{"id":96526,"date":"2019-12-17T18:01:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96526"},"modified":"2019-12-17T18:01:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:01:31","slug":"wigneswarans-doctored-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/17\/wigneswarans-doctored-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigneswaran\u2019s doctored history"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The universally accepted and\nacknowledged Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) states that Sri Lanka had a\ncontinuous record of human settlement for more than two millennia and Sri Lanka developed a unique identity over the\nages that ultimately set it apart from its neighbour mainland India. Cultural\ntraits brought from India necessarily underwent independent growth and change\nin Sri Lanka, owing in part to the island\u2019s physical separation from the\nsubcontinent. Buddhism, for instance, virtually disappeared from India, but it\ncontinued to flourish in Sri Lanka, particularly among the Sinhalese. Moreover,\nthe Sinhalese language<\/a>, which grew out of Indo-Aryan<\/a> dialects<\/a> from the mainland, eventually became indigenous<\/a> solely to Sri Lanka and developed its own\nliterary tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EB indicates that the Tamils were later immigrants from\nareas of Central, eastern and Southern India where Dravidian<\/a> languages were spoken. \nAs per historical records Tamils have been brought to this country initially\nas agricultural labourers for cultivation of Tobacco in the North and East as\nthe native Sinhalese refused to work as labourers under the Dutch rulers.   This was followed by the British\nImperialists as well when the native Sinhalese refused to work in the tea\nplantations as coolies. A third group of Tamils from the low castes came to Sri\nLanka from time to time and they were known as Kallathonis (the boat people)\nand they settled down in urban areas, and they were small in numbers and they\nworked in the Municipal Councils and Urban Councils as scavengers and they were\ncalled as Sakkiliyas.  Another group of\nthem worked as barbers and helpers, and some others lived as Gypsies\n(Ahikundakayas). The early immigrant Tamils completely ignored these Tamils and\nnever admitted them to their functions despite they too spoke their own\nlanguage and worshipped their own Gods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history we have learnt states that originally several different indigenous clans lived in the country\nduring the pre-Vijaya era (before 505 BCE). These clans of Sri Lanka<\/a> and the mystical kingdom of Lanka<\/a> were mentioned in the\ngreat epics of Mahabaratha<\/a>, Mahavamsa<\/a>, Manimekalai<\/a>, Ramayana<\/a> and Sangam<\/a>.  It is believed that four main clans lived in\nSri Lanka before king Vijaya explored the island. The four clans are Yaksha ,\nNaga, Deva, and Rakshas. The Nagas were serpent-worshippers, the Yakkas were\nspirit worshippers, and it is said that even today, the Sri Lankan culture has\nsome elements that originated from the culture of the Yakkas and Nagas. The\nmajority of the native population were farmers and cattle herders. They had\nknowledge about healing arts (ayurvedic), built irrigation systems and temples.\nThere were trade relations and royal intermarriage between the indigenous people\nof Sri Lanka and their neighbours in the South India kingdoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an acknowledged and accepted fact that\nPrince Vijaya who was deported by his father with his companions upon arrival\nhere with the help of Kuweni conquered all the four clans and unified this\ncountry as a Sinhala nation.  Accordingly\nthe country remained as Subhale and was ruled by several native Kings and\nduring the time of King Devanam Piyatissa, the son of Emperor Ashoka, Arahat\nMahinda brought the religion of Buddhism which was embraced by the King and the\npeople.  From then onwards this country\nbecame a Sinhala Buddhist nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fact was acknowledged universally and by\nall Tamil leaders although they resisted the majority Sinhala community on\nracist grounds.  The Tamil racism based\non spurious superiority was invented by British Imperialist stooges Ponnambalam\nArunachalam and  Pommambalam Ramanathan\nand was comprehensively followed by the generations under G.G.Ponnambalam,\nS.J.V.Chelvanayagam. Appapillai Amirthalingam, megalomaniac Prabhakaranand the\nOctogenarian Sambandan and their followers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As things were such, the utter chauvinist\nPottu Papa Wigneswaran who is longing to assume to take over the leadership of\nthe Tamils in the North and East after the imminent demise of Sambandan shortly\nhas invented a hitherto unheard and unknown history of Tamils being the\noriginal inhabitants of Sri Lanka, that they were Tamil Buddhists and that they\ngot converted to their original religion of Saivaism later.   If Buddhism was their original religion why\nhe when he was functioning as the Chief Minister of the Northern Province made\nall attempts to chase out the Buddhists from the Northern Province, and banned\nplacing of Buddha statutes and planting of Bo-Trees and establishment of Buddhist\ntemples and monasteries in the North? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a lengthy article published in the Colombo\nTelegraph this Pottu Papa chauvinist says the Upcountry Tamils have come to Sri\nLanka within the last 200 odd years and they occupy areas outside the North and\nEast and they have had no compunction in learning Sinhala and integrating with\nthe Sinhalese. So too the Colombo Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Northern and Eastern Tamils,\nhesays,  are different. This Pottu Papa\nstates that they have always occupied the area now roughly covered by the Northern\nand Eastern Provinces and there had been continuous occupation of the North and\nEast throughout history by the Tamil  people. In fact their occupation extended up\nto Negombo in the Western Province and up to Kathirgamam in the South East and\nthe Sinhalese have never occupied the North and East in large numbers except\nafter 1833 when the country was bought under one administration by the British.\nHe says that there had been influx of Tamils during different eras first by the\nPandians and there after the Cholas, Pallavas, Cheras and Nayaka Kings last.\nBut that only meant they added to the number of indigenous Tamils of this\nCountry and  reiterates absurdly the\nTamils were the original inhabitants of this Island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explains that they could trace\ntheir ancestry to the inhabitants of the Continent of Lemuria which covered the\ngreater part of the present Indian Ocean in times gone by and adds that the\nLemuria Continent which was gobbled up by the Indian Ocean extended from\nWestern Australia to Eastern Africa joining up with the Indian subcontinent.\nTherefore the present Tamils of the North and East feel themselves to be the\ndescendants of a long line of Tamil speaking people who have been occupying the\nNorthern and Eastern regions continuously from pre Buddhistic times and recently\nit has been accepted that Tamil is one of the oldest living language in the\nworld.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then this Pottu Papa chauvinist\nmisinterprets the history, the universally accepted history and says that Sinhalese came by\ntheir Sinhala language only in the 6th<\/sup> or 7th<\/sup> Century AD.\nThat is 1300 or 1400 years ago only and there was no Sinhala Language before\nthat time. Blaming the historians for getting his appetite fulfilled he says Some\nhistorians have painted all ancient Buddhists as Sinhalese. That is because\nsince there was Buddhism in Sri Lanka before the Sinhala language came into\nexistence they have identified earlier era Buddhists as Sinhala Buddhists. He\nimpishly states that those who were Buddhists at that time were Tamil\nBuddhists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing\nfurther this Pottu Papa states there are those who refer to Sinhala Prakrit as\nproof of the presence of the Sinhalese language from pre Buddhistic times. This\nis like saying my grandfather lived 100 years ago therefore I lived 100 years\nago because I came from my grandfather! He claims that there was no Sinhala\nlanguage until 1300 or 1400 years from now and asks how could you refer to\nSinhala Prakrit of a by- gone age 2000 years or more ago? The Sinhala language\nwas not even contemplated at that time. He states that the truth would be that\nthose words of ancient times (Prakrit) may have been Pali or Tamil or other\ndialects in Sri Lanka which later came to make up the Sinhala Language and says\nthat Sinhala is a conglomeration of languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chauvinist Pottu Papa claims\nthat at least 40% of the Sinhala words are Tamil and its alphabet formation is\nsimilar to Tamil and South Indian Languages. He says that lots of Hindi words\nwere imported into Sinhala language as recent as in 1956-1965 when Professor\nMalalasekara was Ceylonese High Commissioner in India and he brought in lots of\nHindi words into the Sinhala Language thus Sinhalacising\u201d the Hindi words and\nadds that lots of legal terms in Sinhala for example are derived from the Hindi\nwords used in North Indian courts. He says we have a habit of taking over\nsomething today and trace its origin to sources centuries ago and saying that\nthat something existed so many centuries ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also states that lots of names of\nTamil Villages in the North and East were found appropriate Sinhala names\nduring the past 70 odd years and we have transported those Sinhala equivalents\nto centuries earlier to say those Sinhala villages existed at that time!\nKandarodai for example was Kandarodai always at least for centuries. The Sinhala word for it Kadurugoda was coined very\nrecently. Now it is said Kadurugoda was the original place name! Then he claims\nthat Kandarodai Buddhist remains are Tamil Buddhist remains. There were no\nSinhalese at that time contemplated even!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chauvinist pottu Papa claims\nthat the Northern and Eastern Provinces have never been Sinhala and they were\nareas of residence of the Tamil people and Tamils were Buddhists for quite some\ntime until they reverted to their original religion Saivaism when the Bakthi\ncult in South India influenced them. He says the ayanmars have sung hymns to\nthe deities in Thirukoneswaram and Thiruketheswaram before the Sinhala language\nwas born. Further the Tamil literature of 2000 years ago were Buddhistic or\nJain religion oriented and there was no Sinhala language then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again\nthis Pottu Papa emphasizes that it is wrong to say Sri Lanka is a Buddhist\nCountry. The Tamils who became Buddhist centuries ago jettisoned Buddhism and\nreverted to Saivaism Tamils at one time being Buddhist and that too long before\nthe Sinhala Language was born, does not give the right to anyone to claim that\nSri Lanka is a Buddhist Country. He stresses that the North and East must be\nseparated as being majority non \u2013 Buddhist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He states that the Sinhala people\nhave been given a wrong understanding of history based on the fiction written\nin Pali by a Buddhist Priest in the 5th<\/sup> Century AD. The author says\nthat at the end of every stanza he was writing the fiction for the\nglorification of Buddhism. If he was writing history he would not have said so!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says that the North Eastern Tamil\npeople are conscious of their antiquity. They are conscious of the richness of\ntheir language. They have a highly emotional bond towards their traditional\nhomelands. But they feel constrained that the majority Sinhalese are not\nallowing them to blossom out on their own in their region but want to control\nthem. There are certain rights which the Tamils have. In terms of the\nInternational Covenants they have their common language, they have their\nreligions \u2013 Islam, Christianity and Hinduism, they have their traditional\nhomelands where their forefathers have lived continuously from pre Buddhistic\ntimes. They also have their separate culture and way of life all different from\nthe Sinhalese though there are many commonalities between the two communities\ndue to their common origin as per DNA tests concluded recently.  They would therefore like to preserve their\nindividuality. They are entitled to self\ndetermination<\/a> in terms of International Law. Owing to the\nabove said they abhor anyone trying to control them and dominate them on false\npremises. The Tamils, he says, have always occupied the North and East and they\nstill are the majority in the North and East.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSinhalese historians and others, especially the Buddhist clergy, have set up\nlots of falsities as history saying that this country is theirs. This is false.\nThe original inhabitants of this country were Saivite Tamils he stupidly\nclaims..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say all Tamils were immigrants\ninto a predominantly Sinhala Country. This is also false according to this\nPottu Papa.  Though it is true there were\nseveral influxes of Tamils at various times in history the existence of the\nTamils in the North and East of this Island continuously as the majority\ncommunity until today cannot be disputed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nsay the North and East were originally Sinhalese. This is also false. Simply\nbecause Buddhism existed in the North and East and there are Buddhist\nhistorical \/ archaeological remains in the North and East that does not prove\nthe existence of the Sinhalese at some period in our past history, this fellow\nstates. It only proves there were Tamil Buddhists \u2013 Demala Buddhayo! The\nquestion that needs to be asked him is where these so-called Demala Bauddhauo\nnow and whether they have perished and how? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahavansa,\nhe says, is a fictional work written in Pali before the Sinhala language was\nborn. It is not a historical document though its background particulars could\nhelp understand history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore we Tamils of the North and\nEast are conscious of our antiquity, our history, our rights to self\ndetermination and therefore until our intrinsic rights to the right of self\ndetermination is recognized and respected we would find it difficult to march\ntogether with the other communities, specially the Sinhalese who have usurped\nour history and antiquity and trying to falsify those fields of study. If the historical facts just mentioned by me here are\nnot accepted by the Sinhalese intelligentsia they are free to set up a\nCommittee of Sinhala, Tamil, Indian and other International Historians and\nArchaeologists to re-write our history truthfully and affirmatively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above is a valid suggestion and\nearly steps should be taken to hold an open debate with the participation of\nhistorians and archeologists to disprove Pottu Papa\u2019s stupid and doctored\nallegations and clear the true historical facts.  Otherwise that the vicious Tamil diaspora in\nthe European countries would launch a campaign to accept the canards being said\nby this chauvinist as they succeeded making the world to blindly believe\nillusory imaginations in the Darusman report including the so-called killing of\n40,000 never existed people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims\nand Upcountry Tamils have no such common historical background to stand on.\nThey have not lost anything as we are losing our lands, our language (still the\nCentral Government often sends letters in Sinhala only to the North and East),\nour religions, our culture and our identity. Until they are restored to the\nNorthern and Eastern Tamils how do you expect us to march together with others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\nrecognise our individuality and our history. (Your history was that you were\nlabourers brought from South India similar to those in the hill country and\nwere provided special privileges by the European invaders and made you to\ndominate over the indigenous Sinhala Buddhist people of this country)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nwe will march hand in hand. When I was young prior to Independence we\nSinhalese, Tamils, Burghers, Muslims, Malays and even Chinese were able to look\nupon this Country as our own. When the Sinhalese claimed this Country as\nSinhala Buddhist only, our individuality collapsed, and we have been made\nfourth class citizens! The Muslims and the Upcountry Tamils enjoy a freedom\nwhich the Northern and Eastern Tamils do not enjoy today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nshed your arrogance, allow the Tamils in the North and East to think freely,\nact freely and live freely without being slavish to repugnant myopic Vellala\npoliticians.  Don\u2019t trample them similar\nto they were used as human shields by the tiger terrorists.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA. The universally accepted and acknowledged Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) states that Sri Lanka had a continuous record of human settlement for more than two millennia and Sri Lanka developed a unique identity over the ages that ultimately set it apart from its neighbour mainland India. Cultural traits brought from India necessarily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aamnizam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96526","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=96526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}