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One World & the Tamil
Nation
30 October
1998
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"...A true transnationalism
will not come by the suppression of one nation by
another. A true trans nationalism will come from
nationalisms that have flowered and matured; from
peoples who have grown from dependence to
independence to inter-dependence. It is only the
independent who may be inter-dependent. And to
work for the flowering of the Tamil nation
is to bring forward the
emergence of a true trans nationalism. Meanwhile,
Tamils have no cause, to be apologetic about
their togetherness as a people. As a people, they
too have much to contribute to the rich fabric of
the many nations of
the world - and to
world civilisation. At the same time, it is
true to say that the Tamils have gained, and
continue to gain, by their interaction with other
peoples and other cultures - particularly those
of the Indian sub continent. No people are an
island unto themselves. The Tamil people do not
take an exaggerated view of nationalism. They are
not chauvinists..."
[see also Beyond Nations &
Nationalism: One World ]
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A visitor to the tamilnation.org website commented: "The world is
one unity. There is no Tamil or Telugu or Moslem or
Christian. Truth is termination of search and therefore,
useless. We are all standing on it. Nobody will ever know
it..."
It is true that the world is 'one unity'. At the same
time, Tamils living today
in many lands are inevitably drawn to examine their
relationship to that 'one
world'.
Even if a Tamil should forget his Tamil identity, the environment
around him will often conspire to remind him, of that
which he may have forgotten. As one of many
illustrations, one may consider the case of a Tamil who
lives in the United States. He may be a US citizen and he
may wish to serve his country (and have the ability to do
so), but his chances of becoming, say the President of
the United States are remote. His Tamil identity becomes
relevant to the way that others in the US will exercise
their democratic right to vote. This is today's political
reality. Even in other areas, (the higher that one climbs
the ladder of 'success') a Tamil may need to be better
to be equal.
Again, even those non Tamils who
may speak about the 'one world' (and decry divisions) are
rarely prepared to give up their own national identity
and they continue to live with seeming contentment in a
world divided by nation states - - 'one world' for the Tamils but
'our nation' for the
American, the Canadian, the French and so on.
It is when a Tamil comes across these lines that a sense
of his own identity as a Tamil, quickly emerges within
him. His past becomes relevant to his present and in this
way, has something to do with his future. Every inside
has an outside and the relationship between the two is
intrinsic and dynamic. The relationship is not extrinsic.
Neither is it static.
When the rest of the world ceases to separate the Tamil
as a Tamil, the Tamils themselves may truly become world
citizens. But we cannot pretend to live in a world which
has not yet arrived.
But that is not to say that we should not work toward the
ideal of a 'one
world' where the separate national identities of the
peoples of the world will be transcended by a greater unity.
A true
transnationalism will not come by the suppression of
one nation by another. A true trans nationalism will come
from nationalisms that have flowered and matured; from
peoples who have grown from dependence to independence to
inter-dependence. It is only the independent who may be
inter-dependent. And to work for the flowering of the
Tamil nation is to bring forward
the emergence of a true trans nationalism.
We believe that Tamils have no cause, to be apologetic
about their togetherness as a people. As a people, they
too have much to
contribute to the rich fabric of the many nations
of the world - and to world civilisation. At the same
time, it is true to say that the Tamils have gained, and
continue to gain, by their interaction with other peoples
and other cultures - particularly those of the Indian sub
continent. No people are an island unto themselves. The
Tamil people do not take an exaggerated view of
nationalism. They are not chauvinists.
And, how does one accept what is valuable in another's
culture without losing that which is valuable in one's own cultural heritage?
Here, it seems that the cultural identity of a people and
their struggle for equality
and freedom go hand in hand. It is only in freedom
that the exchange between different cultures will remain
voluntary and not enforced.
The words of Mahatma Gandhi will strike a chord,
though some may dismiss them as an empty idealism -
"...My goal is friendship with the world and I can
combine the greatest love with the greatest opposition
to wrong ... Through the realisation of freedom for
India, I hope to realize and carry on the mission of
the brotherhood of man..." One World and Mahatma
Gandhi - R.R.Diwakar
We ourselves believe that Gandhi was very much a
practical idealist. Truth is admittedly a pathless
land, and as you point out, (final) truth may be the
termination of search - and beyond words. But that may
not render the search itself useless. Here, Stephen
Covey's quote in his book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People' - a quote from
T.S.Eliot may be helpful -
"We must not cease from exploration. And the end of
all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and
to know the place for the first time."
Aurobindo's
reflections on the Evolution of Man may also be of
some relevance:
"Man's highest aspiration - his seeking for
perfection, his longing for freedom and mastery, his
search after pure truth and unmixed delight - is in
flagrant contradiction with his present existence and
normal experience. Such contradiction is part of
Nature's general method; it is a sign that she is
working towards a greater harmony. The reconciliation
is achieved by an evolutionary progress."
The post modern vision as articulated by persons such
as David Ray
Griffin helps to further our understanding of that
evolutionary progress and the dynamic relation between
the individual and society:
"... we are not simply the products of our natural
and social environments. We are, to be sure, deeply
constituted by our relations to these environments. But
in each moment, we create ourselves out of these
relations in terms of our desires, purposes, meanings,
and values - in short our spirituality. Because of this
element of autonomy, individuals are not only shaped by their society;
they can shape it in return.
In stating this two fold
position - that individuals are internally constituted
by their social relations, and that they are
nevertheless not totally determined by them -
I have already rejected a modern for
a post-modern viewpoint." -
Spirituality and Society: Postmodern Visions -
David Ray Griffin
Mahatma Gandhi's experiments with truth
continue to inspire several decades after his death.
The search for truth is not
useless, though truth
is a pathless land. Gramsci's words
remain persuasive:
"The man of action is the true philosopher: and
the philosopher must of necessity be a man of
action... the real philosopher is, and cannot be
other than the politician, the active man who
modifies his environment, understanding by
environment the ensemble of relations which each of
us enters to take part in".
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