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TAMIL EELAM:
RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION
 Racism
in Sri Lanka -
Sinhala Buddhist Oppression of the Tamil People
S. C. Chandrahasan
1979
The Island and its People.
It was B. H. Farmer, a Cambridge don who quite appropriately wrote a book
entitled "Ceylon : A Divided Nation." in 1963. Since then the island has become
more divided than ever. It was given the Sinhalese name Sri Lanka in 1972. The
island is at the southern most tip of India and is separated from the Indian
mainland by a narrow stretch of water, some 20 odd miles in length. The island
is multi-racial in character with a population which is overwhelmingly Indic in
culture and civilization.
At the census held in 1971, the majority ethnic group comprised the Sinhalese
(71%) and the majority religious group were (99% of them being Sinhalese) who
formed 67% of the population. The next largest group consists of Tamil-speaking
people (28.5%) who are made up of Tamils (21.5%) and Muslims (7%). The
population break-up according to religion would be : Buddhists 67%, Hindus 17%,
Christians 8% and Muslims 7%. No census of caste is taken but the structure is
ratified and hierarchical and there is little evidence of its impact on
Sinhalese and Tamil society in any way being mitigated.
History has it recorded that at the time of the European conquest there were
three separate kingdoms in Ceylon : A Tamil kingdom in the North and two
Sinhalese kingdoms in the South. These three kingdoms fell to the Portuguese,
the Dutch and the British at different times during the 16th to the 18th century
AD These territories were not integrated and were administered, even by the
Europeans, as separate entities. Any unity and territorial integrity known to
history are of recent import. It was only in 1833 that the British, for reasons
of administrative convenience, brought these areas together into one
administrative unit.
Sinhalese-Tamil Rivalries
After Sri Lanka obtained independence from Britain in 1948, there have been
increasing hardships and burdens placed on the Tamil community by governments
dominated by the majority racial and religious group in the island, the Sinhala
Buddhists. Not all Sinhala Buddhists support the exclusivist policies advocated
by the vocal articulate chauvinistic and nationalist groups among the Sinhala
Buddhists but they do not make any measurable impact. It is the Sinhala Buddhist
nationalists whose opinions prevail. It is they who have shaped the evolution
and development of the island’s polity since 1948. An eminent contemporary
Ceylonese (Sinhalese) historian Professor K. M. de Silva, has remarked on the
developments since independence in the following vein :-
".... the concept of a multi-racial polity ceased to be viable any longer.
The emphasis on the sense of uniqueness of the Sinhalese past and the focus
on Sri Lanka as the land of the Sinhalese and the country in which Buddhism
stood forth in all its pristine purity carried an emotional appeal compared
with which a multi-racial polity was a meaningless abstraction. Moreover the
abandonment of the concept of a multi-racial polity was justified by laying
stress on a democratic sanction deriving its validity from the clear
numerical superiority of the Sinhalese and Buddhists." ("Discrimination in
Sri Lanka" in Case studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms : A
World Survey, The Hague, 1976.)
Acts of Discrimination
The record of
legislative and administrative acts of discrimination against the Tamil minority
is consistent and without abatement. As stated earlier, the Tamil minority
comprises two groups, the indigenous Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamil immigrant
labor of recent origin brought from South India by British planters to work
their tea and rubber plantations in the 19th century. The vast majority of the
latter know no home other than the island of Sri Lanka and it is on the fruits
of their sweated labor that the island has obtained its foreign exchange and
built the foundations of a welfare state.
At independence, Britain enacted a constitution which provided minimal
safeguards to the minority ethnic and religious groups. This constitution was in
a sense the basis for a solemn compact between the various groups in Sri Lanka’s
plural polity. But within years after independence, the structure began to be
systematically dismantled in the following ways :
1. 1948 - A
Citizenship Act was enacted which in effect converted the resident Tamils of
Indian origin into stateless minority. These Tamils of Indian origin,
prior to independence, enjoyed similar rights as other Ceylonese.
2. 1949 - The Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship ) Act enacted for
the purpose of registering resident Tamils of Indian origin and Pakistanis
as citizens. The administration of the act deprived over 95% of the Tamils
of Indian origin their citizenship rights.
3. 1949 - The Ceylon (Parliamentary) Election Amendment Act deprived
resident Tamils of Indian origin, who had hitherto enjoyed voting rights and
had returned 8 members to Parliament and influenced the decision in some 20
other electorates, of the right to vote.
4. 1956 - Official Language Act to make the Sinhala language the only
official language throughout the entire island caused severe hardship to
several hundreds of Tamil public servants resulting in premature retirement
and migration to foreign lands; the act further effectively excluded Tamils
otherwise qualified from entering the public services.
5. 1957 - A pact concluded between the Prime minister, Solomon
Bandaranayake and the leading Tamil political organization, the Federal
party, to settle grievances of the Tamil minority; the pact was
unilaterally abrogated
by the Prime Minister the following year.
6. 1958 - The Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act providing for the
reasonable use of the Tamil Language for prescribed official purposes
enacted ; it remained a dead letter and was not implemented due to
anticipated opposition from Sinhala pressure groups.
7. 1960 - Language of the Courts Act making Sinhala the only language of
all the courts throughout the island enacted.
8. 1961 - Implementation of Sinhala as the only official language with all
its rigors; this caused grave hardships to the Tamil public who began
receiving all government notifications, correspondence, etc. in only the
official language.
9. 1962 - A Tamil public servant, C. Kodeeswaran sued the government Agent,
Kegalle on the ground that the latter in terms of Treasury Circular No. 560
had denied him his annual increment as he had failed to obtain proficiency
in the official language. Kodeeswaran argued that besides the denial being a
violation of a contract between him and the state, a contract which at the
time it was entered into provided that he should work in the English
language, it was also a violation of section 29 of the 1948
constitution in that the Official Language Act of 1956 discriminated against
members of the Tamil -speaking minority. The district judge of
Colombo entered judgment in Kodeeswaran’s favor on all the issues. The Crown
thereupon appealed and had the judgment reversed, the appeal judges holding
that a public servant had no right to sue the crown. Kodeeswaran thereupon
appealed to the Privy Council which entered judgment in his favor
specifically on the right of a public servant to sue the state for denial of
increments. Their lordships did not comment on the constitutionality or
otherwise of the Official Language Act.
10. 1964 - The pact concluded between the Ceylonese and Indian prime
ministers under which arrangements were agreed on for the repatriation of a
majority of the Indian Tamil population to the South Indian mainland. The
element of compulsory repatriation was one of the ways envisaged for the
repatriation of Indian Tamils. The rigors of the pact were modified during
1965-70 bur re-introduced during 1970-1977.
11. 1965 -
Pact between the Prime Minister, Dudley Senanayake and the Tamil Federal
Party on the lines of the pact of 1957 concluded; abandoned in 1968 due
to opposition from Sinhala pressure groups. A bill had already been drawn up
after negotiations between leaders of the governing United National Party
and the principal party of the Ceylon Tamils, the Federal Party to
decentralize the administration at the district level, but this was also
dropped due to the activities of Sinhala extremists.
12. 1966 - Regulations for the use of the Tamil language enacted under the
Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act of 1958 adopted by Parliament but
remained a dead letter due to lack of co-operation from Sinhala public
servants and governmental indifference.
13. 1960- 1961 - The nationalization of schools. The majority of these were
owned by the Roman Catholic Church and by missions of various Protestant
denominations. The measure was directed against the Tamils as well. Many of
the tamil medium classes in the Christian schools in Sinhalese majority
districts were closed by the orders issued by the state’s ministry of
education. At the same time schools in the tamil areas began to be deprived
of the necessary finances for their maintenance and development.
14. 1971 -
Introduction of a system of standardization of marks to provide for
preferential treatment to Sinhala students and to keep out Tamil medium
students otherwise qualified; the sum result was a progressive decline in
the admission of tamil medium students; the scheme of standardization was an
act deliberately designed to exclude merit as the criterion for university
admissions.
15. - - Unilateral adoption of a
new republican constitution without any cooperation or consultation with
the majority of Tamil representatives in Parliament. The following were
noteworthy features in that constitution:
(i) Section 6 - under which "the Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to
Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the
state to protect and foster Buddhism" etc. etc.
(ii) Section 7 - under which "the Official Language of Sri Lanka shall be
Sinhala" etc. etc.; provision was made for the use of the Tamil language in
certain spheres of public activity but this remained a dead letter in some
spheres and in others was not implemented to the satisfaction of the Tamil
minority.
16. 1974 - The ministry of education supplemented the standardization
system with district quotas for admissions to the university. A Ceylonese
(Sinhalese) scholar observing the effects of this policy noted that
"ethnically there is little doubt that the major blow fell on the Ceylon
Tamils. The Tamils’ share of engineering admissions for instance fell from
24.4 % in 1973 (standardization only) to 16.3 % in 1974.... The parallel
figures for medicine would be 36.9% in 1973, 25.9% in 1974 and 20%
(estimated) in 1975. The percentage losses in dental surgery and agriculture
are even greater." (C. R. de Silva, "Weighing in University Admissions,"
Ceylon Studies Seminar, Series No. 2).
17. 1974 - The Jaffna Campus of the University was opened in the north of
Ceylon but under questionable circumstances. The primary school for
secondary education in north Ceylon, Jaffna College, one of the very best in
the island, which was run by an American mission was taken over for the
purpose, much to the detriment of the educational interests of the people of
the area. Nor was the campus provided with the suitable requisites for
decent university instruction. It was more a caricature of a seat of
learning. A Ceylon Tamil educationist observed:
"As an answer to our fifty year old demand for our own University this
new campus is in effect a fraud. It was supposed to be a science faculty but
in effect provides only pure and applied mathematics and statistics. There
are 135 students now and later there will be 400. Only one-fifth are Tamils.
No new building was provided and the new faculty was housed at Jaffna
College, the long-established center of Tamil education..... (The Tamils
of Sri Lanka, Minority Rights Group, Report No. 25.)
18. 1975 - The nationalization of foreign-owned plantations was utilized to
inflict hardships on the Indian Tamil workers in the plantations. Scores of
these workers were evicted while others "are to be seen begging in the
streets of Kandy." A Sinhalese Doctor (Dr. B. Seneviratne, The Health of
Plantation workers, Bulletin No. 4, Kandy, 1975) stated that half of all
patients admitted from the estates had "severe protein malnutrition" and he
added "several patients admitted to my ward were in advanced stages of
starvation." The government further closed estate schools or began on a
policy of converting Tamil-medium schools in the estate areas into
Sinhala-medium ones.
19. 1978 - A new constitution based on the presidential system of
government was enacted, again without the cooperation of the overwhelming
majority of the Ceylon Tamils. The new constitution made a number of
concessions to the language demands of the Ceylon Tamils. These have yet to
be implemented and have indeed come 20 years too late. But as against the
concessions there are provisions in the constitution which militate against
the interests of the Tamils, in particular the following :-
(a) Section 9 states : "The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism
the foremost place and accordingly shall be the duty of the state to protect
and foster the Buddha Sasana." etc. etc. As a first step towards the
implementation of this provision, the national flag of Sri Lanka which was a
flag agreed upon by a select committee of Parliament in 1948 comprising
representatives of all groups in the island’s plural society was
unilaterally changed to provide for the inclusion of 4 bo-leaves *(leaves
from a tree under Buddha gained enlightenment) in the four corners contained
in that section of the national flag which has the lion depicted on it.
(b) Section 12(2) contains a provision imposing a burden on members of
the Tamil minority, requiring them to obtain proficiency in the Sinhala
language. There is no provision requiring members of the Sinhala-speaking
majority to qualify in the Tamil language.
(c) Section 21(1) entitles a person to be educated through the medium of
either of the national languages of Sri Lanka. In practice this provision
works against the interest of Tamil-speakers in Sinhala majority districts.
The state has by administrative orders closed Tamil streams in a number of
schools in the Sinhala areas, compelling Tamil Parents to have their
children educated in the Sinhala language. Earlier, government policy was to
compel the education of children in the appropriate mother tongue.
Section 22(1) states that "the official language (Sinhala) shall be the
language of administration throughout Sri Lanka." There is provision for
Tamil to be a language of administration in the predominantly Tamil-speaking
Northern and Eastern provinces. However no meaningful action has been taken
so far to implement this provision. In fact the reverse seems to be official
state policy. Sinhala-speaking public servants, and the police and military
personnel continue to be the dominant element in the administration of the
Tamil-speaking areas.
(e) The constitution confers on Sinhala the status of a superior language
of judicial administration throughout Sri Lanka whilst permitting the use of
the tamil language for purposes of jurisdiction in only the original courts
of the Northern and Eastern provinces (Section 24). Under the constitution,
a Tamil speaking person in Colombo the city in Sri Lanka which has the
largest concentration of Tamils, does not enjoy the same rights as a
Sinhala-speaking person. On the other hand the constitution empowered the
Minister of Justice to direct courts in the Tamil-speaking Northern and
Eastern provinces to maintain their records and conduct their proceedings in
the Sinhala (official) language as well.
The above record of government acts does not exhaust the catalogue of
discriminatory measures adopted blatantly against the Tamil minority in Sri
Lanka. It might be noted that hardly a year has passed since independence when
the Tamil community has not been subjected to some kind of hardship. But to
compound matters, the state has used its administrative apparatus to accomplish
objectives which it would otherwise have found difficult to achieve. We list
below some of the more obvious sectors in which state action has been directed
against the Tamil minority:-
1. Employment in Sri Lanka especially since 1956 has tended to become the
growing monopoly of the state; since 1956, the omnibus services, the ports,
the schools, the food trade, the more important Banks, land. and the
plantation industry, among others, have been nationalized. There has been
virtually open discrimination in favor of Sinhala-speaking persons in public
employment. Foreign aid to government corporations results in more and more
Sinhala persons being provided employment while the tamils are ignored or at
best given token positions.
2. The state-aided colonization of areas, recognized by two Prime
Ministers as additional Tamil territory, with Sinhala persons has been going
on apace since independence. The Tamils live in highly densely populated
areas and are in need of living space but are not given proper consideration
in the allocation of lands by the state. The recent deadlock between the J.
R. Jayewardene government and the Tamil United Liberation Front centers on
the focal question of state-aided colonization of the traditional Tamil
homelands. The state utilizes the aid provided foreign states to deprive the
Tamil-speaking people of their legitimate due. What is worse, the
colonization of traditional Tamil territories has resulted in the Tamils
losing some of their representation in Parliament. The new Sinhala settlers
have either been able to secure traditional Tamil seats, or to influence the
result in what were mainly Tamil constituencies.
3. Since 1956, and more so with increasing severity since 1970, the state
has unleashed an army of occupation in the Tamil areas of the north and the
east. The civil population has been harassed. Many innocent persons have
been detained, tortured and deprived of their personal belongings by police
and military personnel who pay no heed to the elementary principles of
civilized conduct or the rule of law. Even Tamil members of Parliament are
victims of police and military action. The atrocities perpetrated against
the civil population have not in any way been the subject of investigation
by state authorities.
These policies have produced an economic depression in the Tamil
community while the Sinhalese majority has experienced an economic
upliftment. A Malaysian economist, E. L. H. Lee in his chapter "Rural
Poverty in Sri Lanka, 1963-1973" (in International Labor Office, Poverty and
Landlessness in Rural Asia : A WEP Study, Geneva 1977) in comparing the
changes in income during the years in question observed that "the mean
income of the Sinhalese, the majority of the population increased
significantly, while those of other racial groups, with the minor exception
of the Malays, either stagnated or declined" and he concluded that "the per
capita income of Kandyan and low country Sinhalese increased by 24 and 18%
respectively while that of Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamils fell by 28 and 1
% respectively."
Acts of Violence
A leading and respected Ceylonese (Sinhalese) marxist (Edmund Samarakkody) in
an article in the Workers Vanguard (7Th October 1977) entitled, "Behind the
Anti-Tamil Terror : The National Question in Sri Lanka" observed;
"The outbreak in
mid-August (1977) of the anti-Tamil pogrom (the third such outbreak in
two decades) has brought out the reality that the Tamil minority problem in
Sri Lanka has remained unresolved now for nearly half a century leading to
the emergence of a separatist movement amongst the Tamils."
There have in fact been more than the three major outbreaks referred to by
the Marxist leader. For convenience we list these below :-
1. The 1956 -
Anti-Tamil riots erupted prior to and after the passing of the Official
Language Act in June 1956 causing several deaths and loss of property to
hundreds of Tamil Residents in Sinhalese areas. The Sinhalese dominated
police force stood by as silent onlookers.
2. 1958 - Anti
Tamil riots broke out in May-June 1958 resulting in several deaths by
mutilation, burning and rapes as well as in loss to property by plunder and
looting. The government of S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake delayed declaring a
state of emergency which could very well have stemmed the tide of violence
and saved losses to human life and property. The reputed Ceylonese
(Sinhalese) journalist, Tarzi Vittachi has in his book Emergency ‘58
(London, Andre Deutsch, 1958) severely censured the Bandaranayake government
for its callous indifference in delaying the promulgation of a state of
emergency.
3. 1961 - Police
and military personnel unleashed violence on peaceful Satyagrahis (civil
disobedience campaigners) who were protesting the imposition of the official
language in the Tamil-speaking areas. Several brutalities and grievous
injuries were perpetrated against the innocent Tamil civilian population.
The Tamil-speaking areas were placed under military occupation for several
months thereafter and a policy of permanent harassment of the civil
population was consistently maintained without any relaxation. Several
hundreds of persons were placed under preventive detention without charges
being brought against them. The International Commission of Jurists
published a statement on the position of the Tamil minority as a result of
these developments.
4. 1966 - Anti Tamil violence was stirred and organized by the opposition
parties led by Mrs. Srima Bandaranayake against the Tamil Regulations
adopted by the Dudley Senanayake government in January 1966. The situation
was brought under control only after the declaration of a state of
emergency.
5. 1972-77 - This was part of the period covered by the rule of Mrs.
Bandaranayake’s government when the entire Tamil-speaking areas of the north
and the east were placed under military rule. This was accompanied by
arbitrary arrests, meaningless detentions without trial for indefinite
lengths of time of innocent persons, harassment and robbery of the civilian
population by the military and the police. A peak in the abuse of power was
reached when on 10th January 1974 during the 4th International Conference of
Tamil Research held in Jaffna, the northern capital city of the Ceylon
Tamils, the police launched " a violent and quite an unnecessary attack on
unarmed citizens." An unofficial commission of inquiry headed by a non-Tamil
retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Ceylon (O. L. de Kretser) commented on
the "tragic loss of lives, and the physical injuries and indignities to
which men and women had been subject to on this night of terror" as a result
of police action.
6. 1976 - Police firing of Tamil-speaking Muslims in a mosque in Puttalam
resulted in a number of deaths. Further incidents were reported against
Muslims in other parts of the country. The government declined to hold an
inquiry.
7. August 1977 - The worst and severest anti-Tamil looting, plunder, rape,
arson, and murders since the western occupation of the island in 1505 took
place under the very eyes and with the active participation of the island’s
police and military services. The government of J. R. Jayewardene desisted
from declaring a state of emergency on the ground that this would be
contrary to democratic principles. The same government claimed that it was
powerless to direct the armed services to restore order as these had been
infiltrated by the political appointees of the previous government. The
government appointed a commission of inquiry headed by a retired Chief
Justice. The evidence led before this commission is a revelation of the
extent of anti-Tamil hatred among members of the Sinhalese majority group.
Again this catalogue of disasters that have befallen the Tamil community in
Sri Lanka indicates how difficult, if not impossible, it is for Tamils to
pursue their occupations in a quiet and peaceful manner. They are a
community under a permanent state of siege, always facing the possibility of
destruction of their lives and property. Many Sinhalese leaders have boasted
that the Tamils living in their midst in the Sinhala majority areas are
hostages who will be dealt with summarily if the Tamils of the north and
east dared to raise voices of protest.
The foreign press has highlighted the dangers facing the island as a result
of Sinhala-Tamil rioting and drawn attention to the sufferings of the Tamil
community. The following titles are representative of foreign press reports
on the question :-
- The Guardian June 14, 1977 - "Sri Lanka Tamils under attack"
- Newsweek August 8, 1977 - "Sri Lanka: Trouble in Tamil land."
- Daily Mail August 18, 1977 - "Race Riots flare across Sri Lanka"
- Far Eastern Economic Review September 2, 1977 - "Baptism of Blood for
Junius (Jayewardene)
- The Economist September 3, 1977 - "Sri Lanka : Siren Voices"
- Far Eastern Economic Review September 9, 1977 - "Tamils wait for
peaceful Solution"
- Economic and Political Weekly September 10, 1977 - "Sri Lanka :
Communal Violence"
- The Times September 20, 1977 - "Race conflict in Ceylon"
- Financial Times May 31, 1978 -"The Tamil ‘Powder keg’"
- Asian Survey May, 1978 - "Language and the Rise of Tamil
Separatism in Sri Lanka"(Robert Kearney)
Incitements to Violence and Racial Hatred
Statements have been made by responsible Sinhalese leaders, including prime
ministers and future prime ministers directly or indirectly inciting Sinhalese
mobs to acts of violence against members of the Tamil minority. The following is
just a mere sample of the provocative language employed in the years since
independence :-
(i) "The fact that in the towns and villages, in business homes and
boutiques most of the work is in the hands of the Tamil-speaking people will
inevitably result in fear, and I do not think an unjustified fear, of the
inexorable shrinking of the Sinhala language...." S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake
(before he became Prime Minister in 1956) in the House of Representatives,
October, 1955.
(ii) "The time has come for the whole Sinhalese race which has existed for
2500 years jealously safeguarding their language and religion to fight
without giving quarter to save their birthright.... I will lead the
disobedience campaign" (against S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake’s settlement with
the Ceylon Tamils in July 1957) - Junius Richard Jayewardene, in 1957,
before he became Prime Minister and Executive President of the Republic,
Tribune, 19th July, 1957.
(iii) "If you want to fight, let there be a fight, if it is peace, let
there be peace. That is what they will say. It is not what I am saying. The
people of Sri Lanka say that....." statement in the National State Assembly
by the Prime Minister, Junius Richard Jayewardene as a warning to the Ceylon
Tamil political leadership, on 18 August, 1977 - Tribune 27th August, 1977.
What can be done
Political development in Sri Lanka since independence have largely been
focused on attempts by an ethnic majority, the Sinhalese, to establish their
primacy, superiority and overlordship over the Tamil-speaking minority. Part of
the reason lies in the fact that members of the Tamil minority are more
industrious, enterprising and hardworking coming as they do from the arid,
unproductive and underdeveloped areas of north and east Sri Lanka.
Partly the Sinhalese suffer from a mistaken notion that democracy is a matter
of numbers and the majority, racial and religious, must have its way even though
this means trampling on the legitimate rights of minority groups. There is
further the fact that in a stagnant economy there is not enough to go round and
the limited pie must therefore be distributed by the state in terms of felt
pressures; such pressures emanate largely from the vocal, vociferous and
articulate vehicles of pressure manipulated by lobbyists from the majority
group.
Finally an unconvincing argument is trotted out that the Tamil-speaking
people in reality form part of the several millions of Tamil-speakers in the
neighboring South Indian mainland who can at any time swamp the nine million-odd
Sinhalese in Sri Lanka; it therefore behoves the latter to take appropriate
measures to protect itself. This excuse is often given as an explanation for the
aggressive and erratic behavior of the Sinhalese political elites.
It will be seen that these arguments etc. move in a vicious circle and
political elites from the majority group have no way of breaking this movement
especially in a situation where democratic government is mistaken for numerical
superiority. The solution to the problem therefore lies elsewhere than within
the mental periphery of Sinhalese elitist circles. Partly this is being done by
the protest and resistance movements organized by the Tamil-speaking people.
But they are placed at a grave disadvantage when the state utilizes the aid
and assistance provided by foreign governments as well as by non-governmental
organizations in foreign countries to frustrate this opposition. A moderation of
the internecine conflict in Sri Lanka can therefore be accomplished if the
outside world can take meaningful steps to achieve the following objectives :-
(a) Stipulations should be laid down by foreign governments providing aid
to the government of Sri Lanka that such aid should
(i) be properly and fairly distributed so as to benefit all sections of the
Sri Lankan community, as far as possible.
(ii) not be utilizes in any way so as to cause hardship to any section of
the Sri Lankan community. For example the massive foreign aid provided in
the post-1977 period is being used by the government of Sri Lanka for the
purpose of undermining the ethnic composition of the Tamil majority northern
and eastern provinces in Sri Lanka by proposed large scale transfers of
population from the Sinhalese areas.
(iii) not be indirectly used to militarily oppress the Tamil-speaking
peoples. For example aid is provided for a specific development program. The
state channels the savings effected in this area to strengthen the armed
forces occupying Tamil territories for the alleged purpose of maintaining
law and order.
(b) members of the Christian community in countries providing aid can
exercise pressure on their governments, or their parliamentary
representatives, or by corresponding with the press so as to ensure that aid
should be utilized in the ways indicated.
(c) members of the Christian community or unofficial missions from
Christian organizations should visit Sri Lanka and conduct on-the-spot
investigations so as to test the veracity and accuracy of what has been
stated. Their reports should be duly published in their local press as a way
of bringing public opinion to bear on their governments as well as on the
government of Sri Lanka.
(d) Christian bodies might assist oppressed minority group in Sri Lanka by
establishing non-governmental agencies to promote the economic development
of the Tamil-speaking areas or by providing scholarships and financial
assistance to members of the oppressed minority to enable them to obtain
further qualifications and employment.
Conclusion
The future foreshadows gloomy foreboding of what can happen to a new state if
present trends persist. The principal political instrument of the Tamil-speaking
people, the Tamil United Liberation Front, has launched an agitation for a
separate sovereign state which shall be called Eelam. The Front obtained an
overwhelming mandate in the Northern Province and the support of a majority of
the Tamil people in the racially mixed Tamil-speaking majority areas of the
Eastern province at the general election of July 1977. The Front is pledged to
conduct its agitation on non-violent lines but already a militant underground
movement has emerged as a response to governmental attempts to counter the
agitation. The gun is increasingly dominant in the Tamil-speaking areas as a
reaction to the harassment and force being practiced on the Tamil-speaking
people by the state’s instruments of repression.
The Tamil view is that Sri Lanka became a unified entity only after the
advent of the foreign conqueror. Previously, up to 1618 a separate Tamil kingdom
flourished in north-east Sri Lanka. The frontiers of that kingdom were
recognized. That kingdom was tacked on to the rest of Sri Lanka when the British
occupied the entire island and brought it under imperial rule. At independence
Britain imposed a constitution which in a sense formed the basis of a compact
between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities for nearly 24 years till a Sinhalese
political party decided to unilaterally impose a constitution on the rest of the
country in 1972. That constitution was replaced by another constitution in 1978,
again on a unilateral basis.
The Tamil argument is that the foundations for a single sovereign
state lapsed with the abrogation of the solemn compact of 1948 in 1972 and
thereafter in 1978.
The Tamil people are no longer a party to the constitutions of 1972 and 1978.
They have determined that they must now exercise the sovereignty they lost in
1618. It is on that basis that the Tamil United Liberation Front seeks
to reestablish the lost sovereignty of the Tamil-speaking nation. And in keeping
with this decision, the Front
resolved at its National Convention in May 1976 among other things,
the Tamils of Ceylon by virtue of their great language, their religions,
their separate culture and heritage, their history of independent existence
as a separate state over a distinct territory for several centuries till
they were conquered by the armed might of the European invaders and above
all by their will to exist as a separate entity ruling themselves in their
own territory, are a nation distinct and apart from the Sinhalese and this
Convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972
has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters the
Sinhalese who are using the power they have wrongly usurped to deprive the
Tamil Nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life,
opportunities of employment and education destroying all the attributes of
nationhood of the Tamil people....
This Convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the Free,
Sovereign, Secular Socialist State of Tamil Eelam based on the right of
self-determination inherent to every nation has become inevitable in order
to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this country.
Three decades (1948-1978) of oppression, emergency rule and military
occupation of the Tamil-speaking areas have pushed the Tamil people to seek
their liberation rather than live as inferior second class citizens in a
Sinhala Buddhist-dominated polity. The historical record indicates that the
Tamil leadership had consistently trusted their Sinhalese Buddhist
counterparts to honor the solemn agreements they had entered into and to
fulfill the many undertakings they had given when soliciting the assistance
of the parliamentary representatives of the Tamils to stabilize fragile
governments.
Not only was there consistency in the dishonoring of the pledged word but
the evidence indicates that the Tamil leadership been moderate in its
demands. In the nineteen fifties and sixties it was a question of seeking
accommodation on language, citizenship, and regional autonomy.
At every stage the leadership suffered rebuffs. In the nineteen seventies
Sinhala unwillingness to concede the just and reasonable demands of the
Tamils created an unbridgeable credibility gap vis-ŕ-vis the Sinhalese
leadership. The sum result is that the Tamils no longer have faith in the
Sinhalese. They have been forced to the realization that their ultimate
salvation lies in their liberating themselves by the setting up of an
independent, sovereign and secular Tamil state under the name "TAMIL
EELAM."`
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