Vaiko demands arrest of Sri Lanka High Commissioner in India for saying, “Sinhalese came from North Indiaâ€ÂÂÂ!
Posted on March 30th, 2013
Asada M Erpini
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The depths, to which the bankrupt political numbskulls in Tamil Nadu can descend to, as reported in the media on 28 March, are mind boggling.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When the average reader was convinced that the politicians, the actors and the actors-turned-politicians in the Dravidian State had given their best performances so far vis a vis Sri Lanka, now comes the story of calls for the arrest of His Excellency Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s High Commissioner in India.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A man called Vaiko wants His Excellency arrested, and another individual, named Ramadoss, has said that the High Commissioner should be sent back (to Sri Lanka) for violating the norms of the Vienna Convention. The height of absurdity is the demand by a third character named Nedumaran for the expulsion of the High Commissioner ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” hold your breath, readers ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” for ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-meddling with the internal politics of the country (India)ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ All the above ludicrous and pathetic statements are in the same news report which also stated that a fourth Tamilian, named Ramakrishnan, who obviously does not want to be left behind when the others are stealing the limelight, was calling for a referendum to solve the issues of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The reasons for the demand of the arrest and expulsion of His Excellency, to say the least, are beyond comprehension. What is the crime that His Excellency Prasad Kariyawasam is alleged to have committed? He is reported to have stated that the Sinhalese ethnic group, which constituted 75% of the population of Sri Lanka, are descendants of people who had come from Odisha in North India whereas the Tamils who constitute 12% have connections to those in Tamil Nadu.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Many Sri Lankans, day in day out have to put up with the fabrications, brazen lies and the photoshopped images pertaining to the purported crimes committed by the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-SinhaleseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ army of Sri Lanka against the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”innocentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ Tamils. They would find it difficult to understand why all these bucketfuls of tears that the Central Government of India, and by people such as IndiaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Prime Minister and, of late, by the Congress leader ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the fair lady who a few decades may not have known where Sri Lanka was ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” are only for the Dravidian Tamils in the South. A few tears, at least as a token, on behalf the Sinhalese may not be out of place.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Then again, the people of Odisha do not have the power or vociferous politicos who can pull the rug from the under feet of Manmohan Singh, leading to the whole Congress government collapsing like a pack of cards. Additionally, they do not have hundreds of thousands of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-their peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ who had emigrated to settle in the rich countries to finance a propaganda war, having failed in a military campaign. So, as far the New Delhi government is concerned, there is absolutely no need to worry about anyone in Odisha.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There are many writings in Lanka that say that the present Sinhala race was founded by a prince and his retinue who came from Vanga Dese ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the current Kalinga in North India. Added to that, there are poems in the present day Bangladesh (until 1971 East Pakistan; until 1947 colonial India) that mentions a Prince called Vijaya who left that region of the Indian land mass to the island of Lanka and founded the Sinhala race. The famous stage drama Sinhabahu of Prof. Ediriweera Sarathchandra, which was based on some of the orally transmitted heritage of Sri Lanka, has Sinhabahu, the main character around which the story revolves, whose son was Prince Vijaya (according to the chronicle Mahavamsa), reminding himself of his duty towards the people of Vanga Dese (Kalinga). Although no one says that whatever that is there in the Mahavamsa is archaeological evidence of the history of Lanka or the Sinhala race, the epic written around 400 AD has many pieces of information that correlate well with Indian histories of the period.
Be that it may, three fourths of the population of Sri Lanka has a right to demand that India looks at facts and be objective, without allowing one extremist anti-Sri Lanka state to blackmail it when the union of states comprises 28 states and 7 union territories. Sadly, all that India or its former princely states and mini-kingdoms did, except for rulers of the calibre of Emperor Asoka (274 BC), was to harass and wage war against Lanka and attempt to dominate the tiny island, and todayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s India does not appear to be doing anything different. The South Indians were among the worst in the past ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the Chola and Pandya emperors wreaked havoc in Lanka repeatedly, destroying its Buddhist heritage and the stupendous cities such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The European colonisers who descended on Sri Lanka later and subjugated its people brought in indentured Tamil labour from South India to work in their plantations that came up in lands that were usurped from the rightful owners, the Sinhalese, under the dubious Wastelands Ordinance. The worst that the more recent India did is the support that it gave the descendents of the South Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka to destroy the island nation and massacre its innocent civilians over a three-decade period, the latter heinous crimes thankfully ending in May 2009.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As long as one could remember, Tamil Nadu, as well as the government leaders in New Delhi, has been telling Sri Lanka how the island nation should run its affairs. The interference was not in mere words: many political leaders in Tamil Nadu helped in training and financing an illegal armed gang, to dismember Sri Lanka. The top rung politicians in New Delhi too joined in this dastardly act,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ providing training facilities to the LTTE terrorists in its own army bases and even whisked away the LTTE leader to safety in India when he was about to be caught in the Vadamarachchi Operation of 1987. Rajiv GandhiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s infamous parippu airdrop over Jaffna and the 13th Amendment that he forced on a hapless then President are classic examples of how India interfered in Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s affairs.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Before any Indian talks of Sri Lankans interfering in IndiaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s internal affairs, he or she should turn the light inwards or go in front of a mirror to see who really has been poking an unwelcome finger in someone elseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s affairs. A person in Tamil Nadu, who obviously has no idea that one country cannot decide whether another should remain unitary or be partitioned ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” except going by the adage ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Might is rightƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚- is reported to have moved a motion in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly the other day to have a referendum on the creation of Eelam ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” not in India ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” but in Sri Lanka!
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka, or the former Ceylon, has managed to survive and withstand the Indian and other foreign onslaughts during a period that spans centuries, when foreigners tried their best to conquer and annihilate the Sinhalese in days gone by. Until May 2009, the very same groups and nations were glad to label the LTTE terrorists as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-invincibleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. Sri Lanka has the wherewithal to resist insidious attempts by India and the so-called international community to erase the identity of the island nation from the world map: in case Sri Lanka fails its citizens, comprising the majority of the Sinhalese and a handful of peace-loving Tamils and Muslims, may be proud to go down fighting.
March 30th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Vaiko, Ramdoss, Nadumaran, Karunanidi and Jayalalitha will play out this farce because Central Government depends on them to survive. Secondly, Uncle Sam instructed them to make life hard to Sri Lankans, hoping Sri Lanka will buckle under pressure and become another client state. The main game is to reduce China’s growing influence in the Indian ocean.
Once this Indian government falls, these political animals will crawl back to their shells. In the next election, if India gets a stable central government, these actors will take a back stage. These nincompoops offer no solution to corruption, cast discrimination, poverty and environmental degradation in Tamil Nadu. In many parts of Chennai, stench is unbearable. They have found a way to divert public attention from real issues.
March 30th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Interesting that these ignorant Tamil political buffoons from Nadu do not know who came from where!! May be they will in the end realise that we ALL came at one time from somewhere in Africa but DOES IT MATTER NOW?!!
March 30th, 2013 at 7:08 pm
JR Jayawardane is the one who agreed to have provincial councils, just to please Rajiv Gandhi, look at the mess we are in. His Centre is going to study his legacy, public money should not be given for that
March 30th, 2013 at 7:49 pm
I think the ToiletNadu leaders are trying a new trick. They are trying to make SriLankans die of extreme, uncontrollable LAUGHTER !!
March 31st, 2013 at 4:20 am
The Sinhalese are not decendants from Orissa or Bengal etc. There have been some people from North India who have settled i the island nation and made lot of contributions to the economic, cultural and way of life of the people of the island nation.
There were plenty of people living in the island nation for a long long time. Have you heard of Great Rawana.
March 31st, 2013 at 7:41 am
What can u expect from jayalalitha and karunanidhi who kill and harrase tamil nadu low cast people.They have no right to live. Barbarions elect barbarions
March 31st, 2013 at 3:57 pm
What is the criminal offence Sri Lankan diplomat does? He said some Sinhalese descent from Kalinga desh, present Orrisa state of India.
On what law Vaiko is going to arrest Sri Lankan diplomat? Illiterate Vaiko and tamil racist politicos know nothing the basic International law or the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961.
Poor vaiko should not moo then everyone come to know he is a bull. Nothing to surprise tamil nadu politician’s standards. This is the place where 60 cents worth movie gallery heroes appointed as chief ministers. M.G.R, Karuananidhi and MGR’s son’s mother Jayalalitha’s appointments proved that. Then the vaiko is worth just 10 cents.
But under international criminal law, ICC can arrest and charge tamil nadu politicians Vaiko, Jaya Lalitha and Karunanidhi who trained more than 5000 LTTE tamil terrorists in tamil nadu. ICC know that there were 32 tamil terrorists training camps in India and tamil nadu.
March 31st, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Sinhalese, why so ignorant about Indian attitudes? This is astounding! Its really VERY simple the way they think. I grew up amongst Indians. Heres my explanation below.
Tamilians rate themselves as “inferioir” to Hindis and North Indians, but “superior” to Sinhalese. All Indians rate themselves as “inferior” to white-westerners. “inferior” but congenitally DIFFERENT. (This explains their opposition to British rule – not for liberty, but to maintain that difference and not be ritually polluted by British influences, especially the subservient low castes are not to e exposed to western ideas of liberty). That being said, when an “inferior” Sinhalese claims to be descended from a “superior” North Indian Tamilian Indians feel offended. Kariyawasam was being an “upstart” and didnt “know his place” and needs to be put right back down where he belongs.
Have no illusions. Hinduism as practised by many Hindus in India today is akin to Apartheid. Thats one reason Sri Lanka is being targetted – racism. Playing this “North India card” may backfire on us if it succeeds in offending all Indians, North and South. Bear in mind that North Indiand by and large view Sinhalese as Dravidians. I know this from FIRST HAND experience from Indian children. Unlike politicians, children generally do not lie.
April 1st, 2013 at 2:31 am
What arrogant HOGWASH! Sri Lanka NEVER was, and NEVER will be, a part of India …. strategically or otherwise. This kind of attitude among Indians is what we Sri Lankans fear, although we are cousins of the people of India, and what drives us fopr protection towards China..
Let me see: India first plants terrorism in Sri Lanka, and when the country is aflame intervenes to provide “humanitarian assistance” to its terrorist surrogates, proclaining itself a high and mighty White Knight!. Bah! Absolute self serving Double Talk!
We Sri Lankans have fended off foreigners for over 3000 years and preserved our independence. We will do so again and again as long as one of us stands. With it communal policies and weak federal government, India will disintegrate well before Sri Lanka does. No Federalism for Sri Lanka … period!
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India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
By M N Buch
NewIndiaExpress.com
April 1, 2013
The United States brought a resolution before the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). India voted for the resolution in which Sri Lanka was called upon to make a credible and independent probe into the killings and human rights violations in that country in the context of the war against terrorism. Under pressure from DMK India was in favour of a stronger resolution, but ultimately we accepted the United States’ draft. As a direct reaction to this, the Sri Lankan government has decided to seize part of the Indian public sector-run oil depot in Trincomalee. This despite the fact that the Indian Oil Corporation has recently spent $17 million on refurbishing the depot. All this seems to be a part of the pro-China shift in Sri Lankan foreign policy under the stewardship of President Mahinda Rajapakse. China voted against the resolution as did Pakistan. Part of the shift is because of India’s tardy response to the Sri Lankan call for assistance. For example, the Sri Lankans wanted our help in developing the port of Hembantota in south Sri Lanka. It is only when India failed to respond favourably and quickly that Sri Lanka turned to China, whose rapid response was in sharp contrast to our tardiness.
Sri Lanka faced two major threats to its existence. The first was through the extreme left-wing JVP, a Sinhala outfit which waged war with the Sri Lankan government. At the invitation of that government we sent in units of CRPF which helped in restoring order in Colombo, but a much greater threat came from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), created by and composed of the Jaffna Tamils who had migrated to Sri Lanka centuries ago. Even the Sri Lankans recognised them as citizens of the country. The problem did not end there because when rubber and tea were introduced by the British to Sri Lanka as plantation crops, large numbers of Tamils were brought in as indentured labour. They were not treated as citizens by the Sri Lankans and it needed firm intervention by India to sort out their citizenship status. Even the Jaffna Tamils treat them as a different people. In 1956 the Sri Lankan government removed Tamil as one of the State languages of Sri Lanka and replaced it wholly by Sinhalese.
This was reversed in 1978 and Tamil was reintroduced as state language. The middle and higher ranks of the civil services and the armed forces were manned by a large number of Tamils and this parochial move of the Sri Lanka government severely jeopardised their position in government service. Resistance against this move started to polarise. In 1978 LTTE was born. When Indira Gandhi was the prime minister large numbers of LTTE cadres were trained in India and much of the armament of LTTE came from weapons surrendered by Pakistan to us in 1971 and subsequently passed on by us to LTTE. In 1983 there was a general massacre of Tamils by the Sinhalese, especially in and around Colombo. This hardened attitudes and LTTE not only came out with an open declaration of independence but it virtually declared war on Sri Lanka. Sinhala Tamils living outside the country started sending funds and purchasing weapons for LTTE and soon that organisation became the deadliest guerilla outfit in the world.The Sri Lankan Army also responded with great violence. Ultimately India stepped in with humanitarian aid for the Tamils, a pact was signed between Rajiv Gandhi and J.R. Jayawardene, the Indian Army sent a peace keeping force. LTTE attacked it and soon we were involved in a full-fledged war with LTTE.
The Indian Army established complete control over North and North East Sri Lanka and a semblance of civil administration was re-established. At this stage Premadasa became President of Sri Lanka. He was upto playing his own games and entered into a secret pact with LTTE. The Indian Army was forced to withdraw, leaving its work not fully done. LTTE reneged on its agreement and in sixteen police stations of the North more than 450 policemen were murdered. The uneasy peace ended. Ultimately Mahenda Rajapakse became President, a re-energised Sri Lankan Army declared all out war and the LTTE was crushed. It was a murderous organisation and perhaps there were cases where the Sri Lankan Army caused civilian casualties and there were a few cases of atrocities. That happens in a war and India was ill-advised to immediately adopt an anti-Sri Lanka government stance.
This has annoyed Sri Lanka, brought no relief to the Tamils, moved Sri Lanka towards China and the loser in all this is India. What we forget is that LTTE caused about 1,500 deaths of our soldiers and another 5,000 or so were wounded. Masters of ambush, of improvised explosive devices, expert in defensive warfare, so highly motivated that the LTTE cadres preferred suicide by the cyanide pill rather than surrender, there is no way in which LTTE could be handled with kid gloves. An enemy who fights to the last bullet and then commits suicide cannot be defeated; he has to be annihilated. A guerilla fighter mingles with civilians and killing him may hurt civilians. To judge the Sri Lankan Army harshly on this account is unfair.
How should we deal with Sri Lanka? Geographically, ethnically, religiously and strategically it is part of India, though a separate nation. It has to remain in the Indian fold. We should generously open our markets to Sri Lankan tea, gems and other products. We should make heavy investment in infrastructure, including rebuilding the ravaged North and North East and Indian businessmen must help Sri Lankan industry to grow. We should gift one IIM and an IIT level institution and we should provide about 500 offshore fishing vessels to Sri Lanka to build a prosperous fishing industry.
At the same time we must insist that within a given time-frame Sri Lanka, though a unitary country, introduces strong elements of federalism and devolves power to the provinces in terms of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution. We should strongly counter Chinese influence and make it clear that if Sri Lanka fails to rehabilitate the Tamils, implement a scheme of devolution and ensure that all sections of society become part of the Sri Lanka mainstream India may be forced to intervene. We have proven capacity in this behalf. At the same time let us evolve our own foreign policy towards Sri Lanka without being dictated to by domestic compulsions of what the DMK wants.
M N Buch, a former civil servant, is chairman, National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment, Bhopal.
April 1st, 2013 at 7:03 am
” …. strong elements of Federalism …” from Mr Buch’s article, spoils the whole article. Mr Buch also leaves out IPKF atrocities toward the Northern Tamils.
To understand the what drives India, here is a comprehensive article from the net :
hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_caste.asp
Kerala, a neighbor sub-state of Tamil Nadu has done well by having Malayalam & English as prime languages. Also, done away with the caste system in this predominantly HIndu area, the great work of a Hindu Guru there.
Good recipe for Lanka to follow – use Sinhala with English as a link language. Tamil can be an Official Language.
Stop over dependency on Tamil Labor. Guard the shorelines against illegal migrants. Remove the 13-A. Deport all Illegal Migrants.
If there is a will, there is a way. Go Lanka ! Never get subjugated again !
April 1st, 2013 at 7:13 am
As for the genetic get up of the Sinhala people – we think it is mix of gene material from various people, but predominantly
of Indian origin. Mid-Indian land areas, North and South Indian genes features predominantly.
We respect and like people anywhere, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, etc., for what they are in their humanity, not their gene make up.
April 1st, 2013 at 8:47 am
Judging by the performance of past and present Tamil Leaders, have they shown much humanity toward Others of Sri Lanka ?
Will they continue to be semi- Sri Lankan, whatever is done for the Tamil people, and continue on the course toward Separatism which appears to be the main menu on their Agenda, whatever is given ?
It is up to Sri Lankan leaders to safeguard the Nation on a forever basis, and not let Lanka become some sort of appendage of Tamil Nadu through language & religion.
April 2nd, 2013 at 10:10 pm
Additional Comment by me on the article:
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
At newindianexpress_com
…………..
The TERRORISM India spawned in Sri Lanka spanned half (30 years) of Sri Lanka’s years of existence (65 years) as a sovereign nation, consuming the lives of 150,000 of Sri Lankans of every community: It brought Sri Lanka’s economic development to a dead halt. Therefore, India’s “reconstruction aid” is really “war reparations” .due Sri Lanka under International Law; it is not “charitable giving”. India’s surrogate, the LTTE, shot, bombed, hanged and tortured people of all communities. They executed 1,000 captured policemen en masse, sliced and diced entire villages of sleeping innocents in the dead of the night to spread terror and ethnically cleanse the North and East of Sinhalese and Muslims. Karunanidhi voices outrage at Sri Lanka today, forgetting the poems he penned praising the SunGod. Vaiko delivered motivational speeches to Black Tiger suicide bombers in the Vanni jungles. They are but a small sample of the criminal Tamil Nadu politicians who must pay for their crimes NOW!
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The WAR REPARATIONS India provides as the so-called”reconstruction assistance” to Sri Lanka is deployed PRIMARILY (95%) for the benefit of Sri Lankan Tamils, only 5% for Sinhalese whose homes, livliihoods, businesses, and families were destroyed by India’s proxy war in Sri Lanka. In addition, the infrastructure damage caused by India’s terrorist surrogates, the LTTE… civilian aircraft, hospitals, buses, trains, govt offices, post offices, irrigation reservoirs, anicuts, canals etc …. is INCALCULABLE!
So, why is the aid directed ONLY towards Sri Lankan Tamils? Most Sri Lankan Tamils rode out the war living among the Sinhala people in the South of the country avoiding the tender mercies of their self-appointed lliberators, the SunGod worshippers of the LTTE.
Why is India DISCRIMINATING AGAINST the Sinhala people giving the aid to Tamils only? It is to CURRY FAVOR and create a captive political constituency among Sri Lankan Tamils ….. to DIVIDE & CONQUER Sri Lanka ….AGAIN?
April 3rd, 2013 at 10:12 am
SInhalese came from north india, vaiko is jelous
April 4th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
One morel Comment by me on the article:
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
At newindianexpress_com
…………………………
Mr. Buch’s article reflects many Indian misconceptions about Sri Lanka. which is not a mere appendage to be dealt with at will to suit India’s external agenda and internal politics. We are an independent sovereign nation severely abused by India in the last 30 years, The majority (80%) Sinhala people in particular, tied to India by ancient bonds of blood, religion, language, and culture, are naturally inclined to LOVE, RESPECT and PROTECT India. But, instead of reciprocating, India implants terrorists, interferes in our internal politics exacerbating divisions, attempts to partition our country, and collaborates with neocolonialist Western powers to undermine Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is the only neighboring nation of India that wants to have close relations and to work towards our mutual defense and economic growth. Instead of fostering this historical friendship, India is DRIVING Sri Lanka AWAY towards India’s enemies.
So, we Sri Lankans now want to DISSOLVE this abusive MARRIAGE!
April 5th, 2013 at 4:22 am
Mr de Silva
While you say so there are several Sinhalese who take pride in saying that they are a race that exclusively developed in Sri Lanka and they have nothing to do with India. While this is being so they on the other hand don’t want to let go of their faith in the story of Mahavamsa which is just a wild imagination but they feel it is the most useful weapon to keep the Tamils under check. And thus evolved the so-called Mahavamsa mindset which is certainly true and certainly an obstacle to unity among us. Some claim that Vijaya is a Malayalee (Mallu) and he has nothing to do with Sinhalese. Others (or all) believe on the other hand that Vijaya came from North India chased away by his father for wantonness and hoolioganism. I don’t want to embarrass how Vijaya was born, who is his father and mother and who are his grand parents? Even as far back of 1960 ( I may be wrong with the year) the stamp depicting Vijaya’s landing was released and then withdrawn only because there was Kuveni seated on the Sri Lankan side and she was not a Sinhala woman (may be a Tamil?)! Then some claim that Sinhalese are Aryans and came from the North! Even some years ago the Joker A J Ranasinghe (like ervin today) said that JR had the nose of Ariyans and thus they are all Great Aryan race. Any one who say JR would know that his nose was that of Jabir A Cader (Mayor of Colobmo) and really JR is a Muslim. Many are taught in schools that Sinhalayas are fair while Tamils are dark.
What is important here is to realise that Sinhalese are in a state of great confusion and conflict among themselves regarding their race and its origin. Of course Buddhism is different and it has nothing to do with the modern day Sinhalese. Buddhism was followed by Indians, Aryans and Dravidians at one time and that too the present day Sinhalese are trying to distort all because of their identity crisis.
If we all accept that both Sinhalese and Tamils in SL are really a free mix of various Indian ethnic groups then every thing will be fine. But politicians will then lose a wonderful opportunity to exploit the unsuspecting masses and to continue in power. But of course the biggest losers will be our Buddhist Clergy who enjoy unlimited power and authority!
April 5th, 2013 at 5:52 am
Whoever is right and whoever is wrong, the war ended in VICTORY for what the Tamilians call the “Sinhala army”.
The war left behind 89,000 Tamil war widows.
That is 10% of SL Tamil women became war widows!!
So it is the duty of Tamilians NOT to ask for it again.
April 5th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Nadesan:
Bravo! While I disagree with a number of things you have written, the one thing I agree with is your statement:
“If we all accept that both Sinhalese and Tamils in SL are really a free mix of various Indian ethnic groups then every thing will be fine.” and that “Buddhism was followed by Indians, Aryans and Dravidians at one time…”
I can trace some branches of my own family back about six generations, but beyond that God only knows who they really were. However, I do know for sure that people of various races and religions have joined my family in those six generations, enriching the mix, …. and we love them all! Ii is MADNESS for ANYONE to claim purity of descent through father time, given that procreation requires two people to dance the tango, and that love is an irrepressible emotion that overcomes all barriers erected by man.
The Sri Lanka Mahavansa and the Dipawansa, like all other ancient national chronicles such as the Indian Ramayana and the Mahabharatha, the Greek Iliad and the Odyssey, the Jewish Old Testament, the Books of Kings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Chronicles of Egypt preserved in hieroglyphic script carved in stone, or Muslim texts I won’t mention by name for the fear of suffering fate of Salmon Rushdie …. to name but a few of the many extant national chronicles … are a mix of historical truth and whole cloth fabrications designed to please the sponsor. Then as now, the customer was always right.
Nevertheless, historians and archeologists, piecing together evidence from all available sources, have time and again demonstrated that these chroicles contain substantial core elements of the truth, and that we dismiss these texts totally, because of a few demonstrably impossible panegyric, at the risk of rejecting the entire history of humanity, for ALL OF THEM contain descriptions of IMPOSSIBLE events.
It was not too long ago that the Iliad …. which like the Mahabharatha is centered on an epic war … the Trojan War … was dismissed as pure fiction. Yet, today you can visit the excavated city of Troy in Turkey, as I have done, and read and view the results of scientific explorations that lay bare the essential historical truth of the basic story of the Iliad. Was the heroic Achilees of divine birth as claimed, only vulnerable in his heel which was not dipped in the holy river, and killed when an arrow struck him there? Clearly his divine birth is not true, just as CLEARLY that historical evidence indicates that there was such a revered and volatile warrior championing the Greeks.
Likewise, there are a few events, like Vijaya being the son of an actual lion, in the Mahavansa that are physically impossible, but the CORE of the underlying story is entirely credible, and much of it has since been verified. In the Ajanta/Ellora caves (200BC- 500AD) there is a painting entitled “The Coming of King Simhala to Lanka” which shows King Vijaya surrounded by retainers sailing to Sri Lanka in a wooden ship, that indicates that at least 1,500 to 2,200 years ago, the coming of the Sinhalese to Sri Lanka was a well known fact important enough historically to preserve in an expensive and beautiful mural.
Few other historical chronicles have recorded in as much detail and accuracy, by lineage and by date, the history of a country as the Mahavansa and the Deepwansa have done. We recall that memory of India’s greatest Monarch …. Emperor Asoka … would have been lost, and India’s history not have been unravelled, leading to the crowning of India’s national emblem with the crest of the Asokan pillar, if not for the knowledge historians gleaned from Sri Lanka’s Mahavansa. Moreover, the events recorded in these texts are corroborated in other Sri Lankan historical texts, and historical evidence of stupendous proportions (sic stupas of the size of pyramids) are being excavated in Sri Lanka and India, just as the identification of Pyramids, and excavations of Temples and graveyards of workers in Egypt have verified the essence of heiroglyphic texts to lay bare the history of Egypt.
I have personally met several people from the Indian Orissa who bear the family name of “Singhal”. They claim kinship to the Sinhala people of Sri Lanka. They KNOW the detailed story of Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese, handed down from father to son, from the days of the Buddha, to Asokan times, down to the more recent times. Orissa, you see, is the Kalinga deshaya in which Emperor Asoka fought his bloodiest war, which appalled him and turned him towards Buddhism.
Let us now turn to certain other statements you made. I very much doubt that school teachers routinely brainwash students that Tamils are dark and Sinhala people are fair. First, I attended school for two decades in Sri Lanka; never have I heard that ” Many are taught in schools that Sinhalayas are fair while Tamils are dark.” Second, such a statement is patently UNTRUE for among BOTH Sinhala and Tamil people the skin color varies over a wide range.
In addition to heredity, skin color darkens significantly if you work all day under the burning sun, as farmers and tea pickers do. I have had both Sinhala and Tamil friends that are so fair as to be almost Europeans, while others are so dark as to be almost African! In my own family, my father was fair skinned while my mother was darker. Three of my brothers and sisters were very fair, two were much darker, while three, including myself, are brown …. somewhere right in the middle. NONE OF US cared about skin color … it had no impact on our love for one another and did not correlate with what each of us achieved later in life!
These kinds of prejudicial attitudes …. in my opinion … mercifully has vanished from Sri Lanka in the last 65 years … since the departure of the British colonialists who practiced apartheid by skin color. While there are always a small number of die-hard prejudiced people in every society, you are really mistaken in saying that “MANY ARE TAUGHT …” …… that is a downright UNTRUTH!
Perhaps you are confusing Sri Lanka with Tamil Nadu, where caste discrimination is endemic … with “Varuna” a major basis for categorizing people.
April 6th, 2013 at 6:53 am
It is curious fact that the demand for self-determination by Tamils focuses on their majority status in a local region, without regard to how large or small that region is, or how large or small their population is compared to those of the nation as a whole. The migration patterns that created those local majorities in lands previously occupied by citizens of other races is ignored, denying them their historical right to freely settle anywhere in the nation as a whole.
Consequently, Sri Lankan Tamils, about 12% of Sri Lanka’s population now demand a sovereign Tamils-only state in the North and East comprising 40% of Sri Lanka’s land mass, because they are a local majority there, Yet, when their lives were threatened by 30 years of warfare, they availed themselves of their right as citizens to move to Colombo in the Sinhala South, creating a Tamil majority city. If we invoke the “local-majority” principle, Tamils could demand that Colombo be declared a sovereign Tamils-only city!
If the existence of a “local-majority” is accepted as the sole criterion for the demand of “self-determination” and “sovereignty”, why then every isolated province, district, city, town, village and even street with a local Tamil majority can claim sovereignty, irrespective of every other criterion, such as the historical rights of the citizens of the nation as a whole.
Once accepted, such rights would accrue not only to the Tamils, but also to the Sinhalese, the Muslims and to other small minorities such as the Chinese living in every Chinatown, and to people of specific religions and castes. Those who advocate such a principle for Sri Lanka, should examine the repercussions in their own countries. In Tamil Nadu, the Vanniyars definitely deserve a sovereign state, reviving the struggle by Ramadoss only a few decades ago. Why not separate states for the long persecuted Tamil Dalits and the Muslims who are politically organizing for a separate existence in Tamil Nadu?
We Sri Lankans reject India’s enthusiastic prescriptions the of “Local-Majority self-determination principle” as a solution for the communal conflicts it triggered in Sri Lanka. We have assessed how it has worked for India and the prognosis is not good. As a patchwork of many ethnic, religious and linguistic groups and castes built by the British and inherited by Indians at independence in 1947, India is now teetering on the brink of disintegration along communal lines. Already there are separatist movements demanding sovereignty in Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir, Sikh-majority Punjab, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. In addition, the abject poverty of the masses of ordinary Indian citizens has led led to the rise of a Naxalite Maoist rebel movement across a broad swathe of territory, stretching from Arabian sea shore of Maharashtra to the North Eastern frontier of India, and occupied by over 850 million hapless people. Federal and State governments have only nominal control over areas and has to negotiate everything with the rebels.
Indian government policies that allocate benefits on the basis of caste, instead of need irrespective of caste, though well intentioned, further divides and pits Indian citizens against one another. Since India’s rebel separatists are invoking the same “local-majority” principle of self-determination that India foolishly prescribes for Sri Lanka, how does India maintain its integrity advocating for others what India itself is not prepared to do?
India HEAL THYSELF first before PRESCRIBING POISONOUS PILLS to others!
April 7th, 2013 at 7:50 pm
My answer to a comment by “logic” on the “Messing with Sri Lanka” article at newindianexpress.com
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“logic”makes the same argument for annexation of a part of Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu that Hitler made on the eve of WW–II to annex the German-majority Sudentenland region of Czechkoslovakia to Germany. Anxious to avoid war the Allies acquiesed but lost both their honor and the peace they sought to preserve. Hitler’s demands for “Unifying the German People” did not end there; it extended to Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia, the Ukraine etc. By these arguments, ANY local-majority of one ethnicity can be claimed by a neighboring country. Incidentally, Hitler’s “logical” arguments killed more German people than he annexed to Germany.
India should be WARY of these COMMUNAL arguments for annexing parts of other countries. India’s neighbors, in the West (Pakistanis/Kashmiris), in the East (Bangladeshis, North East Frontier peoples, Burmese), and in the North, (Chinese) would be only too happy to carve up India using this tool, gifted them by Tamil Nadu Racists.