SINGING SRI LANKA’S NATIONAL ANTHEM IN TAMIL Part 4C
Posted on December 30th, 2022

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The singing of the national anthem in Tamil has led to two opposite reactions, for and against. There is also a conciliatory approach which said the Tamil version, could be sung in Tamil, in Tamil majority population area but when it comes to state and national functions it must be sung in Sinhala.  

 Others were less tolerant. A national anthem is a symbol of the identity of a nation, it is a symbol of unity.   The Sinhala national anthem is composed with due regard to the auspicious nature of the words. Today the north is all Tamil, and they have with all impunity sung the national anthem in Tamil, they complained.

 Why can’t the Tamils learn to sing the national anthem in Sinhala? If they are able to learn other languages in the countries they live in now, why can’t they learn Sinhala?  They do not ask that the national anthem of the countries they now live in be translated to Tamil so they can sing it with fervor and loyalty, Sinhala supporters said angrily.

The legal angle was explored. Ladduwahetty said that  the Constitution only  provided for the Sinhala version of the anthem. Article 7 of the constitution  makes it clear  that the  national anthem cannot deviate from the  words and music given in the schedule and  the words  in the schedule are in Sinhala. Article 7 is an entrenched provision  which cannot be amended, repealed or tampered with. President Sirisena has permitted the national anthem to be sung in Sinhala and Tamil in 2016. Is this a violation of the constitution Ladduwahetty asked.

The singing of the national anthem in Tamil in 2016  was challenged in Supreme Court as a violation of the Constitution. Shortly after the National Anthem was sung in Tamil on 4 February 2016, a legal challenge was mounted against the move. A Fundamental Rights petition was filed in the Supreme Court. After considering submissions by all parties concerned, a three-judge bench in November 2016 refused to grant leave to provide with the petition, reported Jeyaraj.

Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) filed an intervenient petition in the case. A communiqué issued by the CPA stated as follows: Sanjeewa Sudath Perera and two others filed a petition dated 26 February 2016 in the Supreme Court challenging the decision to sing the national anthem in Tamil at the official Independence Day celebrations in 2016. The petitioners argued that singing the Anthem in Tamil was contradictory to Articles 7 and 12 of the Constitution which relate to the National Anthem and rights to equality and non-discrimination respectively.

On 4 March 2016, CPA and its Executive Director Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu filed an intervention petition which argued that singing the National Anthem in Tamil was constitutional. The petition first referenced Articles 18 and 19 of the Constitution which state that Sinhala and Tamil are Official and National Languages of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, unlike subordinate legislation such as acts of Parliament, the Constitution contains no provision which stipulates that the Sinhala text shall prevail over the Tamil. As such, the words and music of the National Anthem in the Tamil language are constitutionally recognised by Article 7 read with the Third Schedule of the Tamil version of the Constitution.

The intervention petition further referenced Article 12 of the Constitution claiming that a declaration that the National Anthem be sung only in Sinhalese would be a direct violation of Article 12 which in turn would be a violation of the fundamental rights of Tamil-speaking citizens. The CPA also supported two additional intervention petitions that supported the constitutionality of singing the National Anthem in Tamil.

The Supreme Court took up the case on 18 November 2016, discussing whether the petitioners made a strong enough case for considering the petition in court. During discussions, the DSG referenced Articles 18 and 19 of the Constitution recognising both Sinhala and Tamil as official and national languages and that the singing of the anthem in Tamil was not in violation of the Constitution. The Court therefore decided that the petitioners had not disclosed a case to be considered and subsequently their case was dismissed.” concluded Centre for Policy Alternatives  .

Those opposing the Tamil version were told that that several countries had national anthems in two or more languages. Belgium (French, Dutch and German), New Zealand (English and Māori), Suriname (Dutch and Sranan Tongo) and Switzerland (German, French, Italian and Romansch).[19]

Canada had four languages ,English, French,  Inuit and  a bilingual version where the middle verse is in French,  beginning  and end is in English. South Africa has  five official  languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. The national anthem had four stanzas. First stanza is in Xhosa and Zulu, two lines each, next stanza in Sesotho, third in Afrikaner, fourth in ‘English,

Those against the Tamil version dismissed these examples. They stated that now Sri Lanka had joined South Africa, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand and Fiji as a country having two national anthems. Sri Lanka need not take the new nations such as Canada, New Zealand and South Africa as examples. They were countries which had ethnic issues  which were in some cases, still simmering.

Instead those opposing  the Tamil anthem  turned to Singapore and  India. In Singapore, though Mandarin is the majority language, national anthem is in Malay.   In India the national anthem is sung in only one language . It is a patriotic song written in Sanskritised Bengali by Tagore ,  adopted as the national anthem. It is not even in the official language , Hindi. But all Indians sing it regardless of whether they understand it or not.  India stipulated that all schools in India have to start the day with the national anthem.

Those supporting the Tamil version stated that there is nothing in the constitution against the anthem being accurately translated in word and spirit and set to the same music and  sung in Tamil. Tamil is an official language. The Anthem has been translated and sung in Tamil soon after it was adopted by the government [ in the 1950s]

Independence Day celebrations in 2020 saw the National Anthem being sung in Sinhala only. Tamil was excluded. The Tamil Separatist Movement ran to the UNHRC. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet mentioned it in her 17-page report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in2021.

Ethnic and religious minority communities are left behind and excluded in Sri Lanka Bachelet said. Among instances noted by the UN Human Rights Chief in this regard was the exclusion of the National Anthem in Tamil. The report stated: The Government declined to include the National Anthem in the Tamil language on national occasions, such as the Independence Day celebrations, on 4 February 2020, despite the preceding years’ practice of singing it in two languages as a significant gesture towards reconciliation.” Such an approach has serious negative implications for reconciliation, peace building and religious tolerance, and carries the seeds of future violence and conflict, Bachelet  concluded.

The Tamil Separatist Movement uses emotional arguments to support its case for a Tamil version of the national anthem. Here is a  selection:

  • A National anthem is meant to unite and that doesn’t mean singing it in one language in a multi language society where diversity is recognized and accommodated in the constitution.
  • The Sinhala only national anthem was designed to divide rather than unite, to widen the psychological gulf the majority and the minorities and drive home the lesson that minorities are not so welcome interlopers in a Sinhala country.
  • There is greater chance of inculcating a sense of Lankan patriotism in Tamil/Muslim children when they are allowed to sing the national anthem in their own language rather than parrot it in a language they barely understand. Tamil could understand the meaning instantly when they sing it in Tamil.
  • People who insist that Tamils speaking people should be forced to sing our national anthem in Sinhala. This is to demonstrate their superiority to the numerically weaker Tamils. Nationalists want to ram the Sinhala national anthem down the throat of our Tamils speaking brethren. They are showing tribalism.
  • Tamils cannot think of themselves as Sri Lanka when the national anthem is in a language that they cannot understand said one supporter. He suggest  including aTamil verse in the national anthem. It will also help chauvinistic Sinhalese to remember that there are people other than the Sinhalese living in this country.
  • If we truly believe that we are the children of one mother we must provide the opportune for the Tamil speaking people to sing our national anthem in theirmother tongue.’ said one supporter,  forgetting that children of one mother will not be speaking in  two different  languages.
  • We must voluntarily learn the national anthem in each other’s language, so we can all sing it together.
  • Listening to the singing of the national anthem in either or both language is indeed a moving experience. It is most moving when it is sung in our mother tongue or both languages.
  • What the opponents of singing it in Tamil advocates is to force Tamils to recite it and even mispronounce words without understanding it. Or worse, compose a song for themselves with different sentiments. ( Concluded)

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