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The Statements of Ms. Jayalalitha Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease? Janaka Yagirala
Apparently, politicians in Tamil Nadu have always been afflicted with a malady. This malady known as “Tamil Self Determination” resurfaced with the recent (“unprecedented” for the Diaspora) press release by former TN chief minister Ms. Jayalalitha (http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101052460400.htm). Among the numerous things mentioned were the need for “equality between Tamils and Sinhalese”, “the need to mobilize aid for Sri Lankan Tamils” and recognition of the “Tamil Homeland”.
Well, there is indeed a serious issue of “equality” between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka because, a Tamil can settle down anywhere in Sri Lanka, but a Sinhalese person cannot. Remember what happened to the Sinhalese and Muslim people living in Jaffna? Remember Kent and Dollar Farm? Thanks to our determined military and political leadership, the Sinhalese people of Trinco and Ampara and the Muslims of the east coast can live without fear of being hacked to death at home during their sleep or during worship.
Ms Jayalalitha, I think it may be more appropriate to seek this issue in Malaysia where Tamil people had to celebrate Diwali behind closed doors to protest against religious persecution. For a starter, try and get Tamils in Malaysia recognized as true citizens of Malaysia under the notorious Bhumiputra Law. Also try and get the Delhi government to display signboards in Delhi in Tamil as well.
There is no need for “aid for Sri Lankan Tamils” because the GoSL has always been doing that. After all, the “humanitarian” organizations got their priorities mixed up and sent GPS devices, aircraft parts and backhoes to the LTTE instead of food for the innocent civilians.
As for the “Tamil Homeland” there is no way to help. Sri Lanka became the Sinhalese nation during the time of King Pandukabaya when the tribes of Hela united into a common nation. King Dutugemunu made the entire island a strong unitary state. Henceforth, whenever a foreign invader attacked, the Sinhalese people were motivated to fight and free their island homeland.
No one can deny the fact that the treaty handing over the Jaffna Kingdom to the Portuguese in 1560 was signed in Sinhalese. Fernao De Queyroz in his book The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon explicitly states "These terms written in the Portuguese and Chingala languages were signed and authenticated". Didn’t the King of the “Tamil Kingdom” know his own mother tongue? What a shame!
However, India was a different story. India hardly had a homeland for anyone regardless of language or ethnicity. Instead India throughout history was a mosaic of ever changing kingdoms large and small with rulers speaking different languages and from different faiths from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam to Sikhism. China has a common 1 billion strong Han Chinese ethnicity to bind it together. Mongolia was bound by a common nomadic culture, Germany unified under a common German language. On the other hand, India is a pickle of 1 billion souls belonging to 800 languages and ethnicities unionized by the British with hardly anything in common.
The lack of any common binding factor in India may explain why India has 25 or so macro-secessionist movements (the record for any country!) each with multiple political and rebel organizations. The long list goes from Jai Andhra, the Arunachal Dragan Force, the United Liberation Front of Assam, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, Dima Halim Daogah, the Gondwana Ganatantra Party to the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army.
Even Tamil Nadu (Nation of Tamils) is nothing more than a British creation. In 1639 the British India Company purchased the village of Madraspatnam and established the Agency of the Fort of St. George. Prior to this it was a battle ground for numerous tribes from the Cheras and Pandyas to the Cholas. It and the neighboring regions became the Madras Presidency in 1652. The region of it changed over the years until it became a large state under the British. After independence it was dismembered along linguistic lines starting from the formation of the new states of Andra Pradesh in 1953, Kerala in 1956 and the addition of portions of land to Mysore and Orissa.. Finally, the Nation of Tamils aka Tamil Nadu came into existence in 1968 with the renaming of Madras State.
So Ms. Jayalalitha regarding the statement “There are two very clear and distinct issues. The Tamils’ fight for self determination is one. Tamil militancy or terrorism is the other. We support the first. We oppose the latter”. I think its time to get your priorities right. Forget Sri Lanka and start off by supporting the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army of India!
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