Chelvanayakam – Father of Vadukoddai Resolution that killed the Tamils -Part V
Posted on January 14th, 2016
H. L. D. Mahindapala
Long after his death, the macabre shadow of Velupillai Prabhakaran continues to stalk the peninsula, darkening the neck of Jaffna with the coagulated blood of those Tamils who sacrificed their lives for a cause that failed. In the end, their sacrifices turned the North into one mass graveyard that buried practically everything cherished by the Tamils except their folly, arrogance, hate politics and myths glorifying Tamil greatness that is not found in the pages of recorded history. The post-independent history of Jaffna was essentially a movement to create,if possible, and actualise Tamil greatness which existed only in the minds of the deluded Tamils.
- J. V. Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Prabhakaran are the two Tamil leaders who attempted to transform fictitious Tamil greatness into a historical fact by establishing a separate state. With typical Tamil arrogance that rejects peaceful co-existence in a multi-ethnic nation Chelvanayakam announced that the Sinhalese were not big enough to rule the Tamils” (p. 128 – S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947 – 1977, A Political Biography, Lake House Bookshop, 1993). His solution to bring down to earth the pie-in-the-sky Tamil greatness was to establish Eelam. That fitted into his sense of superiority. He dismissed with contempt those who refused to join his Jaffna-centric bandwagon. Like most of the upper-caste Vellahlas his universe began and ended with Jaffna. Factors outside the periphery of the Jaffna-centric culture were denigrated and rejected as inferior because they threatened their assumed sense of superiority. For instance, he had utter contempt for his rival G. G. Ponnambalam who opted to work with the Sinhala governments”. He branded Ponnambalam as a thief” (p.72 – Ibid). After his break-up in 1948 he dismissed Ponnambalam as an opportunist.” (p.36 – Ibid). Ponnambalam was relegated to a corner of his mind where he remained as an implacable foe” to the end of time.
With more than a touch of contempt he also labelled the Tamils of Batticoloa as the trousered people of Batticoloa” ( p. 32 – Ibid) though one of his main political strategies was to get the Tamil-speaking Muslims, Indians estate workers and the Eastern Tamils under his umbrella of the iyakkum (movement) of Thamil Payasooom Makkal (Tamil-speaking people) as opposed to Thamil Makkal (Tamil people). But the Muslims and the Indian Tamils were not drawn to his Jaffna-centric political agenda of Jaffna-centric extremism.
Chelvanayakam’s attempt to spread his tentacles into the other two Tamil-speaking minorities failed. They were suspicious of his Jaffna-centric agenda, consisting mainly of a separate state and Vadukoddai violence. Both Chelvanayakam and Prabhakaran failed – and failed miserably – primarily because they refused to accept the opportunities that came their way to resolve differences like the other two Tamil-speaking community leaders through non-violent means. Indian and Muslim community leaders succeeded because they refused to accept his leadership and his Vadukoddai violence aimed primarily to glorify Tamil greatness. Both leaders directed their energies to establish Tamil greatness by carving out a separate state based on borders imagined by Tamil cartographers. Both Tamil leaders failed because of their intransigent and arrogant belief that violence could force the break-up of the nation.
First, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the father of Tamil separatism, laid the ideological foundations to drive his campaign to attain Eelam. He officially launched his Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK, disguised in English as Federal Party) on December 18, 1949 at the Government Clerical Service Union in the Colombo suburb of Maradana. By 1976 when he discovered that he can never be a Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, (1947), or a Sheik Mujubir Rahman, the father of Bangladesh, (1972) he steered the Vadukoddai Resolution at the Vadukoddai Convention (1976) legitimising violence to attain his elusive Eelam. Second, out of the military solution legitimised in the Vadukoddai Resolution came the armed Vadukoddai children who turned their guns first on the fathers of the Vadukoddai Resolution. Chelvanayakam’s military solution was a futile exercise doomed from the start because Prabhakaran, the Tamil leader assigned to deliver Eelam, was more keen on killing Tamils than the non-Tamils. In the end the Vadukoddai Resolution ran out of Tamils to fight for the Vadukoddai Resolution – the high point of Tamil arrogance and imagined greatness.
Imagining Tamil greatness, which was never there in the first place, has been an obsession fixated in the Tamil psyche. Looking for the missing greatness has been like Chelvanayakam looking for his missing father. His father brought him from Ipoh. a town in Malaysia, and left him with his mother in Tellipallai in 1902 when he was four and the young boy never saw his father ever again, except once when his father was in his death bed in Malaysia. The void caused by the absence of a father warped his psyche. His biographer, Prof. A. J. Wilson, who knew him better than anyone else, wrote: The absence of his father from home in his formative years was a key factor in his development. Living in a social ethos that was and still is male-centred, he witnessed the daily discomforts and petty humiliations suffered by the mother whom he revered. He could not compensate for this lack of a paternal presence; he could merely repress it by his own conscious will.” (p.viii – Ibid). Prof. Wilson cannot be challenged on this because of his intimate knowledge of Chelvanayakam and his politics. In analysing Chelvanayakam’s career and character from within” he wrote: … I knew him intimately and was privy to his innermost political thoughts between 1953 and 1977. ”(p.viii – Ibid). Besides, as his son-in-law he would have worked intimately with his father-in-law who would have been a gold mine to him as he was specialising in political science.
Prof. Wilson makes it abundantly clear that there was nothing in Chelvanayakam’s life that could compensate for this lack of paternal presence.” The emotional pressures would have left indelible mental scars. Prof. Wilson added: Chelvanayakam’s separation from his father, growing up with only his mother and two brothers and sister, left its mark. The family system in Tellipalli placed a premium on the presence of a father in the home. In the extended Ceylon Tamil family system the nearest uncle fulfilled the paternal role, and Chelvanayakam’s maternal uncle, S. K. Ponnaiah, a minister of the then Church of England in Ceylon, attempted to act as his guide. However, despite fine qualities and many friends in the elite circles of Colombo, he could not fill the gap in the young man’s life.” (p 5. – Ibid).
The humiliations in his early life and his repressions would have been the factors that caused him to withdraw into his Tamilness as an internal defensive mechanism. A boy thrown into an alien, threatening milieu, without the comforting and confidence-building hand of a father protecting him, could only be bundle of insecure nerves. Not only young Chelvanayakam the entire family felt the absence of the father. The Velupillai household lacked a vital element with the absence of the father, and Chelvanayakam’s mother felt diminished in the company of her sister and brothers and their spouses. In that world women needed to have husbands to make the family unit complete.” (p.1 – Ibid). Isolated as a repressed and humiliated youth Chelvanayakam found his comfort zone only in exclusive Tamil institutions and territory. Besides, growing up in Tellipallai, a village deep in the heart of Jaffna and nearest to Tamil Nadu, contributed to his being essentially a Tamil village man”, a label which he was proud to claim even when he was moving in the highest circles in Colombo. Even though he was a Christian he made sure that he was not alienated from the Hindu society that dominated his world. He therefore made the paradoxical claim that he was a Christian by religion and Hindu by culture”, says Prof. Wilson (ibid- p.4).
The Jaffna Tamil Christians were faced with the dilemma of being a Christian in a predominantly Hindu culture. Some of them like Fr. S. J. Emmanuel, the Vicar of Jaffna, openly declared that he was a Tamil first and a Christian second. To prove their worth to the Jaffnaites they also tried to hijack Christianity to serve the political agenda of Tamils. The first missionaries tried to convert Hindus into Christians. But the Christians of the 20th century went the other way about : their aim was to make Christianity serve the Tamil political agenda. However, the overweening factor that dominated their minds was just not Tamilness but the sense of being superior to all other ethnic groups that accompanied Tamilness. Chelvanayakam consoled his conscience by having one foot in each tabernacle. He got away by saying that he was a Christian by religion and Hindu by culture. Prof. Wilson says that he was able to function as a convinced Christian while retaining in himself those aspects of Hinduism which he felt were quintessentially Tamil.” (p 4. – Ibid)
Besides, (T)he cultural effects of his formative environments were strong…..” and he clung on to the Hindu culture which made him quintessentially Tamil”. His sense of insecurity caused by the lack of paternal presence” would have driven him to find security only by identifying his being with the larger community of Hindu Tamils. That feeling of being one with the Tamils made him feel great too. In short, Tamil communalism was his substitute for the missing father. Prof. Wilson confirms this when he states that he decided to play the role of the father for the Tamils because he had no father. From all available accounts there is no doubt that the intense impact of the lack of paternal protection played a key role in shaping his youth and political life.
His mind was buried deeply in Tamilness. He had nothing else to hang on to as an alternative to his father. His isolation was deepened by being a Christian in a Hindu world. In the political culture of Jaffna there was a stigma attached to it from the time the missionaries set foot in Jaffna. Arumuka Navalar, (1822 – 1879), the Pope of Vellahla casteism, ran this anti-Christian movement It did not impact on Chelvanayakam adversely because he identified himself with the Hindu culture in everything except religious rituals and the plethora of Hindu gods. But he aligned himself with Saivite Vellahla socio-economic hegemony of Jaffna to the extreme point of going along with the casteist politics of the Vellahlas.
Politically it would have been suicidal for him to be thrown out of the dominant Vellahla upper caste. No Tamil leader could risk that isolation. In peninsular politics where the ambition of every Tamil leader is to be the sole representative of the Tamils” – and this is a trait that ran from Sankili to Prabhakaran — his biggest dread was to be isolated from his community. He refused to buy a house in Colombo fearing that its multi-cultural cosmopolitanism would pollute the purity of his children’s Tamil minds. Anything alien to his familiar Tamil culture was abhorrent to his closed mind. Even when it came to his Christian religion he jumped, at the first opportunity, from the Church of England, as it was known then in colonial times, to the Church of South India when it opened a place of worship in Colombo. (p.4 – Ibid). Chelvanayakam’s repressed personality is written all over in his dogged personality that hid behind Tamil communalism as the answer to his personal problems as well as that of the Tamils.
He was no different to the other Tamil who found confirmation of their greatness only by convincing themselves that they are superior to everyone else. The fact that the Tamil segment of history is bereft of any notable leaders or original achievements did not disturb their mythical beliefs in Tamil greatness. It must be emphasized that the native Tamils of their only homeland in Tamil Nadu achieved great cultural heights but not their carbon copies in Jaffna. But driven by their imagined sense of superiority they felt that they deserve a separate state. They felt it infra dig to play second fiddle in a state dominated by another non-Tamil ethnic community. The acquisition of a state by a stateless people naturally confers a sense of superiority though not security as seen under the leadership of the Tamil Pol Pot.
Chelvanayakam’s political ideology of separatism was linked to this claim of Tamil superiority – a claim which is also allied to his sense of insecurity which he acquired from his fatherless home in Tellipallai. That sense of superiority demands a separate existence from alien territory which is threatening their sense of superiority. It is obvious that only a community obsessed with their imagined greatness would contemplate writing a theology in praise of their glory derived from their special relationship with God. The insecurity caused by the absence of a father in the family was off set only by identifying himself with a collective gathering of Tamils – and that too only from Jaffna.
When the fragments of Chelvanayakam’s political personality are put together it can be seen that his inner compulsions had played a key role in determining his politics. He has been a complex character with a narrow vision driven by mono-ethnic extremism. By 1976 he had been many things to many people. He had been a Gandhian pacifist and also a Vadukoddian militant. He had been a Christian and also a Hindu who dared not to disturb his casteist universe. His ambition was to be a Jinnah or Sheik Mujubir Rahaman of Sri Lanka but he ended up as the Pied Piper of Jaffna who lured his people like the rats of Hamelin to their watery grave in Nandikadal. His notable political legacy was the Vadukoddai Resolution which he handed to his political children who ran amok with the violence he legitimised. His Gandhian pose deceived many of his followers.
My memory goes back to the day when I was climbing the stairs of the old Parliament after lunch. I caught up with Dr. E. M. V. Naganathan, a leading light of the Federal Party, who was labouring to climb the stairs. He put his hand on on my shoulder to prop himself up, every step of the way. On the way up he was chatting and what he told me about Chelvanayakam made me think. He said that Chelvanayakam is able to maintain his saintly Gandhian pose because of his Parkinsons disease. Then it struck me that It was indeed his feebleness that made him look like a quiet Gandhian, though in reality he was a tough Vadukoddian committed to the military solution – a solution which he knew would lead to the deaths of countless Tamils and, of course, non-Tamils. He was not averse to the brutal consequences of war as long as it brought him his Eelam. But he failed.
Taking an overview, it is not possible to escape the overwhelming question : Were the traumatised Sri Lankans – from Point Pedro to Dondra – tormented,persecuted and made to pay with their lives for 33 years because Chelvanayakam did not have a father?
To be continued
January 13th, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Mahinda:
“Long after his death, the macabre shadow of Velupillai Prabhakaran continues to stalk the peninsula, darkening the neck of Jaffna with the coagulated blood of those Tamils who sacrificed their lives for a cause that failed.”
Here we go again. Parabakaran and Chelwanayakam are both Indian colonel parasites and worked for the supremacy of Indian colonial parasites in the island.
If you look at what is happening in the island you will see how the Indian Empire is achieving its goal of taking over the island.
Please go for a walk in Colombo and a drive at least in Malay Nadu to see what Indian colonial parasites are up to.
January 13th, 2016 at 6:20 pm
SL never acted PROACTIVELY on threats.
We always wait till the s**t hits the fan. Timely elimination of Tamil Elamist leaders and some JVP top leaders would have saved THENS OF THOUSANDS of lives.
Unfortunately religions have made people foolish. People have to give religion the due place and stop at that. What needs to be done for national security got to be done even if it means UNPROVOKED surgical operations.
This is what all other countries do.
JVP terror stopped when the JVP leader was FINALLY killed in 1989.
Tamil terror stopped when the LTTE leader was FINALLY killed in 2009.
GOSL had many opportunities to kill them before but didn’t do it for good reasons.
January 13th, 2016 at 6:30 pm
Kithsiri,
Not just Tamilians some Singhala Buddhist people are also parasites. They want SOMEONE to save them from terror but AFTER getting that help, they CONDEMN that act and want to PUNISH the doer for that act!! Typical parasite behavior.
e.g. What will happen to SL if KUNDIMANI was not killed in July 1983?
In 1987 Endia got ALL terrorists released. They went back to LTTE and started killed. What KUNDIMANI would have done is UNTHINKABLE!!
e.g. What will happen to SL if RAVIRAJ was not killed in 2007?
Then TNA would be WORSE racist. He was appointed by VP to lead the TNA.
e.g. What will happen to SL if T MAHESWARAN was not killed in 2009?
His ships would have brought MORE LTTE planes through South Africa.
e.g. What will happen to SL if PONNAMBALAM was not killed in 2000?
Then SL will have another TNA to deal with.
e.g. What will happen to SL if BALUCHANDRAN was not killed in 2009?
Then LTTE would be killing people now under his leadership!!
e.g. What will happen to SL if SUNIL RATNAYAKA didn’t kill LTTE infiltrators in 1999?
Many more soldiers would have died.
Singhala modayas want to ENJOY the fruits of peace but don’t want to give credit where it is due when some “bad” things have been done to save them.
January 13th, 2016 at 6:45 pm
They want to eat chicken (“kukula mas”) but don’t want to kill the bird. After you chop its head off, it still struggles in madness. They consider the butcher to be a bad person getting bad karma!!
They want to eat devilled beef but don’t want to kill the cow. The cow’s blood vessel under its neck is pierced spraying blood everywhere. They consider the butcher to be a bad person getting bad karma!!
They want to eat fish but don’t want to kill the fish. When the fish is caught in a net and pulled up, it struggles unable to breathe. They consider the karawa fisherman to be a bad person getting bad karma!!
What madness is this! Either you stop eating flesh or you embrace the ACT of producing it. No need to glorify it but ACCEPT the NEED to kill to have the food you eat.
The same thing applies to SAFETY AND SECURITY of people. Bad people must be eliminated early to save tens of thousands of lives. At the time of elimination they have NOT killed!! That is the point.
January 13th, 2016 at 7:02 pm
From the 13th century when migration of Vellalar to Jaffna took place, Tamil Nadu has seen a decline in the traditional power of Vellalar. Successive colonial powers in Sri Lanka found Vellalar useful where Brahmins were not forthcoming. The Vellalar were not only cultivators, but a section of them which had developed scribal skills, provided the local officials, interpreters and accountants.
In 1847, Kandar Arumukampillai(aka Arumuga Navalar) left the Jaffna Central College where he was a teacher because a ‘low caste’ Tamil student from the Nalavar caste was admitted to the school by the principal Peter Percival. Three decades later when a famine hit Northern Sri Lanka Kandar Arumukampillai worked tirelessly to provide food and medicine to Vellalar only.
The lower caste Tamil speaking Sri Lnakans were treated as stray dogs by Vellalar. Caste system among Tamil speaking Sri Lankans has given rise to serious social evils. It denied certain civil rights to a large number of people and let to the oppressions and exploitations by Vellalar, which paved a constant source of discontent or unrest.
In 1871, Caste clashes erupted between Vellalar, Dhoby caste and Barber caste in Mavittapuram when Dhoby caste people refused to wash the clothes of Barber caste people. Vellalar were blamed for the violence.
September 1923 in Suthumalai, Vellalar attacked lower caste people who had hired drummers for a funeral alleging that lower caste people had no right to employ drummers for their funerals as they were ‘low caste’. In 1931 a similar violent riot took place in Chankanai where Pallar were attacked by Vellalar people for hiring drummers for a funeral.
Do Tamil speaking Sri Lankans need to be reminded that they did not allow low castes to enter any place that Vellalar frequented? In June 1929 caste riots broke out again in Jaffna in response to the ‘equal seating directive’ of the government which was applicable to grant-aided schools. Under this directive ‘low caste’ students were allowed to sit on the bench. Until then they sat either on the floor or outside the classroom. This was how Tamil speaking Sri Lankans treated their own! Resultant riots bunt a large number of houses mainly of low caste Tamils. Their children en masse were stopped from attending schools. Repeated petitions were made to the government by Vellalar begging to cancel the directive! Ponnambalam Ramanathan went to request the Colonial Office in London to encode caste into legislative enactments. Ponnambalm Ramanathan also opposed the introduction of adult franchise on the ground that it would give the lower caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans the right to vote.
In 1931 the Vellalar attacked the lower castes for hiring drummers for funerals. The message of the Vellalar was clear – no low castes could hire drummers for funerals!
Even after Independence, the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankans hardly knew of the existence of the lowwe caste Tamil speaking Sri lankans. As far as the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan leaders were concerned the Tamil speaking Sri Lankans whom they met in Colombo, the leaders of Tamil Congress and the Federal Party, the Tamil speaking professionals and academics, and the Tamil speaking public servants were the real Tamil speaking Sri Lankans, indeed they were only Vellalar!
It was S.W.R.D Bandaranaike who opened the doors for low caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans to attend schools & temples – places that were taboo to them by their own Tamil speaking brethren.
The Social Disabilities Act No. 21 was passed in the parliament in 1957 giving lower castes of Tamil speaking Sri Lankans the right to attend schools & temples as the part of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike’s plan was to penetrate into the “low caste” votes of Tamil speaking Sri Lankans.
Lower castes Tamil speaking Sri Lankan children could attend school regularly only after this act. A reawakening happened in the north among previously marginalised lower caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans.
No sooner Vellalar realized the dangers of SLFP government led by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike courting the low caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans, Vellalar devised their response. It was to create the best division possible. A rift between the Tamil speaking Sri Lankans and Sinhala speaking Sri Lankans which would strike better success than low caste – Vellalar divisions among Tamil speaking Sri Lankans. It is important to note that the satyagrahas, the tarring of Sinhala letter “SRI” instead of English letters on vehicle licence plates launched by the Veluppilai Chelvanayagam led Federal Party and G.G Ponnambalam led Tamil Congress – both Vellala high class political parties happened a year after making Sinhala the official language. Why did Federal Party and Tamil Congress not cry foul over the Sinhala Only Act in 1956 but oppose the Social Disabilities Act on 1957 with such venom? It is because Tamil speaking Sri Lankans wanted to deprive their own.
Wijeyananda Dahanayake who was the Minister of Education in 1957, gave teaching appointments to many lower caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans who had three credit passes in the S.S.C Exam (G.C.E O/L). Appapillai Amirthalingam who was an Federal Party MP then, opposed this move under the pretext that it would bring down educational standards.
Similarly, when the Sirimavo R.D.Bandaranaike led SLFP Government introduced university standardization in 1973 those that opposed were those who were against equitable distribution. The schools in thirteen out of twenty two districts did not produce a single engineering or medicine student until 1974. Students from Colombo and Jaffna who had been privy to education opposed opportunities that would be enjoyed by students from Mannar, Monaragala, Vavuniya, Ampara, Kilinochchi & other less developed districts. While the composition of the ethnicity did not change entrance, for Tamil speaking Sri Lankans it meant not only the Vellalar but lower caste Tamil speaking Sri Lankans too would gain university entrance. This was why Vellalar opposed the 1973 university standardization introduced by Srimavo Bandaranaike led SLFP Government.
Tamil speaking Sri Lankans who cry “discrimination” may like to recall how in the refugee camps during the 1983 riots Vellalar refused to share common toilet facilities with the low castes and a lot of problems arose inside the very camps housing only Tamil speaking Sri Lankans!
During the colonial time Vellalar and the Madapalli castes who provided most of the Mudaliyars to village headman who owned most of the arable land. Below the Vellalar were the Koviar who were also involved in agriculture. The people of the fishing castes, collectively known as the Karaiyar, were independent of this social structure to which the landed communities were bound. The Chettys were well known as traders and owners of Hindu temples and the Pallar and the Nalavar composed of the landless labourers who tilled the land. Other castes composed of traditional barbers, washers, potters and general service providers. In Jaffna Paraiyar lived in segregated settlements and were the untouchables, just as in the modern Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Under Tamil leadership in Jaffna Thurumbar – washers for toddy tappers and other low-caste families were not allowed to walk in daytime just in case their sighting would pollute the pure eyes of the Vellalar. The Thurumbar had to drag a branch behind to wipe the footsteps they leave when they walk at midnight so that the feet of the Vellalar would not be polluted next day by treading on low-caste footprints. Schools attended by low-caste children were burnt and low-caste students physically assaulted. Velupillai Prabhakaran perfected the fascistic culture of Tamil violence with his cult of violence that was not restrained by basic values of humanity. Torture, murder, incarceration, kangaroo courts, feeding Tamil dissidents to crocodiles in the Iranamadu tank, kidnapping teenage school children from the care of their parents and throwing them as sacrificial lambs to a war he could not win were all a part of his cult of violence which was glorified by the Tamil Diaspora. The Tamil Diaspora wallowed lustily in Velupillai Prabhakaran’s violence. The sadism of the Tamil Diaspora was demonstrated by the increase in the collection of funds abroad each time Velupillai Prabhakaran went on a killing spree. Their heroism was expressed in filling the war chests of Velupillai Prabhakaran led LTTE. Each time the Tamil Diaspora oiled the killing machine of Velupillai Prabhakaran led LTTE it was the Tamils left behind who had to pay with their lives. The Jaffna Tamil culture gave no choice to the Tamils: it was either fascism of Vellalar or fascism of Velupillai Prabhakaran. In the north the Jaffna Tamil leadership failed the Jagffna people under both regimes. They never qualified to be just and fair leaders/rulers of the Jaffna people. The violence directed against their own people has condemned the Jaffna Tamil leadership as the most unbearable, unacceptable Pol Pots of our time. With all its infirmities there was democracy and liberal space in the south. In the north, fascism and violence became a common existential experience of daily life. The evil in the Jaffna Tamil culture, which was transmitted to Velupillai Prabhakaran, is represented precisely and accurately in the LTTE flag flown by the Tamil Diaspora as their symbol of pride and glory. It is the most obscene flag under the sun. There isn’t a single redeeming feature in it to project the Tamils as members of a civilized race. Its violent symbols – a snarling tiger putting his carnivorous head out of a ring of thirty-three bullets placed against two crossed guns fixed with bayonets – represent only a barbaric, blood-thirsty violence culture inherited from the Vellalar. Every inch of the LTTE flag questions the values of the Jaffna Tamils and their capacity to co-exist with other communities in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious world. The misguided Tamils might read it as a sign of their power. But where have their tigers, bullets, guns and bayonets taken them? It is a flag that is comparable only to the skull and cross-bones of the marauding pirates. It is a flag that can only lead the Tamils to further deaths and destruction under another fascist leadership. And yet the Tamil Diaspora continues to hero worship Velupillai Prabhakaran, the designer of the hideous flag. Tamil Diaspora seems to be possessed by the fascist DNA of their Tamil forefathers who despised their own people and kicked them around as if they were pariah dogs. In a sense, it is fitting that Tamil Diaspora should fly this flag because it not only exhibits their vile past but guarantees that the future will be no different. The confrontations, aggression and violence came only from the racist Jaffna Tamils, who exploited the issue to drag Jaffna deeper into mono-ethnic extremism. They succeeded in disguising their economic and class interests and promoting it as an act of discrimination against the Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans. The Tamil language issue was driven aggressively only by the racist Jaffna Tamils and not by the Tamil-speaking plantation workers, Tamil speaking Muslims or the non-Vellala Tamils of the eastern province. The aggression and violence of the racist Jaffna Tamils proved the ruling class will not give up power without a struggle. And true to the barbaric character of the Jaffna Tamils they declared war on the rest of Sri Lanka by passing the Vadukoddai Resolution in 1976 – the period when Tamil supremacy was in its last legs. Racist Vellalar of Jaffna were the founders of the fascist culture in Jaffna. Despite the civilized veneer presented to the outside world, Jaffna Tamils ran a fascistic regime reducing the depressed Tamils to slaves. Jaffna Vellalar’s cruel caste system has no other parallel in any other part of Sri Lanka. Jaffna Vellalar virtually had a free run of the Jaffna peninsula because the colonial rulers turned a blind eye to the subhuman Jaffna Vellalar culture of violence. Thesavalamai legitimized slavery and the Jaffna Vellala slave-owners ruled the peninsula with an iron fist, with the Portuguese, Dutch and English colonial administrators often refusing to interfere in the laws and customs of the ruling caste and class. Thesa (land) walamai (laws and customs) legitimized the land-owning Jaffna Vellalar as the slave-masters of Jaffna peninsula. From feudal and colonial times until May 18, 2009 when the Tamil cult of violence sank in Mullivaykal, Jaffna peninsula was under the jackboot of, first, Vellala fascism followed, second, by their equally brutal fascists – Velupillai Prabhakaran led LTTE. Both Vellalar and Velupillai Prabhakaran led LTTE oppressed and subjugated Tamils and denied their victims the fundamental right to live with even a modicum of dignity and self-respect. The LTTE took over from where the Vellalar left and perpetuated the cult of fascist violence which reduced the Jaffna Tamils to subhumans.
January 13th, 2016 at 9:20 pm
From 1971 to 2009 Sri Lanka is a country SOAKED IN BLOOD. Yet we cannot twist and turn even in our sleep without clinging on to the specter of RELIGION as our daily food and drink. A flying BRA at a very mundane concert (nothing more was expected of it) in Colombo made our president to recall to mind that he is a SINHALESE BUDDHIST.
Read this forum. How often do we see the president’s words gushing from the pens of the multitude.
There are matters we will do well to ponder. The Lord achieved his liberation and left this blood ridden world. Since then, except for flying arahats, has any one had a fleeting feeling that he or she has attained Nibbana? NONE. One who attains Nibbana KNOWS IT and feels compelled to reveal it ‘for the good of the many’.
Catholicism exists since at least the arrival of the Portuguese. Has this country produced ONE single so called SAINT? To cover our nakedness we had to import one from India. What do Catholics do? They bend their knees before ‘fellows and fellas’ of what are presently god-forsaken countries and others that are hardly recognizable dots on the world map.
As for Muslims, those who kill can claim rights to 700 or more virgins in Allah’s realm. At least their thinking is the contrary of the ‘Dukkha’ and the ‘Sin’ complexes that other religions instill into fear laden minds.
The Lord died peacefully and went away. No one should ask where the flame goes when the candle is extinguished. Jesus resuscitated his pain wracked body converting it into a glorified body and took it along with him beyond the clouds. Institution and organizations, call them ‘sasanas’ or ‘churches’ thrive and flourish by making adepts ‘breathe for forms now departed long ago’ (from the Negro spiritual). As for Vishnu he sleeps while lapping up the elixir of immortality of the milky ocean. His dream begets the luscious form of WEALTH in the person of Lakshmi.
The Lord was made into a SEER by Mahanama of Mahavamsa fame when he was made to entrust this Island to the over-lordship of Vishnu. Since then the much abhorred TANHA became the personification of the divine dreamer with the resultant dream object of POWER and WEALTH being the source of gravity.
‘Tanha begets suffering’ and the ultimate product of suffering is BLOOD.
Let us face the REALITY boys. The Lord attained his peace and so did Jesus Christ. Their fake duplicates are reveling in the Vishnu (Tanha) dream of power and wealth. where that leads to is BLOOD. This stark reality surged into our field of vision between 1971 and 2009.
This stark reality cannot be confronted by false dreams of Nibbana or Heaven.
Kishna said to claim your rights you must KILL
Jesus said: I came not to bring peace but the SWORD
the Lord did not say such things, but he left the world leaving it to follow its course…the road to BLOOD SHED
If our majority community thinks it has rights and that they have been violated by those whom Christie continually calls ‘Indian parasites’, then the only way to achieve those rights is to KILL…by taking up the SWORD.
A country that has not produced anyone who achieved Nibbana in its 2600 or so year old civilization, nor produced a saint of the soil, need not bask in the peace and glory of vanished figure-heads.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
January 14th, 2016 at 3:15 am
Re. Mahindapala’s last sentence.
One man alone cannot cause such a devasatation. However, clever men convert masses without harming anyone. However, when a criminal fool hijacks the idea, those masses become masses of fools who worship a fool.
This is what happened on both sides.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:33 am
Mario,
What is you conclusion ? Out of all 3 or 4 religions, Islam is the best ?
“A country that has not produced anyone who achieved Nibbana in its 2600” – a sweeping statement which is obviously no false. How do you know ? Did you live for 2500 years ? Have you met every single Buddhist for past 2600 years.
Even if one has not met an Arahant, one can experience Nibbana easily by following Dhamma. This is why it is called “Ehipassiko”.
All religions have something in common. That is “Vinaya” in Buddhism. We have “Gihi Vinaya” and “Pevidi Vinaya”. Most other religions have only one Vinaya. Vinaya controls Thanha.
Forced Vinaya is called Law , which helps to keep the “order”. Current time Islam Vinaya has become Sharia law.
Sharia law, too controls Thanha, fairly or unfairly.
Since 1965, I beleive our Vinaya suffered badly. That is the reason for too much “BLOOD” flow.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:34 am
Mistake at the begining of the 3rd line. “obviously false” I intended to say.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:22 am
Thank you Dham,
I do not want to engage in a debate on this issue.
I only wish to point out that new situations require new thinking. Harping on the same old themes take us nowhere. Even in common parlance we speak of ‘KALI-yagaya. 1971-2009 was a Kali-yugaya. such a kali-yagaya found its way into a Dharma-rajaya, a Dharma-dvipa. This in spite of all you take trouble to enumerate as Buddhist tenets.
Armies are called into action during the kali-yugaya. We know what kali signifies, so no need for elaborations. No one will refer to buddhist tenets when recalling the final military thrust against the Tamil Terrorist army. Yet it was the kali-yugaya that helped to restore hope in a future dharnishta samajaya.
We cannot invoke the Blessed One or the Lord Jesus to take arms on our behalf. That is why Kali, Mara and the Devil (three faces of the same reality) are intricately interwoven into even profoundly religious scriptures. We consider the ‘gods’ to be pure, and so they cannot do the dirty work for us. We must go to the appropriate forces to help us in such situations.
It was Kali, Mara and the death bringing forces that won us the war, and not the Blessed One or the Lord Jesus. Killing and getting killed is not their job.
If we have to kill and get killed to save the motherland it is to them that we must go. We naturally indulge in every religious ritual of every religion before sending our forces of death to the front line. Therein lies the necessary contradiction.
This is my last contribution on this topic.
Kind regards to you Dham.
Mario
January 14th, 2016 at 5:31 am
Mario,
Sorry for the harsh way of questioning but I was puzzled at that particular statement which has no connection whatsoever to what you were trying to say.
I have to agree with you mostly on the 2nd explanation, but I don’t like to mix Vishnu and Mahawamsa with Buddhism.
You may no belive Buddhist enlightenement but that does not qualify you to conclude there were no Aranahts or Sangha is fake.
“Fake” Buddhism preached by leadrs and readers who claim to represent “Sinhala Bauddhaya” has nothing to do with Buddhism and they are definitely not Sangha.
January 14th, 2016 at 7:00 am
Nalliah Thayabharan
1) From the 13th century when migration of Vellalar to Jaffna took place, -successive colonial powers in Sri Lanka found Vellalar useful -Not matching because White man laned 1505.
Please can you explain ?(do not take personaly)
2) also please let me know when Tamil migrated to Mother Lanka if that ever happen because we are only 16 miles away .
eg: Gran father told me his father bring (with out boat -he know where water is low in same season) White Cow (Vella Kompan) from TN to sale to make good money
January 14th, 2016 at 9:30 am
Our thanks to HLD for this article.
No wonder that the poor Lanka Tamils are in total confusion as to who they and where they belong – who has truly helped them over the many years and where they ought to place their loyalty. Mr Chelvanaygam has laid the foundation for confusion. The Vadukoddai Resolution (1976) continues to hold sway, yet unrevoked by present day Tamil leaders.
——–
Religion and Politics have intertwined in both Sinhala & Tamil groups of Lanka.
Since Sri Lankans live next door to Tamil Nadu Caste ridden lives of 15 million Tamil Dalits, Lanka suffers even more.
Between religions, with caste wars added on for Tamils; various political parties; the money market & Economics; rich & poor – the divisions are many.
Unless there is great TOLERANCE, all sorts of crazy ideas will enter people’s heads, such as blaming the past govt. and war heroes who saved the entire Nation – are we asked to condemn all this great saving of the Nation , not withstanding the differences between various groups. As a result, CONFUSION reigns.
When Lanka will know a lasting peace we do not know, unless we take matters into our hands and turn events around.
To help bring sane thinking on a daily basis, we ought to sit down and first MEDITATE together and achieve some inner peace first. Parliament should start showing the good example first.
January 14th, 2016 at 9:56 am
No wonder that the poor Lanka Tamils are in total confusion as to who they and where they belong -Agreed
We-Ilankai Thamil do not like Indian more than Chinhalavar . Also Indians know very well this but not Sinhalese .
January 14th, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Mhawamsa and Ramayana are not Buddhist texts.
One should not mix these with Pali Canon and use that to cause confusion. Buddhist do not practice due to FEAR or GREED and therefore one cannot stop Buddhists practicing Buddhism by using FEAR tool.
Most other religions are FEAR based and devotion to God makes a good practitioner (Faith). Development of mindfulness is to prevent FEAR arising and make the faith devotion stronger in other religions. This too applicable to those who believe only. Peace can be experienced by a good practitioner.
Morality , Faith Tripple Gem and in the Noble 8 fold path ( which is aimed at development of mindfulness) makes a good Buddhist practitioner. Kamma- Vipaka and even Nibbaana be experienced in this very life.
Without really practicing Buddhism one should not attack Buddhist main principles just because these in blood shed in Sri Lanka. Reasons for blood shed is not people’s faith in Tripple Gem or Buddhism but because of few FOOLS indulge in desires and practice anti-Buddhism but pretend they are protectors of Buddhism.
Buddha used supernatural powers to stop Angulimala from killing own mother knowing that the killer has opportunity to become an arahant if it is prevented.
He did no do that when Prince Vidudhaba came to kill all of Buddha’s relatives, but told him even the wind coming from the direction of his country is very refreshing , a very human feeling.
What can we learn from these two incidents both involve great bloodshed ?
If you are Buddhist think about these.
Tamils may like the wind coming from Tamil Nadu even if it carries the smell of open sewers there. Why ?
Solution to Tamil Problem may be hidden here. Solution to blood shed may be hidden here. If Viddhaba used his stupid brain, and feelings in the heart a lot of bloodshed could have been prevented.
It is easy to kill all enemies. It is also easy to forgive, specially if you are a true Buddhist.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Are Lay Buddhists are expected to behave like Buddhist priests ?
If so, expect to be disappointed !
January 14th, 2016 at 3:32 pm
Forgivance kills!!!
In 1980 or so JR forgave WIJEWEERA and said that was RIGHTEOUS society. What happened? He went on killing.
Ultimately it was KILLING (him and ALL his buddies most BRUTALLY) that brought us peace. Since then JVP has not killed even a cat let alone a man!!
Lets not be fooled by religions which MUST be kept OUTSIDE governance.
In ancient SL, had BUDDHIST kings DUTUGEMUNUI, VIJEYABAU, PARAKIRAMABAU, etc. NOT killed, there won’t be any SL or Buddhism.
King KAKAVANTISSA failed to bring peace.
It was KILLING ALL BAD GUYS that ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS brought us peace, not bullshitt.
(Now religious extremists will brand me an LTTE. Typical modaya mentality.)
We have to be GRATEFUL to our soldiers (does NOT matter if they did war crimes) for bringing us peace.
When I was small mom used to say JESUS puts food on the table. After some incidents we went without food for days. I asked why Jesus does NOT put food on the table. Mom said it was not Jesus but man created this situation. Then I asked is man more powerful than Jesus? Mom had NO answer.
Then I asked WHY Jesus comes to the dinner table ONLY when we HAVE food? Why he disappears when we are starving? Mom had NO answer.
Lets believe in MAN, HARD WORK, OBJECTIVITY, WEAPONS and SYSTEMS to bring us peace, AS IT ALWAYS DID.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:40 pm
It is interesting to notice the Caste issue in Ceylon and among the Indian colonial parasites have been brought in.
In Indian subcontinent the Dalits were and are not allowed to leave their habitat.
The Dalits in the North are in fact the Sinhalese who lived there before the arrival of Vellars from the Malabar Coast. They were brought in by the British Administration to replace the Dutch Administration. The Sinhalese rebelled against these British-Indian Administration and were attacked by the Sinhalese. Some of them returned to India but majority of them settled in Jaffna Peninsula and the local Sinhalese were reduced to Chandals (Sakkiliyas) or untouchables of the island.
January 14th, 2016 at 10:45 pm
The Dalits in the North are in fact the Sinhalese – making me some sense becuse now place call Sunnakam , mallakam not related to Tamil manes it must be sunnaka, mallaka vali kama etc….
where SL Tamil Bhuddist go now ????
January 15th, 2016 at 9:14 am
Re Low Caste Tamils of Lanka :
Since the advent of the Colonisers, in particular the British & the Dutch, due to heavy labor needs of the the plantations industry, they brought in over One and a half a million Tamils as Indentured Labor from Tamil Nadu. Generally speaking, Caste Tamils do not cross sea water to do laborer’s work in Lanka. Almost ALL the labor brought by Colonisers were Tamil Dalits from Tamil Nadu.
Almost ALL the illegal migrants that entered Lanka from Tamil Nadu due to famine or floods or to join Prabhakaran’s LTTE outfit, were Dalit Tamils from Tamil Nadul.
Re Jaffna : The Caste issues of Jaffna have been well recorded. The Caste System originated in INDIA, 3,000 yrs ago. The Dalit status is well recorded. To date, the true Dalits exist ONLY in India.
Tamil exodus into Lanka is mainly to LOSE CASTE. The cry for a separate state in Lanka for Tamils only is to cross sea water and lose Caste for over 15 Million Tamil Dalits in Tamil Nadu who suffer atrocities.
The Sakkili people in Lanka were not TRUE Sinhala people. They were Tamil folk who undertook any type of labor. By crossing sea water (Palk Sts), the belief was that they had already lost their Dalit status. Therefore, according to their definition, there were no Dalits in Lanka. There were low caste Tamils only in Jaffna & Lanka. There were people of Dalit ORIGIN in Lanka. But THERE WERE AND THERE ARE NO DALITS IN LANKA.
Moreover, Buddhism does not recognise Caste. The Buddha said : “One is high born or low born according to one’s actions only, and not by birth”.
There are Tamil folk in Lanka who embrace Catholicim, Islam & Buddhism, to lose the Hindu based Caste structures. There are Tamil folk who take on Sinhala names or Muslim names or Western names. We accept that. We have no quarrel with that.
However, the words of the Buddha hold true. It is by our actions alone that we are low born or high born.
There are NO Tamil Dalits in Lanka. There are people of Dalit origin in Lanka – they may be at present, good people or not so good people. However, Tamil Nadu still has, to date, Tamil Dalits, over 15 MILLION of them. It says so in their birth certificates. In Lanka, the birth certificates of all our people do not carry Caste lines. The problem is in Tamil Nadu, not in Lanka. Lanka should not commit ‘Hari kiri’ to satisfy TN leaders and vested interests.
It is up to each of us to show the world through our actions that we are all “high born”. This is quite a possible thing to achieve. There are a number of high thinking Tamils known to us. There are plenty of high thinking Sinhalas, Burghers, Muslims too.
Let us show the world that Sri Lanka can govern itself, and we think that there are high possibilities for ourselves and our own Lanka citizens.