Sri Lanka Separatists last resort is Self-Determination: historical Tamil homeland is where Tamils evolved
Posted on April 30th, 2018

Let us first be clear that the Sinhalese majority has at no time claimed the island belonged ONLY to the Sinhalese and others were not welcome. What the Sinhalese majority does claim is the acknowledgment & due place be given to the 2600 year old civilizational history that helped build the island nation and to those that defended the nation sacrificing their lives. Giving due place to that historical identity does not impede upon any individuals right to live in any part of the island, to practice their faith or to enjoy rights & privileges equally. It was not the Sinhalese that began demanding ethno-religious demarcations or mono-ethnic self-rule but the Tamil political leadership & thereafter Tamil militants. It is against the division/separation of the island that the Sinhalese are attempting to stop. This is what everyone needs to clearly understand.

When you tell a lie, you end up having to tell another lie to cover the initial lie and then when the lies keep piling up it becomes a tedious task to separate the lies. The LTTE lying machine are now in a fix. Their lies are now catching up on them. The deceptions used to topple Syria – mainstream media lies, child actors, false documentaries, paid witnesses are now being systematically exposed and people are beginning to ask the question ‘did we too get fooled by LTTE lies about war crimes in Sri Lanka’ and it is certainly affecting even the UN who are now being legally pressed to prove they adopted legally acceptable due process against a sovereign state especially in the manner the UNHRC heads & UN officials functioned including the former UNSG.

The LTTE lying machine covered these areas

  1. Sinhalese discriminating Tamils – that has been hard to prove when examples are now being shown of all the Tamils holding portfolios in govt & private sector as well as the many CEOs and companies that are successful throughout the island. The flipside is when the Tamil caste issue is brought out highlighting how Tamils discriminate their own. These lying machines are left speechless.
  2. Colonization – another ridiculous argument given that statistics can prove that more Tamils have come to live in the South among the Sinhalese while Tamil leaders are groaning about Sinhalese coming to the North. People have the right to live where they like as per Sri Lanka’s constitution. Tamil leaders cannot scream colonization and stop that.
  3. Genocide – another fairytale. Where in the world have you heard of Tamil populace increasing when Sinhalese are supposed to be killing them to a level of ‘genocide’.
  4. Tamil homeland claim is the last resort – this is all that the LTTE/Tamil political leadership has because the West will fall for any drama so long as it ties to their agenda and it is probably why these separatists have struck a deal that would give both mutual benefit though we know in reality the West will take these LTTE separatists for a ride & end up grabbing the entire cake for themselves. Kosovo & South Sudan independence ended up nightmares for the people who thought they were getting their own mono-ethnic self-rule. We are not prepared to allow a Kosovo or South Sudan in Sri Lanka to experience what the Kosovians and South Sudan people are painfully going through. We can well imagine the scenario. Every country the West has ‘liberated’ is now worse off than they were.

There is no argument against the fact that people have every right to stake a claim where they evolved, where they find their roots, where they as an ethnic group were born. We are taking up the issue of homeland because the Tamil leadership are using this as a political ploy. So, when we come to the question of the quest for a Tamil homeland we need to find where Tamils initially birthed which is where their roots are

 

So the next obvious question is – did Tamils evolve in Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka. The answer to this is crucial to enable Tamils to acquire their Traditional Homeland and it will also help put to rest the bogus claims for Homelands in territories that are not their real homeland.

Tamil Nadu by virtue of its name means Tamil State. Of the world’s 76m Tamils, 72m live in Tamil Nadu while less than 2m Tamils live in Sri Lanka. It is the State for Tamils by Tamils. It is where they are the clear majority, where Tamil is the official language, where Tamil culture takes precedence & prominence & where ancient Tamil archaeology and artefacts are rooted. This heritage is far older than that which is found in North Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu is also a state that initially demanded self-determination from the British at independence when colonial British cobbled the independent princely states and coined it as India. The British did not grant Tamils their own state when they requested self-determination but they allowed a Muslim state in Pakistan while the rest of India was to remain not Hindu but Secular.

What everyone has to keep in mind is that the same ethnic group cannot claim traditional homeland in 2 different countries. At no time in history was Sri Lanka part of what is today known as India.

If all this is true, you may now wonder who are the Tamils in Sri Lanka – and we return to the question of whether Tamils in Sri Lanka find their roots to Tamil Nadu, did they arrive from Tamil Nadu or do they not have any relationship to Tamils in Tamil Nadu.

From there we arrive at another question – if they are not remotely linked to Tamil Nadu, then how can the Tamils in Sri Lanka be called Tamils, shouldn’t they be known by another name? Of course, if that was so, then they would certainly have a legal & better claim to their demands for a traditional homeland in Sri Lanka. But, if Tamils in Sri Lanka are related to the Tamils in India then the traditional homeland is nowhere else but Tamil Nadu.

When this question is raised to divert attention some smart alecs clamour to say the Veddahs are the natives of the island not the Sinhalese. Well there is no contention between the Veddahs & the Sinhalese to claim ownership of land.

Man evolved in Africa and migrated to all corners creating distinct ethno-linguistic groups. The concept of race only emerged in the 18th century invented by Europeans to suit their colonial experiment. There is no pure race. There is no pure ethnicity. But there are people with distinct characteristics.

People are classified into ethnic groups through common traditional, cultural, linguistic, ritualistic, behavioral and religious traits.

The Sinhalese whatever mixed components meets those traditional, cultural, linguistic, behavioral, religious traits that qualify as a distinct ethnic group found nowhere else but evolving in Sri Lanka and thus able to claim heritage in Sri Lanka. These are the ingredients that define & qualifies self-determination and traditional homeland status. Moreover, Sinhalese can showcase with historical evidence that they had been very much living throughout in every nook and corner of the island. If anyone is claiming ONLY they lived in some parts of the island, the Sinhalese quite rightly can with evidence challenge this & prove that Sinhalese has greater claim.

However, readers must understand that the Sinhalese are NOT claiming the island for itself but are only producing these facts to nullify the bogus claims being peddled by parties to divide & separate Sri Lanka.

Tamils as an ethnic group too have traditional, cultural, linguistic, behavioral, religious traits but the question is, are these found in Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka? If it is Tamil Nadu, then that is where the Tamil Homeland should be, definitely not in Sri Lanka.

The same ethic group with the same ethnic traits cannot claim 2 homelands in 2 different sovereign countries using the same argument! Tamils cannot claim self-determination in both Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka!

Sri Lanka’s Tamil leadership cannot be allowed to use false claims to create a separate mono-ethnic state using the internationally accepted arguments of self-determination through asymmetrical federalism in Sri Lanka. We are also not agreeable to a Tamil Homeland that encompasses both Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka’s North & East either.

However, we would prefer Sri Lanka’s Tamils to live as Sri Lankan citizens in peaceful coexistence & refuse to be party to the separatist agendas peddled by TNA & LTTE Diaspora.

Shenali D Waduge

10 Responses to “Sri Lanka Separatists last resort is Self-Determination: historical Tamil homeland is where Tamils evolved”

  1. L Perera Says:

    In almost all countries in the world there are pockets of ethnic strongholds but they ALL consider themselves as belonging to one NATION. Sri Lanka cannot and never will be the exception.

  2. Charles Says:

    Wigneswaran has lived all his life until taken hold of by the TNA to make him the CM of NPC. But now he has become more Jaffna Tamil than the JaffnaTamils despite his birth reight in the south with the Sinhala and got his two sons married to Sinhala women. He is an utter hypocrite. He was to assert his Tamilness as the CM NPC to convince the Tamils in the North that he is a true JTamil. I wander whether all the Tamils living with Sinhala in South will one day go to Jaffna and try to assert their Jaffna Tamilness.

  3. Charles Says:

    I think the Tamils in Sri Lanka are Suffering from some mental illness, may be they got the virus living in Jaffna, Like the kidney problem the people in NCP have contacted living in NCP.

  4. Christie Says:

    Tamils are Indian Colonial Parasites like other Indian Colonial Parasites in the former British Indian Empire now the Indian Empire.

    All Indian Colonial Parasite behaves the same way wherever they are.

  5. SA Kumar Says:

    I think the Tamils in Sri Lanka are Suffering from some mental illness,- you mean Sinhalese in Mother (I)Lanka(I)???

  6. SA Kumar Says:

    Sri Lanka Separatists last resort is Self-Determination: thani TE !!!!

    Velu , where are you Thalaiva ????

  7. Fran Diaz Says:

    Tamils living in Sri Lanka N&E are the only Tamils demanding a separate homeland away from Tamil Nadu. Millions of Tamils live outside homeland Tamil Nadu, in Lanka and other countries.
    Why this demand only in Sri Lanka ?
    It seems that proximity of Tamil Nadu to Lanka’s N&E is the key to the puzzle.
    Tamil Nadu was the earlier break away state in INDIA. This was stopped by PM Nehru’s Anti-Secessionist Law of 1963, and the idea transferred almost totally to hospitable, mostly Sinhala/Buddhist Lanka.
    Also, Eelam an outlet for frustrations some 15 Million Tamil Dalits in Tamil Nadu ?

    Comments welcome.

  8. Lorenzo Says:

    As a Jaffna Tamil patriot it is VERY UNFORTUNATE to read racist comments like this.

    “I think the Tamils in Sri Lanka are Suffering from some mental illness, may be they got the virus living in Jaffna, Like the kidney problem the people in NCP have contacted living in NCP.”

  9. Charles Says:

    Tamils , when I say Tamils it means here the Tamil politicians and those who support them ; They cannot be patriots. No patriot would like to have their Motherland divided. A Patriot would be prepared to give his life to keep the motherland united and undivided.

  10. Fran Diaz Says:

    Agree with Charles. Thank you, Charles.

    “No Patriot would like to have their Motherland divided”. That will have to be the cry for Unity and the Unitary State.

    Simply put, in Lanka we have two camps :

    * PATRIOTS
    * NON-PATRIOTS

    Patrotism should be taken to the school rooms as well as the Parliament.

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