The massive misinformation and misleading campaigns against the Sri Lankan State carried out by the ruthless terrorists abroad following the 1983 State-sponsored pogrom begun to loose its vigor in the face of magnanimous non-racial policies adopted by the populist PA government. Hence it became expedient for these terrorists to re-activate their vicious campaigns. Several and continuous unsuccessful attempts were made to ignite communal hatred and violence by killing of Buddhist priests, bombing of Sri Dalada Maligawa, and murder of innocent unarmed villagers. The timing (on the eve of Deepavali) and the manner of the sad events took place at the Bindunuwewa detention camp clearly points out that it was a well orchestrated preconceived terrorist initiative to provoke unrest and malign the image of the government, and the nation as a whole.
However, they couldn't achieve their desired goal due to the prudent and prompt action taken by President Chandrika to diffuse tension, unreservedly condemn the horrendous acts, and arrest those who were negligent in checking the violence and those responsible for instigating riots. It clearly demonstrates her wise leadership and bona fide regard for nonpartisan human values. The root cause for the main disaster facing this country, the aggression in the North, could have been averted completely if the then leadership also took similar steps in 1983. Instead of diffusing tension, just before the State-sponsored pogrom the then ruler JR Jayawardene said "I am not worried now about the opinion of the Jaffna people..…Now we can't think of them. Not about their lives or their opinion about us." And his belated address to the nation during the pogrom justified his statement.
The immediate international media coverage and protests generated by the terrorists in persuading three U.S.Congressmen to pressurise U.S.Secretary of State, stimulate U.N.Secretary General, and Human Rights Organisations, including Amnesty International to condemn the incident distinctly confirm that they pre-planned these activities expecting another inferno similar to the 1983 black July. Although they did not succeed in this attempt to destroy the existing harmony, except the limited damage done in the Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts, there could certainly be further attempts of this nature to create disharmony.
Mr Nandimitra,
I would like to know whether you like to call your self as Nandimitta or Nandimitra.
After reading your message I was shocked to see that a Sri Lankan . a descendend
of early Indians did not know his ancestry much.Can you please expalin your
name accordiong to your language then I will expalin a lot in my next letter.
Prince Mahindra is an Indian who visited Sri Lanka along with Princess Sangamitra
his sister from Kalingam. The history book titled "Our Heritage" says the same.
Just because few so called patriotic singhalese(including you) are trying to
change the history does not mean that the above mentioned people are from Sri
Lanka. Almost all the words in singhalese are based on Sanskrit or Tamil. Indian
language calls a place as Puram (in hindi Pur). That means Anuradhapuram is
the original name when king Ellala Cholan (even this tamil name has been corrupted
to read as Ellara) ruled Illankai (Sri Lanka/Eelam/Nithila thupeevam,etc). So
are you going to say that the name Ellala cholan is wrong and and that Tamil
king he never existed.A sahodarayo in Melbourne once told me that Ellalan was
a myth and now I am wondering from where did Dutu Gemunu came and with whom
did he fight What happened to the history that was taught to me in 1950 and
how does it change on a yearly basis.
The Indian writer is correct because their history tells the samme way as I think and their history is not changed within the last two decades for any political reasons like in Sri Lanka. In fact he must have written the name Isurumuniya as Iswara Muni that was corrupted to read as Isurumuni. If you look at the meaning Ishwar means god, Muni means a pundit.This is the meaning in Tamil. So now Can you please explain in singhalese what Isurumuniya means then we can chat about it. In fact most of the Sri lankans are from Indians and their names, names of the cities, villages were ataken from India.Only within the last 50 years things started changing and the Singhalese people became active in coining new words and names to identify themselves from Indians and specially tamils. Even Pollalnaruwa was Called Gananathamangalam by king Rajendra Cholan who ruled Eelam from that place.
There are so many names in Sri lanka that that has been corrupted ,but I would
not get upset as if the sky has fallen down. Why are you making issues out ogf
nothing. You cant expect other countries to change names according to your thinking
just because you are against tamils. Remember, you said that you lived in Anuradhapuram
for a while but my family, relatives all were raised and brought up in that
place and I leanrt to swim in the pokanai in front of Isurumuniya. I also saw
and visited as a little kid a samathy for Ellala Cholan and I understand that
does not exist now. If you are so keen about preserving thj correct name and
history what did you do to preserve this samathy, the historyt, etc. Please
let me know. Let us not quarell over these small issues rather sit down and
discuss burning issues and settle the problem in front and not to destroy that
beutiful country of "OURS".
Will I get a friendly, brotherley reply or not?
“ My first visit to Sri Lanka was in April 1956 on my way to London. I stayed at the Galle Face Hotel, their premier British-era hotel by the sea. I walked around the city of Colombo, impressed by the public buildings…. undamaged by the war, because Mountbatten had based his Southeast Asia Command in Kandy. Ceylon had more resources and better infrastructure than Singapore.”
“That same year, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike won the election as leader of the new Sri Lanka Freedom Party and became prime minister. He had promised to make Sinhalese the national language and Buddhism the national religion. He was a brown “pukka sahib”, English-educated and born a Christian; he had decided on nativism and converted to Buddhism, and had become a champion of the Sinhalese language. It was the start of the unravelling of Ceylon.”
“Singapore’s then chief minister, Lim Yew Hock, invited me to meet him at dinner. A dapper little man, well-dressed and articulate, Bandaranaiake was elated at having obtained an election mandate from the Sinhalese majority to make Ceylon a more nativist society. It was a reaction against the “Brown Sahib” society – the political elite who on inheriting power had modelled themselves on the British, including their lifestyle. Sir John Kotelawala, the prime minister whom Bandaranaike succeeded, went horse riding every morning. Bandarnaike did not seem troubled that the Jaffna Tamils and other minorities would be at a disadvantage now that Sinhalese was the national language, or by the unease of Hindu Tamils, the Muslim Moors and the Christian Burghers at the elevated status of Buddhism as the national religion. He had been president of the Oxford Union and he spoke as if he was still in the Oxford Union debating society. I was not surprised when, three years later, he was assassinated by a Buddhist monk. I thought it ironic that a Buddhist monk, dissatisfied with the country’s slow rate of progress in making Buddhism the national religion, should have done it.”
“In the election that followed, his widow, Srimavo Bandaranaike, became prime minister on the sympathy vote…….. Her nephew, Felix Bandaranaike, was her e’minence grise on international affairs. Bright, but not profound, he claimed good fortune of geography and history had blessed Ceylon with peace and security so that only 2.5 per cent of its budget was spent on defence. I wonder what he have said in the late 1980s when more than half its budget went into arms and the defence forces to crush the Jaffna Tamil rebellion.” “Ceylon was Britain’s model Commonwealth country. After the war,……when Ceylon gained independence in 1948, it was the classic model of gradual evolution to independence.”
“Alas, it did not work out. During my visits over the years, I watched a promising country go to waste. One-man-one-vote did not solve a basic problem. The majority of some eight million Sinhalese could always outvote the two million Jaffna Tamils who had been disadvantaged by the switch from English to Sinhalese as the official language. From having no official religion, the Sinhalese made Buddhism their national religion. As Hindus, the Tamils felt dispossessed.” “In October 1966, on my way back from a prime minister’s conference in London, I visited Colombo to meet Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake. He was a gentle if resigned and fatalistic man…… He sent me by train to Nuwara Eliya, their once beautiful hill station. It was a most instructive lesson on what happened after independence….. At dinner, a wise and sad looking elderly Sinhalese explained that what had happened was inevitable with popular elections. The Sinhalese wanted to be the dominant race; they wanted to take over from the British as managers in the tea and coconut plantations, and from the Tamils who were the senior civil servants. They had to go through the tragedy of making Sinhalese the official language for which they had paid dearly, translating everything from English to Sinhalese and Tamil, a slow and unwieldy process. The universities taught in the three languages: Sinhalese to the majority, Tamil to the Jaffna Tamils, and English to the Burghers. At the University in Kandy I had asked the vice-chancellor how three different engineers educated in three languages collaborated in building one bridge. He was a Burgher, and wore a Cambridge university tie so that I would recognise he had a proper PhD. He replied, “That, sir, is a political question for the ministers to answer.” I asked about the books. He replied that basic textbooks were translated from English into Sinhalese and Tamil, always three to four editions late by the time they were printed.”
“The tea plantations were in a deplorable condition…. Without strict discipline the tea pluckers were picking not only young shoots but also full-grown leaves which would not brew good tea…...” “I did not visit Ceylon for many years, not until I had met their newly elected prime minister, Junius Richard Jayewardene, in 1978 at a CHOGRM conference in Sydney. In 1972 Prime Minister Mrs Bandaranaike had already changed the country’s name, Ceylon, to Sri Lanka, and made it a republic. The changes did not improve the fortunes of the country. Its tea is sold as “Ceylon” tea.”
“Like Solomon Bandaranaike, Jayewardene was born a Christian, converted to Buddhism and embraced nativism to identify himself with the people. In his 70-odd years, he had been through the ups and downs of politics, more downs than ups, and became philosophical in his acceptance of lowered targets…. After meeting me in Sydney, he came to Singapore, he said, to involve us in its development. I was impressed… and was persuaded to visit Sri Lanka in April 1978. He said that he would offer autonomy to the Tamils of Jaffna. I did not realise that he could not give way on the supremacy of the Sinhalese over the Tamils, which was to lead to civil war in 1983 and destroy any hope of a prosperous Sri Lanka for Many years, if not generations.” “ The greatest mistake Jayewardene made was over the distribution of reclaimed land in the dry zone. With foreign aid, he revived an ancient irrigation scheme based on “tanks” (reservoirs) which could store water brought from the wet side of the mountains. Unfortunately, he gave the reclaimed land to the Sinhalese, not the Tamils who had historically been the farmers of this dry zone. Dispossessed and squeezed, they launched the Tamil Tigers…..The war that followed caused 50,000 deaths and even more casualties…..After more than 15 years, it shows no sign of abating.”
“The fighting goes on. It is sad that the country whose ancient name Serendip has given the English language the word “serendipity” is now the epitome of conflict, pain, sorrow and hopelessness.”
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