‘Siva Senai’ formed in Sri Lanka
Posted on October 13th, 2016
The Hindu
A group of Hindus in Sri Lanka has launched ‘Siva Senai’, an organisation to protect Hindus from threats from other religious groups” in the island.
A ceremony was recently held in Vavuniya, a Tamil-majority town located in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.
Clarifying that the organisation had no direct links to Shiv Sena, the right-wing political party in Maharashtra, the group’s Chief Organiser Maravanpulavu Sachithananthan told The Hindu: But we have their support.”
The organisation which, he said, was in its formative stages would campaign for an anti-conversion law in Sri Lanka.
He added that Siva Senai was started after consultations with many organisations in India, including the Shiv Sena, RSS, VHP and the Goa-based Hindu Jana Jagruthi Samithi.
‘Serious concern’
We thought of many names, but considering that most Hindus in Sri Lanka are Saivaites, we thought something with Siva would be appropriate. So we chose Siva Senai,” he said.
According to him Hindus in the island face problems from other religious groups. Accusing the state of supporting Sinhala-Buddhist colonisation”, he said conversion is becoming serious concern for us [Hindus]. Observing that the island’s Muslims were being funded by countries such as Iran and Iraq and that the Christians received Western missionaries’ support, he said: Hindus alone have no support.”
Organisations such as the RSS, VHP and the BJP are very supportive of this move. I have met the leaders and discussed this in detail,” he claimed.
Hindus are the largest religious minority in Sri Lanka. Mr. Sachithananthan, along with fellow coordinator and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Seeniththamby Yoheswaran from Batticaloa and religious leader Then Kailaya Adheenam from Trincomalee, plans to work across the country’s 25 districts for the protection of Hindus”.
The initiative has caused concern, including within the TNA. Parliamentarian and TNA spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran said the party opposed bringing religion into politics or the politicisation of religion.”
Given the track record of Shiv Sena in India, I don’t think it is a good move,” he told The Hindu.
When contacted, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s public relations officer Harshal Pradhan denied having any knowledge of overseas Shiv Sena branches. We do have people working for us in Tamil Nadu, but I am not aware of any party unit functioning in Sri Lanka. No one from there has approached us for any permission.”
However, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said: Members of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka have set up a Shiv Sena unit and would do the party’s ideological work with support from Sena’s Tamil Nadu unit.”
October 13th, 2016 at 2:21 pm
Siva Sena is another weapon created by the EELAMISTS to add a religious dimension to their drive to create a Tamils Only country within Sri Lanka.
With the Siva Sena they hope to attract support from the Shiv Sena organization of India that provides Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s his main support base.
When MR was ousted from the Presidency, Sri Lanka was 100% secure and was on the path to becoming the New Wonder of Asia.
Today, the Yamapalanaya GOSL has undermined everything that was a hived by the war-winning MR/UPFA government: the economy, national unity, international SL relations, our fical security, our military, and has strengthened the separatist forces to a level even beyond that in Prabhaksdan’s heyday. The looting of the nation and undermining it’s cohesion continues apace, relentlessly.
Rise up! O Sinhalayeni! Take control of your Motherland now …. before it the situation deteriorates to a point thst takes another 30-year struggle to overcome!
October 13th, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Shiva Sena(i)’s main aim is to counter a “so called” threat from Buddhists (which is only a terrible lie).
If Buddhist statues and Buddhist temples are not allowed in north and East of Sinhale state then Bodu Bala Sena (or a similar new organisation like Shiva senai) should counter this Shiva Sena(i) to act similar to how the Hindus are acting or fighting back against Buddhists.
As a counter measure we need to demand all the Hindu kovils to be taken away from Sinhala Buddhist areas and also destroy all “devalas” in Buddhist temples for the worship of Hindu gods until the Buddha worshiping is allowed inside Hindu kovils?
Am I telling anything unfair?
October 14th, 2016 at 2:43 am
The Sri Lankan Tamils demanding a ‘Tamil homeland’ is a bogus demand as per the history and archaeology of the country. Even a few months back, a discovery was made of an archaeological site in Anuradhapura dating back to 800BC and included beads, pottery etc. Anuradhapura was a large village by 900BC and there was an expansion into a city by 600BC. There is plenty of evidence of pre-historic cave discoveries such a the Fa Hien caves, the Bellanbendi pellessa and other cave discoveries especially in the wet zone of pre-historic sites or iron age and stone age discoveries (due to the clay in the wet zone preserving such sites well). The oldest skeleton found on the island is 37,000 years old. We know there were four tribes Yaksha, Naga, Raksha and Deva and around 600BC there was an influx of people from India, possibly Bengal or Orissa. These people together with the four tribes Yaksha, Naga, Raksha and Deva together then formed the Sinhala nation. This is why Anuradhapura which was a village by 900BC expanded into a city by 600BC.
Does all this archaeological evidence not prove that the Sinhala people are the descendants of the indigenous people of the island i.e. the yakshas, Nagas, Rakshas and Devas? Much later by around the 16th century due to the Aryachakravarthi invasion of the Jaffna Peninsula the Sri Lanka Tamils migrated but into the Jaffna peninsula only. Later during the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial times, there were further migrations of Sri Lankan Tamils (called Malabars meaning those from the Malabar coast of India) for purposes of planting tobacco and indigo brought in by the colonialists.
Of course other people such as the Arab traders, Malays, then the Burgers (descendants of colonisers) also migrated to the island too.
Does this not then prove that this island inclusive of the North and the East is the homeland of all its people? So is this demand for a separate state by the Sri Lankan Tamils (called Malabars meaning those from the Malabar coast of India), descendants of recent migrations to the island, not absurd and unacceptable?
Let us state in the constitution that this island is the homeland of all its people, for the sake of justice and fairplay, by everyone concerned.
October 14th, 2016 at 2:55 am
There are further historical facts and figures which prove that this ‘Tamil homeland’ demand is completely bogus. Apart from many Buddhist ruins, a very important part of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization which is the extensive hydraulic system that still prevails in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The Sinhala kings built over 10,000 (please check this figure in research papers for accuracy) large, medium and small scale irrigation reservoirs in Rajarata and Ruhuna encompassing today’s, North Central, North, Eastern, North Western provinces. For example Yodha Wewa Reservoir in today’s Mannar in the North was built by the Sinhala King Dathusena. The Pavatkulam Reservoir in Vavuniya in the North was built by the Sinhala King Mahasen. The Kanthale Reservoir in the East was built by Sinhala King Agbo II. All of the irrigation reservoirs present in the North Central, North, North Western and East were built by Sinhala Kings.
In fact, to get the water to flow out of the reservoirs in a smooth manner, the Sinhala Engineers invented the biso kotuwa or the besi kotuwa (as in wathura besi kotuwa), a type of valve pit, or a type of water outlet out falling from the reservoir where water pressure can be managed so as not to damage the tank bund. Another use of the Sinhala irrigation engineer was the anicut where a river’s water was diverted using a dam type structure built across the river partially blocking the river flow and diverting the water into open channel flow canals.
The amazing and extensive irrigation system in Sri Lanka’s dry zone encompassing today’s North Central, North, East and North Western Provinces encompassing over 10,000 (please check this figure for accuracy) large, medium and small scale reservoirs, open channel flow canals etc. was built by the Sinhala Kings.
Therefore there is no doubt whatsoever that there was a Sinhala Buddhist civilization encompassing today’s North Central, North, East and North Western Provinces, even just by considering this extensive irrigation reservoir system. R.L. Brohier , H.C.P. Bell, D.LO. Mendis, Henry Parker and many archaeologists, irrigation engineers and surveyors have written many books and research papers on this subject. In fact even the British Governor at the time Sir Henry Ward marvelled at the ingenious Sinhala irrigation engineer and wrote on the subject and Even Sir Emerson Tennent, another British Governor marvelled at the ingenious Sinhala irrigation engineer and wrote on the subject. In fact, the Sinhala irrigation engineer was a master of hydraulics. Not only that, extensive data on rainfall patterns would have had to be collected to figure out the capacity of the irrigation reservoirs. Very accurate surveying of the lay of the land would have had to be carried out to come up with very accurate contour maps in order to figure out the placing of the reservoirs and the traces of the open channel flow canals.
October 14th, 2016 at 3:05 am
What is this problem with Sinhala Buddhists that these people have? Sinhala Buddhists have lived in this island for over 2600 years and our tribal ancestors have lived in the island for over 37,000 years since the earliest skeleton found on the island is 37,000 years old as attested by the many pre-historic caves finds around the island. There is the extensive hydraulic system built by the Sinhala Buddhist civilization consisting of over 10,000 large,, medium and small scale irrigation reservoirs in all over the dry zone and the many Buddhist statues, artefacts, ruins, ancient Buddhist temples all over the dry zone inclusive of in the North and the East to prove this fact.
It is high time Vigneshwaran, Sambanthan, Sumanthiran and the TNA and all other separatists and the US,EU,UK, Sweden, Norway, Canada and all the foreign funded NGOs accept these facts. If they are not sure, why not contact the Department of Archaeology and the Departments of Archaeology at the universities to verify these facts.