{"id":110855,"date":"2021-01-22T01:02:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T07:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110855"},"modified":"2021-01-21T03:45:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T10:45:02","slug":"some-questions-regarding-sinhala-tamil-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/22\/some-questions-regarding-sinhala-tamil-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Questions regarding Sinhala &amp; Tamil language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shenaliwaduge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/images-12.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2195\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There is much ado about the claims that the 1956 Official Language Act was responsible for the present \u2018ethnic conflict\u2019. The advocate of this notion must explain how ITAK formed in 1949 sought to create a Tamil Nation as per translation of its name? They must also explain how grievance over Sinhala language could be solved by giving into a demand for \u2018federalism\u2019 as sought via Bandaranaike-Chelvanagayam Pact. What does Sinhala language have to do with federalism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us simply ask some questions, find the answers and think about the false notions being spread<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What was the language spoken during the rule of the Kings that ruled Sri Lanka?<\/li><li>Were the kinglets that the Kings established \u2018independent\u2019 and \u2018sovereign\u2019 or were they under one ruler who ruled the entire island?<\/li><li>Is there any evidence to show Tamil as an official language at any time in our island\u2019s history?<\/li><li>What was the language of administration during colonial rule?<\/li><li>John D\u2019Oyly learnt Sinhalese, did he also learn Tamil? Why didn\u2019t\u2019 he?<\/li><li>If Jaffna was a separate kingdom, why didn\u2019t British sign a separate treaty with the Tamils similar to the Kandyan Convention signed in 1815?<\/li><li>The colonials set up the best of missionary schools in minority areas as part of divide and rule policy, giving the best of education to minorities and enabling them to secure the best jobs thereafter \u2013 didn\u2019t Sinhalese suffer the greater discrimination during colonial rule as a majority? \u2013 their language rights, cultural rights, religious rights were all earmarked to be vanquished.<\/li><li>The \u2018elite\u2019 that the British nurtured through their education system in English language, converting to Christianity meant that Sinhalese &amp; Tamils who converted only could obtain English education. Were these not the one\u2019s who preferred to remain the chosen elite continuing to think and act like the British even after independence? Were these not the brown sahibs the British wanted to hand over powers to on their behalf?<\/li><li>Wasn\u2019t the demand to reverse the discrimination to Sinhalese manipulated into showcasing a majority-minority rift, again part of colonial divide and rule policy?<\/li><li><strong>The demand to reverse the discrimination suffered by the Sinhalese had nothing linked to Tamils nor did Sinhalese demand any rights to them denying anything to Tamils. But, the media campaign was tasked to show this simply to deny the rights that was due to the Sinhalese.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li>The publicity was quickly directed to showcase that the demand for reversing the discrimination to Sinhalese was actually a demand to deny Tamils their rights which they were enjoying in excess of their population ratio. Statistics will reveal the jobs enjoyed by Tamils in state sector on account of Tamils being given better education opportunities.&nbsp;<strong>The Sinhalese demand was not to deny what the Tamils were given but for the Sinhalese to be also given with the same spoon.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Did Tamil language enjoy official language status in any time of the islands\u2019 history?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Did Tamil language enjoy official language\/administrative status during Portuguese, Dutch or British rule<\/strong>\u2013&nbsp;<strong>if not, how can the 1956 Official Language Act making Sinhala the Official language and \u2018reasonable use of Tamil\u2019 become a grievance to Tamils?&nbsp;<\/strong>To claim that anything is purposefully denied, anyone has to be enjoying that right first. So the question returns to ask \u2013 was Tamil an official language at any time to claim a grievance?<\/li><li>It was only via a bogus and intrusive Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987 demanding passing of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>amendment that Tamil was made an official language. The same country does not even afford Tamils who have a virtual Tamil state (Tamil Nadu) official language status. Tamil is not a National Language even in India inspite of over 72million Tamils living in it. Tamil is spoken by around 6% of Indian population and barely outside Tamil Nadu.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Please share your thoughts on this discussion too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For too long, false notions and lies have been spread in a campaign to divert people from thinking about true facts and asking rationale questions and seeking answers to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is much ado about the claims that the 1956 Official Language Act was responsible for the present \u2018ethnic conflict\u2019. The advocate of this notion must explain how ITAK formed in 1949 sought to create a Tamil Nation as per translation of its name? They must also explain how grievance over Sinhala language could be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110855","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\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}