{"id":99021,"date":"2020-02-16T15:50:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T22:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99021"},"modified":"2020-02-16T15:50:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T22:50:01","slug":"jaffna-tamils-trapped-inside-their-historical-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/02\/16\/jaffna-tamils-trapped-inside-their-historical-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaffna Tamils trapped inside their historical vacuum"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Dr. Murugar\nGunasingam is a path-breaking and indefatigable Tamil historian who earned his\ndoctorate based on his exploratory history of the Jaffna Tamils of Sri Lanka.\nHe undertook this mission of discovering the history of Jaffna when he first\nrealised that no one had ever written a truly comprehensive history of the\nTamil nation in Sri Lanka.\u201d (Preface – Primary Sources For The History Of\nThe Sri Lankan Tamils, World-Wide Search, 2005<\/em><\/strong>.). In 1995 he was\nawarded a scholarship by the Sydney University, Australia, to undertake\nresearch for a doctorate in history\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was\nguided in this mission by leading Tamil historians like Prof. S.\nArasaratnam.  He was also inspired by Prof. K. Indrapala, the\ncontroversial Tamil historian who like most Tamil historians endeavoured to\nwrite a Jaffna-centric history. He shocked his admirers and students of history\nwhen he recanted his earlier doctoral thesis documenting the history of the\nTamils starting from the 12th<\/sup> century. This thesis did not sit well\nwith the Tamil who thought they had made history from the dawn of history\u201d. In\nhis new thesis written after he was virtually driven out of his Chair in\nHistory at the Jaffna University he fell in line with the political agenda and\nthe Tamil history\u201d laid out in the Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976 \u2013 the\nultimate manifesto ever of the Jaffna Tamils. The conventional political\nmission of Tamil historians has been to claim that they were the original\npioneers, as stated in the Vadukoddai Resolution, who laid the foundation for\nthe evolution of the history of Sri Lanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Armed\nwith the Sydney University scholarship Dr. Gunasingam went on a world-wide\nsearch for evidence of the role played by the Tamils in building a truly\ncomprehensive history of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka\u201d. Though his mission is\ncommendable there is an irony in it. History by its intrinsic nature is found\nin the soil on which it is made. But he goes around the world to look for it.\nAt the end he wrote that no overall or comprehensive history of the Tamils in\nSri Lanka has yet been written.\u201d (p, 25 \u2013 Primary Sources For The History\nOf The Sri Lankan Tamils, World-Wide Search, 2005<\/em><\/strong>.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamils are\na proud community obsessed with history. They believe fervently and somewhat\narrogantly in a glorious past of their own. Of course, their imagined past is\nfar in excess of the historical realities. In fact, they base their modern\npolitics for a separate state \/ self-determination \/federalism etc., on their\nimagined history. So far, their attempts to rewrite a Jaffna-centric history\nhave ended up as a lame exercise in trying to make a mountain out of a mole\nhill. So the news that they do not have an overall or comprehensive history of\nthe Tamils in Sri Lanka\u201d is not surprising though it must be upsetting and\nthreatening their imagined history from which they derive political sustenance\nfor an Eelam, a separate state, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna-centric\nhistory has been written essentially to advance their politically motivated\nthesis which claims that they are the inheritors of a grand past from the dawn\nof time\u201d. This raises a critical question: If they do have the tangible\nglorious past why is it that they do not have a comprehensive history put\ntogether by anyone even as late as 2005? Can a nation\/community have a great\npast without anyone documenting the existence of it? Is the vacuum in their\nhistory because the gap between the imagined past and the known historical\nrealities cannot be filled with the kind of credible evidence needed to\nsubstantiate their claims of greatness? Isn\u2019t this search for a past driven by\ncurrent politics labouring incessantly to establish a separate state? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\npost-Vadukoddai Resolution period the re-writing of Jaffna-centric history has\ngrown into a kind of semi-industry to boost the contemporary political ego\nfilled with yearnings for the glorification of a history that never\nexisted.  Like most other Tamil and pro-Tamil theoreticians Dr.\nGunasingam\u2019s writings confirm amply that his research has been to find evidence\nof a past that would give credibility to a new Tamil identity that would\nelevate their status to justify their imagined history. Like Prof. Indrapala he\nis looking for the affirmation of a positive Tamil Identity\u201d and he pleads\nwith the entire Tamil community and especially expatriate Tamils across the\nworld, to act on the matter without any further delay.\u201d But nothing substantial\nhas been dug up from the past since he presented his research to fill the\nvacuum in the history of the Tamils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming from\na leading Tamil scholar who had searched almost all the available sources of\nthe world for evidence of the Tamils in Sri Lanka \u2013 Portugal, Holland, India,\nUK, USA etc– his statement must be taken as a definitive judgement. After his\nglobal search his conclusion is startling.  He says categorically\nthat  the most important single shortcoming at this time is that no\nhistorian, or archaeologist or even a social scientist, whether Sinhalese,\nTamil or Western scholar has written complete or comprehensive account of the\nhistory of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.\u201d (pp. 20-21 \u2013 Ibid). He admits that\nthere  were bits and pieces written about Jaffna but no one has written an\noverall history giving a panoramic view of their past. This news is bound to\nexplode and deflate the heads of the Tamils like a bloated balloon pricked by\nthe point of a needle. Bang!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreverberating sound must be unnerving because, like all records of history,\nthis revelation has serious political implications. The perennial problem of\nthe Tamils is that their scanty history pales into insignificance when pitted\nagainst the monumental achievements of the Sinhala-Buddhist civilisation, or\nthe classical Tamil history of S. India. When they go for self-determination\nthey realise that they do not have the requisite history, either in quality or\nthe quantity of the Sinhala-Buddhist history, to justify their exaggerated\nclaim for a separate state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historian\nGunasingam puts it starkly in the following paragraph: Sri Lankan Tamils\npossess their own language, religion, culture and tradition and a glorious past\nwhich should enable them a strong national identity. However, to achieve\nself-determination successfully, they lack a sense of historical identity to\nsupport their claims for political rights. So, again, why is that the Tamil\npeople have failed to preserve and promote their history as the Sinhalese\npeople have so successfully accomplished?\u201d (p.14 \u2013 Ibid).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why,\nindeed! Unlike the Jaffna Tamils the Sinhalese do not have to labour that much\nto discover their past. Nor do they have to dig deep, or run  around the\nworld looking  for  their history. It is there almost on the surface\nfor anyone to see. Whatever is found out in the world merely corroborates the\nvisible, recognisable, and monumental history of the Sinhala-Buddhists. \nThe failure of the Tamils to match their scanty history with that of the grand\nhistory of the Sinhala-Buddhists makes them feel inadequate. So they have been\nconsistently filling the grim vacuum with their imagination, or denigrating the\nSinhala-Buddhist history, or claiming that the Sinhala-Buddhist history is in\nreality the history of the Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of\nan impressive and a credible history first hit them during the British period\nwhen pioneering British archaeologists, surveyors and explorers discovered the\nmonumental achievements of the Sinhala-Buddhist buried under the jungle tide.\nEach discovery of the Sinhala-Buddhist culture, civilisation and heritage\nelevated the achievements of the Sinhala-Buddhist founding fathers to new\nheights. Oriental scholars from West were scrutinising every ola leaf found in\ntemples, every page of history they could lay their hands on to study minutely\nthe glories of the Sinhala-Buddhist past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamils\nhad no comparative history or records in Jaffna. Their scholars like Arumuka\nNavalar and C. V. Thamotherampillai went to the Madras (Tamil Nadu) to unearth\nthe hidden treasures written in Tamil. If they had a recorded history in Jaffna\nthey would not have gone to Madras and ferreted old texts from house to house.\nDr. Gunasingam followed in the footsteps of Arumuka Navalar and\nThamotherampillai looking for Tamil history and glory outside Jaffna because\nthey could not find it inside Jaffna. The first two Tamil explorers earned a\nreputation by discovering the hidden literature of the Tamil classical era and\npublishing them in Jaffna with the first printing press. With the dawn of the\n20th<\/sup> century Jaffna Tamils discovered that they had neither Tamil\nclassics to their credit coming out of their run-of-the mill past nor new\ndazzling creations of their own in contemporary times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The usual\nexcuse of Tamil historians \/ researchers is that there are gaps in the\nJaffna-centric history because not enough of research has been done to\nre-discover their glorious past.  But a substantial degree of research has\nbeen  done to discover their  glorious past and to date they have\ndrawn a blank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nabsence of a great classical past the Saivite Jaffna Vellalas (SJVs) \u2013 the\nsupreme masters who ruled Jaffna with an iron fist — took to boasting about\nthe slight variations in the Jaffna Tamil accent which they consider to be\npurer than the S. Indian variety.  The Jaffna Tamils like to claim\nsuperiority over the Tamil Nadu Tamils with their quaint accent leaning towards\nthe traditional past. They also take pride in the overall linguistic culture\nwhich is not corrupted by the pop culture of Tamil magazines and the cinematic\nvulgarisms of Tamil Nadu.  Other than that the Jaffna Tamils have been\ndwarfed by the gigantic achievements of the classical Tamil culture of the S.\nIndia and the Sinhala-Buddhist civilisation in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\nabsolutely clear from the judgment of Dr. Gunasingam on the Jaffna-centric\nhistory of the Tamils of Sri Lanka is that they have gone around the world in\nsearch of a history to boost their contemporary politics. The lack of a\ncomprehensive and authoritative history of Jaffna Tamils has left room for\nimaginative versions to take root in the minds of the Jaffnaites, especially\namong the SJVs. The Tamil historians are faced with the serious problem of not\nfinding any monumental material buried in their past to back up their claims\nfor a grand history in Sri Lanka. So they are scouring all the world-wide\narchives \/ libraries for evidence. It is an urgent need to justify their claim\nfor a separate state. Dr. Gunasingam wrote: It is now clear that the exploration\nof primary sources relating to Sri Lankan Tamils throughout the world is\ncrucial given the current political situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.\u201d (p. 28 \u2013\nIbid). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nclarifies the relationship between Tamil politics and their history:<\/strong>\nthey need history to boost their politics. In the absence of a past that could\nmatch either  the Tamil classical period or  the monumental\nachievements  of the Sinhala-Buddhist civilisation the Jaffna Tamils,\nsandwiched  between the two,  have come to accept the Vadukoddai\nResolution of 1976 as their genuine history. It is simple. It is concise. It is\neasily digestible and, above all, politically oriented to justify their\nmono-ethnic extremism with wild distortions of the available records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By and\nlarge, Jaffna-centric history aims to justify the manufactured rationale\noutlined in the Vadukoddai Resolution.  It is the most significant\ndeclaration of the Jaffna Tamils filled with overblown nationalistic rhetoric.\nIt reveals mostly the imaginative capabilities of the SJV elite than the\nhardcore realities of the history of Jaffna. It is a pure political document\nspiced with distorted perspectives and historical inaccuracies put together to\ndemonise the Sinhala-Buddhists as enemies of the Tamils. It glorifies an\nimaginary past — from the dawn of time\u201d, it claims \u2013with the sole aim of\ndowngrading the pioneers of the mainstream. The lack of a creditable history of\nJaffna is a thundering blow to the inflated egos of the SJVs who have been the\nmain authors of their exaggerated history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this\nbackground the first mission of the Jaffna University should have been to\nprovide an authoritative history to (1) give the world a comprehensive and\nscholarly account of the Tamils of Jaffna and (2) guide the thinking of the\nJaffnaites to prevent them from running wild with the likes of Prabhakaran \u2013\nthe modern reincarnation of Sankili who had killed more Tamils than all the\nothers put together, according to Tamil leaders. A nation \/ community that\nhero-worships a pathological killer\u201d (James Jupp of ANU) like Prabhakaran must\nconsist of like-minded political animals with no respect for humane or\ncivilized values.  Great societies and histories were not built on the\nperverse politics of Hitlers, Pol Pots or Prabhakarans. The Germans and the Cambodians\nhave rejected their evil past. But the Jaffnaites continue to cling on to the\nkiller cult of Sankili who massacred 600 Tamils simply because they were\nChristians who owed allegiance to the King of Portugal.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elevating\nPrabhakaran to the pinnacle of the political culture of Jaffna is a sad\nreflection of the dehumanised values of the Jaffnaites. The South also had\ntheir Prabhakaran in the evil figure of Rohana Wijeweera, the JVP fascist\nkiller. But he has been cast into the dustbin of history. His successors are\nstill struggling to regain respectability from the victims of the evil politics\nof JVP killers. But Jaffnaite political culture continue to consider the\nSankilli cult of Prabhakaran as a liberating force.  The fundamental flaw\nin the history of  Jaffnaites  is the absence of a respectable \nhero. That is the tragedy of Jaffna. The towering figures of their history\nconsists of unrepentant killers like Sankilli and Prabhakaran. They revel in\nthe cult of death and hatred of the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prabhakaran\nis the spit image of Sankilli. Sankilli is on record of being the first mass\nmurderer of Tamils. He also put on record the first ever ethnic cleansing by\ndriving out the Muslims and the Sinhalese. Prabhakaran followed his example.\nSankili institutionalised mono-ethnic extremism. He relentlessly consolidated\nfascist tyranny as the way of life in Jaffna. He established violence as the\nsupreme political culture eliminating all opposition \/ diversity in the name of\nTamil supremacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this\nhistory that the Jaffna University refuses to confront. It is also aware that\nit has to deal with the subhuman casteist culture of the Vellalars. If my\nmemory serves me right, it was Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole who exposed the heinous\nacademic crime of Jaffna University suppressing research on the evils of\nVellalar casteism.  It is also the only university that evicted a\nVice-Chancellor because he was from a low-caste. As stated earlier, it has the\nnotoriety of driving out its first professor of history for authoring a history\nthat did not justify their political agenda. It also has the scandalous\nreputation of promising female students an A\u201d for a lay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in\nmany ways, explains why the Jaffna University has failed to produce an\nauthoritative history. It was established in 1972 by Mrs. Sirimavo\nBandaranaike. Nearly fifty years have gone by and Jaffna University has yet to\nproduce a history of their own people. Why? Obviously, they are scared of\nfacing the grim record of their past. So they resort to their usual game of diverting\nattention to  the Sinhalese. Their favourite game is to blame the history\nof the Sinhala-Buddhists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna\njingoism has been the primary force driving the SJVs to power in peninsular\npolitics. There is no politics in the peninsula without Jaffna jingoism. In\nthis tradition attacking the Mahvamasa<\/em><\/strong> has been their usual\ntactic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will\nthe Jaffnaites grow up and face their past that frightens them so much?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Dr. Murugar Gunasingam is a path-breaking and indefatigable Tamil historian who earned his doctorate based on his exploratory history of the Jaffna Tamils of Sri Lanka. He undertook this mission of discovering the history of Jaffna when he first realised that no one had ever written a truly comprehensive history of […]<\/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-99021","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\/99021","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=99021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}