{"id":67521,"date":"2017-07-04T00:02:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T06:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=67521"},"modified":"2017-07-03T16:50:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T23:50:33","slug":"h-l-seneviratne-repeats-ponnambalams-apocalyptic-racism-blaming-bandaranaike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/07\/04\/h-l-seneviratne-repeats-ponnambalams-apocalyptic-racism-blaming-bandaranaike\/","title":{"rendered":"H.L. Seneviratne repeats Ponnambalam\u2019s apocalyptic racism blaming Bandaranaike"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Rising communal tensions and clashes in the thirties of the last century, shattering the pre-colonial and colonial communal harmony, debunk the myths of H. L. Seneviratne, (HLS), the\u00a0 one-eyed theoretician, blaming S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike for the worsening\u00a0 of inter-ethnic\u00a0 relations and everything else that happened since he became Prime Minister in 1956. The evidence printed\u00a0 in\u00a0 black and white in the newspapers of 1939 \u2013 a time when history was not politicised by Tamil Vellala supremacists \u2013 points the finger directly at G. G. Ponnambalam, the\u00a0 rising proponent of Tamil racism in the dying days of\u00a0 the British rule.\u00a0 Seeing\u00a0 the\u00a0 potential dangers of the emerging trends of racism \u2013 a new phenomenon in the political landscape — the\u00a0 Jaffna papers were quick to\u00a0 condemn the\u00a0 ominous voice of Ponnambalam, the new comer to Tamil politics who was going\u00a0 all out to cut a figure and rise above the turbanned Tamil aristocracy\u201d, (p. 327 — Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931 \u2013 1947<\/strong><\/em>, Jane Russell, Tisara Prakashakayo). The Morning Star<\/strong><\/em> branded him as a pygmy politician\u201d. The Hindu Organ<\/strong><\/em> referred to him as a gas-bag\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ponnambalam entered politics at a time when the\u00a0 towering figures Ponnambalam Ramanathans, Arunachalams and Coomaraswamys, the turbaned aristocracy, dominated peninsular politics. Compared to them Ponnambalam was indeed a pygmy politician\u201d who had no credible heritage, nor the aura of the traditional aristocracy to make an impression in the peninsular electorate in the thirties. Besides, the Ramanathans, Arunachalams and Coomaraswamys were hobnobbing with the British and the Sinhala elite, dominating\u00a0 the\u00a0 political stage of the day. Their prestige and integrity were unchallenged by any other Tamil rival.\u00a0 Boxed in by the overwhelming\u00a0 presence of the turbaned aristocracy\u201d it\u00a0 was virtually impossible for an unknown newcomer like Ponnambalam to breakthrough.<\/p>\n

It was a time when the young returnees from English universities were coming home with their\u00a0 heads full of Western ideologies. The future trends of politics were foreshadowed by the ideologies and the activities of young returnees from the West. The two divergent paths that the Southern and the Northern returnees from the West would take in due course, as they stepped into mainstream politics,\u00a0 were signalled early by the different ideologies they brought home.\u00a0 These young ideologues were the promising stars of the politics to come.<\/p>\n

The future Left-wing Sinhala leaders got off the ship bringing back their Marxist baggage. Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, a Trotskyite, visited Moscow and wrote an article criticising Stalinism. Since then the Daily News<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 would invariably reproduce it at election time in the forties and fifties to expose the Left-wingers as dictatorial Stalinists who would tyrannise Ceylon, as it was known then. Dr. N. M. Perera wrote his second doctoral thesis on the Weimar Republic when\u00a0 he was under the influence of Left-wing giant of the time, Harold Laski, the great\u00a0 icon of the London School of Economics . Dr. Perera praised the Weimar\u00a0 Republic as the best constitution only to find it being overthrown by Hitler.<\/p>\n

In 1939, Selina Perera, the wife of Dr. Perera, was the only known Sri Lankan to have gone\u00a0 as far the Mexican border\u00a0 to visit Trotsky who was living in Mexico as an exile, leading the Fourth International which was opposed to Stalin\u2019s Moscow-centric Third International, owing allegiance to Stalin.\u00a0 She, however, could not meet Trotsky because the Mexican border authorities refused to let her in.(p.186 \u2013 Origins of Trotskyism in Ceylon<\/strong><\/em>, George Jan Lerski, Stanford University). In a letter she complained bitterly about it to James Cannon, the veteran American Trotskyite. In Left-wing folklore, Philip Gunawardena, the father of Marxism, is also reported to have visited Trotsky when he was a student at Wisconsin University, USA.<\/p>\n

Dudley Senanayake who was at Cambridge came home as a liberal nationalist. He and J. R. Jayewardene, the young rebels in D. S. Senanayake\u2019s camp, were more influenced by the Gandhi-Nehruvian nationalism, with Dudley swinging a bit more to the left than JR. Clearly, the first generation of Sinhala returnees from Western universities, like their counterparts in other parts of Afro-Asia, brought with them either radical left-wing ideologies or ideologies of democratic liberalism, all of which were overlaid with fervent doses of nationalism.\u00a0 Of these returnees only S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the bright star from Oxford, had the foresight to sense the grassroot undercurrents struggling under imperialism to regain their lost place in history.<\/p>\n

Ponnambalam was the odd man out. Ponnambalam\u2019s preferred destination was Hitler\u2019s racist Germany.\u00a0 After making a couple of visits to Hitler\u2019s racist Germany when he was at Cambridge, he returned home imbued with the power of racism in politics. In Germany he witnessed the rise of Hitler on anti-Jewish racism. Though Ponnambalam was aware of the Left-wing Marxism, Right-wing liberalism and nationalism linked to the Gandhi-Nehruvian model, he deliberately eschewed all and\u00a0 opted for Hitler\u2019s racism. To him racism was a short cut to\u00a0 power. In hindsight, it is\u00a0 clear, that he arrived at the right place, at the right time as the right man to fulfil his mission of playing the role of a pocket Hitler, fomenting racism, in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

Racism also came at the right time to replace feudal casteism which was losing its power as an over-determining\u00a0 political force in Jaffna in the 20th century. The low-castes were\u00a0 openly beginning\u00a0 to rebel against the Vellala regime, not as\u00a0 an organised force but\u00a0 sporadically whenever they were confronted with intolerable casteist\u00a0 injustices. Signs of Jaffna fragmenting\u00a0 on casteist lines were emerging. Jaffna was urgently in need of an ideology to replace out-dated casteism. Radical racism and Ponnambalam arrived in Jaffna at this critical time and the symbiotic relationship between the two, one reinforcing the other, turned the peninsula into a pool of ineradicable racism.<\/p>\n

Besides, the climate was right for Ponnambalam to sow his seeds of racism. By the time he came on the political scene Jaffna Vellala leadership could no longer\u00a0 hold Jaffna together, under their Hindu casteist ideology. Equally significant is the fact that the turbaned Tamil aristocracy were either ageing or dying. The last of old guard, Sir. Ponnambalam Ramanathan, died in 1930. The gateway was\u00a0 open for Ponnambalam to fill the leadership gap. Influenced more\u00a0 by Nazi racism, Ponnambalam, filled the leadership and the ideological gaps with racism. Rabid racism, which morphs into fascism invariably, comes in handy when there is no other viable ideology, or\u00a0 leadership to give direction.<\/p>\n

In any case, Jaffna soil was not fertile enough to germinate any radical ideologies. The peninsularity of the mind\u201d( p. 8 \u2013Jane Russell ) was not\u00a0 open\u00a0 for new-fangled\u00a0 ideas to take root and blossom. Michael Banks in\u00a0 his study of Jaffna caste wrote : Despite the high level of education and the fact that many thousands of Jaffna people have\u00a0 lived most of their adult lives abroad, when they return, they quickly fall back into the local social system for at the village level, the Jaffna social system has persisted for several centuries.\u201d (p. 75 \u2013 Caste in\u00a0 Jaffna<\/strong><\/em>, Michael Banks.) Even Prof. C. Suntheralingam fell into this Banksian mould and became a caste fanatic, though when he returned from England he was with P. de S. Kularatne, a committed nationalist. Kularatne became the principal of Ananda College and Suntheralingam became the Vice-Principal. He even became a favoured Minister in the first independent Cabinet of D. S. Senanayake. But later he led the Vellala fight against\u00a0 the low-caste at the notorious caste battle fought at the gates of Maviddipuram Temple. He stood guard with his walking stick at the entrance and threatened any low-caste who dared to enter the Temple with a sound beating.<\/p>\n

Though changes were creeping\u00a0 in slowly but surely, there was no room for any political leader to break away from casteism in the early decades of the\u00a0 last century. Any liberal or radical ideology would have had to first take on the entrenched and impenetrable Vellala casteist fortress. Conservative Jaffna was not\u00a0 ready for\u00a0 radicalism or liberalism. Furthermore, there wasn\u2019t a ready made groundswell of resistance for him to mobilise a rebellious force to overthrow the Vellala overlords of Jaffna. Nor was Ponnambalam inclined to\u00a0 challenge Vellalaism. As highlighted by Jane Russell he was a dyed in the wool caste fanatic. His trusted junior in his chambers, Sunil Rodrigo, one time Chairman of Lake House, told me that Ponnambalam would not let a low-caste Tamil to ever cross the gate to his\u00a0 house in Colombo. He would redirect them back to his electoral office in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 short, Jaffna stood solidly and immovably on\u00a0 the concretised socio-political base of the Vellalaism, and Ponnambalam, knowing\u00a0 that he\u00a0 didn\u2019t have the TNT to blast it, was ever willing to go along with the dominant mores, norms, laws and\u00a0 institutions of Vellalaism. No one leading the Vellala regime in Jaffna was daring\u00a0 enough to challenge the Vellala establishment. The ruling\u00a0 aristocracy of Jaffna too were die-hard Vellalas. Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan led a delegation to convince the British government in Colombo that the teacher trainees should not sit\u00a0 together at meal time. (p.133 — Jane Russell). Until the rise of Velupillai\u00a0 Prabhakaran the Tamil leadership had fought only for Vellalaism and nothing else. There were no leaders for Tamil nationalism either. It was never in the\u00a0 political vocabulary of the Tamils until S. J. V. Chelvanayakam brought it up. Even then it was disguised first as federalism in the forties. It was later that the Tamil Vellala leadership spoke of Tamil nationalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this overwhelming\u00a0 climate of Vellalaism Ponnambalam could make a dramatic entry and cut an impressive figure only if he could come up with a new strategy that would make him stand out from\u00a0 the ruling casteist elite. So it is not\u00a0 surprising for the new kid in block to take up racism \u2013 the only political alternative to Marxism, democratic\u00a0 liberalism and even\u00a0 nationalism. As an ideology, racism grabbed the minds of the derelict Vellalas looking for an alternative to decadent and feeble casteism. The most significant political aspect is that Ponnambalam never raised the banner of\u00a0 Tamil nationalism\u201d. He argued for fifty-fifty\u201d which was rejected by the Soulbury Commissioners. Even Chelvanayakam broke away from Ponnambalam taking 50-50\u201d to the next level\u00a0 of federalism and not nationalism. As I\u00a0 said earlier, it was never in the Tamil political vocabulary at the time. Ponnambalam\u2019s main platform was anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism.<\/p>\n

Casteism was for feudal times. It was also a divisive force that fragmented Jaffna society.\u00a0 Of course, in\u00a0 the dying\u00a0 days of casteism, racism was acceptable to the beleaguered Vellalas who were facing\u00a0 virtual extinction as a casteist force in the 20th century. More importantly, the universal franchise introduced by the Donoughmore\u00a0 Constitution forced he Vellalas to\u00a0 come\u00a0 down from their high casteist perch and solicit votes from\u00a0 the low-castes. Since casteism was fading, Ponnambalam stepped in to\u00a0 fill the gap with his cry of racism.<\/p>\n

Modernity\u00a0 demanded a new and dynamic political alternative to casteism. The\u00a0 iconic\u00a0 model for\u00a0 him\u00a0 was Hitler. Nazi racist politics had a significant\u00a0 influence in Ceylon, as it was known then. Even\u00a0 the Catholic Guardian<\/strong><\/em> of Jaffna expressed admiration for Hitler. Ponnambalam too made a special trip to Germany in 1938. (Jane Russell — p.157).\u00a0 Considering his leanings towards Nazi\u00a0 Germany, his crude attack on Sinhala-Buddhists at Navalapitiya in June 1939 cannot be considered as an ill-considered and thoughtless comment\u201d made on the spur of the moment. It was a deliberate political ploy to replace the dying turbaned aristocracy and replace them as\u00a0 the\u00a0 sole representative of the Tamils\u201d \u2013 the ultimate goal in Tamil politics. It not only shocked the nation but also sparked the first Sinhala-Tamil riots, breaking\u00a0 the peace and\u00a0 harmony that existed in pre-colonial and colonial times. His provocative attack on the Mahavamsa<\/strong><\/em> and the history of the Sinhala Buddhists in Navalapitiya was condemned roundly by The\u00a0 Hindu Organ<\/strong><\/em> of June 22, 1939. (More of\u00a0 this later).<\/p>\n

Ponnambalam\u2019s racist attack was a decisive event which marked the\u00a0 beginning of a new era in North-South\u00a0 relations. The anti-Sinhala- Buddhist speech at Navalapitiya set the theme, the tone, and, more importantly, the future direction of Northern politics. Ponnambalam\u2019s provocative speech, rousing\u00a0 racial emotions, laid the ideological\u00a0 foundations for Tamil politics. He was the first to define\u00a0 Vellala racism which became the most offensive and destructive force in the\u00a0 post-independent era. Ever since\u00a0 then the peninsular politics never went back to\u00a0 embrace any other\u00a0 ideology. The\u00a0 Tamil leadership\u00a0 stuck stubbornly to inflexible racism which evolved incrementally down the 20th century until it climaxed in the elusive dreams of Tamil Eelam which, eventually, sank in Nandikadal.<\/p>\n

So why has HLS brushed aside the known history and perversely started his partisan narrative from 1956, the\u00a0 time when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike came into power? Why did he skip the Ponnambalam phase in which\u00a0 racism\u00a0 was taken out\u00a0 of the peninsula and injected into mainstream politics? Why did this so-called social scientist fail to place the evolving events in their sequential, logical and proper perspective to draw clear and objective conclusions? Is it because the sacred facts would point\u00a0 the finger directly at Ponnambalam instead of Bandaranaike? It is obvious that when Ponnambalam was raving and ranting against the Sinhala-Buddhist in the thirties the Sinhala leadership led by Bandaranaike reacted with the launch of the Sinhala Maha Sabha (1936). The Tamils, mark you, had launched their Tamil Maha Jana Sabhai in 1922.<\/p>\n

Those who follow historical facts as it evolved in the twenties and thirties will find that the turning\u00a0 point in the worsening of inter-ethnic relations began\u00a0 with Ponnambalam. It is the ethical and professional duty of HLS to follow the available facts and let those facts lead him to the inevitable conclusions. Instead he has followed Ponnambalam, like Sancho Panchez who followed his delusional master, Quixote, to tilt at Sinhala-Buddhist windmills. Obviously, HLS is writing to perpetuate and\u00a0 keep alive the racist political agenda that was initiated by Ponnambalam.<\/p>\n

As I\u00a0 said in the previous article, in\u00a0 repeating\u00a0 Ponnambalam HLS is\u00a0 not\u00a0 saying anything new. Ponnambalam attacks Mahavamsa. HLS also attacks Mahavamsa. Ponnambalam rants against Sinhala-Buddhists. HLS also rants against the Sinhala-Buddhists of 1956\u201d as the primary cause for everything that has gone wrong. Ponnambalam went for Bandaranaike. HLS also regurgitates almost\u00a0 the\u00a0 identical accusations against Bandaranaike. So is HLS following facts discovered by his objective\u00a0 research? Or is he following\u00a0 Ponnambalam? The only difference is that Ponnambalam launched his attack in the thirties of the last century. And HLS is repeating Ponnambalam almost a\u00a0 hundred years later word to word. This is not the work of the kings\u00a0 of research. This is the work of stooges crawling for\u00a0 funding from cash-rich American foundations.<\/p>\n

This simian behaviour\u00a0 of mimicking his political guru leads to serious questions : Is HLS an objective social scientist committed to the sanctity of facts ? Or is he a plain Ponnambalaya parroting his master\u2019s voice? The original Ponnambalam sowed the seeds of racism in the 20th century? How much can HLS contribute to heal the wounds of racism by being a servile Ponnambalaya in the 21st century?<\/p>\n

And knowing that it is the Ponnambalayas, up in the North and down in the South, that prolonged the longest blood\u00a0 bath in Asia, with how many tons of soap does HLS hope to clean his bloody role of being an obscene\u00a0 Ponnambalaya?<\/p>\n

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

H. L. D. Mahindapala Rising communal tensions and clashes in the thirties of the last century, shattering the pre-colonial and colonial communal harmony, debunk the myths of H. L. Seneviratne, (HLS), the\u00a0 one-eyed theoretician, blaming S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike for the worsening\u00a0 of inter-ethnic\u00a0 relations and everything else that happened since he became Prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67521","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\/67521","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=67521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}