Regarding the article “Did India treat “Ceylon” as a plantation colony before China war? Not as front line neighbor”
Posted on March 11th, 2014
Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha USA
Problem with Nehru’s approach that Indians recruited to foreign nations should be given citizenship follows the Colonial mentality. I doubt if Nehru would feel the same way if the British imported Africans from her African colonies into India to do the same indentured labor. If so that would make his demands hypocritical and invalid as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. It also demonstrates his imperial nature in dictating what other nations’ immigration policy should be when it came to Indians.
Nehru’s approach of making citizens of Indians working in foreign lands completely falls apart regarding the Middle East where there is a large Indian expat population and they are not only refused any citizenship but face daily discrimination by the Muslim hosts. If anything has put to rest Nehru’s notion of citizenship through occupation it is the Middle East. One must also keep in mind that Sri Lanka has a large presence in the Middle East and like her Indian counterparts face daily discrimination.
Thankfully his opinion had little bearing on Sri Lanka. a large number of expat Indian tea pickers have already returned to India. Considering they are Tamils and Sri Lanka’s biggest problem for the last 30 years was a war against Tamil terrorism, it would behoove Sri Lanka to seek labor from other tea producing nations if the local population is unable or unskilled to do the job. China jumps to mind to replace the remaining Indian Tamil Tea pickers and by that strengthen ties with China. To date the presence of the Indian Tamil Tea pickers has not produced and friendship between their home state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
A recent contention is the island of Katchacheevu which under the British Raj was a disputed island claimed by both India and Sri Lanka. In 1974 India agreed that the island of Katchacheevu is part of Sri Lanka and in 1976 Sri Lanka officially incorporated the island as part of Sri Lanka. During this process the DMK and the AIDMK said nothing. But after the war against Tamil terrorism ended in Sri Lanka in 2009, the island of Katchacheevu suddenly entered the Tamil Nadu political stage. The current Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the former Chief minister Karunanidhi both petitioned New Delhi that giving “part of India’ requires a vote from the parliament. But the Indian courts dismissed their claim by stating non of India’s lands were given to Sri Lanka since the island of Katchacheevu was never part of India. Yet Jayalalithaa continues her campaign to rest Katchacheevu from Sri Lanka. In addition she has promised that Eelam will be created. Talk about rubbing salt into old wounds. Karunanidhi on the other hand has resurrected TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organization) and TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization). This is like resurrecting the organizations that support the Taliban and yet New Delhi allows this while joining Tamil Nadu and the US in forming yet another human rights resolution against Sri Lanka. India cannot do both. She will have to stop the pro Eelam movement in her land in order to take the moral high ground against Sri Lanka or continue to foster such forces and withdraw from her charade of aligning with the UNHRC to condemn Sri Lanka of human rights violations.
India’s relationship with her neighbors took a nose dive under Indira Gandhi. Sikkim was annexed. Pakistan was divided and India entered into a protracted proxy war with Colombo with a bid to form Eelam by training and supporting the most lethal terrorist group, the Tamil Tigers. The scope of India’s support can be witnessed by the creation of a functioning air force and a navy equipped with submarines that the Tamil Tigers had as part of their arsenal. In the case of Pakistan by dividing her Bangladesh has become an immigration nightmare where millions of Bangladeshi now call India home and has triggered secessionist movements in that region. The Indian military has responded in a heavy hand where thousands of lives have been lost due to it.
Another problem that has risen from the division of Pakistan is the Kashmiri problem. The radical Muslim elements of Kashmir have purged that state of the Hindu Kashmiri population and made them refugees within India. The massive military presence in Kashmir has only fed into the demand for autonomy supported by Pakistan. who a few years ago gave a portion of Azad Kashmir or as India calls it “Pakistan occupied Kashmir” or POK to China who gladly has incorporated that portion as part of her nation. China continues to claim Ladakh which borders China, part of Kashmir and is Buddhist.
India’s relationship with China continues down the same path where New Delhi sees a growing power and with the support of the US is trying to contain her. India made an official visit to Japan for that explicit purpose. India’s alliance with the US at a time when Russia has taken over the Crimea without firing a shot and has the power to match any sanctions placed on her by the US and NATO and at a time when the US is being turned down to build military bases in the Indian ocean when she is simultaneously cutting her military budget drastically and the US lease on her most important military base, the Diego Garcia base is about to run out in 20167 will end up in a geopolitical crisis for India.