countries held ministerial level talks on the issue in January of this year. Fishermen level talks followed the ministerial level talks and representatives of the fishermen’s associations in Sri Lanka and India met on two occasions – first on January 20 in Chennai and later on May 12 in Colombo – to iron out a solution among themselves to share the resources in the seas between the two countries. However, the second round of discussions ended without reaching any agreements.
Meanwhile, Rameswaram fishermen, who have been on an indefinite strike to secure their boats seized by Sri Lanka, following appeals from officials dropped their plan to lay siege to a bridge on Saturday on the premise that the talks scheduled on Friday (August 29) will be positive.
Sri Lanka recently released all 94 Indian fishermen detained for poaching but did not release their 62 boats.