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Ravana's land and Tamil Nadu politicians: a brief historyC. Wijeyawickrema"We are helping Tamilnadu to achieve
self-rule" "There is no state without a Tamil,
but there is no state for the Tamils." "If the Tamils' cry for separatism
is given up, the two communities could solve their problems and continue
to live in amity and dignity"
Paradigm shifts While in Sri Lanka politicians talked about paradigm shifts from an Eelam to an "F" model, in Tamil Nadu the separatist paradigm had been in existence since 1917 never changed. In fact, it was even temporarily transferred to Sri Lanka as DMK when it faced a mild ban in India under the 16th Indian Constitutional Amendment in 1963 which outlawed politicians or political parties promoting it. Nehru suddenly got the wake up call by the sudden electoral gains by DMK in 1962. Nehru gathered political courage to fight against the Tamil separatist agenda with the nationalism surge after the Chinese captured Indian border regions in 1962. But after 1963, the "independence movement" changed from anti-India to an anti-Hindi campaign. There was also no shift in the thinking pattern of the small Tamil
separatist cell in Sri Lanka operating from Colombo since the separatist
fever reached Ceylon in 1918 from Tamil Nadu. With the governor Manning
actively behind it during 1921-24, this became an official fever via
a concept of "balanced representation" supported by both Tamil
and Sinhala Colombo politicians (ref. Communalism and language in the
politics In a way the 1956 Sinhala Only (with Reasonable use of Tamil Language Act of 1958) Act was a reaction to Tamil separatist politics by the Colombo-living Tamil politicians who copied unfairly the separatist agitation in Tamil Nad. While in Tamil Nadu it was anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindi in Ceylon it was dominated by Tamil Christians. Thus in July 1947, SJV Chelvanayagam proposed merger of Tamil Nad and Tamil state in Ceylon. In November 1947, Chelvanayagam's speech at Trincomalee promised "to snatch Trincomalee from the Sinhala enemies and deliver it to Nehru for India's security if Nehru so asked." The famous Malyalee Indian diplomat K. M. Panikkar once said Trincomalee is India's jewel. A prison called homeland After the Vaddukoddai resolution in 1976 separatism took the form of a traditional Tamil homeland in the Eastern Province. This is why despite all the good behavior of Mr. Anandasangaree, lately, unless he gives up the Tamil homeland idea he would continue to remain as a prisoner of Tamil separatism which is buried but not dead. Any "F" formula mixed with a homeland idea is fuel and fire. Thus when he warns India of the dire consequences to India itself if Eelam terrorists are not removed from India, he does not realize that the idea of a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka is equally deadly to India as well as to Sri Lanka. He is obviously concerned with what Balakumaran said above, but he has no control over what the world confederation of Tamils say. Mr. A and the other "moderate" Tamils are still ignoring the golden advice given by the Burgher Chief Justice in 1980 which Col. Karuna interpreted in 2007 as-"give us what Colombo gets." Karuna was only repeating what the Youth Commission Report said in March 1990-kolambata kiri apita kakiri (Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1990, p. xvii). The sooner the "moderate" Tamils look at the economic plight of the village Tamil (as well as the village Sinhala and Muslim), the easier for them to come out of the prison of a separate Tamil homeland. On the other hand, under a language-blind devolution system, each Tamil household, each Tamil village and even the Northern Province itself could become a Tamil cultural-aspirations center with ties to the real Tamil homeland in Tamil Nadu. The ties are not just matrimonial. Tamils in Jaffna used to go by boat to Tamil Nadu coast to see newly released Tamil movies in the afternoon and return home early hours of next day! Ravana versus Ramayana The two separatist rivers in Ceylon and Tamil Nadu ran parallel mingling with each other until 1963 when an amendment to the Indian constitution made it a criminal act to talk about separatism by politicians (not by others such as writers). Then the poison water was transferred to Lanka and after 1978 (beginning of JRJ-IndiraG family feud) it was the Lanka river that rejuvenated the Tamilnadu river. In the late 1950s the poison water in Tamilnadu was sprayed on the walls with a Dravida Kazagham proverb, "When you meet a Brahmin and a snake, kill the Brahmin first." For the Lankan river and the Tamilnadu masses the Tamil separatist master E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker twisted the Rama-Ravana story in the Hindu epic Maha Bharatha so that Shivaji Ganeshan and MG Ramachandran (born in Kandy) were able to act as folk hero-Tamil Ravana in low-budget movies watched in Madras, Jaffna and Dehiwala as well as in Indian estate worker line-towns such as Hatton. Naicker concluded, "Rama and Sita are despicable characters…Ravana, on the other hand, is a Dravidian of excellent character." The "boys" in Sri Lanka with their Chola empire symbols are thus good Ravanas in the eyes of an average Tamil Nadu Tamil. There are about 30 Ravana-Seetha sites identified in Sri Lanka. Chronology of the Separatist Paradigm (Dravidasthan) E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker, born in 1879, married at the age of 13, became a sannyasi 6 years later, started the Dravidian Federation (DK) party in 1944, as a militant (DK members wear black shirts), anti religious (philosophy of Hinduism is false and an opiate), anti-Sanskrit (need to de-Sanskritize Tamil language, Ramayanaya is false, destroy the images of sacred Hindu deities such as Rama and Ganesha) movement. The selection of a poison flower and a cyanide pill by Tamil separatists in Northern Sri Lanka is thus not hard to understand (ref. chapter10: Religion, politics and the DMK by Robert L. Hardgrave in South Asia Politics and Religion, edited by Donald E. Smith,1966).
1. 1917 August - South India Liberation Front founded (Justice Party) (B) 1963-mid 1980s (illegal phase) The unexpected War with China in 1962 gave Nehru an opportunity to ban Tamil separatism using "protect the motherland national feelings." No room in India for any anti-Indian talks. The separatist movement had to be moved to Jaffna to the Ravanas of Naicker. It went back to India after 1978 (JRJ-IndiraG cow and calf family feud) and got an open foothold after 1983 Tamil killings in Colombo. Had a set back with the killing of Rajiv G in May 1991. 17. 1967 election - Anna became chief minister. Congress party out
from power. (C) After mid 1980s (separatism back in Tamil Nadu via Delhi politicians) 24. mid-1980s - Tamilnadu liberation army formed (TNLA) to liberate
Tamilnadu
Tamil Nadu is the only Indian state to oppose Hindi as a unifying language. In Punjab, where there was a civil war against Delhi, Hindi is accepted with Panjaabi taking a second place in public schools There are several popular websites promoting separatism and attacking the "Hindian" homeland in India as opposed to a Tamil homeland. Despite laws in the book, the power of separatist writers was so penetrating that Rajiv Gandhi once made a personal appeal to a writer to stop writing! Tamilnad mind of a Tamil Ravana from Lanka is not easy to erase. The anger fueled by separatist Tamil politicians against Delhi as exploitation of Tamils by Hindi rulers is conveniently directed at the Sinhala Buddhists killers, with what Prabakaran calls, a Mahavamsa mindset. It is true that no one Indian state can face the Indian military Goliath
but the Delhi rulers know that a new political reality of "coalition
governments" has come to stay. The Tamil vote block is more powerful
than the political power needed to use Direct Presidential Rule. It
(Article 356) can be imposed now only if state politicians (in the opposition)
want Delhi to use against their local rivals (chief minister). The present
game of alternatively DMK jailing AIADMK boss and AIADMK jailing DMK
boss, with the Indian Supreme Court caught in between has given a little
breathing room to Delhi, but such DMK-AIADMK nonsense will vanish if
Prabakaran as Ravana is in power in an Eelam. There are other minor
political parties in Tamilnadu (TMC, PMK, MDMK) who act as Prabakaran's
proxies. Perhaps, this is why Delhi thought of a new solution: the Sethusamuduram
Canal has suddenly become India's Palestine Wall to cutoff Valvetithurai
from Chennai. Tamil language faces pressure from its landward neighbors Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and from the Hindi official language department in Delhi. The Hindi official language department is moving slowly with annual progress reports. The Pondicherry model is another pain in the neck, forced upon Tamil Nad. Additionally, those federal water transfer projects come with the federal muscle. With such pressure Lanka to the south is a trouble-free fertile valley full of Ravana attractions such as Trincomalee and Seetha Eliya and Ravana Ella and 30 other identified sites. A Tamil "F" in Sri Lanka will rekindle the fire beneath
the surface. Chamberlain thought Hitler had only a limited hunger. A
language-based "F" state is a growing monster. It needs more
room. It cannot grow landward in India. But it can come southward via
the shallow seas and become the Dravidasthan first demanded directly
from London in December 1938 by the Justice Party of Naiker. Two caste
groups in Tamil Nad are demanding two separate states within its boundaries!
(PMK leader S. Rmados is demanding one for the Vanniyar castes; as a
reaction to this the Dalits inpoliticians can postpone or re-direct
such domestic divisive demands by instigating separatist agitation or
UDI in a language-based "F" unit in Sri Lanka.
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