Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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The question that needs to be asked is how realistic is it for theIndian Government to persist with such a policy when groundrealities have changed significantly during the interveningperiod.Indian policy makers now need to pay heed not only to thespectre of Tamil nationalism but deal with the reality that Tamilsnow exercise physical control over substantial proportion of theirland, have acquired military parity in respect to the Sri LankanState and have established an effective mechanism to administerthe land under their control. The net result is that today, in theisland of Sri Lanka there are two-power centres- Colombo in theSouth and Kilinochchi in the North.India’s foreign policy must reflect these to ensure that both powercentres while accommodating each other do not undermineIndia’s interests in any way.The Sinhala polity:Back in 1988, Professor Wilson, author of Sri Lanka, “The Breakup of Sri Lanka” wrote “My considered view is that Ceylon hasalready split into two entities. At present this is a state of mind; forit to become a territorial reality is a matter of time” 8Seventeen years later, this prediction has come to pass. Today,the Island of Sri Lanka there exist two states - a de facto Tamilstate in the Northeast partly occupied by the Sri Lankan army andlargely controlled and administered by the LTTE and a SinhalaState in the South with a Government elected by the Sinhalese.If there is to be an enduring peace, the Sinhala polity too needsto come to terms with this truth. Instead, imprisoned by itschauvinistic mindset, the Sinhala polity has taken to denyingthe reality by believing the propaganda dished out by its ownmedia.This is nothing new. Throughout the last five decades, theSinhala polity’s behaviour has been one of dismissing the30
political stand of the overwhelming majority of the Tamils andinsisting that the ‘authentic view’ of the Tamils to be thosevoiced by Tamil collaborators and sycophants. We see this todayin the prominence given to the utterances of Ananda Sangari,a discredited, unelected Tamil politician. We also saw that inunelected Tamils (Kadirgamar 1995 to 2005; Kumarasuriyar:1970 to 1977) being nominated to high political offices and theircollaborative posturing deemed to be the Tamil position. Employingthe same perverse logic, the elected Tamil representatives havebeen dismissed as being elected either through coercion (TNA)or ignorance (Federal Party, TULF).The proclamations made bySinhala political commentators of ‘liberating the Tamils from theclutches of the LTTE’ etc is the product of this thinking.The difficulty in convincing the Sinhala people of this situationcannot be understated. It is indeed a mammoth task. The extentof the difficulty was well encapsulated by the Sinhalese writerAdrian Wijemanne, in dedicating his book “War and Peacein Post Colonial Sri Lanka” to his wife Chitra. The book isan objective analysis of the post colonial history of the Islandtracing how Sinhala nationalism masquerading as Sri Lankannationalism had driven the Tamil people into asserting their ownidentity as a distinct nation. Wijemanne in his dedication says:“to Chitra my wife, whose relentless opposition to the entire projectand uncompromising rejection of every salient point herein hasdispelled any lingering doubt as to the need, the urgent need, forthe book 9 ”If the Sinhala 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 Tamil polityWhile there is little doubt that the way in which the Mahavamsa,( an ancient chronicle of Sinhala history believed to have beenwritten in the late 6th century AD by an unknown Buddhist monk)has been misinterpreted to assert the ‘primacy and supremacy’31
Page 7 and 8: ContentsIntroduction ..............
Page 9 and 10: IntroductionThe prospects for peace
Page 17 and 18: that I haven’t voted in the elect
Page 19 and 20: Is Peace Feasible?- Wakeley Paul[Wa
Page 21 and 22: In short, Rajapakse’s conception
Page 23 and 24: their leader should be? Obviously n
Page 25 and 26: The Vaddukodai resolutionIf there i
Page 27 and 28: due to the depopulation of vast are
Page 29 and 30: east because the Muslims reacted to
Page 31 and 32: usually tends to be obfuscated in d
Page 33 and 34: consider federal structures based o
Page 35 and 36: The official languageThe question o
Page 37 and 38: the LTTE-led Tamil National Movemen
Page 39 and 40: the LTTE to deliver humanitarian ai
Page 41: to power sharing. This behaviour, t
Page 45 and 46: Sudan’s Interim Power-sharing and
Page 47 and 48: of Norway and with the support of t
Page 49 and 50: inception of the CFA, they laid out
Page 51 and 52: determination, many analysts and co
Page 53 and 54: The peace talks were mediated by th
Page 55 and 56: Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam: The Part
Page 57 and 58: e trusted on a permanent basis. The
Page 59 and 60: their times and climes but their vo
Page 61 and 62: 4. Consequently the feeling of a mi
Page 63 and 64: The Armed StruggleIn the arena of c
Page 65 and 66: aircraft, the world has chosen to l
Page 67 and 68: Former President Bill Clinton, who
Page 69 and 70: epresentative, was “review of the
Page 71 and 72: says: “The governments of India a

Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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