Dilrook Kannangara

A political debate is raging over history teaching in government syllabus following schools. One group argues for the continued teaching of fake history in primary schools that follow the government syllabus while another group argues that it should be taught only for students in Years 6 to 9. No party to the debate wants to teach real history that was never taught in schools. This is yet another meaningless, politically motivated and distracting event. Teaching or not teaching fake history has no impact. They are the same. In fact, not teaching fake history is the better option as that would lead students to learn real history themselves.

School history teaching is based on a heavily politicized syllabus created by politicians and their appointees. It aims at supporting the political narrative of the regime and reconciliation. It is not about knowing the reality which can be dangerous to politicians.

The island nation has a rich history with well documented historical chronicles numbering over 15 and backed by inscriptions numbering well into the hundreds. However, this real history has been deliberately kept out of schools.

Why?

The reasons will be apparent to anyone who has taken the effort to study real history. It took the writer over a decade to unlearn fake history taught at school and replace it with real history learned from original historical accounts of events. A nation built upon fake history is bound to collapse as its foundation itself is fake.

Here is a classic fabrication of history that is taught in schools. In the second century BC, there was a battle between Elara and Dutugemunu (161BC). The latter was victorious.

However, in reality, there was no Elara-Dutugemunu war. Instead, there was a Sinhala-Tamil war (205BC to 161BC), the first of its kind and one of 15 of similar wars between the two groups with plenty more instances to come. Elara killed the Sinhala King Asela (205BC) and occupied Anuradhapura. In the process, his Tamil army destroyed a large number of Buddhist shrines. The battle between Elara and Dutugemunu was just one small element of the Sinhala-Tamil war. Almost 30 years before that battle, Dutugemunu’s father got Elara’s Tamil army commander killed. When his severed head reached Magampura, jubilant celebrations broke out. No such celebrations occurred when Elara’s subsequent non-Tamil (Marathi ethnicity) army commanders were killed. They were treated with much respect. In fact, their association with their subjects was ridiculed.

When Dutugemunu was young his mother once told him to stretch himself and sleep properly to which the young prince snapped, how can I stretch properly when I’m trapped between the deep blue sea on one side and by Tamils on the other?”. He never said Elara. The war that he launched in 175BC took 14 years to eliminate Tamils from the island – a normal battlefield practice around the world at that time when Geneva Conventions were not around! Killing Elara was just one small element of it. After his killing, the army moved to Anuradhapura and northward eliminating Tamils. Having convinced that no more Tamils were spared the nation erupted in celebrations only to find that 60,000 Tamils were in Mannar. They were confronted and eliminated too. Since the war was between Sinhalas and Tamils, there was no animosity between Sinhala army commanders within Elara’s army and Dutugemunu’s army. They were never the enemies. In fact, King Dutugemunu married the daughter of a Sinhala army commander of Elara. Had the war was between Elara and Dutugemunu, they would have been treated as traitors and executed. Since the war was between Sinhalas and Tamils, there was unity among all Sinhalas irrespective of their political allegiance against Tamils.

Similar events took place in relation to Kings Vijayabahu, Prakramabahu, etc.

Why is this real history not taught in schools? Well, it’s obvious that it cannot be taught in schools without creating a rift, affecting reconciliation and causing distrust.

However, teaching a fake history instead of the bitter reality is not the solution. It fools students and sustains fake claims like the Tamil homeland claim. Sri Lanka has no history. There is no Sri Lankan history”. Sri Lanka is a creation of the British and Indians. There never existed a nation called Sri Lanka”. Faking Sinhala history just to prop up Sri Lankan claims does injustice to both. Real history of the island must be protected. It’s unpopular today for obvious reasons but it is the truth. School children may not be prepared to receive it. Spare them the lies until they can find the truth themselves.