Shenali D Waduge  

Sooner than later it is good to re-evaluate and re-assess all that we had been fed over the years via an education system promoted by the West and a political and social system also influenced by the West. History has always been written by the victors. The conquerors views supersede those of the conquered. History is a story seen only from the lens of the victors and this is why over 400 years of conquest, murder, plunder during colonial rule and the illegal acquisition, expansion, integration of lands and territories subjugating the rights of those who ruled their original habitats have been usurped and to add to the injury mass importing of people and creation of migrant citizens further chaos has been created with no end until and unless all that the white West has been responsible for is negated and countries start afresh on their own terms. The exit of the US from the UN will no doubt lead to less bullying of Third World nations giving them the power to rule their own on their terms.

Evolution of Man – textbook history wrong

We have been drilled to believe that we all evolved Out of Africa. That is turning out to be a myth made popular amongst politically correct elite to promote the notion that ‘all races are the same’ to sustain their liberal ideology. Controversy and debate continues amidst the reality that a lot of falsehoods has also been spread. DNA is also proving Darwin wrong (ape to human theory). The debate continues with scientists themselves having opposing evidence. The take away from this is that we have been fed a lot of lies over the years. We need to question everything now.

RACE & RACISM

Race has become another debatable term. Many view the concept of race as modern and political. Certainly the word was never used in ancient times. Christians and Muslims divided people as believers and non-believers. Scientists say race has no gene that distinguishes one over the other.  Race is not biological. Scientifically there is no such thing as race and certainly no pure race. There are no genes that are specifically ‘black’ or specifically ‘white’,

It was the white west that began classifying people by appearance (looks) paving the way for superiority of skin color. Colonial rulers classified themselves as white and superior. Integrity Act of 1924 law included racial registration certificates as well as defining what white” was. Colonial rulers began classifying people by race in their census and later by ethnicity both of which they classified and determined. Appearance of people often meant they had automatic preference!

It was in 1684 that Francois Bernier published New division of Earth by the different species or races which inhabit it’ giving preference to the white European race. In 1775 Johann Freidrich Blumenbach classified humans into 5 divisions – Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malay. Caucasians were projected as the ‘most beautiful race of men’. George Buffon, Petruss Camper and Christoph Meiners all classified ‘negros’ as inferior to Europeans. American Thomas Jefferson viewed Africans as inferior to whites.

“The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers had…that the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race.” (C L R James)

Over the years the word became victim to a plethora of concepts and notions until the social scientists entered the scene and mixed race with ‘ethnicity’ and replaced race with ethnicity. It was they who came up with the notion of ethnicity self-identifying groups based on beliefs concerning shared culture, ancestry and history. Then it got further confused with many more theories being added. Rajiv Malhotra speaks about the Aryan-Dravidian race myth. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/how-europeans-misappropri_b_837376.html These theories all turn out to be nothing but means to acquire civilizational legacy with much plagiarisms by the West of Eastern texts. Similarly the Dravidian race theory was floated by the British missionaries in 1800s as a means to further divide people. Bishop Robert Caldwell created a notion that Dravidians existed before Aryans in India. It was Caldwell who coined the term ‘Dravidian’ from the Sanskrit dravida thus creating the Dravidian identity. Thereafter Reverend John Stevenson lumped languages placing Dravida languages before Sankskrit and claiming Tamils to be the aboriginals of India prior to Aryan invasion. Pl read Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra.

Both race and racism are invented notions thus brewing hatred. All these have created racial hatred, racist chants and racial violence.  Dr. Ambedkar demolished Riselys own theory (Risley’s Nasal Index Risley’s Nasal Index Risley’s Nasal IndexRiselys Nasal Index)

if the Brahmins are Aryans, the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians the Untouchables are also Dravidians. If the Brahmins are Nagas, the Untouchables are also Nagas”

In short the concept of race was created as a classification of human beings with the purpose of giving power to white people and to legitimize the dominance of white people over non-white people.

if the Brahmins are Aryans, the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians the Untouchables are also Dravidians. If the Brahmins are Nagas, the Untouchables are also Nagas. if the Brahmins are Aryans, the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians the Untouchables are also Dravidians. If the Brahmins are Nagas, the Untouchables are also Nagas. if the Brahmins are Aryans, the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians the Untouchables are also Dravidians. If the Brahmins are Nagas, the Untouchables are also Nagas. Ethnic & Ethnicity

This term is another coined by the whites for political advantage. Scholars are in agreement that both race and ethnicity are politically motivated for use in social movements and voting. Ethnicity refers to group that share some common ancestry, traditions, language, or dialect. all history shows how easily political action can give rise to the belief in blood relationship.” – Max Weber.

In Sri Lanka the first islandwide census was in 1871. From 1871 to 1901 the population was classified on the basis of nationalities and races. From 1911 right up to 1963 race was replaced with nationality in all census while from 1971 onwards ethnic category was introduced – all based on what the British thought to be race/nationality/ethnic. Experiments which have created global issues in all of the countries/territories the British ruled. All of these definitions were based on White assumptions, ideologies and what benefitted the white rulers of the time. Whites categorized people on their appearance, rewarding those they liked with prestigious names while treating all others differently.

Nation / Nationality & State

The notion of nation is again a western created term. All references as accepted terminology are Western authorized and western authored. Nation is a large group of people with strong bonds of identity. National identity is typically based on shared culture, religion, history, language or ethnicity. The nation is the holder of sovereignty.

Nationality refers to the country which a person is a citizen of.

A state can be defined as a patch of land with a sovereign government The West has derived word State from Latin ‘Status’ note nothing of Eastern civilization has even been considered to be adopted. States (associated with provinces) must adhere to national laws. States cannot form laws that violate the laws of the nation.

Nation states came into being through various Western laws & systems – 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, 1713 Utrecht Treaty, 1815 Congress of Vienna, World Wars and the dominance of Western systems following industrial revolution and Western-influenced legal systems and trade agreements.

The confusions are many. All types of terminologies are now in vogue leading to numerous interpretations and legal opinions. Most often it is the will of the West that rule. At the time of decolonization we must note that territory that belonged to the indigenous rulers were either split or expanded and new demarcations and boundaries were set by the colonial rulers. Independence was afforded to these newly demarcated areas and not by the original area that the invaders overtook. Decolonization saw the emergence of another Western coined term – Self determination. This has become manipulated over the years and the west has incorporated external and internal self-determination. With every coinage of new terms the confusions got worse and thus strengthened hatred and conflict which must have been the main objective. We can see the chaos that has resulted in the newly created states – Kosovo, South Sudan etc bringing to naught the justifications used to create these independent states. Nevertheless, despite these errors officials of the UN are continuing to divide the world along mono-ethnic/religious lines while harvesting the majority-minority divide.

Majority-Minority / Black-White   

Dividing people was part of colonial divide and rule strategy. People pre-colonial were never divided in the manner that the West has divided people. There were no majority and minority classified people before the white west descended. People had their differences but they were never based on racial segregations as the west has done. The division of white vs black was also an invention of the whites – notice how everything negative is always associated with black. All these have been purposely done to even mentally accept white superiority and black inferiority.

Sri Lanka is an example of the unequal treatment by colonial British that has created tensions between the majority and minority immigrants. British as a policy gave disproportionate treatment to these minorities in education, jobs and society brewing hatred.

It was the West that began Us vs Them slogan too – we know what that led to during the World Wars and all of the conflicts to which the West has been party (directly/indirectly covertly and overtly)

What must be remembered at all times is that the boundaries and demarcations have all emerged as a consequence of colonial occupation, rule and what they deemed to be countries & their citizens that became decolonized. All of the countries in Africa were creations of the West. None of these boundaries existed before the arrival of colonial invaders. The same with Asia and other parts of the world.

It was the white people who created ‘new’ lands. It was the white people who ruled over 400 years. Then they began importing and exporting people and created new boundaries and created new identities. All these were cosmetic and artificial changes done to the advantage of the white rulers. All of the terms – race, ethnic, nationality used by colonial rulers were without scientific backing but solely to keep people divided. Over a 100 new nations were born during process of de-colonization – these nations had never even existed before colonization. It is these artificial borders that cause tensions today – Libya-Chad conflict is just one example. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots are at odds as a result of the rivalry encouraged under British rule. Practice of favoring one ethnic, religious or racial group over others was the practice of colonial rulers as government policies.

Lets all remember and never forget that all of the virtues that the Western nations today preach were all violated by them and have not still been accounted or even compensated. Slavery, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, destruction of livelihoods, forced cultural assimilation, forced labor etc were all introduced by the West upon people who had done no harm to them. These were all human rights abuses in excess of the human rights that the very same nations are preaching to the countries they inflicted. Ironically the education and political systems created by the whites have created leaders who are in the pockets of the west and functioning as brown sahibs.

All of the systems in place today be it administration, legal, social, cultural, trade are all dictated by the West. It is on their terms that regulations and laws are decided by the West as per their prism and what suits their ideology. Nothing of the ancient eastern civilizations that had superior systems far before the west became civilized after the advent of colonial plunder have even been considered. Even history is written as per the opinions and perceptions of western historians.

It would be a worthwhile academic exercise if national minded academics take up each of the so-far promoted western notions and present the eastern version to set the records straight. History owes future generations the truth and not a history as determined by the West. It is also time that nations functioned as sovereign nations and refuse to be held to ransom by the terms and terminologies that have never existed prior to its creation by the West for their own superior existence.

It is based on these realities that we must not accept any of the recommendations or proposals to change Sri Lanka’s constitution.

Shenali D Waduge