{"id":98408,"date":"2020-01-29T16:21:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T23:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98408"},"modified":"2020-01-29T16:21:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T23:21:40","slug":"nation-nation-state-and-the-tamil-kingdom-a-reply-to-l-c-arulpragasm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/29\/nation-nation-state-and-the-tamil-kingdom-a-reply-to-l-c-arulpragasm\/","title":{"rendered":"Nation, Nation-State and The Tamil Kingdom \u2013 A reply to L.C.Arulpragasm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor\u00a0 N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0 DSc<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

L.C.Arulpragasam’s (LCA) article which appeared in\nthree parts under three titles; Decolonization, Nationalism, the Nation State\nand Democracy \u2013 Part I\u201d (Sunday Island, 14.10.2018), Some Unchronicled\nConsequences of the Colonial Period \u2013 Part II \n(Sunday Island, 21.10.2018) and The ‘State Nation’ Versus the ‘Nation\nState’ \u201d (Sunday Island, 28.10.2018)   is\nan obvious attempt to develop a case for the creation of a Tamil autonomous\nstate. His argument is that the British colonialist at the time of granting\nindependence to Ceylon had disregarded the national boundaries that had existed\nfor centuries in the country and brought together communities that had existed\nas separate people with their own territories, language, religion and culture\nand expected them to solve their differences by the democratic process that the\ncolonialists constructed. As a result today the majority, as decided by the\nvote counted within colonially contrived boundaries, is being given power over\nthe other communities via a unitary constitution. Thus LCA attempts to\nestablish that Tamils had occupied the North and parts of East since the 13th<\/sup>\nCentury CE and that in fact there was a Tamil kingdom in this territory from\n1215 until the Portuguese conquered it in 1624 (1619 ?).  His argument is that bringing the Tamil\nkingdom and the Sinhalese kingdoms that existed before foreign occupation\ntogether and putting them into a democratic framework and expecting them to\nsolve their differences under a unitary constitution is to deny the Tamils of\ntheir land and the right to self-determination. However, whether there were in\nreality Tamil inhabitants in the North and the East of the Island during that\nperiod who built a Tamil civilisation in those areas which resulted in the\ncreation of a Tamil Kingdom is very much in doubt and therefore whether\nArulpragasm’s contention would hold is in doubt too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LCA says the Europeans solved their differences not by\ndemocracy but by war and after their national boundaries were thus established\nthey could develop their nation-states but the Tamil nation, as were the many\nAfrican and Middle East nations, was denied their right to their homeland. He\nsays the African nations are still struggling against this colonial evil deed\nand in the Middle East the Sunni-Shia conflict is still causing much violence.\nBut it must be said that these nations had well established historical\nboundaries whereas whether the so called Tamil Kingdom was entitled to its\nboundaries is in doubt. For instance the conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria\nhas been resolved on the basis of their historical border. There are about\ntwenty separatist movements in Africa but the African leaders have agreed to\nhonour the colonial boundaries and not try to redraw the map of Africa for good\nreasons. In the case of the Middle East the struggle is not due to colonial\nboundaries. On the contrary the Middle East conflict is kept in conflagration\nand unresolved by the USA and the Europe for their advantage. It could be\nresolved on the basis of historical boundaries between Palestine and Israel or\non the basis of the 1947 UN Resolution but USA will use its veto power to deny\nthe Palestinians a just solution. The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is\nexploited to further economic and political agendas of the West. The point here\nis that all these people had their historically demarcated territories and\nsolutions could be arrived at on the basis of those borders but the Western\npowers would not allow that to happen whereas Tamils never had national\nboundaries of their own. LCA’s ideas do not tally with the reality in Africa or\nthe Middle East, nor Sri Lanka for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let us look at LCA’s claim that Tamils of Sri Lanka\nare entitled to a land which they could exclusively call their own. In fact LCA\nis trying to revive the Traditional Tamil Homeland concept which has been\ndebunked by several intellectuals in the calibre of K.M.de Silva, G.H.Peiris,\nK.N.O. Dharmadasa, Gamini Irriyagolla and others. The claim  made by the TULF in several of its\ndeclarations including the one at Vadukodai in 1976 that Sri Lanka was occupied\nby the Tamils and Sinhalese since early times and that Tamils exclusively\npossessed the northern and eastern parts extending from Chilaw to Kumbukkan Oya\nis based on flimsy and far fetched material like the Cleghorn Minutes.\nK.Indrapala’s research work had shown that there is no evidence of Tamil\nhabitation in Sri Lanka before the 10th<\/sup> Century CE. The claim made\nby some early Tamil writers that there are Tamil Brahami inscriptions in Sri\nLanka has been refuted by K.M. De Silva. G.H. Peiris has shown the fallibility\nof TULF claims. Mudliyar Rasanayagam’s views on Tamil habitation in Sri Lanka\nhave been proved to be baseless and less than a scholarly discourse of the\nmatter by K.N.O.Dharmadasa. Moreover, there are no archaeological or\nepigraphical evidence of  ancient Tamil\npresence anywhere in Sri Lanka. Epigraphic inscriptions are considered to be\none of the most reliable evidence of ancient habitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LCA in order to support his claim that Tamils were the\nexclusive occupants in the North and East of Sri Lanka from the 13th<\/sup>\nCentury is relying mainly on the fact that there was a Tamil Kingdom in the\nNorth from 1215 to 1624 (1619?) CE. This Tamil kingdom was started by the\nKalinga invader Magha who conquered Polonnaruwa which was ruled at that time by\nParakrama Pandyan from Pandyan Dynasty. Pandyan had defeated Leelawathie the\nconsort of Parakramabahu 1 and the ruler of Polonnaruwa at that time.\nPolonnaruwa was liberated from Magha by Parakramabahu 11 ( from Dambadeniya\n1236 – 1270). However, Magha who had been ruling Polonnaruwa from Jaffna\nremained in the peninsula and started the Tamil Kingdom. This kingdom existed\nas a tribute-paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in South India. It gained\nindependence in 1323 when the last Pandyan ruler in Madurai was defeated by\nMalik Kafur the army general of the Muslim Delhi Sultanate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time a Malay chieftain from Tambvalinga (\nin modern Thailand) named   Chandrabhanu\ninvaded the politically fragmented Sri Lanka. King Parakramabahu 11 was able to\nrepulse the attack. However, Chandrabhanu moved North and secured the peninsula\ndriving away Magha in 1255. Sandyavaranam Sundara Pandyan 1 invaded Sri Lanka\nin the 13th<\/sup> Century and defeated Chandrabhanu. Later the North was\ninvaded for the third time by the Pandyan Dynasty under the leadership of\nAryachakravarthi. When the Pandyan Kingdom which occupied most of South India\nand the North of Sri Lanka became weak due to Muslim invasion Aryachakravarthi\nrulers made Jaffna Kingdom  independent.\nThis kingdom had to contend with simultaneous confrontation from Vijayanagar\nEmpire which ruled South India and Kotte rulers. Prince Sapumal from Kotte\nkingdom conquered Jaffna for a brief period from 1450 to 1467.  Sapumal withdrew when the Kotte kingdom\ndeclined in power. Later Jaffna kingdom was made a vassal of Vijayanagar Empire\nand regained its independence when that empire disintegrated. Portugese arrived\nin Sri Lanka in 1505 and took control of Jaffna in 1619.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 All this go to\nprove that the so called Tamil Kingdom was a creation of successive  invaders from South India and also Thailand\nand was for most of its existence a part of the Pandyan Empire in South India.\nThis historical event was not any different from such other events in Sri Lanka\ncaused by foreign invasions from South India and Europe. The so called Tamil\nKingdom for long periods was part of a South Indian Dynasty. But so was the\nentire island of Sri Lanka when it was under British rule and considered part\nof the British Empire and perhaps also similarly part of Portuguese and Dutch\nEmpires and also South Indian dynasties at different times in its history. Thus\nthe so called Tamil Kingdom was only a result of foreign invasion and not a\ncreation of ancient Tamil inhabitants. There are thousands of such happenings\nin the history of the world but they do not lead to the the creation of a\nseparate state or a nation. The so called Tamil Kingdom therefore does not\nqualify as a Kingdom of Tamils. There is no evidence of an ancient civilization\nbuilt by ancient Tamils living in the North or anywhere else in the country.\nThe kovils built by invaders cannot be considered as features of a\ncivilization. Tamils have not built, nurtured and protected a civilization in\nSri Lanka.  On the other hand there is\nevidence that Sinhalese built a civilization covering the entire Island\nincluding the North and the East. Unless a group of people occupying an area of\nland build, nurture and protect a civilization on that land they are not\nentitled to that land. This fact is of paramount importance in the\nconsideration of a claim for exclusive ownership to any land in any part of Sri\nLanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arulpragasam’s views on Nation-state and his idea of a\nState-nation may not help his course either. He has said that at independence\nthe colonialist has put together different communities within arbitrary\nboundaries drawn by them and called them a nation-state. He says instead they\nshould have been called state-nations for the state was created before the\nnation.  The term Nation has not been\nclearly defined by the UN or any other authority or political scientist.\nPolitical scientists have based their different definitions on different\nsocial, political and cultural aspects such as demography, language, territory,\npolitics, psychology, common government, etc. Some social scientists recognize\ntwo types of nations, civic nation eg. France, and ethnic nation eg. Germany.\nParadoxically the UN Charter includes a component of self governance and\nignores, within its definition of nation, concepts or units of\nnon-self-governing groups of people. More recently the international law has\nevolved away from the term Nation as it was commonly known to represent\nseparate countries on the world map. Further the UN has no mechanism in place\nto evaluate and award Nation status. On the other hand it has a process to\ndetermine and recognize a State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus there doesn’t seem to be consensus of opinion\nabout what constitutes a nation or its salient features or an international\nmechanism to assess and determine whether a group of people constitute a\nnation. The presence of such diverse views and the absence of clear objective\ncriteria to determine whether a group of people is a nation  make the concept of Nation a less important\nconsideration when deciding on the political future of a people. In other words\nnation status should not necessarily entitle a group of people to exclusive\nownership of land.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term Nation-state is equally vague in meaning and\nofficial recognition. Nevertheless Arulpragasm finds fault with the British for\ncreating a Nation-state within the Island of Sri Lanka with colonially contrived\nboundaries. He means the British have disregarded the boundaries of the Tamil\nKingdom and the two Sinhalese Kingdoms that existed before colonialists\narrived. However the term nation-state has no significance for Tamils or\nSinhalese for that matter because although the term is widely used no such\nentities exist. Nation-state has no UN or any other international definition.\nIt has been defined by political scientists and according to one such\ndefinition a nation-state is one where the great majority are conscious of a\ncommon identity and share the same culture (Davis, 1997). This definition might\nsuit Sri Lanka if the Tamils and Muslims agree to a common identity and\nculture. Another definition says the nation-state is an area where the cultural\nboundaries match up to with the political boundaries (Kazancigi L. 1986). It\nbecomes obvious that a nation-state would exist if nearly all the members of a\nsingle nation were organized in a single state without any other national\ncommunities being present (Halliday, 1997). Therefore it may be concluded that\nno such entity exists.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LCA’s attempt to show that Tamils of Sri Lanka had\npossession of a kingdom in the Northern part of the country during a period\nwhen there were two other Sinhalese kingdoms in the South has the ultimate goal\nof supporting the case for self determination for Tamils which could eventually\nlead to a separate state. However, as mentioned above it is seen that the so\ncalled Tamil kingdom does not qualify as a true kingdom with a civilization built\nby Tamil inhabitants. The archaeological and epigraphical evidence available in\nthe North of Sri Lanka shows that the civilization that could be unearthed in\nthat part of the country is part of the \ncivilization that had been built, nurtured and protected by the\nSinhalese in the whole of the country. In the absence of official status for\nnation or nation-state, ownership of a civilization must become the single most\nimportant criteria and requirement for ownership of land.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arulpragasm  says\nthat at independence one community has been given powers over the other by the\ndemocratic process\u201d of voting , but under a unitary constitution within\ncolonially contrived boundaries which bear no relation to ethnic\/sectarian or\nnational boundaries. This has had the effect of anointing\u201d a particular ethnic\ngroup to power with its communal agenda. This results in rival nationalism to\nrise up and disunity and the ethnic divide will exacerbate. Firstly it must be\nsaid that the Sinhalese have no communal agenda and sufficient space has been\nprovided for the minorities to participate in governing the country as a whole.\nThe Muslim Community and the Up-country Tamils make full use of this\nopportunity. Unfortunately the Northern Provincial Council has not made use of\nits powers for the benefit of the Tamils and instead has converted the Council\ninto a political platform to agitate for a separate state. Secondly there were\nno national boundaries within the Island of Sri Lanka as the so called Tamil\nKingdom does not qualify as a kingdom built by Tamil inhabitants. Thirdly Tamil\nnationalism and its aggressive development including the demand for a separate\ncountry started well before independence as shown by several scholars like\nGamini Irriyagolla and K.N.O.Dharmadasa and is therefore not consequent of the\nmisdeeds of the colonialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arulpragasm says it is desirable for all communities to\ncome together as one country but on terms of equality with a constitution that\ndid not let the unbridled nationalism of one community to trample on the rights\nof others. Firstly Sinhalese nationalism is not unbridled and is not aggressive\nand oppressive but is defensive and protective. It is sensitive to the threats\non its civilization and would rise up in its defense when ever there is a\nthreat to it as has happened through out its history including recent times\nwhen the LTTE was a threat. Secondly the present constitution grants equality\nto all communities and inhabitants of the country proving the fact that unitary\nconstitution could extend equality to everybody. Universal franchise guarantees\npolitical equality. A federal constitution may grant better space to Tamils but\nat the expense of other communities. It would also go against the principle\nthat the whole country belongs to everybody and no community could claim\nexclusive ownership to any part of the country which is the ideal that\nguarantees equality to every community and citizen. Thirdly the rights of\nTamils have not been trampled by the Sinhalese or the constitution. They enjoy equal\nrights in every sphere; language, religion, economy, education, employment,\nculture, sports, physical facilities, etc. This is why the Tamils in the North\nhave done equally well or better than the Sinhalese in all these areas in\nrecent times. If they had been discriminated they would not have achieved what\nthey have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor  N.A.de\nS. Amaratunga  DSc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor\u00a0 N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0 DSc L.C.Arulpragasam’s (LCA) article which appeared in three parts under three titles; Decolonization, Nationalism, the Nation State and Democracy \u2013 Part I\u201d (Sunday Island, 14.10.2018), Some Unchronicled Consequences of the Colonial Period \u2013 Part II  (Sunday Island, 21.10.2018) and The ‘State Nation’ Versus the ‘Nation State’ \u201d (Sunday Island, 28.10.2018)   is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n-a-de-s-amaratunga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98408","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=98408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}