H. L. D. Mahindapala
The Indian Government has
repeatedly intervened in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka based on the
assumption that the policies of Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) needs correction
by the Big Brother, using the cane if necessary. This interventionist policy continues
to prevail even though the overall Indian experience as a regional power
has proved that it is not the best policy for building up trust and
easing tensions and confrontations among neighbours. In the latest summit
between the two heads of statesPrime
Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse the usual
interventionist exhortations were reiterated with neither party shifting from
their standard positions, or benefiting from it. It is now a predictable
ritual at Indo-Sri Lanka meetings for India to chant the usual mantra
in which India calls on the GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil
people for equality, justice, peace and respect ……”
Pushing the
political claims of Tamils of the North has been primarily India’s entry point
to intervene in the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. In a multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural society where there are rival claims of competing
communities, India has taken only the side of the Tamils of the North.
For instance, India has not backed the claims of the Muslims stated
in the Oluvil Declaration of January 29, 2003. It has, however, backed the
Vadkoddai Resolution (May 14, 1976) and actively intervened to extract
concessions from the Sri Lankan government to consolidate the mono-ethnic extremism
of the Northern Tamils.
This
intervention on behalf of the Tamils of the North alone, which, of course, can
come only at the expense of other communities, happens to be the main
bone of contention. The rationale for the intervention too is based on
the litany of complaints listed in the Vadukoddai Resolution. Exhorting the
GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil people for equality, justice,
peace and respect ……” comes directly from the political agenda of the
Vadukoddai Resolution.
It is this
premise that gives the leverage India needs to intervene, assuming the
role of the highly moral Big Brother ever willing to bring the little brother
into line. Whether the blaming of only the GOSL
(aka ‘the Sinhala state”) for the
inevitable clashes of multi-factorial socio-economic forces competing in rival
fields of multi-ethnic conditions is valid or not has not been examined
critically, either to understand the problem in all its dimensions or to
work out a viable solution. In hindsight, it can be argued that it is the
blind-sided acceptance of a mono-causal theory, blaming only the
Sinhala-Buddhists in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and, hence,
multi-dimensional political environment, that distorted the rational
perspectives necessary to generate conditions for peaceful coexistence.
Particularly
in the post-Donoughmore period when the Tamil Vellala elite that dominated
Jaffna politics realised that they were losing their dominance in the
entrenched colonial administrative and legislative seats, they laboured
incessantly to manufacture a history to boost their claim to be the founders
and the masters of nation from the dawn of time”. (Vadukoddai
Resolution). Their tactic was to rewrite yesterday’s history to fill in the
yawning gaps to boost today’s politics. Above all, in the absence of a
substantial history, they felt the need to pose as a superior breed,
standing heads and shoulders above the rest, including the regional and
Tamil-speaking Muslims. It is the self-serving conclusions derived from
distorted historical realities that led to the worsening of North-South
relations – a tragic logic that ran all the way to Nandikadal.
The Tamil Vellala elite had nothing to offer by way of a political
program except their claim to be superior human beings because (1) they
speak Tamil, one of the oldest languages in the world (2)
they were in Sri Lanka from the dawn of time” and (3) they are the
God-anointed caste, in the absence of the Brahmins in Jaffna, chosen to rule
Jaffna, as defined by Saivite casteist guru, Arumuka Navalar ( 1822 –
1879 ). It is Arumuka Navalar who played the decisive role of defining
the superior status of the Vellalas. He is the most
revered religious guru of Jaffna mainly because he has been the patron saint of
the Vellalas, the dominant majority in the peninsula. It was his revisionist
Hinduism that elevated the Vellalas to the highest caste in Jaffna hierarchy.
Though he attained the status of a demi-God in the eyes of Vellalas the
low-caste stoned his statue when it was taken round Jaffna by V. Navaratnam in
the sixties. The Sinhala state” had to send Police from the South to protect
the right of the Vellalas to honour their guru.
The arrogant sense of Vellala supremacy was taken to extreme ends. They
went to the obnoxious extreme of restricting the membership of the Tamil
community only to the Vellalas. They denied the low-caste Nalavar and Pallar
slaves as being Tamils. They were excluded from the Tamil community.
Prof.
Bryan Pfaffenberger, a leading authority on the Jaffna caste system, wrote: To
maintain the social boundary between Vellalars and untouchables, Vellalas
employ ritual to sustain a belief that Minority Tamils (low-castes) are a
non-Tamilian, “aboriginal” people of a despicably low status….
According to extreme Vellalar thinking, this stigma denies Minority Tamils full
membership in the Tamil community. The Nalavars’ and Pallars’ recent historical
origins in Dutch-sponsored immigrations from South India and their putatively
darker skin serve to deepen the Vellalar sense that the Minority Tamils are a
people apart from the mainstream….
If
Vellalars deny that Nalavars and Pallalars are Tamils, as some indeed did in
the early 1970s, where are the grounds for unifying the Tamil community? The
Minority Tamils have long laid claim to full membership in the Tamil community,
but in a way that could not fail to alarm Vellalars and stimulate a defensive
reaction. As Kenneth David has noted, the Pallars of Jaffna expressly conceive
themselves to be descended from one of two Vellalar brothers; after the older
brother’s death, the widow-a “bad woman,” according to the tale-made
the younger one into a landless slave (David 1976: 189-90). Thus, Minority
Tamils’ claim to full membership in the Tamil community is also a claim to
Vellalar status-which is precisely why Vellalars have fought their mobility
campaigns with such vehemence.” (Bryan Pfaffenberger: Political Construction
of Defensive Nationalism: The 1968 Temple-Entry Crisis in Northern Sri Lanka).
Religion, casteism intertwined inextricably with religion, and the Tamil
language borrowed from S. India, were the three main strands that were rolled
into one ideology– three inter-meshing forces that went to make the Tamil
identity in the twentieth century. The identity politics of Jaffna was based
primarily on this ideology. In the twentieth century when the Vellalas were
turning into a class from being dominant caste in feudal and colonial
times they had no progressive ideology – liberalism, socialism, democratic pluralism
etc — to justify their supremacy. Every one of those ideologies would
have undermined their casteist supremacy. So the Vellalas manufactured Tamil
identitarian politics as a vital for their own survival.
Their initial struggle to preserve their supremacy was based on casteist
Saivism of Arumuka Navalar which they did with extra-legal force against the
low-castes when necessary. But invading market forces, democratisation of the
political system and modernity were undermining their casteist supremacy. It
was when the outdated Vellala feudal fortress was crumbling that they took to
the Tamil identitarian politics to unite Jaffna fragmented on casteist
faultlines. It was also the last defence available to them to retain
their supremacy. Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan’s last mission to the Colonial
Secretary in the late twenties was to persuade the colonial masters on the
necessity of maintaining the caste system for the preservation of law and
order. Every aspect of Jaffna society, everything from the womb to the tomb,
was determined and enforced by the Vellala norms, ranks and gangs.
Any threat to the universe of the Vellala supremacists was seen as
chaos. To maintain their supremacy they did not hesitate to reduce the
low-caste slaves to subhuman conditions. In Jaffna,” wrote
Pfaffenberger, in the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, Minority Tamils were
forbidden to enter or live near temples; to draw water from the wells of
high-caste families; to enter laundries, barber shops, cafes, or taxis; to keep
women in seclusion and protect them by enacting domestic rituals; to wear
shoes; to sit on bus seats; to register their names properly so that social
benefits could be obtained; to attend school; to cover the upper part of the
body; to wear gold earrings; if male, to cut their hair; to use umbrellas; to
own bicycles or cars; to cremate the dead; or to convert to Christianity or
Buddhism (Holmes1980:232-34). To enforce these restrictions extralegally,
Vellalars have fielded gangs of thugs to punish upwardly mobile Pallars or
Nalavars. These gangs pollute untouchable wells with dead dogs, fecal matter,
or garbage; burn down untouchable fences or houses; physically assault and beat
Minority Tamils, and sometimes kill them. Preceding the Maviddapuram crisis there
had been several altercations in which Minority Tamils died (Times of
Ceylon, Feb. 17, 1968, p. 1).” (Ibid).
One
more critical issue that reveals the inhuman way in which the Tamil leadership
treated their own people down the ages. It was demonstrated in 1968 when the
low-castes staged a non-violent protest at the Maviddipuram Temple to gain
admittance. Here’s the description of the events that followed by Prof.
Pfaffenberger: After days of tense but peaceful confrontation, the
demonstration turned violent as dozens of self-styled “Defenders of
Saivism,” Hindus of high-caste rank (Vellalars and their domestic
servants, the Koviyars), beat back the Minority Tamils with iron rods and
sand-filled bottles. Feelings ran very high throughout the peninsula, and there
were many incidents of violence, some lethal.” (Ibid).
The
obscene record of Tamils massacring Tamils, of Tamil oppressing Tamils, of
Tamils dehumanising Tamils is the darkest chapter in Sri Lankan history. No
other community was treated with utter contempt by their leaders as the
Tamils. No other community was persecuted, tortured, oppressed and reduced to
subhuman slaves as the Tamils of Jaffna. It was a haven for the Vellala
supremacists who ran Jaffna with an iron-fist. It was also a glorious regime
for the Tamil Tigers who turned the peninsula into a fascist gulag. But
to the victims of these fascist leaders it was a hell-hole.
It is against
this background that the accusation of blaming the Sinhala state” should be
judged. Any judgement or accusation levelled against the GOSL must be
compared with the treatment meted out to the Tamils by the Tamil leaders.
Before pointing the accusing finger at the Sinhala state” isn’t it only fair
that there should be a fair and objective assessment of the manner in which the
Tamil leaders treated the Tamils? After all, the Sinhala state” had been
there only for the last 72 years. The Tamils of the North were ruled by
their Tamils leaders during the feudal and colonial periods. Besides, the Tamils
also came under the rule of a Tamil leader from around 1976, after the
Declaration of War by the Tamil leaders at Vadukoddai, when the North and
the East were occupied by the de facto state run by the Tamil Tigers. What kind
of treatment did the Tamils get under Velupillai Prabhakaran, their
Surya Devan”? How does the treatment meted out to the Tamils by the Tamil
leaders compare with the treatment they received under the Sinhala state?
So, when the
Indian panjandrums pressure Sri Lanka to address the aspirations of the Tamil
people for equality, justice, peace and respect ……” have they ever paused to
ask what degree of equality, justice, peace and respect was given to the
Tamils by the Tamil regimes / leaders throughout their history? In comparison,
the historical record proves that the Tamils never had it so good as under the
Sinhala states”. For instance, no Tamil residing in other parts of the
world, including India, their one and only homeland, has had the privilege of
being represented in the national flag – the highest symbol of
recognition and respect given to any community. The Tamils fly high among
the 193 flags at the UN because the Sinhala state” has given them their due
respect and place. Their language and their equal status have been
recognised and honoured in the currency, the stamps and all official
records of the Sinhala state”. No Tamil regime in the past or in
contemporary times have delivered justice, however, flawed it may be, as
the Sinhala state”. In fact, the best of Tamil lawyers practiced law in the
courts of the Sinhala state” and not in the Tamil courts of the de facto
state of Prabhakaran. What justice was given to the low-castes Tamils
protesting non-violently at the Maviddipuram Temple by the Vellalas? What equality
did the Vellalas grant to the Tamil protestors when they cracked their heads
with iron rod and bottles filled with sand merely because they asked for
permission to pray to the same God/s in the same temple?
It is the
Vellala leadership which dehumanised their fellow-Tamils and treated them as
outcasts. It is the same leaderrship that is going behind India to put pressure
on the GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil people for equality,
justice, peace and respect.” The Tamil community will agree, if they are honest
enough, that the record of their leaders treating their fellow-Tamils stinks to
high heaven. Again, they will agree, if they are honest enough, that on balance
the Sinhala state” has applied the principles of equality, justice and peace
in dealing with all communities. There are, of course, instances of deviating
from this norm. But any judgment on an historical scale will confirm that
the Sinhala state” have been far fairer and just to the Tamils than the
Tamils have been to the Tamils.
So, where
does this leave the Indians who are asking the Sinhala state” to address the
aspirations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect”? What
justification is there for India to lecture to GOSL in dealing with only the
Tamil minority who, tragically, has been the perennial victims of their
fascist leaders? The GOSL which has been in search of peaceful coexistence has
gone a long distance to ameliorate the conditions of the Tamils. For instance,
the first ever legal step to dismantle the fascist caste structure was
taken by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike who passed the Prevention of Social
Disabilities Act of 1957. In 2009 it was Mahinda Rajapakse who liberated
the Tamils from the fascist tyranny of the Tamil Pol Pot.
The Tamil leaders
of Jaffna, of course, have been shedding crocodile tears for the
oppressed Tamils. Their humbuggery in blaming the Sinhala state” for their
failure to deliver their people from the systemic evils of casteism
is unforgiveable. Jaffna political class has survived by passing the buck to
the Sinhala state. They never took responsibility for the consequences of the
decadent and evil caste system that enslaved the Tamil people from the Dutch
period to modern times. What is worse is the Indian morality that goes along
with the Tamil humbuggery. They know what is happening under their noses. And
yet they opt to go along with Tamil humbuggery.
Tamil leaders
of Jaffna are the last whingers who are entitled to complain about the denial
of equality, justice, peace and respect” to the Tamil people. Would
Prabhakaran ever have invited R. Sampanthan to be his leader of the
Opposition? Would India have allowed Muthiah Muralidharan to step into
any part of Indian territory if he was throwing hand grenades for Prabhakaran?
Wasn’t it because Murali was given respect and treated equally that he
became a famous Tamilian? India, on the contrary, trained Prabhakaran to throw
hand grenades in Sirumalai, near Madurai and paid for it dearly.
So, when
India accepts the humbuggery of the Tamil oppressors and lectures to the
GOSL on how to deal with its most privileged minority it degrades its claim to
be a moral leader. It deviates from the Gandhi-Nehruvian morality that
made it a shining star, pointing the way to peace and security in a troubled
world. Following the Tamil accusations blindly has given India a moral
veneer in the past to (1) violate international law (air space), (2) train
Tamil terrorists to subvert and destabilise a democratically elected
neighbour, (3) send its military forces in the guise of disarming the
Tamil terrorists it trained, financed and exported to Sri Lanka and (4)
generally twist the arm of GOSL to thrust the 13th Amendment down the
throat of Sri Lanka devolving power to the Tamils – its main objective –
and (5) leave Sri Lanka achieving nothing to resolve the problem after beating
Sri Lanka with its Big Brother stick.
After
throwing in all its resources, after mobilising all its diplomatic,
military and economic power India is still stuck in the place where it began.
Besides, Sri Lanka too has gone the distance it could to accommodate the Indian
solution”. Sri Lanka even opened its gates and invited the Indian forces
to come and fix the problem. It accepted the Indian political formula
it imposed in the form of the 13th Amendment. Sri Lanka has been
bending over backwards not to offend India. And yet, after going along
with India’s solutions” s far as it could, India is refusing to take any
responsibility for the failure of its interventionist policy. It is still
exhorting Sri Lanka to address equality, justice, peace and respect” as
claimed by the Tamils of the North. Didn’t India come in to do that job saying
that Indian Big Brother can do what Sri Lankan younger brother can’t do? So why
is India pointing a finger at Sri Lanka after failing in its mission?
The fourth
largest army in the world couldn’t even disarm, as promised in the Indo-Sri
Lanka Agreement, the terrorists it trained in Indian soil. Indian
meddling in Sri Lanka has not brought a satisfactory solution to the Tamils,
the Sri Lankans and, least of all, to the Indians. The issue continues to
simmer with the Tamil tail twisting the Indian head in Delhi.
Consequently, isn’t its India’s duty to revisit the problem and examine
critically where it went wrong and ask: why has India gone nowhere so far?
Could it be that India has got its fundamentals wrong? Isn’t it clear
that India has failed, even after exhausting all its options, because it
has not come to grips with the historical and political realities that fuelled
the North-South crisis? Can India provide a solution if it can’t get its
basics right?
With all its
accumulated experience that adds up to a failure so far, it is obvious that
India must go for a mid-course correction. If so from where should India
begin? The most appropriate place would be to test the Indian premise on which
India has acted so far to intervene in Sri Lankan affairs. Accepting the usual
litany of complaints made by the Tamils of the North as its official line for
intervention questions India’s judgemental capacity to evaluate critical issues
relevant to its national and regional interests. So where should India begin
since it has failed in achieving a solution by follow slavishly the political
line sold by the Tamils to India.?
It is common
knowledge that if you begin with the wrong premise you end up with the wrong
conclusions. No logical, rational or acceptable solution can come if you start
from a wrong premise. For instance, if a new critical analysis establishes that
it is the Tamil leadership that has been guilty of denying the oppressed
Tamils their rights and their due place in the sun will not the
conclusion lead to different solutions? Why did the Tamil leadership fail to
redeem their own people who were suffering under the yoke of Vellala casteism?
Why did they go along with Prabhakaranist fascism and blame GOSL for not
giving into his demands? Why did they pass the buck to the Sinhala
bogeyman and still continue to mislead the world with their self-serving
narrative?
Since India
has adopted the usual litany of complaints made by the Tamils of the North as
its official line for intervention it is imperative that India should, even at
this late stage, revisit its premise and evaluate how far it can go down
the failed path with the Tamils. The success of foreign policies depends on
objective and critical analysis, particularly if it is stuck in a rut. No
foreign policy can survive for long on myths and fiction.
