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Selected Writings by Nagalingam Ethirveerasingham

Sri Lanka's National Flag, 
the Symbol of Inequality and Separation

23 February 2001
[see also Sinhala Lion Flag imposed by Sinhala Majority]

 Pompey's Seal

The Lion Flag part of the National Flag of Sri Lanka was the flag of Sri Wickrema Rajasingha, the last Sinhala King of Sri Lanka. I have not found any earlier reference to the lion flag. Did Sinhala or Tamil Kings of Sri Lanka before King Rajasinghe use a lion flag? This question is best left to historians? Some years ago when reading the life of Pompey (106 - 48 BC), in Plutarch's Lives, the last paragraph shed light on one of the origin of the symbol, a lion holding a sword in its right paw, on Ceylon's flag.  Pompey, who was being chased by Julius Caesar, reached the shores of Egypt to get help from King Ptolemy. King Ptolemy's Council decided to kill Pompey. The assassins also cut his head off. Plutarch (45 - 120 AD) wrote, 

"Not long after, Caesar arrived in the country that was polluted with this foul act, and when one of the Egyptians was sent to present him with Pompey's head, he turned away from him with abhorrence as from a murderer; and on receiving his seal, on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paw, he burst into tears." 

The only other time I thought about the Lion Flag critically was at the Olympic Village in Helsinki where that flag was raised with the lion facing away from the pole. The Chief of Mission W.H.D. Perera got the Olympic Official to fly it with the lion facing the pole. As a seventeen-year-old high jumper, the Lion flag was not the centre of my universe. Its symbolism escaped me. I, like many school children, left it to the leaders to debate the merits of the symbols of the lion and the strips. As children, we used to say that the strips would be hidden when the flag wraps around the pole a couple of times! Figuratively speaking, that is what happened to the Tamils and Muslims with respect to their language, education, employment and culture. Little did we know the tragedy about to unfurl.

Senator Nadesan and the National Flag

Now I wish that Senator Nadesan's dissenting views, during the debate on the flag were made required reading during my school days for its language, reasoning and substance. I am glad that the Tamil children of today are far better informed and more involved in realising, demonstrating and defending their rights than the children of my generation. They do however pay a very high price including the ultimate sacrifice. 

Fifty years after the debate, I read Senator Nadesan's dissenting view on the form and composition of the national flag. His reasoning is as valid today as it was then. The events since then have painted a vivid picture of his caution. I also read about the origin of the flag on the website of Sri Lanka's embassy in Washington D.C. It said, 

"Mr. A. Sinnalebbe, MP for Batticaloa tabled a motion in the State Council on January, 16, 1948 suggesting that the Lion Flag of King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe which was taken to Britain in 1815 should be made the National Flag. This was debated and later Prime Minister Rt. Hon. D.S. Senanayake named an Advisory Committee for the formulation of a National Flag. The Members of the Committee were Mr. J.R. Jeyewardene, Mr. T.B. Jayah, Dr. L.A. Rajapakse, Mr. G.G. Ponnambalam and Senator S. Nadesan. …no finality had been reached when the first Independence Day was celebrated on February 4th, 1948. Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake unfurled the Lion Flag at the Octagon (Pattirippuwa) during the independence celebration held in Kandy on February 12th, 1948."

I wonder whether the members of the First Parliament of Ceylon were aware when they unfurled the Lion Flag on Independence Day, that the lion in the flag of the last king of Ceylon was in fact the seal of Pompey. 

"The decision to retain the Lion Flag in its entirety and keep the strips representing the minorities 'outside' its borders was symbolic of the will of Sinhala majority to build the newly independent state on the narrow and divisive foundation of the old Kandyan Sinhala kingdom." (Indictment against Sri Lanka - Sinhala Lion Flag imposed by will of majority, 1948)

Senator S.Nadesan, in his dissent has fathomed the depth of the ethnic problem at a time when the discipline of conflict resolution had not become a subject of study in universities. He said,

" In my view a national flag apart from giving an honoured place to all communities, must also be a symbol of national unity. …objection was taken to a Tricolour by several members of the Committee on the ground that the Lion Emblem will be considerably reduced in size and that it will not be acceptable to majority community, this proposal had to be abandoned. …In my view this design (the Lion flag with two strips) if adopted, far from being a symbol of national unity will be a symbol of our disunity. …Once the committee agreed that the national flag should be devised by modifying the Lion Flag, one would have thought that any strips adopted for the purpose of satisfying the minorities will be integrated with the Lion Flag and that these strips will not be an appendage to the Lion Flag. Anyone looking at the proposed Flag will see the Lion Flag is preserved in all its integrity and outside that Flag, two strips are allotted to represent the minorities." 

Symbols 

A symbol represents the meaning of a concept. A symbol does not represent itself. Every community has their symbols. A Cross is a symbol that not only Christians but also others understand as well. The symbol can be the letter "V", a word such as "mother", a sound of a horn, or a picture of skull and bones. Some symbols are shared between two cultures. I called my father "Appu," as does a Hungarian child. A Sinhalese child calls her father "Thatha," as does a Yugoslavian (Serbian) child. The letters may be different, but the pairs of sounds are the same, and the meaning of "father" is the same for all four children. The depth of positive or negative feelings depends on their individual relationship with their father. The Bo leaf is a symbol. The flag is a symbol. The lion flag with a stylised lion holding a sword in its right paw, irrespective of it also being the seal of Pompey, is the symbol of the Sinhala Buddhists of the Kandyan Kingdom. It was adopted by law in 1951 as the symbol of Sri Lanka with two strips recognising the existence of the two other communities occupying the Island. 

Senator Nadesan was not arguing about a piece of cloth, its colours, or the lion. In my view he saw in the lion flag the Sinhala leaders' conception of what Ceylon is and what its identity is going to be notwithstanding the Soulbury Constitution. History has proved him right. 

The compromise on the two strips and their position on the flag outside the yellow borders of the Lion Flag, and more significantly within the outer yellow border of the new flag, was the symbolic expression of the second class citizenship for minorities that in 1956, 1972 and 1978 manifested in Mr. Bandaranaike's Sinhala Only Act, Mrs. Bandaranaike's Republican constitution, and Mr. Jayawardena's Unitary constitution respectively. 

In the National Flag, a vertical yellow border separate the strips of the Tamils and the Muslims from the lion of the Sinhala people. It is significant that the lion guards that border with a sword in its right paw. In addition to rejecting equality of status for the Tamils and Muslims the Sinhala government also keep them in an all-encompassing yellow border. There are countries that support a negotiated solution to the problem that respect the integrity of the borders of Sri Lanka. Those countries should reexamine their stand giving due credence to the meaning of the border that was put there by the Sinhala leaders to separate the strips from the lion. 

Senator Nadesan had perceived the future of Tamils under a lion flag during the debate of the symbol. In trying to integrate the Tamil community with the Sinhala and Muslim communities through a symbol that would be a unifying national symbol he ran against the rock of the fundamental belief of the Sinhala Buddhist concept of Sri Lanka and the identity of its citizens. 

His argument, like the one in the Senate against the Citizenship Act of 1948 that disenfranchised thousands of Tamils, failed to convince the opposition. In both instances he left a record of his well-reasoned dissent for posterity. His reasoning forms the foundation stone of our case against the Sri Lankan state. He demonstrated that the Sinhala Buddhist leaders, by not wanting any change in the symbol, refused to compromise on the fundamental ideas of the Sinhala Buddhist state that was represented in the symbol. A symbol cannot be changed unless the underlying concept of the symbol is also changed. The undercurrent of the debate in the flag committee was not of the form, colour or cosmetics of the National Flag, but it was a debate of the nature and structure of the state, and the rights, relationships and identity of its citizens. 

The fundamental position of the Sinhala leaders is also the position of a majority of the Sinhala people, which is that Tamils and Muslims are, like the two strips, an "appendage" outside the Sinhala Buddhist unit as represented by the National Flag. Senator Nadesan had tried to change that position to an equal status by integrating the flag to represent a common symbol and common identity. He failed in the attempt not because his argument was flawed, or because the Sinhala leaders did not comprehend it, but because they understood the reasoning and the consequences of their acceptance too well. 

Senator Nadesan, Mr. Chelvanayagam and other Tamil leaders who joined them later, excellent lawyers and outstanding citizens that they all were, followed the constitutional process and put their trust in the courts and the rule of law to bring justice to the Tamil community. Events that have occurred since the 1948 Ceylon Citizenship Bill have demonstrated the failure of majoritarian democracy, constitutional process and the rule of law in Sri Lanka to bring justice to the Tamils. The Tamil people therefore had no alternative but to begin the armed struggle to separate from the state that had rebelled against them - a state that had from the beginning symbolically separated them with a well-defined vertical border in the National Flag. 

The reports of All Party Conferences and Select Committees, and drafts of constitutions that the government has produced are within the bounds of the meaning of the symbol - the National Flag. The government did not accept any compromise by the Tamils, like Senator Nadesan's proposal for the national flag, that violated the ideas represented by the symbol. His proposal for the flag was to reflect the spirit of the Soulbury constitution. 

A quote from the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington D.C. with respect to a new national emblem reads, "A new republican emblem was chosen after the country was declared a Republic on May 22nd, 1972. In addition to the lion with sword and the 'Palapethi' design it portrays the punkalasa, dhammachakka, sun, moon and two sheaves of paddy." 

The strips did not find a place in the National Emblem next to or even outside the lion. It is noteworthy that the Tamils did not vote for the 1972 constitution. It can now be reasonably concluded, based on the events that followed since 1948, Mr. Bandaranaike, Mr. Kotelawela, Mr. Jayawardena and other Sinhala politicians never had any intention of honouring Section 29 of the Soulbury constitution. 

Basic Principles, the National Flag and the Two Communities

The Sinhala reaction to the armed struggle is to be expected considering the basic premise of the Sinhala Buddhist State and its territorial boundaries, around and within, as represented in the National Flag. On July 13,1985, the Tamil parties presented a joint statement to the Jayawardena government proposing four basic principles, now called the "Thimpu Principles," to form the basis for a negotiated solution. To accept the Thimpu Principles the Sinhala Buddhist leaders had to alter the basic structure and nature of the Sinhala Buddhist State. Such a change would have been in conflict with the concept of their state as represented by their symbol. The Jayawardena government did not want to make such changes and it rejected the proposal. A compromise solution would have required a flag for the Tamil people in their own territory with their own symbol, and a lion flag without strips for the Sinhala people in their own territory. In addition, it could have also lead to a third common flag that would be more like what Senator Nadesan had in mind.

Raising the flag in 1995

I was in Kilinochchi on the day the Sinhala Buddhist flag, called the National Flag, was raised in the newly captured Jaffna. In those troubled times the television set in the dining room of the Faculty of Agriculture and the generator that supplied the current worked overtime to listen to the Sinhala version of the news of the loss of Jaffna delivered by Tamil anchor persons.

 The hall was packed with not only students and staff but also people who lived close to the campus and some of whom had been displaced. We watched Deputy Minister Ratwatte raising the National Flag - a symbol of the Sinhala Buddhist domination of the Tamils. 

There was not a dry eye in that dining hall. They did not shed tears of joy. On May 25, 1958, I was proud to have caused a similar flag to be raised at the Asian Games in Tokyo not knowing that the Sinhala mob at home was committing crimes with impunity on my people. Since then the Sinhala flag meant less to me with each pogrom.

When Mr. Ratwatte raised the national flag in my hometown, soon after the tragedy of death and displacement, I realised how unrelated I was to the lion flag and the ideas and the people it represented.

We also later witnessed the ceremony in which President Kumaratunge received the scroll from the conqueror of Jaffna Mr. Ratwatte. The ceremony represented to me the rape of a nation of people and a celebration of that offense.

Instead of tears I saw anger in everyone’s face. Someone in the crowd wondered why the Madam had not honoured Mr. Ratwatte by naming Jaffna as Ratwattepura. The two ceremonies were symbolic in that they represented the inner most feeling and ideas of the nature of the Sinhala Buddhist state that ingrained in the Sinhala Buddhist leaders. To many Tamils those two ceremonies symbolised the separation of Sri Lanka from Tamil Eelam.

The overwhelming reaction of the Tamils in and out of Sri Lanka in support of the LTTE and against the possibility of proscription of the LTTE by the United Kingdom demonstrates their choice as to who should represent them in negotiation with the Sri Lankan government.

In my visits to many places in the NorthEast, my assessment was that about 80% of the Tamil people considered the LTTE as the only organisation that could negotiate on their behalf and be responsible for corruptionless reconstruction of the Northeast. I have stated my observations both nationally and internationally.

The fact that the students who continue to suffer under the hands of the government educationally, employment wise and under the hands of the armed forces physically and emotionally have now risen to the forefront to demonstrate and be counted is a positive new force to move the case of the Tamils to the Sinhala and the international communities.

In the euphoria stemming from the possibility of a solution with the mediation of Norway, we need to remind ourselves that great minds like Chelvanayagam and Nadesan, and later Ponnambalam, Sunderalingam and others could not change the fundamental frame of reference and the mindset of the Sinhala Buddhist leaders. Twenty years of armed struggle under the leadership of a great mind and a great warrior has not shifted the Sinhala Buddhist fundamentalist position substantially. However, the rights of the Tamil people and our right to self-determination is now debated in the international arena and is being accepted by many key governments and institutions.

Is there a solution within the Thimpu Principles and within the unwritten principles represented in the symbols - the national flag and the national symbol? A compromise principle acceptable to both communities will be hard if impossible to mould. Based on the position of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Mahanayakas it is certain that if at all any flag is unfurled other than the current flag on the Pattiriuppuwa, it will only be the Lion Flag without the strips.

In the event that a well-designed flag, symbolising the Middle Path between the Tamil and the Sinhala Buddhist positions, cannot be agreed upon by both the LTTE, as the representative of the Tamil people, and the Government, the international community should enforce a separation to maintain peace in the Island and in the region.

After all, the two communities have, since 1948, symbolically in their minds, become two separate entities of their own volition.

Why would anyone want the Tamils to declare that they do not want to separate, when it is the Sinhalese who wanted them outside their borders in the first place and continue to do so.

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