{"id":102875,"date":"2020-05-27T05:31:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T12:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102875"},"modified":"2020-05-27T05:31:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T12:31:06","slug":"origins-of-tamil-political-violence-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/27\/origins-of-tamil-political-violence-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Origins of Tamil political violence \u2013 Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

May 14,\n1976 is one of the most underreported, underestimated, underexamined dates in\nthe political calendar of independent Sri Lanka. It was the date on which the\nTamil leadership which had gathered in Vadukoddai passed a resolution declaring\nwar against the democratically elected state demanding a separate state.\nStitching bits and pieces of selected events from here and there, they painted\ntheir version of history which consisted of highly controversial accusations to\ndemonise the Sinhala-state\u201d \u2013 their terminology to stigmatise the\ndemocratically elected state as a racist entity with no space for the\nminorities, particularly the Tamils. So shedding copious tears for the Tamils,\nthe Vadukoddai Declaration of War urged the Tamil youth to take up arms and\nnever rest until they had achieved Tamil Eelam \u2013 a political haven of the\nTamils, by the Tamils for the Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call\nto take up arms was declared in the last two paragraphs of the Vadukoddai\nResolution. It said: This\nConvention directs the Action Committee of the TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT to\nformulate a plan of action and launch without undue delay the struggle for\nwinning the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil Nation;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this\nConvention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in\nparticular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for\nfreedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of TAMIL EELAM is\nreached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these\ntwo concluding paragraphs the Tamil leadership assembled at Vadukoddai called\nupon the Action Committee  to formulate a plan of action\u201d for the Tamil\nyouth in particular to take up arms, abandoning their pretensions of being a\nnon-violent movement. And from 1976 onwards both the Tamil elders and the\nTamils youth followed the declared objective of winning the sovereignty and\nfreedom of the Tamil Nation\u201d through violence. It was a clear and decisive\ndeclaration to pursue a military course of action to achieve political goals\nThis was the primary message delivered by the Tamil leadership to the Tamil\npeople. It was the fateful day on which the Tamil leadership made their biggest\npolitical gamble by deciding to abandon the non-violent, democratic mainstream\nand go down the path of violence. They decided to change the course of history\n\u2013 and their destiny — with violence. They invested everything they had in\npursuing violence and failed. Failed miserably!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nthe post-independent decades, the ageing Tamil leadership had pushed Tamil\ncommunalism to the extreme end and by May 14, 1976 the force of events\ngenerated by them had cornered them. They discovered rather late that the\nconsistent, unrelenting and massive political campaigns they had whipped up,\nblaming everything on the Sinhala state\u201d in the post-independent phase, had\nnot gone in the direction they had wanted. Their aim was to divide Sri Lanka\ninto two states \u2013 a task which they set out achieve with the typical Tamil\narrogance boosted by historical distortions, political fictions, and\nanti-Sinhala-Buddhist venom. They had raised the hopes of the Jaffnaites\noverestimating their peninsular power and underestimating the consolidated\nhistorical forces that had created, built and sustained the nation over the\nages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1976 the\nfalse expectations they generated had risen to fever pitch and the internal\nforces \u2013 mainly, the Tamil youth — that rose with the high expectations had\ngone as far as they could and reached the end of their political tether. The\nTamil youth were impatient and rebelling against the conservative and failed\nTamil leadership demanding a change of course. The internal dynamics within the\npeninsula had gathered a momentum which demanded instant solutions. Eelam\nremained in the Never-Never land, elusive as ever. The hate politics of\nmono-ethnic Tamil extremism, targeting the Sinhala-Buddhists of the South, had\ngone too far to a point of no return, leaving no room for peaceful\nco-existence. Any moves for compromises were decried by one or the other Tamil\nparty as surrender to the Sinhalese. Following Jinnah\u2019s partioning of India the\nTamil leadership declared that the marriage of partnership was over. They were\ndetermined to go for divorce which in their desperate circumstances seems to be\nthe only way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nVadukoddai Resolution the Tamil leadership was throwing not a challenge but an\nultimatum to the Sinhala state\u201d. Pumped up by their mono-ethnic rhetoric,\nwrapped in mythologies, they were hoping to force their way into Eelam. The\nplan of the Tamil elders was to make use of the Tamil youth to pull their\npolitical chestnuts out.  In the process, they had painted themselves into\na mono-ethnic extremity from which they could not get out except through\nviolence. They were determined to dissolve the marriage made by the gods of\ngeography and history. All what they needed was a public declaration justifying\nthe hate politics of the North for them to declare war. The Vadukoddai\nResolution was introduced to spell out the reasons why they refused to coexist.\nDemanding disproportionate shares of positions (particularly in the government\nservice), power in the legislatures, privileges enshrined in the various\nconstitutions and, most of all, territories as ethnic enclaves they had pushed\nthemselves into a self-destructive political extremity. It led them to\nmono-ethnic politics, excluding the other\u201d.  With this agenda they had\nnowhere else to go except to embrace violence.  This confirms the\nproposition that separatism and violence are inseparable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was\namidst these overwhelming pressures that the Tamil leadership met in Vadukoddai\nand gave the official nod for the Tamil youth to take up arms against the\nelected state of Sri Lanka, hoping to ride on their backs to the seats of power\nin Eelam. The old Tamil leadership did not realise at this stage that they were\nhanding over their traditional power, which they had wielded from feudal times,\ninto the hands of the untried, untested and inexperienced Tamil youth. The\nimmature Tamil youth who took over were armed with the Vadukoddai Resolution\nthat legitimised their violence. Fired up by the Vadukoddai ideology they came\nout of their cells like bulls in a china shop. They literally went berserk\nbelieving that they had the Vadukoddai license to kill everything that crossed\ntheir path, including their political fathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nmeantime, the ageing Tamil leaders and the Tamil youth continued to maintain\ntheir two-pronged attack on the South. Needling the lower-level ethnic\nleadership of the South was a deliberate and chosen tactic of the Northern\nprovocative politics, wrote Prof. A. J. Wilson, son-in-law of S. J. V.\nChelvanayakam, father of Tamil separatism. The joint front of the Tamil elders\nand the youth were heading towards violence. Clearly, 1976\u201d was segueing,\nslowly but surely, into 1983\u201d. The explosion of 1983 did not come out of a\nmisguided government turning a blind eye. It was the cumulative reaction to the\ncollective violence unleashed in the Vadukoddai Resolution. No doubt, the aggressive\nreaction of the lunatic fringe in the South, provoked by the hate politics of\nJaffna jingoism, too had aggravated the worsening inter-ethnic relations with\nreactive mob-violence breaking out sporadically. But the ultimatum issued in\nthe Vadukoddai Resolution, and the provocative violence targeting the Sinhala\nstate\u201d that followed, were heating up communal tensions. Sinhala CTB bus\ndrivers were returning to Colombo from Jaffna complaining that the Tamil shops\nwere refusing to serve even a glass of water. By 1983 the two communities had\ndrawn as far apart as they could. The last straw that broke the back of the\nSinhala camel was the killing of the 13 soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking\nback, it is obvious that 1983\u201d was the Southern reply to the arrogant politics\nof 1976\u201d and the subsequent increase of violence of the Tamil youth\nthreatening the sovereignty of the nation \u2013 the only place available to the\nSinhalese in this lonely planet. At least nominally, the Tamil and Muslim\ncommunities had other historical havens to which they could withdraw in case\nthe worst came to the worst. The Sinhalese had only Sri Lanka. It was the only\nbase they built exclusively for themselves. Generations of Sinhalese sacrificed\ntheir lives to make it their safe haven. They had a historical right to claim\nit their own. It was not narrow racism \/ chauvinism. It was their legitimate,\nhistorical and natural right. The Vadukoddai Resolution posed a threat to their\nsecurity and history and their defensive reaction was predictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate\non the whys and the wherefores of 1983\u201d, of course, is not going to end in a\nhurry. Taken out of its context and viewed as an anti-Tamil outburst of a\nsociety gone mad, the Tamils made 1983\u201d the ultimate proof of their need for a\ndivorce. But if it is placed in the context of consequences flowing from the\nideological and political violence unleashed in the politics of 1976\u201d and\nafter, it is logical to conclude that 1983\u201d was an inevitable outcome of the\npreceding Tamil aggressive and provocative politics. They asked for and they\ngot it, was the general reaction of the Sinhalese. The sequence of events that\nflowed from 1976\u201d ran incrementally, step by step, one leading to another,\nuntil escalating violence reached its explosive peak in 1983\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provocative\nrhetoric and actions of the North unravelled slowly but surely into 1983\u201d. The\nexplosion of 1983 was the counter-violence to end Tamil expansionism and\naggressive power grab threatening the territorial integrity and the historical\nheritage left behind by the Founding Fathers of the nation. The ideological and\nemotional ambience for an ethnic explosion was prepared and fertilized by the\nTamil leadership. The Tamil have always been quite clever in digging their own\ngrave. The other two minorities escaped the horrors of a 33-year-old war\nbecause their leadership was wise enough not to hand over their grip on power\nto the misguided youth. It is the restoration of power to the non-violent\nstream of Tamil politics by the Rajapakse brothers that has introduced a new normalcy\nwhich, hopefully, will grow into a new nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala\nviolence has invariably been reactive, responding to provocative political\nviolence of the minorities. And 1983\u201d is no exception. Besides, no responsible\nSinhala leader, no respected or established Sinhala community organisation, nor\nthe Sinhala state\u201d had officially declared war against another community,\ndespite the provocative violence they had faced. Like any other state it had\nreacted defensively to restore peace, and protect territorial integrity and\nsovereignty. It has never declared a war to impose its supremacy over the other\ncommunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlive-and-let-live policy of the Sinhala majority did not go beyond sporadic\nviolence of the fringe freaks against the provocative acts of the minorities.\nWithout condoning any kind of violence, it is clear that those explosions were\nlike the fizz of the soda bottle. Sinhala violence has always gone down almost\ninstantly, soon after its explosion, returning the nation to peaceful\nco-existence. Only the Tamil leadership decided to declare war against the\nSinhala state\u201d at Vadukoddai, creating the longest period of brutal violence.\nTheir politics of hate leaves no room for peaceful co-existence. Vadukoddai\nResolution was a recipe for separatist violence and chaos. But it was a wave of\ntsunamic violence that came from the volcanic sifting of the territorial plates\nin Vadukoddai and nowhere else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I repeat,\nseparatism and violence are inseparable. It is the kind of politics that can\nbreed only hatred and not reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be\ncontinued<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala May 14, 1976 is one of the most underreported, underestimated, underexamined dates in the political calendar of independent Sri Lanka. It was the date on which the Tamil leadership which had gathered in Vadukoddai passed a resolution declaring war against the democratically elected state demanding a separate state. Stitching bits and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}