Dr. Sudath Gunasekara:   (SLAS) Retired Permanent Secretry,  President Senior Citizens movement Mahanuwara.

7.1.2019.

This has been a very big puzzle for me for quite some time. I have no doubt that majority of you who read this note might have had the same problem.  This is mainly because very often people who mater in society, when they speak at public fora use to say ”me rate Siyaluma jatinta’ meaning for all nations in this country. What baffle and confuse me is the question as to how many nations are there in this country. Because I always thought there is only one Nation in this country like any other country in the world. You would have heard and noticed this lose utterance over the TV, Radio, the press, at public meetings and even at private conversations. I have seen this happening very often. Our politicians starting from the President, Prime Minister downwards, academia in universities including even some professors of Sinhala and History, almost all religious dignitaries, some so-called intellectuals who have got disoriented or brain washed in the course of their political and ideological transformations and many more go on uttering these lose words repeatedly like parrots most probably without knowing the seriousness of the damage they to the Nation that is  Sinhala or Sri Lankan.

In my opinion politicians who woo for minority votes to come to power, people who do not have that spiritual attachement that infuse a sense of nationality and  those who do not have a proper Jatakaya (birth) are the people who indulge in such nonsense. Of course those who really do not know the actual meaning also may use it. But they could be corrected whereas the other categories cannot be at any rate.

When all these big shots either driven by their personal the minorities also to and believe  they are separate nations. The most dangerous thing about this trend is the psychological transformation of the perception and attitude of the people that would settle down permanently in their minds and become irreversible. In this instance I would like to draw a parallel between the division of the Sinhala people living in the hills and the lowlands in to two rival groups  by the colonial powers as Kandyans and Low Country Sinhalese by the British. Until then they were one nation, that is Sinhala. But since then these artificially created two groups behaved as if they were two different nations and at the early stages of agitation for constitutional reforms in the 19th and early 20th centuries they even asked for two separate federal states. Thanks to the fact they all belong to one race, speak the same language, professed the same religion and have common roots the differences were patched up and went back to square one.

As such why can’t this band of ignoramus who chant the ‘mantram of many nations’ understand that this country, like any other country in the world has “only One Nation’ as it was the case from the dawn of historyWhat is more funny is at the same time these very people talk, of one nation,  (ekama Jatiyak) some times in the course of the same speech.  They say jati bhedayak neti ekama jatiyak. They little realize if there are many nations how on earth you can have a Ekama Jatiyak. This clearly shows these people do not know what they are talking.  So it is no wonder that the ordinary people get confused and also begin to think that this country really has more than one nation. The situation is made even worse when top Politicians from high flat forms describe this country as a multinational society. Minority communal elements meanwhile make the maximum use of his confusion and mak hay while fool display their political rhtorics.It is like the famous sinhala adage ‘panina rilawunta iniman bendeema’.

As for me from my small days I thought we have only one nation in this country. That was how the teachers of our day have taught us in school. According to them we are called the Sinahala nation and the country is nhale, meaning the land of the Sinhala people. They also told us that, that could be either because we descend from Vijaya (a man from the Sinha race whose father Sinhabahu is said to have killed the lion father)  who is supposed to have found this nation or because we descend from the Sivhela namely, yaksha, Raksha, Deva and Naga who had been living in this Island long before Vijaya arrived in the 6th century BC. Since this Island had been known as Lanka or Lankadeepa or Lanka dvipa (the resplendent Isle) even from the time of legendary Ravana time we were also called Lankan or Lankika Jatiya, meaning those who were born in Lanka. They also taught us that meanwhile there had been South Indian Tamil invaders, starting from 2nd century BC, who had been trying to capture this country from time to time. But every time they attempted to do so they were defeated and the Sinhala Kings ruled this country continuously until 1815 when the British conquered it by deceit.

Those invaders who were left behind from very early times got absorbed and integrated to the main stream and became Lankans or Sinhala people while some of them retained their religion and sub culture. Also in between there were others especially the Arab traders who came from time to time in small numbers, not as invaders but as traders who were later known as Muslims going by their religion. Most of them the native Sinhala language, got married to local Sinhala women and even took Sinhala ge names and lived among the Sinhala people.  All these men got absorbed in to the main stream while retaining their religious identity only. In addition to the language of the country, that is Sinhala, they also spoke Tamil. This may be due to the fact that some of them came from South India and also they did business with both local and Indian Tamils across the sea.  But the important thing to note here is that almost all these people, both Tamils and Muslims knew the language of the Land. So, even today nearly 95 % of the population or even more in this country is conversant in Sinhala, although some Tamil politicians dont speak Sinhala as thye hate Sinhala people as wellas Sinhala language while shamelessly subsist on th eresources of this land of the Sinhala people.The estate Tamils who were brought by the British after 1840s and continued up tp 1948, even though they were deliberately kept separated from the local as a community also learnt Sinhala as they came in contact with the neighbouring Sinhala villages.  So if you take the language as the dominant factor that unifies a nation, in this case Sinhala, what is the other name by which you should name this country and the nation? See our immediate neighbour India, then countries like Thailand, Japan, China, Korea, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain and England to name only a few. All these countries are named after the dominant language spoken in those countries. So why the hell on earth our politicians are hesitant to do so is my million dollar question?

It is only at the time of Donoghmore reforms the Tamil politicians tried to establish a separate identity. With the growth of Tamil communal politics they assumed a Tamil National” attitude and Tamil nationalism emerged which in later years tried to assert as a separate nation within this country. The label ‘Ceylon Tamils’ given by Arunachalam Ponambalan in 1911 as the Director of Census and Statistics was also responsible for this nationality perception in Tamils.No wonder these minions behave like goliaths when there are no Sinhala Leaders of stature, love tot he country and courage to draw the line and tell everybody that this country has only one nation and those who talk of many nations will be charged for treason or deported to their original places.

Although the idea of nationality is difficult to define the term nation in modern society is generally used to describe ‘a community of race and language, geographic unity, community of religion, common political aspiration and, above all, historical development over a long time’. This is of course not universal. But however it is essentially a sentiment of unity, spiritual in character and the will of a people to live together as Laski put it. The unity is the outcome of a common history. The Sinhala people even in this context had been a nation at least from the 6th century BC in this country. Even the four groups who lived here previously got identified as one nation as Sivhela or Sinhala. That is why the land was called Sinhale meaning the land of the Sivhela or Sinhala. With the introduction of Buddhism in 307 BC, they became Buddhists and ever remained as ‘The Sinhala Buddhist Nation’ in this country. With all the vicissitudes of history even in 1815 more than 90 % of the people in this country came within this category.

Even the Kandyan Convention of 2 March 1815 referred to this country as Sinahale while the also called it Ceylon- meaning the land of the Sinhala people. The said Convention was drawn between betwee the two countries The United Kingdom and Sinhale. So what evidence you need to call this coutry by its ancient name Sinhale.

This was indeed their only motherland from the dawn of history and it is so even today.Thousands of archaeological, epigraphical and literary evidence often running even to prehistoric times spread over the entire length and breadth of this country (From Peduru tuduwa in the North to Devundara in the South and Madakalapuwa in the East to Halawatha in the West) bear enough evidence to this conclusion that has been proved beyond all doubts. Therefore the nationhood of the Sinhala people in this country is irrefutable and no one can contest it.On the other hand Tamils have their own motherland in South  India and Muslims a motherland in Arabia, whereas, the Sinhalese have only this tiny Island (250 330 Sq Miles)  as heir motherland.

In this historical backdrop Tamils, Muslims and any other minor ethnic group in this country that forms a part of the Sri Lankan nation or the Sinhala nation is only an integral part of the ”Nation Lankan or Sinhala’ as this country had been known as the land of the Sinhala people right through out in history.Here I must clearly point out that this had never been known as a multi national, multi liguistic or mutlireligious country ever before, untill the concept was introduced th e British under sec 29 of the Soulbury Constitution in 1948.Had the national leaders in 1948 been intelligent enough to demand the original name of the country (Sinhale) language (Sinhala) and religion (Buddhism). this multi- barrel Multi, Multy headache would never have been there. If that was done  the minority gruops would have accepted their  due role within the Lankan nation, and conceded to this historical reality and learn to live with the major Sinhala community without running to America, India and other countries asking to tame the Sinhala nation and thereby creating unwanted problems for us as well as for themselves as they do today. I am positive that the big majority of both Tamils and Muslims, who are sensible, are prepared to do so. It is the communal minded power hungly Tamil and Muslim politicians whp are afraid opf losing their power base whomare against this reality.For those who are not prepared to concede to this irrefutable reality, I think, it is high time that they should renounce their craving for this day dream of separate ethnic states and go back to their own motherlands without trying to dream of a motherland on somebody else’s country, when they already have one somewhere else, and claiming illegal ownership of someone else’s soil by going round the world just denigrating our country.

On the part of our politicians I think it is high time that first they should rise above petty party politics and assert and behave as statesmen and declare that this country like any other has only one nation and that is Sinala Nation’ and no other. Then write this provision in to the Constitution of this country and declare that anyone agitating, behaving or instigating, aiding and abetting others to talk, act, or behave as separate nations or agitate for separation, contravening the law of the land, shall be charged for high treason. I also have a word of warning even for the UNP, SLPP, SLFP  and JVP  that unless they acceed to this Sri Lankan reality they too will be wiped out from the political scene and replaced by another who acceed to this reality. There is already a formidable strong people’s movement gathering momentum for a nationwide call to restore the   pre 1815 name of the country, the then prevailing status of the language and religion  and also a   call fordeclaring one nation, one country with Sinhala as the state language and buddhism as the state religion.

This will put an end to separatism and lay the foundation for Nation building at least now, even though already it is late by  70 years.