Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
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political stand of the overwhelm<strong>in</strong>g majority of the <strong>Tamil</strong>s and<strong>in</strong>sist<strong>in</strong>g that the ‘authentic view’ of the <strong>Tamil</strong>s to be thosevoiced by <strong>Tamil</strong> collaborators and sycophants. We see this today<strong>in</strong> the prom<strong>in</strong>ence given to the utterances of Ananda Sangari,a discredited, unelected <strong>Tamil</strong> politician. We also saw that <strong>in</strong>unelected <strong>Tamil</strong>s (Kadirgamar 1995 to 2005; Kumarasuriyar:1970 to 1977) be<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>ated to high political offices and theircollaborative postur<strong>in</strong>g deemed to be the <strong>Tamil</strong> position. Employ<strong>in</strong>gthe same perverse logic, the elected <strong>Tamil</strong> representatives havebeen dismissed as be<strong>in</strong>g elected either through coercion (TNA)or ignorance (Federal Party, TULF).The proclamations made byS<strong>in</strong>hala political commentators of ‘liberat<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>Tamil</strong>s from theclutches of the LTTE’ etc is the product of this th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g.The difficulty <strong>in</strong> conv<strong>in</strong>c<strong>in</strong>g the S<strong>in</strong>hala people of this situationcannot be understated. It is <strong>in</strong>deed a mammoth task. The extentof the difficulty was well encapsulated by the S<strong>in</strong>halese writerAdrian Wijemanne, <strong>in</strong> dedicat<strong>in</strong>g his book “War and Peace<strong>in</strong> Post Colonial <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>” to his wife Chitra. The book isan objective analysis of the post colonial history of the Islandtrac<strong>in</strong>g how S<strong>in</strong>hala nationalism masquerad<strong>in</strong>g as <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>nnationalism had driven the <strong>Tamil</strong> people <strong>in</strong>to assert<strong>in</strong>g their ownidentity as a dist<strong>in</strong>ct nation. Wijemanne <strong>in</strong> his dedication says:“to Chitra my wife, whose relentless opposition to the entire projectand uncompromis<strong>in</strong>g rejection of every salient po<strong>in</strong>t here<strong>in</strong> hasdispelled any l<strong>in</strong>ger<strong>in</strong>g doubt as to the need, the urgent need, forthe book 9 ”If the S<strong>in</strong>hala political establishment is serious about peacefulco-existence, it will not be unhelpful for them to reflect on theaxiom that ‘A nation which oppresses another cannot itself befree.’The <strong>Tamil</strong> polityWhile there is little doubt that the way <strong>in</strong> which the Mahavamsa,( an ancient chronicle of S<strong>in</strong>hala history believed to have beenwritten <strong>in</strong> the late 6th century AD by an unknown Buddhist monk)has been mis<strong>in</strong>terpreted to assert the ‘primacy and supremacy’31