Quo vadis Maldives?
Posted on August 4th, 2010
Geethanjana Kudaligamage
Rajapakse, regional politics, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Eurocentric DevelopmentalismƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and the western hegemony (Part 13)
From western point of view, loosing Sri Lanka is a colossal strategic setback. But no one can blame Sri Lanka for this tragic reality. From Sri Lankan point of view, Sri Lanka hasnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t done anything in detrimental to relations with USA. Therefore, the fate of the relations of two nations solely rests in the hands of policy planners of USA, but not in Sri Lanka. I wouldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t put the blame of this deteriorating situation entirely on the State Department of the USA since the agency only reflects grand strategies of the upper echelons of US administration. The entire western policy of Asian is based on the strategies of Trans National CorporationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ globalization agenda, according to which, Sri Lanka must be divided. If not at least they need to have military presence in close proximity to Indian subcontinent. What is the next option? IsnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t that Maldives?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ However at this point, Sri Lanka must closely observe whatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s happening in the Maldives. Many Sri Lankans do not know that majority of the Maldivian people are Sinhalese, and they speak corrupt version of old Sinhala language. Their ancestral relationship with Sri Lanka was maintained up until recent times through traditional Maldivian customs of payments of various annual taxes although they were not being abided by any law of both lands. They paid these taxes voluntarily though their envoy visits as fulfillment of age old traditions to keep up their ancient blood relationship with Sri Lanka. In other words, it was more like fulfilling an age old Sinhalese tradition of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Nagam yamaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚; because Maldives must have been a principality of Sri Lanka in pre modern times. Their presence in Sri Lanka was a common spectacle up until recent times. I personally have seen Maldivian vendors selling ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Bondi AluwaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in Colombo streets in my childhood. Until recent times Maldivian children were educated in Sri Lanka. Our relationship is older than we can conceive through conventional knowledge derived from western version of our history.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This close relationship attests to the fact that, larger amount of Buddhist archeological evidences had been found in Maldives next to India and Sri Lanka in Indian Ocean region in south Asia.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Unfortunately Maldivian consciousness of this blood relationship between two countries was severely shattered by our shortsighted foreign policy of JR Jayawardene and brought a devastating effect to the relations between these two nations during the terror attack launched to Maldives by a SL Tamil terrorist group in November 1988.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It was revealed that the first reaction of the then president of Maldives to the attack was to call then president of Sri Lanka JR Jayawardene asking for military assistance. JRJ as a man who preferred to drink even cold water only after making it even more colder,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”alwathurath niwala bonaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢)naturally sought to his coldhearted callous foreign policy, quickly declined the request and advised to channel Indian help. It is said that JRJ personally called Rajeev Gandhi in this respect. By doing so JRJ neglected Sri Lankan nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s moral obligation to Maldivien people. And thus he severed the strong blood link of this nation with Sri Lankan people. I do not think President Gayoom and people of Maldives will ever forget this humiliation. We may have to work very hard for that end.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Any leader of Sri Lanka disciplined by any moral code would have extended helping hand to Maldives at the hour of need due to two reasons. Firstly Maldivians are Sinhalese peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s immediate relatives. Secondly JRJ had a personal responsibility into the event for him being the one who must be held responsible for not having any control of the terrorist menace within the country at the moment that had began to export its brutality to other lands. But JRJ was not a man of moral to begin with; therefore, the matter of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”obligationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ never arises.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The whole episode could be suspected as an externally orchestrated grand conspiracy of espionage agencies active in the region including RAW. Since Indian army was in Sri Lanka at the moment, what JRJ must have done was to send SL military commandos to Maldives and then request Indian help. But he missed the train. Indians took the charge and became the saviors of Maldivians and replaced Sri Lanka in the Maldivian hearts and minds.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ To the current situation, if any western power managed to get foot hold in Maldives militarily while we display our cold shouldered relationship with Maldives, then it must be considered as another security blow to Sri Lanka at this moment. We must further strengthen our relations with Maldives in immediate effect, not only in diplomatic relations, but also militarily.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Furthermore, we must initiate restrengthening of our moral bondages between two nations. First step could be broader coalition in educational, cultural and archaeological sector. Our Universities must open a quota for Maldivian students to learn in Sri Lanka under minimal charges competing Indian universities and Western ones.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Maldivians are Sri Lankans. Both our fate in the Indian Ocean is intertwined, and will depend on the destiny of each other. We must work together.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
August 4th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Another good one for Priyantha Abeywickrama’s research.
Sinhala people in Maldives ! I have no doubt there could be Sinhala people in Maldives and India.
Surely, security of that country is of utmost importance to Sri Lanka, whether they are Sinhal people or not.
Sinhala tradition is to treat all migrants and neighbours nicely. What Sinhala people did in past 30000+ years should be maintained, that is to consider good people as good regardless of race, cast or religion. Cast system borrowed from Hindu tradition killed some of our good values.
August 5th, 2010 at 1:10 am
An interesting but shorter article in comparison. We have had many people who never deserved to be our leaders. There are things beyond human control. I hope it works better at the end. When the going get tough, westerners do fanciful things to hold onto their prestige. But efforts such as building military bases around the world seem to work the other way.
Nanda, thank you for your comment. Writer has already told what you refer to. Language is one of the basic principles deciding the ethnic origin, but not the only one. It essentially tells that a person is born within a community speaking that language. But the catch is that anyone can adopt any language. What about those speaking English? Are they all English? There is a clear difference between natural speakers of a language and those speaking someone else’s language. As an English speaker by adoption, I hope you have a better understanding of what that means.
Refer comment by Nanda inferring that there could be Sinhala people in Maldives and India, I wish Nanda could do the work by himself. Interestingly, there is a small group in Rajasthan (India) that differ totally from main stream Hinduism, the modern version. Before that, you have to figure out the original version of Hinduism and who contributed to its growth. It is interesting to hear about one of the very popular Sinhala traditions that also contributed to the current plight. Sometimes, error of judgement can mire decisions such as picking bad as good or vice versa. In such cases, we have to learn to play safe.
Sinhala caste system has a different origin to that of Hindu version. Modern Hinduism is designed to establish the prestige of opportunists at any cost as done by westerners these days. They do things like bending rules, creating rules and ignoring rules to suit their own interests including selective application, a typical sign of decadence. Origin of Sinhala caste system has more to do with how parents try to maintain peace among warring children and securing their future than a tool of discrimination. During ancient times, Most resourceful families had up to nine children who needed to have their own means of living. The behavioural differences created by differences in employment were later used by semi-alien monarchy to rule by division and to impose penalties. Even today, people working in different professions behave differently. Obviously, this can be reversed and returned to original hey days of equality, but with strenuous effort and sacrifices. But traditional employment has affected many of those engaged in those jobs over many hundreds of generations. In a similar case, children with deformities resembling injuries suffered by their parents are born to the second generation workers in the western timber industry who rely on industrial chain saws that contributed to cause permanent damages to their hands. What we do work both ways. If we keep on eating more of canine meat as Ban Ki Moon type do, it is fair to assume that we are more close to canines than humans.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Interesting article, been as a Maldivian reading this is very emotional. I found the article is bit short to describe in details the close relationship in different angles with people as well geopolitical and regional harmony. I remember as a child my dad’s fancy story his visits to Colombo particularly the Gale’ harbor. Srilankan people are friendly and treat same as theirs. Myself as a Maldivian visiting Colombo has special privilege nothing can be less than my own country. The people of both countries agreed norms we are no different from our language, our colors but we didn’t talk in debt our ancestor’s relationship who we live so close as neighbors. I am very proud to hear this profound article that so emotional who ever reads from both countries. I am bit short of knowing the total history of our two countries but this article provides me very family oriented that I can recall from all my visits to colombo.
August 8th, 2010 at 1:08 am
A very interesting article, but an important point to note is that all Maldivians Speak Dhivehi language, NOT SINHALESE.
Both the Dhivehi and Sinhalese language arose from the same mother language, meaning that they are sister languages, NOT a CORRUPTED FORM. Development of Dhivehi has been influenced by Sinhala, Arabic, French, Persian, Portuguese, and English.
Dhivehi represents the southernmost Indo-Aryan language. Together with Sinhala, Dhivehi represents a special subgroup within the Modern Indo-Aryan languages which is called Insular Indo-Aryan. However, Sinhala and Divehi are not mutually intelligible.
August 9th, 2010 at 5:07 am
Phaariz,
Sorry for the late response. I usually do not write comments on my own articles.
What you have mentioned is the information we can find in Wikipedia. But Wikipedia is not the only source we must rely on. No doubt that the present day Dhivehi must have influenced of all other languages, including the Arabic alphabet. Current state of Sinhalese is no different in such influences. But as many believe, the origin, or the root of Dhivehi is Elu, the ancient language of Sri Lanka. Elu on the other hand is the origin of Sinhala language as well.
You right, (current state of) Dhivehi and Sinhalese are not mutually intelligible today. Similarly Elu and Sinhalese have the same problem in some cases but not all. But Elu and Dhivehi have much closer relations than Sinhala and Elu although both languages were derived from same root of Elu. The difference is that Elu in Maldives evolved with different set of influences and the Sri Lankan Elu has evolved under another set of influences. For centuries these two entities were evolved under different historical circumstances.
Although it is not the best source for researches, even Wikipedia carries some information about this language relation.
What you have ignored in Wikipedia is that it says “The closest relative of Sinhala is the language of the Maldives and Minicoy Island (India), Dhivehi.” (Wikipedia)
Although Majority of Maldivians and Sri Lankans do not know about their relationship, US state department knows it. Until 1980s their reports were saying that the race of Maldivians was Sinhalese and the language was old version of Sinhalese. Even you can find the same information on CIA world fact book online. The information of this website must have changed recently, because until 1980s it firmly said that Maldivian people were Sinhalese.
However the mystery of Sinhalese people still remains unresolved. As Priyantha Abewickrama has stressed elsewhere, the language connection may provide a starting point for further research. Anyway the question is how Elu language roots spread all over Indian Ocean islands from Andaman Islands, Lakshadvipa Islands, Maldives to Sri Lanka? Can these people being separated by a massive natural calamity like submerge their land? Indian Ocean hides a lot of secrets of the history of this part of the world. Future archaeologists must resolve these mysteries. But unfortunately it is doubtful if our archaeological departments in our universities have the courage to go under required paradigm shift to approach this matter in fresh mind.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mv.html
June 22nd, 2013 at 10:22 pm
A genetic study about the Maldivian population by department of Human Genetics, Liden University, which was published online on the American Journal of Physical Anthropology has revealed very interesting facts about the genetic origin of Maldivian people. The research studied autosomal DNA-, mitochondrial DNA-, and Y-chromosomal DNA markers in a representative sample of 141 unrelated Maldivians, with 119 from six major settlements. The researchers found a total of 63 different mtDNA haplotypes that could be allocated to 29 mtDNA haplogroups, mostly within the M, R, and U clades.[23] They also found 66 different Y-STR haplotypes in 10 Y-chromosome haplogroups, predominantly H1, J2, L, R1a1a, and R2.[24] The study concluded that their new genetic data agree with the commonly reported Maldivian ancestry in South Asia, but furthermore suggest multiple, independent immigration events and asymmetrical migration of females and males across the archipelago.[24]
The genetic study confirmed that the most likely origin of the Maldivian population is in South Asia with possible gene flow from the Middle East. Also it has pointed out that the Dhivehi language of the Maldives being the southernmost Indo-Aryan language, and sharing of specific haplogroups with Indo-Aryan Sinhalese populations mostly from northern India and from Sri Lanka, could point to a common origin of these populations.[24]
The CIA fact book needs to be corrected. Maldivesn doesnt have significant African ancestry.
Maldivians have ethnic affinities with sri lankan singhaleese, indian tamils and north Indians and ofcourse middle easterners.
24 % of maldives ancestry is north indian Eurasian stock this proved by the presences of m17 haplgroup(r1a1a). 13 % of sri lankan singhaleese people are aslo found to be positive to this haplgorup.
22% of Maldives ancestry is middle east validated by the pretense of y chromomoe haplgoroup J2. J2 is also common among the singhalees people of India.
Y crhomsoe haplgorups H and L is about 30% which are specific south indian haplogroups ,the markers of indus valley civilisation. 5 percent of Maldivians have east Asian ancestry. only 2 percent of Maldivians are observed to have east African ancestry.
http://www.maldives-ancestry.blogspot.com