Is there an Ethnic problem between the Sinhala and Tamil people in Sri Lanka?

L M Samarasinghe Vancouver, Canada

Over 65% of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka live among the Sinhalese in Colombo and elsewhere. In many of the Sinhala villages there was a traditional practice of persons from Jaffna establishing business places usually referred to as cigar boutiques. These boutiques sold cigars, betel, sweets, stationery items, and many other utility goods required by the people of those villages.

The boutique owners did not bring their families from Jaffna. They came alone or with one or two helpers from Jaffna. In due course they improved their business and sometimes bought up property in the Sinhala villages. At least the shop building they occupied became their personal property after sometime. The Sinhalese people in those respective villages always addressed the Jaffna boutique keepers as “Aiya”. There never were any bad feelings between the boutique keepers from Jaffna and the people of the Sinhala villages. The boutique keepers visited their families in Jaffna from time to time. The relationship between the two sides was very cordial.

The Public Works Department of the British Administration had organized a system of road overseers in the various parts of the country to oversee and maintain the Public roads. These overseers maintained motor cycles to do their running and inspect the sections of the roads entrusted to them for maintenance.

They were addressed by the people of the village areas as “Rider Aiya”. The relationship between them and the village people was very cordial. The overseers from Jaffna knew English and helped the Sinhala people in those village areas to read a Telegram or other documents in English that they receive. These P.W.D. overseers did not bring their families to the place of their work. They visited their families in Jaffna from time to time. When the Sinhala villagers became aware that the “rider aiya” was going home they brought parcels and packages by way of gifts containing kitul jaggery, kitul honey, cashews, bunches of plantains, nuts, fruits, vegetables and other items suitable for domestic use. There was a particular “rider aiya” stationed at Ambagamuwa on the Kandy-Nuwara Eliya road via Hatton who was very popular among the village people and each time he went home he had to hire a lorry to take home the parcels and packages gifted to him.

In the Kandyan areas many of the Tea and Rubber makers of the Estates and the clerks of those Estates were Jaffna Tamil people. The Sinhala people in the nearby villages treated these Estate officers with great respect.

Around 1833 American Missions came to Ceylon and were interested in setting up English schools and the British rulers directed them to set up the schools in Jaffna. The British rulers wanted the Jaffna people to have an English Education, so that they could provide the staff needed in Government Offices. This provided a lead to the Jaffna people to acquire the knowledge of English and work in government departments and services.

At that time some of the Sinhala people who could afford the cost sent their children to Jaffna schools to get an English education. It took over another 100 years before English Education became available to the children of the middle and lower income people in the North Central Province, North Western Province , Uva Province, Sabaragamuwa Province and most parts of the Central Province. That was the setting up of Central schools by the Government in 1945 and the provision of Free Education.

The Christian missions set up English schools in the important towns where the rich people were able to send their children to get an English education. Many of these children became Christian.

Colonel Henry Steele Olcott came to Ceylon in 1880 from America and made many efforts to help the Buddhist people to set up schools to teach English. He organized the Buddhist Theosophical society which started Buddhist Schools such as Ananada College, Nalanda College, Dharmaraja College and many others in some of the urban centers in the country. This provided an opportunity for the Sinhala Buddhist middle class people to provide an English education for their children. After receiving that education they were able to join Government Departments and professional services.

It has to be stated that politicians of the Jaffna Tamil people and also of the Sinhala people did carry out certain programs for the benefit of their political parties. These political party activities disturbed the peace that existed between the two sides.

One Tamil politician demanded 50% of the Parliamentary representation for the Tamil people although they represented only 13% of the total population. Lord Soulbury who headed the Commission that recommended Independence to the people of Ceylon had criticized and rejected the demand for 50% for the Tamils.

Another Tamil politician who formed the Federal Party demanded Federal Status for the area occupied by the Tamil people. There was no justification for the creation of a Federal State in the North or the East.

A leader of a political party on the Sinhala side cried “Sinhala Only” during an election campaign to win Sinhala votes. It was correct that the Sinhala people had suffered a great deal. But shouting from roof tops did not help. What was needed was to make Administrative adjustments to make the Sinhala officers to acquire proficiency in Tamil and Tamil officers to acquire proficiency in Sinhala.

If such a policy was activated there would not have been any bad feelings between the two sides. These mistakes on the part of the politicians of both sides created a division among the Sinhala and Tamil people.

What happened during the Black July of 1983 was the work of five goonda groups loyal to certain leaders of the ruling political party at that time. Much damage was done to hurt the Tamil people in Colombo and some other urban centers.

In some areas the Sinhala people came up to provide security to the Tamil shops and prevented any damage being caused to them.

During the last three decades a most dangerous type of terrorist dictator has caused tremendous harm to the Sinhala and Tamil people of the country. He has killed the President of Sri Lanka and the Prime Minister of India and many other leaders in addition to over 70 000 people who were brutally killed. In 1975 the Mayor of Jaffna was killed by him in broad day light in a Hindu Temple and no action was taken to punish the killer. There is an order of the Supreme Court of India to punish him for organizing the murder of the Prime Minister of India. But no action has been taken to enforce that order. This terrible terrorist has been a killing machine and he regularly destroys harmless and innocent people. Sri Lankan Government had failed to take necessary action at the early stages to bring him before the law or destroy him completely.

Some politicians including the last President of Sri Lanka refer to this problem as an Ethnic problem. This is most unfortunate. The terrorist dictator benefits from this erroneous description of the politicians. He claims to fight on behalf of his people.

Historically there never was an ethnic clash between the Tamil and the Sinhalese people.

Jaffna area was occupied by Sinhala people at an early period. After the shift of the seat of Administration from Polonnaruwa the Sinhala people in the North became isolated and had less contact with the people in the central and Southern areas. The agricultural activities in the area to the North of the central region were neglected due to the damage caused to the irrigation system.

A paper written by Horseborough, a British Civil Servant in 1916 on the place names in Jaffna has shown that all the village names in Jaffna are Sinhala names now pronounced as Tamil names.

People came from India from time to time and mixed up with the Sinhala people in Jaffna whose contact with the people in the South was reducing constantly and in due course they became Tamil. The Buddhist Temples in Jaffna were neglected and damaged. A large Buddha statue that was in one of the Temple sites in Jaffna was gifted by the British Governor to the King of Thailand around 1924 and this statue could be seen in a temple in Bangkok.

The people of the Eastern Province area were all Sinhalese and after the Kandyan Rebellion in 1818 they received bad treatment from the British rulers and the Sinhala people started using Tamil names to escape from the harassment of the British officials.

In the 1924 Census Report the Kaehcheri Mudliyar of the Batticcaloa Kaehcheri has stated that the Sinhalese in that region are getting Tamilised.

Around 1950 a village Headman of the Egoda Pattuwa area in Tamankaduwa (Polonnaruwa) named Coomaraswamy stated that he was a Kandyan Sinhalese.

“Thesavalamai”, the traditional law applicable to the people of Jaffna does not extend to the people of Mannar or the Eastern Province. This clearly shows that the traditional home of the Tamil people was confined to Jaffna and did not extend to the Eastern Province or even to Mannar.

All persons who speak the Tamil language are not Tamils. The Muslim people in most parts of the country speak Tamil. Certain Sinhala people living in Nanjunnankara area to the South of Negombo speak Tamil as their mother tongue. Language therefore is not a correct guide to identify Tamil people. Applicability of the Thesavalamai law is therefore the best guide to identify the traditional Tamil areas.

There are some Sinhala persons who are married to Tamil ladies and there are some Tamil persons married to Sinhala ladies. In the Vavuniya South Sinhala Division which is identified as the Vavuniya South Divisional Secretary’s Division inter marriage between Sinhala and Tamil families take place quite frequently.

It is therefore incorrect to presume that there is an ethnic problem between the Sinhala and Tamil people. What is worrying the people of both sides is the Terrorist problem created and engineered by the Terrorist dictator Prabakaran who needs to be punished.

THESAWALAMAI is the civil law that applies to the people of Jaffna origin. It is comparable to the Kandyan law applicable to the Kandyan Sinhala people and the Muslim law applicable to the Muslim people.