The Mania that is “Tamils of Indian origin” The Bane of Sri Lanka
Posted on September 7th, 2010

Dr Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) Former Ministry Secretary 6.9.2010

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Apropos ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Lankan army to return lands of Tamils of Indian origin:

Published: Thursday, Sep 2, 2010, 18:43 IST, Place: COLOMBO | Agency: PTI, attributed to Nirupama Rao former Indian Ambassador in Sri Lanka, I thought it appropriate to write few lines on this perpetual Indian intervention on our domestic matters for the benefit of those who are concerned about the future of this country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Nirupama Rao said in Colombo that apart from the focus on resettlement, there was a need to keep in mind “a long-term perspective that also includes issues relating to the political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities”.
The above news item was quoted as a news brief by the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary.

The same sources said that the Indian government is also likely to appoint a special envoy for Sri Lanka to look into the needs of the Tamil community and oversee resettlement. Officials said the government was considering having a special envoy as a permanent diplomatic fixture in relations with the important neighbour.

Another news item TNN, Sep 2, 2010, 08.40pm IST in which officials said Foreign minister M.S Krishna is also expected soon in Sri Lanka and will emphasize before the Lankan leadership the need to move from resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to chalking out a political solution which is substantive and durable.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The gist of these statements is that the Sri Lankan government has not taken suitable measures to address the issues relating to the political settlement that would meet the needs of the minorities from a long term perspective that should be substantive and durable. Therefore the Indian intervention on behalf of their people in Sri Lanka? I see very little difference between these threatening and arrogant statements and the infamous DHAL drop of 1987 to Jaffna that blatantly violated all civilized diplomatic ethics. Shame to Indian politicians and their mandarins.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tamils of Indian origin maniaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ on the part of the Indian government and the Sri Lankan Tamils, I think, was a post colonial manifestation. Those Tamils or Muslims who lived here prior to the advent of colonial times never thought like this.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  For all intent and purposes they considered this country as their motherland. Even the left outs from south Indian invasions got absorbed in to the local population and got naturalized politically as well as culturally. As such there was no ethnic conflicts that threatened the political stability of the country at that time. On the contrary today this Indian Tamil mentality on the part of both the Indian government and the Tamils physically living here has become the root cause of all problems in this country. They range from political, economic, and cultural to international fields. As long as this cancerous mentality persists, this problem will never end. Peace will only dawn to this Island nation on the day both these parties stop thinking like that and the Tamils in Sri Lanka begin to think as fully pledged citizens of this country and divorce their allegiance completely to India as their mother land and the Indian government accept Sri Lanka Tamils as Sri Lanka citizens with whom India has nothing to do or in the alternative all Tamils in this country decide to go back to India and India take back all of them as her full citizens. Tamils in Sri Lanka has to give up this divided allegiance. Until such time and as long as the current thinking on the part of Tamil people and the Indian Government prevails this chronic and tragic situation will persist eternally. Therefore I think all those who are willing to see an end to this tragedy should either get rid of this mania as soon as possible and leave the government of Sri Lanka to decide on the destinies ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Tamils living here along with her other citizens. India I think has to renounce for good her hidden political agenda and refrain from all sinister moves against this Island nation and its peace loving people.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is indeed excellent that every body including theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Sri Lankan and Indian governments are interested in resettling Tamils displaced by the war in Jaffna who are currently supposed to be living in IDP camps in Vavuniya. Because it is a human problem, and not a Tamil or a Sinhala problem. Assistance on the part of India in this regard is most welcome. In fact it is a bounden duty on her part to repay for the wrongs she committed against these people because it is India that instigated and encouraged them to wage war against the Sri Lankan government. It is with the strength of that Indian support the LTTE revolted against the Sri Lankan government. I do not like to see that these Tamils being referred to as Tamils of Indian origin:ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Yes it is absolutely true all Tamils are of Indian origin. There is no argument about that. But the Tamils in Sri Lanka are Sri Lankan citizens who belong to the Tamil ethnic group from an ethnographic point of view though most Tamils in Sri Lanka also think otherwise. In fact the latter mentality is the real tragedy in this whole tragedy. All these Tamils are Sri Lankan citizens and not Indian citizens any longer. As the tradition goes they should be the citizens of the Sinhale: the land of the Sinhala people. For the Sri Lankan government they are her citizens displaced by the war who need relocation as soon as possible. But for India these Tamils are only a bait to catch the votes of Tamilnadu. I donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t think other than that the Indians are seriously concerned about Tamils in Sri Lanka as human beings. It is only a cunning political strategy on their part enacted as a drama to appease the Tamilnadu government.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Meanwhile it is sad that no one talk about the fate of those Sinhalese and Muslims who were chased out from Jaffna by the Tamil Tigers with Indian support, or the rights of those who were murdered as a result of LTTE massacre in 1983 and after who were around 30,000 and Muslims around 15,000. The moment you donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t do so the whole issue takes a dirty and parochial communal outlook. It completely ceases to be a humanitarian approach within a broader conceptual framework.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ All these Indian politicians and mandarins labour and mourn day and night and talk about the Tamils of Indian origin, living in Sri Lanka, there by ignoring that Sinhalese are also of Indian origin. If that is the fact of history why is this preferential treatment to Tamils only? Obviously the Indians do not talk about the Sinhalese as there is no Sinhala vote base unfortunately, in India as the Tamils do in Tamilnadu. Why is this political hypocrisy on the part of Indians and the naivety on our part not to tell them that we are taking necessary steps to resettle not only displaced Tamils but also the Sinhalese and Muslims treating all of them as equals since they are our citizens? Also why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t we tell them not to perpetuate ethnic dissention and create additional problems for us only when we are struggling to raise our heads from the mess they have already hatched and manipulated by supporting Tigers for decades arming and training them to wage war against the legitimately elected government of this countryƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  for a separate Tamil State in the North and East comprising 1/3 the total area of this small Island for a mere fraction of Lankan Tamils not numbering even 3 million at the moment, just to pacify the Tamilnadu politicians for their vote.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When Rao and all Indians talk about the Lankan Tamils they also talk of a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Jaffna Tamil KingdomƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. In a press statement Rao issued last week at the conclusion of her visit to Sri Lanka she has said ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Lankan army to return lands of Tamils of Indian originƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ This type of statements imply many things. Firstly it implies that Sri Lankan Army which is asinhala army has forcibly occupied the Land of Tamils of Indian origin who belongs to a separate nation; the Sri Lankan military has no right therefore to occupy the lands belonging to Tamils who live in these lands; as such the government has agreed to return the said land to the Tamils. In other words the Sri Lanka government has accepted its guilt. Does not this notion give legitimacy to the idea of a separate Tamil kingdom in Sri Lanka as against the Sinhalese Kingdom in the rest of the Island? This also concretizes the idea of Tamil Homeland theory.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Historically it is true that there had been a break away regional Tamil rebel rule in the peninsula of Jaffna for a short time during the medieval times just before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505. But that was subsequently brought under the Sinhala Kingdom.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  If RaoƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s statement is to be accepted as a serious fact of history then one can also claim that the whole area within the boundaries of ancient Anuradhapura Kingdom that was ruled by Elara for 44 years should also be interpreted as the land belonging to these South Indian Tamils.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I give below few more statements attributed to Rao and Indian Foreign Minister.

“a long-term perspective that also includes issues relating to the political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities”. The need to move from resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to chalking out a political solution which is substantive and durable.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What do they really mean by this jargon. What is this political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities” and they have in mind and the need to move from resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to chalking out a political solution which is substantive and durableƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In fact they are the very people who are responsible for these displacements. So why do they want to place the responsibility on our government for their sins. The other question is who are they to dictate terms to us. IsnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t it better if they try to put their own house in to order first before they try to meddle with neighbours.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What is worse is that now India wants the Tamils in Lanka not only to re-establish this so-called Jaffna kingdom but she also wants that to be extended to cover the entire northern province and annex the entirety of the eastern province as well, that has been under the Sinhala kingdom right through out the long history of this Island nation. This is what the Indian Government postulated when she imposed the 13th Amendment by force on us under which they wanted the Sri Lankan government to merge the Northern and the Eastern Provinces.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ DoesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t this appear to be an attempt, by the Indian Diplomats and politicians to interfere with the internal affairs of another country by creating ground to perpetuate ethnic divisions within this country that falls outside the legitimate exercise of diplomacy by the Indian government? Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t these learned Indian mandarins advice their politicians to leave Sri Lanka alone and mind their own business at home as Sri Lanka is NOT ANOTHER REGIONAL STATE OR A SUZERAINTY of India as they appear to think.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Then she also talks about the Tamils of Indian origin living on the central hill country.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  India also dreams of a Tamil enclave right at the centre of this country, for Indian Tamils on the plantations probably with a pipe dream of Sri Lankan as another State of the Indian subcontinent or at least a suzerainty in future. No one disputes that they were also of Indian origin. But all these people who espouse their cause fail to realize that they were only indentured labour brought by the British to work on their plantations in the latter half of the nineteenth century who should have been taken back to either England as British citizens or repatriated to South India as the British left the shores of this Island nation without leaving this ugly legacy to become a perpetual headache to the native people of this country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The present day Indian politicians and their bureaucrats talk as if they want to have several Indian enclaves inside this country. My grievance is as to why no one is talking about the native Kandyan people who have lost all their rights including their claim for their ancestral mother land where these plantations sprawl. Today the Kandyans who have been resident on this land at least from the second century BC, as proved by epigraphic evidence, have got reduced to a minority and they are strangers on their own mother land as against immigrant labourers who have come from outside few decades ago to earn a living and who have been shuttling up and down between India and Ceylon until 1948. Even today these people think and act as Indian citizens. Their mortal bodies are on our soil but their minds are still in South India. They, or at least their politicians want to be the owners of some one elseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ancestral land while they want to remain as Indians both in mind and body. It is strange even the local politicians espouse the cause of these immigrants not realizing that there by they are betraying their own people. In this regard I respect the Indian politicians more than the locals for their love for the Indians even though they live outside India.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t the present day Indian politicians abide by what Nehru said in 1958 about these Indian labourers who had been taken to foreign countries by the British and left high and dry? This is what he said in 1958.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We do not want Indians to have any rights or privileges in a country which, in any way, would come in the way of the inhabitants of that country. They should consider themselves as guests. If they are unwelcome, they have no business to be thereƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Meanwhile no one speak a word about the plight of the natives who have lost everything they inherited from the past 2500 years of history and fought for more than three centuries against the most powerful colonial powers at that time and successfully retained the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of this nation, which all Sri Lankans enjoy today, thanks to them. The beneficiaries include Tamils and Muslims as well who never fought against the invaders on the side of the Kandyans. Not even the representatives in Parliament who have gone their on the back of these hapless peasants who have now become strangers on their own land speak a word about them. There are over 80 members of Parliament in addition to a battalion of Provincial and Divisional politicians numbering over 300. But they provide only props for the Colombo government to survive and enjoy the fruits of political office while the peasants who live in the god forsaken Kandyan ravines and secluded valley bottoms continue to suffer their karma in silence like deft, blind and dumb people. What ever party rules the country, this status quo perpetuates.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In this backdrop my grievance is not against the Tamil labourers who are there but it is against our own politicians who have miserably failed in their duty by these brave worriers who have fought for three centuries with their blood and life and saved the motherland for these present day politicians to enjoy the luxuries of power.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In my opinion these estate laboures have only two options. That is they should either totally renounce their out dated and redundant Indian mentality, if they want to live in this country and get absorbed in to the native society as an inherent part of it as Punchibandas, Ranmenikes, Appuhamys and Sopiya nonas as they did in Burma under compulsion immediately after Independence or in the alternative get back to their cherished mother land South India to preserve their Tamil Identity or request the British government to take them there and make them Suddha gentlemen as they were British citizens at the time of the British leaving this country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As it is, no one can expect political vultures whether in India or here to solve this problem, because they are only interested in getting the votes of these innocent people. I think it is the people who have to decide. Firstly, if they want to remain in this land of the Sinhala people then the estate Tamils will have to decide for good to renounce their out dated Indian allegiance and opt to be the sons of this soil and integrate with the natives.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  They should not be misled by the cunning politicians, most of whom, even donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t speak the native language and wait until the Tamilnadu dawn on the central hills of Sri Lanka. Secondly the locals also have to decide to absorb them to their own rank and file and think of a mass scale village- estate integration programme that will put an end to this vexed tragedy.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Let them intermarry and naturalize as members of the native society. If the Kings and Queens can do this and in fact have been doing this for generations why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t the ordinary folk also follow suit. It has happed in the past So why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t it happen today. After all this is a human problem. We are dealing with human beings of blood and flesh not with robots that act according to the whims and fancies of cunning politicians of both countries and suffer for themselves eternally.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I think this is how at least the enlightened mandarins of India should look at this problem without just coming here carrying the political burdens of the Indian politicians on their strained back. They must embody the ancient wisdom of Indian state craft without just behaving like robots of Indian poly-trickysians. This is the advice I would like to give to people like and Indian Foreign minister S M Krishna who is due to visit Sri Lanka soon and as reported ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”who is expected to emphasize before the Lankan leadership the need to move from resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to chalking out a political solution which is substantive and durable and Nirupama Rao the charming Foreign Secretary who is expected to be appointed as the Special Envoy of India for Sri Lanka. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Let them come here as diplomats of India to Sri Lanka, which is a separate Independent and Sovereign State and not as representatives or ghosts of Karunanidi or Vaiko of South India. It is high tine that they stop talking about the Tamils in Sri Lanka and their so-called grievances and aspirations and things like ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-a political solution to the Tamil problemƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ The more they tread this beaten track the more they make bilateral relation and the goodwill between the two countries difficult and problematic, confused and intractable; the more communal minded they make Lankan Tamils and distance them from the reality of Sri Lankanization and make life miserable for all of us for generations to come.

18 Responses to “The Mania that is “Tamils of Indian origin” The Bane of Sri Lanka”

  1. Sunil Vijaya Says:

    If Sinhala people did not inherit Buddhism and followed Hinduism, as most Indians in North and South do, our Aryan brethren in the North would have not seen us separate from Tamils. Ravana’s efigys are burnt all over in India every year on a specific day celebrating the liberation. Our British friends added fuel to the fire by adding Tamils to work on their plantations as we Sinhalese refused to work under them as we saw the destruction of mega proportions to our hill country flora and fauna, to the tune of half a million acres of pristine tropical forests and jungles. Between two Englishmen, 4000 elephants in the hill country were destroyed to pave way for Tea, and probably trillion timber would have ended up in England. The upcountry hills in are turning into meadows as happened in England when Anglo chased the Irish from their home land and destroyed all forests for grazing. Although the topic here is the problem of Tamils of Indian origin, I am just going on a tangent to show another related issue. I met a girl in an up country train, a Tamil who worked in the plantations, who had a sister living in Sydney. I asked her why not emigrate to Australia? She gave me an answer which brought tears into my eyes. “This is MY COUNTRY, I WILL NEVER LEAVE SRI LANKA’. Even when I write this it brings tears into my eyes.

  2. Ramanie Says:

    I completely agree with all what Dr Gunasekera has to say.

    There wasn’t a single Tamil in Jaffna prior to the Dutch colonisation of SL in 1700s and the Hill Country was entirly sinhala land prior to the English colonial period in the 1800s. The Dutch were as ruthless as the British in their single-minded strategy to break the spirit of the Sinhala and to put a stop to Sinhala rebellion against them – they realised that the importation and settling of South Indian slave labour in pockets amidst the Sinhalese was a sure fix against the Sinhala resistance. The Dutch brought over Tamils from South India to SL, Maldives, Malaya, Madagascar, South Africa and several other countries during the same period. In Jaffna they were employed to grow tobacco on forcefully confiscated land and the Dutch also rewarded the immigrant labour with the Thesawaamei law to safeguard the continuation of their new land ownership in the new country. It is bad enough that Sinhalese lost their heritage to the Indian Tamils during both the Dutch and English times. As far as the Tamil is concerned time stops at the point when the land was forcefully snatched from the original owners and handed over to themselves by the colonial powers. It is all “Tamil Land” now- no mention of the original land owners who hels those lands for thousands of years! Since independence no Sinhala leader has ever bothered about those families who lost their traditional land during Dutch and English colonial times. We as a nation need to investigate the fate that befell those families that lost land this way and make amends to their living decendents. If ever there was a need for a Commission of Inquiry it will be for this purpose.

    We still let the Indian administration walk all over us. Rao woman has been meddling in SL for the last 15 years or so politically trying to achieve the same end that Prabhakaran tried to achieve through violence. Our tragedy is that when our own leaders get to the top they become subservient to the Indians and completely forget the Sinhalese poor who raised them to that level. Does any leader even remeber the 25,000 Sinhala people who were evicted from the North in the recent times and who are now landless IDPs somewhere? What Rao does in this country amounts to instigating Tamils to make racist demands on the Govt of SL to craete unrest, communal discord and disharmony. We arrest people for far less than that! Rao is another Rama Mani- she needs to be given a permanant ‘persona non grata’ status by SL and told go stir up the Indian Tamils against the Indian Govt! ” Note the sentence “a long-term perspective that also includes issues relating to the political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities”; emphasis is on “that would meet some of the needs” – the political settlement Rao is talking about is only going to meet some of the “needs”! Not all of the needs! We basically have to hand over the whole damn lot to meet all of the needs of the minorities!

    We achieved a lot last year by straight talk and standing up to meddling foriegners! Why stop now- because the leaders are all fine- who cares about the poor? This must be an ongoing stance if we are ever to climb out of this down trodden status as a nation!

  3. Kit Athul Says:

    Anura Bandaranayake clearly stated in the parliament that this COW RAO was interfering in the Commercial sector in Sri Lanka. Immediately she was removed. Don’t we have any parliametarian that can challange this RAO COW and tell her that resettlement MUST be controlled by Sri Lankan Military because some of these TAMILS are real killers who have killed Sinhala military men. It must be clear to any reader what INDIA is attempting to do is make sure the majority in the Northern Province are TAMILS, regardless that they are INDIAN TAMILS or Jaffna TAMILS. What HARI KRISHNA”S Special envoy is going to do is to issue deeds to properties in villages so that no property is SL Government owned. Once the censes are completed INDIA wants the 200,000 Tamils living in Tamil Nadu camps be relocated so that Sinhala person cannot buy land in the northern province. INDIA has already told the Rajapkse administration that there is no land for the Sinhala in Northern province. This is the political solution that Hari Krishna forced on Sri Lanka. Ai Api Mokada mehema Modayo? Chidambaram Kochchiya told a public meeting in Virudhunager on July 18th 2010. He called Prabhakaran, the ruthless murderer killed by the Sri Lankan Army like a rabid dog, HUDISOODA MANNAN the uncrowned King of Northern and Eastern Provinces! Did any one politician challanged this INDIAN PUNK? No, why? Because the May 19th 2009 victory has not been absorbed by the SINHALA yet. Evolution is a very slow process that has to go back to 1875. But the final stages of this evolution process happend in lighting fast. Sinhala does not know yet, that the Eastern and Northern provinces belong to them. Pakistan helped SL in this war, do they want to control the Eastern Province? NO, nor do they want to establish consulates in Hambanttota. Time for Sinhala to boycott INDIAN Products.

  4. jayt Says:

    DR Sudath, you sound patriotic and at the same time, you are supporting Tamil tigers wish, south indian wish, are you sick or you are Sinhalese spy who work as a “messenger?

  5. Ben_silva Says:

    Excellent article and comments.
    There is a serious threat from India, who could be using Tamils as their proxies promoting Indian Interests and acting against Sri Lanka. Tamils have been used by the British and the Dutch as well as their proxies. Sri Lankan Tamils are Sri Lankan citizens and their loyalty should be to Sri Lanka. The welfare of all Sri Lankan citizens is the responsibility of GOSL. They should not however give preferential treatment to Tamils. Indians and other foreigners have unfairly given preferential treatment to Tamils and most Sinhalese have been silent. If Indians attempt to grab the loyalty of Tamils, then Sri Lankans including the Sinhalese may suspect Tamils to be hostile foreign operatives. Giving preferential treatment to Tamils by foreign Governments should not be allowed. The Sinhalese have lost a good part of their only homeland. We should not allow further decline of our only homeland. The economic power is mostly in the hands of non Sinhalese. Most of the coastline, for practical purposes is in the hands of Tamils. The cause of this decline has to be properly investigated. An Oxford Professor named Joseph Needham investigated why the Chinese were behind Europeans in science and Technology. He blamed the Chinese belief system, which included Taoism, Confucian beliefs and Buddhist beliefs for the Chinese decline.
    I believe that the cause of our decline is our own passive nature and not moving to the 21st century. Buddhism was wiped out by invaders, from countries in the silk route and also from Malaysia and Indonesia. Buddhists were too passive. Fortunately in the past, the sea protected us at least partially. That protection is not their in the modern world. If we want to survive, and arrest te decline, we need to think fresh and stop being passive. The passive native Americans were completely wiped out by invading Europeans. We need to learn world history, our history and learn lessons. We need to focus more on economic activity and development and less on Nirvana
    Ben Silva.

  6. Sunil Vijaya Says:

    Tempted to write again. Now this is the type of decent dialogue we should have here rather than resorting to low level language used by few. When we were kids I remember our uncles, when they had political arguments, used to talk about DMK as far back as 1950s. One of my uncles who was active in the Sooriyamal Movement and who escaped to India with NM, Philip etc., knew every move the DMK was making those early days (1930s onwards). Certainly South Indians had and still have an agenda to annexe the North and probably devour the whole country we Sinhalese built and every other race destroyed, icluding the barbaric British. I can boldly state this without a doubt. When Sinhala Buddhists love our country, others(majority of them) show allegance to South India, Pakistan and some to England and wouldn’t be dammed if Sri Lanka even exists on the map. We Buddhists are too passive no doubt and if only Moguls invaded our dear land today we would be Muslims – 100% and would have lost this precious Dhamma. The destruction of Buddhist monuments, monasteries and Nalanda in India is testament to marauding Moghul destruction. Well Ben do not worry, most Buddhists, including Bhikkus just talk about Nibbana, without understanding it and they will be around for a long time here. Long live Sri Lanka.

  7. jayt Says:

    This article contain very suspicious paragraph which came from white tigers in the west: they have been advocating to destroy Sinhalese identity which is the dream of South Indian and Tigers. And white tigers acted the feeling of Tigers and South Indian. Also, White Tigers have step up attack on Sinhalese pride in the last few weeks denying Sinhalese identity to saw Sinhalese that they are still a colonial power in Sri lanka.
    As a part of it, they helped tigers who feels inferiority complex to spy on innocent Sinhalese families Sri lanka to steel Sinhalese women into marriages to conspire against Sri Lanka state. This is the one of the thousand tools used by Western European white tiger spies to help tigers to hide and murder government mps, military, police, monks and Sinhalese children.
    Finally, White tigers won’t go away until Sri lankan convince them that there are Sri lankan spies who poses a threat to there interest in the Midle- east. India, Indo-china, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa and other part of the world. This is the reality and Sri lankan government have to stop talking and move to establish a global spy agency with men with backbone.

  8. anura seneviratna Says:

    Tragically most people who write and comment do not comprehend that “Tamil” or “Tamils of Indian origin” keeps emerging due to the wrongly named Island Country as Srilanka, hence a non existent nationhood called Srilankan crops up which in itself is clearly defined as MULTI-NATIONAL due to official acceptance of “Tamil”, “Muslim” and even “Christian” as separate entities. This is the only country who had grossly violated the inviolable national sovereignty of a Nation of People called Hela/Sinhela in their indigenous national motherland. As a result it is the ONLY citizenry of this bogus nation called Srilankans, who are negatively conditioned to make National Sovereignty stand on its head whereby committing national hara kiri. But they are totally oblivious to this grave danger, even in spite of living in host national countries where national sovereignty is upheld everywhere.

    “As the tradition goes they should be the citizens of the Sinhale: the land of the Sinhala people.”
    Well stated author, it is the absence of this Hela/Sinhela citizenry and the Hela/Sinhela nation status which is causing this endless conflict situation, which is none other than heinous attempts of invasion to turn Hela Island into a second Tamil Nadu (Tamil country).

    ” All these Indian politicians and mandarins labour and mourn day and night and talk about the Tamils of Indian origin, living in Sri Lanka, there by ignoring that Sinhalese are also of Indian origin.”

    While acknowledging Author’s many good pointers – here he knocks a suicidal blow to our Indigenous National Hela Sovereignty by saying that Helas/Sinhelas are also of Indian origin. No wonder Tamils of Tamil Nadu origin continue their claims to our tiny Island Country, in spite of the self-evident fact if we are of Indian origin there must be a Sinhela state in India like Tamil Nadu!

    ” What is worse is that now India wants the Tamils in Lanka not only to re-establish this so-called Jaffna kingdom but she also wants that to be extended to cover the entire northern province and annex the entirety of the eastern province as well,”

    This Indian pressure is wholly due to our inability to UPHOLD our national Hela/Sinhela Sovereignty to the island of Heladiva INCLUSIVE of all non indigenous minorities into a unitary nationhood as we always give Tamils and others separate entity status, without the slightest understanding of its serious implications. Some in the habit of often perceiving that any mention of our National Hela/Sinhela Sovereignty to be extremist, chauvinist or even racist without a clue to what National Sovereignty is as a fundamental human right of a Nation of People ONLY in their Indigenous National motherland. As long as this naivety and ignorance (ignoring truth), Tamil invasive threat will continue.
    The so called Jaffna kingdom blatantly proves that Tamils from Tamil Nadu came land robbing and to massacre Hela people, so robbing and crimes have no rights. In that case the then robber and terror nation of British occupied the whole island can now claim that Heladiva (SL) belonged to them. Due to abysmal understanding of our Rights of Sovereign Nationhood, not only Indians, Tamils but the world too will continue to pressure us to give into Tamil national demands. This bending over backwards, extreme tolerance and hospitality to outsiders is the result of our servile nature due to numerous foreign intrusions. To rise above this to human national dignity is NOW or NEVER!

    akn does not come within the equation of Nationhood of the Island Country wrongly named as Srilanka

  9. Sajith Says:

    All Tamils are from Tamil Nadu.

  10. Ramanie Says:

    Dear Anura Seneviratne, we do comprehend that the mis-naming of our country as “Sri Lanka” gives rise to the bogus claims of SL being a ‘multi-race’ country which also dilutes the position of the native Sinhala- in my case I just didn’t go into that because it is yet another substantial topic by itself and I was only commenting here. You are so right! When the British entered into an Agreement with the King of SL in 1815 that Agreement was between the English monarch and the King of Sinhale- not with the King of Sri Lanka. Having ceded soverignty to the British we the Sinhala allowed the English to bastardise our name to Ceylon – (of course we had no right to stop it then- we were the underdogs). When in 1948 we were handed back the island by the British our leaders did not have the presence of mind and the foresight to make sure that the island was handed back to the entity from which it was taken. We failed to insist that independece was given to Sinhale rather than Ceylon. One of the reasons for this ommission was that by then the Oxford educated, English speaking, Cinnamom Gardens resident, elitist Tamils had been clamouring to take the lion’s share of the power of the country for their Tamil Nation. The British had fed milk and brought up the snake of Tamil Nationalism during their tenure to keep the Sinhala down; and by 1948 Tamils were screaming for apartied and in SL. To the credit of the British, at that point, they told the Tamils ‘No- you may not!’- by then colonial attitudes were going out of fashion in Europe and they were already aware of the embarrasment that apartied ridden South Africa was proving to be. I guess the Sinhala leaders of the era had a lot on their plate- a big proportion of what was on their plates was the Tamil agression, boycotts, hartals, demands for ’50-50 as a minimum’ and enmerging anti-Sinhala rhetoric which we now know were leading to the Vadukkodai resolution!

    Yes, we should have corrected this injustice in 1971 when Mrs Bandaranaike brought in the new constitution and renamed Ceylon to Sri Lanka! It is still not too late! I feel like minded people in this forum should get together and the starting point could be researching our archives etc regarding Sinhala people who lost their land through alienation by the Dutch, British and the LTTE and bringing forward those very legitimate claims!

  11. Lorenzo Says:

    Ramanie,

    Do you mean to say Ceylon is at the least more appropriate than Sri Lanka?

    This country was known as Lanka even before it was known as Sinhale. I think that was the rationale behind the name.

  12. Ramanie Says:

    Lorenzo,

    I have no idea where you got the notion that I said Ceylon is a good name for Sri Lanka! No I do not “mean to say Ceylon is at the least more appropriate than Sri Lanka”.

  13. Sunil Vijaya Says:

    Yes let us petition the President to change the name to Heladiva and make Anuradhapura the capital of Sri Lanka. (Although some of us are clearly post-Vijaya decendants, who would prefer Sri Lanka). I think the name Ceylon was an abberation of Seilan, coined by Marco Polo and we wouldn’t know why he called it Seilan. One Greek sailor too has called it Sielan diva.(wikipedia) Some ancients coined Taprobane as they saw us as ‘copper coloured people’. Our country had record number of names; Heladiva, Heladeepa, Thambapani, Lankadeepa(Buddhist scripts) , Sinhaladeepa, Taprobane, Serendip Island, Seilan, Ceylon and host of other names by Chinese and rest of the world.

  14. Kit Athul Says:

    Uniformed SINHALA – a lack of awareness on how INDIA is attemting to annex the Northern Province in the past, today and in the future. India will never allow the 13th amedment to be repelled. First, it was written by Rajiv Gandhi. Secondly it clears the path to annex Northern Province to create Greater Tamil Nadu. OK what next! The tea estates! It goes back to 1939 when Jawharlal Neru came to then Ceylon and wrote a constitution to do all the above. He gave this document to Thondaman. This is whst I call LACK OF AWARENESS of SINHALA. I suggest Mr. Ben Silva write on this subject. Let’s start a movement to boycott Indian made goods. I got this idea from Mr. Ben Silva’s comments. Late Kotagama Wacheesera, before he got all the Phd’s he was teaching at Ananda College Maradana and I was a student there. He used to say that; all Mahanayke’s do is to “Bulath Kela Padikkam purava prave Buth gasa gasa inie” and do nothing. So let’s leave Nirvana a side and neutralize this INDIAN cancer.

  15. Gangdhi Says:

    Indians are the colonial parasites (word I do not like to use) of the British Empire.

  16. Ben_silva Says:

    Good contributions from many. Ramani is absolutely right when she said “Cinnamom Gardens resident, elitist Tamils had been clamouring to take the lion’s share of the power of the country for their Tamil Nation” It appears tat the Tamils were ‘with it’ and upto date on current affairs. It shows that if we are not ‘with it ‘ and upto date on current affars we may be second class citizens in our own country. My view is that, whilst respecting and safeguarding our heritage, we need to move to the 21st century. We also need to investigate how the Sinhalese who had a lead in technology during the ancient days become second class citizens in their own country. There are lessons to be learnt from the extinction of native Indians and so on and the eradication of Buddhism from countries in the silk route My view is learn the rules of the 21st century and be active in the economic field. It may also be worthwhile to investigate the reasons for our decline and prevent further decay. As Sunil indicated if Moguls invaded us we would have been Muslims and some may be even preaching Muslim religion. Malays were Buddhists before, but after the Cholas invaded Malaysia, they hated any thing India. As Buddhism came from India, they became anti Buddhist and Muslims. As for religion, it is an ancient thing and the world has moved on. The famed science fiction writer, A Clark, who once denigrated religion as “a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. He was so anti religion that he did not want any religeous rights at his funeral. B.Russell has said . I regard it as a disease born of fear
    We have to be aware that the modern world is competitive, and we cannot live in the past and if we are not competitive enough, we would be left behind. It is worthwhile considering the view of some on telegion given below.
    Religion is a virus that invades a host, the human mind, and as with any virus, it takes over the host and uses that host for the sordid purposes of reproduction of the virus itself and the infection of other hosts. Like other viruses it competes with other parasites, such as other mind-viruses.

  17. M.S.MUdali Says:

    “Indian Tamils” are the people from the estates and not from other places. “Sri Lankan Tamils” are the people who exist from the days before ELARA and the people brought to Sri lanka before English.

    Barking against India is nothing new to the historians or Lanka observers.

    Further this author bark to “CHANGE” Arumugam to BANDA. What a colonial crap he suggest! Did this man get the idea from the Brits who took away the native children in Canada and changed them with Brit names and religion under the supervision of Catholic/Anglican churches? In Australia, the Church still have the policy of kill native and rape the woman to bring a new race. This “Dr. , Former Secratary of Ministry (SLAS)” wants that kind of colonial crimes to be taken place in Sri Lanka.

    This kind of uncivilised moronic ideas of Sinhalese though they claim they are educated will make more Indian intervention!

    Now the monster is CHRISTIAN educated Sinhalese and not the Tamils but the patriotic people of Sri Lanka will run to India to get help like our Kings and Queens!

  18. Naram Says:

    Interesting to hear about who is a Tamil ofIndian origin.

    My little acquired knowledge onthe subject is that Sri Lanka has always been a hospitable country and many folks from many nationalities have joined us and enriched our culture. The more recent immigrants who settled in enclaves sadly did not and have not mergedin into the mainstream it was in the interest of the imperial masters to keep the lot separate as indentures labour living in lines.

    The short reign of Sankili in the late 16th century craeated the cast ridden enclave of Jaffna. Landowning Sinhalas were expropriated. Good number were massacred, and a new cast ‘Koviars’ created for the landless sinhala folks.

    In the Dutch times thousands were brought to work in the Tobacco plantations. Dutch navy helped the workedup the search for ‘Royal’ blood to establish the right of a king in 1750s and that was the start of Nayakkar clan but even they mergedinto the mainstraem.

    In the British times younger generation was slaughtered rest expropriated to make way for new plantations. THe Chelvanayagam’s claim of an ancestry dating back to Cholakingsishisown creation. More likely that these folks can trace their roots to mmigrant tonbacco farmers.

    That is not in any way amatterto be ashamed of.

    Withhard work, helped by the largesseof the imperial powers that preferred the immigrantf olks who speak a different tongue than the natives to run the ramshackle government of the time they prospered. However anindependent soverign Sri Lanka hasa duty to to treat both the impoverished folks of Wellassa and upwardly mobileJaffna folksequally.

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