CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Tamils Must Relearn Coexistence

Dilrook Kannangara

It is the law of the modern world, learn to coexist or perish! This applies to all races, communities and nations without exception. Tamils have a special requirement to learn it as there are Tamils the world over and there cannot be mono-ethnic enclaves everywhere for them. The war in Sri Lanka has become a showcase of the ideological conflict between coexistence verses mono-ethnic-isolation of the Tamil community. In fact it is fair to define the Sri Lankan conflict as a clash between two ideologies harboured by two sections of the Tamil community that are sharply divided over coexistence and mono-ethnic-isolation.

This clash goes back to thousands of years in history.

South Indian region of Tamil Nadu has always been the Tamil homeland and their Dravidian history is one of the world’s oldest and a humongous population lived just forty kilometres from the island of Sri Lanka which was tenanted by Aryans just like North India. Tamils invaded Sri Lanka over 2,000 years ago and continued to invade time to time for centuries thereafter. They invaded Lanka and plundered the majestic Sinhala Aryan civilisation to build their own cities and ruled Lanka for short periods of time. However, they were easily overpowered and driven away. A few Tamils fully integrated with the Sinhala community but the vast majority refused to coexist and were either massacred or driven away.

The brutal the invaders were the more brutal the response became. There is no evidence whatsoever in Sri Lanka as to a continued Tamil civilisation until the thirteenth century. The zenith of the Tamil empire in Tamil Nadu, India, occurred during the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, AD. The Chola Empire spread throughout India and reached Sri Lanka as well in the eleventh century. It ended the longest era of the Sri Lankan civilisation – the Anuradhapura era – that lasted for over 1,500 years.

A very large Tamil colony was built in Sri Lanka by killing and chasing away the Sinhalas. However, continued battles with the Sinhalas was not feasible for the Tamil Cholas given their numbers and soon the Sinhala resistance started which lasted seventeen long years by the end of which the Cholas were completely annihilated. This remarkably started the downfall of the Chola Empire everywhere. The once illustrious Tamil kingdom shrunk to where it all started – Tamil Nadu.

For millennia Tamil Nadu had no other races than Tamil. Most of them today are Tamil Hindus and the rest are Tamil Muslims, Tamil Christians and Tamil Buddhists. Even to this date there are virtually no other races in Tamil Nadu which makes it a mono-ethnic region occupied virtually by Tamils alone. In a terrifying resemblance, the Tamil Elam nation which the LTTE is fighting for very closely resonate this fact!

Cholas were the last Tamil invaders to raid Sri Lanka with a confrontational approach. Early thirteenth century saw the Kalinga (Orissa) King Magha run havoc in Lanka that pushed the nation’s capital southwards. However, his rule collapsed with his demise and later Tamil invaders again invaded Lanka but failed to capture substantial parts of the country. They were confined to the Northern most region of Lanka and posed no threat to the Sinhalese. Hence, when their kingdom fell to the Sinhalese in 1447, drastic measures were not taken against them unlike in previous battles. As a result the Tamil civilisation in Sri Lanka that started in the thirteenth century survived.

There is heaps of evidence of coexistence between the two groups after the thirteenth century. It was a Buddhist king – Parakramabahu the Sixth – who built the most majestic Hindu temple in Nallur in the North, the Devinuwara Hindu temple in the deep south and in many other places throughout the country. By the time the Portuguese ended the Jaffna kingdom, it was a Sinhalese from Matara who led the-5,000-strong Tamil army. By then a large number of Tamils from South India had come to Sri Lanka to avoid the brutal caste system there which still remains a scourge.

However, over four centuries of European colonial rule resulted in some Tamils forgetting the vital lesson learnt in the past. Instead of coexistence, they again went back to the pre-thirteenth century period of trying to establish a Tamil mono-ethnic nation in part of Sri Lanka. However, there were many Sinhalese and Muslims living in what were termed ‘Tamil majority areas’ including prominent politicians like KB Ratnayake, M Senanayake; many ancient Buddhist shrines that are almost 2,000 years older than Hindu temples were scattered throughout these areas.

The Tamil national campaign that started in 1924 with a formal demand to the British rulers by Ponnambalam gradually grew with racial riots, ethnic cleansing and terrorism into a Frankenstein monster that started feeding upon the very same people it set out to liberate. From valuable insights gained from India and Pakistan, Britain knew only too well what would happen if the island nation was divided. Thankfully reason prevailed and the celebration of Sri Lankan Independence does not involve grieving for genocide. Unfortunately for India and Pakistan the stigma of separation is going to stay with them for a very long time.

The Tamil national struggle has already killed more Tamils, displaced more Tamils and criminalised the Tamil community. It destroyed the entire Tamil cultural sphere in Sri Lanka, the democratic process of the Tamils, non-violent Hindu traditions developed over thousands of years and destroyed trust between the communities.

However, most Tamils did relearn the lesson of coexistence and started to coexist with the Sinhalese, Canadians, British, Australians, the Swiss, etc. In doing so they slowly got accustomed to different cultural influences just like any other community. Now the LTTE has got a problem with that. Although Tamil Nadu Tamils have not integrated much with others, they are skilled enough to live together peacefully in India. The LTTE calls them slaves.

The relentless pursuit of a mono-ethnic Tamil only nation by the LTTE is not over yet. Similar movements were observed in Malaysia and the Maldives where some elements used both violence and peaceful means to extort Tamil-only ethnic enclaves. All such movements, peaceful and violent, were forcibly put down by coercion.

Sadly separatist Tamil elements throughout the world remain vociferous over others feeding upon the silence and hypocrisy of other Tamils.

The situation in Tamil Nadu, India is grave although potential troubles are kept out by stringent security measures. The enclavism in India’s federal structure needs change allowing more national integration. Interstate national integration has become dangerously difficult in India after years of ethnic isolation especially in certain states. The Hindi language has been the only connector. Attempts of ethnic integration have led to violence including the recent attack on Amitab Bachchan’s house. Sri Lanka needs not fall into this calamity. If it does, things would be even bleaker as there is no common language to integrate the people, Lanka lacks the military might of India and the safety of more 54% Tamils who are living outside the North-East will be jeopardised.

After years of internal migration and emigration, the North East of Sri Lanka has less than a million Tamils left. On top of that Tamils are only a minority in the East. However the violent LTTE and other non-violent groups demand the whole of North-East which is over 30% of Sri Lanka and has over 60% of its coastline for a mere 5% of its population. Apart from its potential damage to coexistence, it is also a fraud on the others living in the country. Going by this realisation, any form of regionalisation along racial lines is an evil act irrespective of the means used. Therefore hardly any difference exists between a violent Tamil Elamist and a moderate Tamil Elamist and they must be viewed and treated as such.

It is high time all Tamil Elamists, federalists, separatists and terrorists accept the fact that there cannot be any existence other than coexistence.

Coexistence does not need any structural changes in Sri Lanka as much as it needed no changes in Canada. Most Tamils do practice it. What requires is a clamp down on all movements against coexistence. Racial regionalisation, racial federalism and race-based grievance handling must end. Sinhala and Muslim habitations must be created in the North as much as Tamil habitations exist elsewhere in the country. Busting isolation is a good means to promote coexistence and nurturing new Tamil political leadership that value coexistence and disperse the old thinking of the early 1900s is a sure way to enhance harmony.

On the other hand, if for the sake of Tamil aspirations, Sri Lanka is turned into a federal structure that distances people and reduce coexistence, hatred and racism would breed like mosquitoes breeding in stagnant water. A Tamil region will have to manage water resources with a non-Tamil region which simply means water sharing between Tamils and others which in turn is a water war. In a unitary setting race would never come into the decision making equation. In a racial setting what matters is how many of our students did enter university but in a unitary national setting it would be how many students in all received tertiary education and how to increase it. It is not about increasing our share over the others’ share but rather about a total equitable increase within available resources.

Therefore the Sri Lankan conflict and all its ancillary conflicts in India, Malaysia, Fiji, Maldives, etc. must be viewed as a Tamil internal battle between coexistence and mono-ethnic racial isolation (to differing degrees). This contest, due to its very nature, affects other connected communities as well.

As the LTTE has proven many times and has openly declared it’s inability to coexist with the other races in Sri Lanka (let alone its inability to coexist with various Tamil political groups) it must be annihilated in full. That will teach everyone the vital lesson of coexistence again. The other races too must continue to maintain their preference for multi-culturalism. Regrettably there’s little choice: coexist or perish!

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