THE MUSLIMS AND THE EAST
The Eastern Province is in the news again. This most important province, that holds the key to the solution to the Tamil racist problem will continue to draw our attention for some time. The meaning of Prabhakaran is said to be Sun. I do not know what the Tamilised Piripaharan means but Prabha is photo or light and Prabhakaran means sun. Perhaps Piripaharan in Tamil means Sun God but so far to my knowledge no body has come out with the etymology of the Tamil word Piripaharan. It could be merely the Tamilisation of the word Prabhakaran. The sun, meaning the star called by that name, rises in the east and sets in the west. However Prabhakaran (and the Tamil racist movement that rose in the west) is most likely to set in the east.
The area that comes under the present eastern province has a history going back to more than two thousand years though the present eastern province was demarcated by the British with the other eight provinces in 1886. During the time of the Sinhala kings the present eastern province belonged to the Ruhunu Rata. Even during the so-called Dutch period the present eastern province belonged to the Kandyan kingdom and up to the time of king Senerath the region was populated almost exclusively by the Sinhalas. When the Muslims living in the western coast were harassed by the Portuguese it was king Senerath who settled them in some of the areas in the eastern coastal belt. The Tamil permanent settlements in the eastern coast arose after the period of king Senerath and in that sense the Muslims have been living in the present eastern province for a longer period than the Tamils. At present the Muslims constitute roughly 40% of the population in the eastern province while the Sinhala and the Tamils constitute 30% each. As has been shown by the Sinhala Jathika Sanvidhanaya, approximately 50% of the land in the eastern province belongs to the Sinhalas. As up to 1815 the Sinhala kings (The Vadiga origin of the last four kings is immaterial here. As kings of Sinhale they were Sinhala kings, just as much the kings of England were English kings despite their German and other origins.) were the trustees of the land in the present Eastern province, this implies a reduction from 100% to 50% of the land belonging to the Sinhalas during the last two hundred years or so.
As I have been saying repeatedly the problem we have in Sri Lanka is due to Tamil racism, that wanted to dominate politics from the nineteenth century. I do not wish to go into an analysis of inception and evolution of Tamil racism in Sri Lanka, that was baptised and created by the British. I have done this in "An Introduction to Tamil Racism in Sri Lanka" and in a number of articles written on this subject. After the publication of "An Introduction to Tamil Racism in Sri Lanka" I have come across material that together with what has already been stated in the above book and the articles, enables me to conclude that most of the Tamils in Sri Lanka are descendants of Tamils and others brought first by the Dutch and then by the British for tobacco and other cultivations and that it was the Dutch who encouraged the Jaffna Tamils to write a history for the Tamils going back to Vijaya (Ugrasingha story in Yalpana Vaipava Malai). Only the Vellalas had been called Tamils in the beginning ( Please refer articles by Mr. G. B. D. de Silva) and later the others including the Sinhalas who lived in the Jaffna peninsula have been absorbed into the Tamil ethnic community (better to identify as the Tamil cultural community) and the British baptised Tamil racism in the present form with the establishment of the legislative assembly in 1833. After the Dutch and the British, now the west led by the Americans make use of Tamil racism to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country.
What the LTTE wants to achieve today is only a caricature of what the Vellalas wanted to achieve in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. In a period spanning a little over fifty years the Vellalas having dominated the politics of the Jaffna peninsula for about hundred and fifty years, of course under the patronage of the Dutch and the British, wanted to dominate the politics of the country as a whole from Colombo. The English educated Vellalas, though subservient to the British, in general were more proud of their culture than the English educated Sinhalas were of theirs. Thus even within a sphere of colonialism the English educated Vellalas were more nationalistic than the English educated Sinhalas. The Sinhala nationalist movement led by the Bhikkus and Anagarika Dharmapala, though some Bhikkus and the Anagarika were English educated as well, was mainly confined to the Sinhala educated Sinhalas. The English educated Sinhalas unlike their counterparts among the Tamils (Vellalas) did not have a mass base (During the period under consideration, Anagarika Dharmapala had the mass base) and were without the political clout that emanates from such a mass base. This together with the policy of the British to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country gave the political as well as the cultural leadership in the country to the Vellalas. Ponnambalam Ramanathan wanted the political leadership not only of the Tamils, but also of the Sinhalas and the Muslims as well with the patronage of the British. It was left to Ramanathan to speak on behalf the Sinhalas to the colonial masters. This capitulation by the English educated Sinhalas, encouraged by the British, continues to date among a section of the same group as could be seem by the memorandum of capitulation, popularly known as the MOU, signed between the Prime Minister and, this time, the non Vellala Prabhakaran under the auspicious of the western powers.
In the cultural sphere Ananda Coomaraswamy, a relative of Ramanathan held the sway. Piyadasa Sirisenas and John de Silvas, who were influenced by Anagarika Dharmapala, and patronised by the Sinhala educated Sinhalas, and schloars such as James d'Alwis who pioneered Sinhala language studies and who belonged to a minority of English educated Sinhalas then, who did not want to capitulate, were ignored. Coomaraswamy, however, was recognised for his contribution to studies in Sinhala Art. This trend was stopped only after the Donomourgh Commission, in parallel with the Senanayakes taking the political leadership. Cumaratunga Munidasas, Martin Wickremesinghes, Senerath Paranawithanas, Gunapala Malalasekeras, Ediriweera Saracchandras, Ananda Samarakones, Sunil Shanthas, Chithrasenas, Gunadasa Amarasekeras, Henry Jayasenas, Dayananda Gunawardanes were to emerge from what is known as a "bilingual intelligentsia", however taking the cultural and intellectual leadership from the Bhikkus. The implications of this take over and their relationship to Anagarika Dharmapala has to be discussed later.
Ponnambalam Ramanathan who aspired to be the political leader of the Tamils as well as the Sinhalas and the Muslims stated that he represented the Muslims in the Legislative Assembly. He did not want the British to apoint a separate person to represent the Muslims in the Assembly. His argument was that the Muslims were not a separate ethnic community but they were Tamil speaking Muslims. This amounted to a non recognition of the Muslim identity and he was opposed by Muslim leaders such as Siddi Lebbe. After more than one hundred years, instead of Vellalas aspiring to be the masters of the entire island with British support today we could see a non Vellala group under the leadership of Prabhakaran attempting to become the rulers of the northern and the eastern provinces with the blessings of Norway and the big western powers (Norway is not a power big or small by any stretch of imagination.).
The Tamils are not the majority in the eastern province. By merging the Northern and the Eastern provinces, they want to be the majority in the combined region. They have always tried to become the "majority" whether in the whole country or in the eastern province through manoeuvres. They ignore the fact they constitute only 30% of the population in the eastern province and that they settled in that province last after the Muslims. When the Vellalas realised after the universal franchise in 1931, that they could not be the leaders of the country they gradually shifted from the centre in Colombo(west) to the periphery in Trincomalee(east). They wanted to rule the northern and the eastern provinces. All that Prabhakaran and the non Vellalas have done is to replace the Vellalas and to take up arms to achieve the ambition of Tamil racism.
The tactics of the LTTE are very clear. They want the army to be withdrawn from the north and especially from the east and chase out first the Sinhalas and then the Muslims. They organise "volunteer demonstrations" by the students and the civilian population, attack the army camps using the "volunteers" and then threaten the Sinhalas and the Muslims. At Point Pedro, Vavuniya, Valachchena, and Ampara they tried these methods. Before Ampara the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that is partial towards the LTTE ignored these incidents. Now the SLMM wants the Sinhala people to be restraint. What were they (SLMM) doing all these days? Having a holiday watching tigers, the two legged ones?
The STF should be praised for the action they have taken and also the Sinhala people in Trincomalee for resisting bravely the LTTE thugs and murderers. The lives of the Sinhala and Muslim people are in danger and the government, both the Presidential wing and the Prime Ministerial wing have a duty to protect the lives of the Sinhalas and the Muslims. The LTTE has violated the MOU, though the SLMM may find it difficult to declare who violated the MOU, as they are having "kate pittu" (pittu in the mouth) and there is no more MOU to be honoured. The government should strengthen the units of the armed forces in the east, as well as the north, and get ready for the elimination of the LTTE. The members of the SLMM can do only one thing. They could go back to their respective countries.
The LTTE or any other Tamil racist party should not be allowed to rule the eastern province by maneuvering with the support of the west. The Norwegian ambassador with respect to the LTTE and the eastern province today plays the same role that the British governor Manning played in the second decade of the twentieth century with respect the Vellalas and the whole country. The history is repeating itself though on a smaller scale. It appears to be big this time only because the players are armed. It is clear that the problem of the Muslims is not with the Sinhalas but with the Tamil racists. Quite correctly the Muslims who are the biggest community in the eastern province do not want to be a minority in a combined north and east. Their demand for a separate zone is conditional. If the eastern province is not merged with the northern province then there is no need for a separate zone for the Muslims.
The northern and the eastern provinces were merged after the Indo Lanka agreement, under emergency. India did not want a merger but it was included in the Indo Lanka agreement with provision for a referendum as a compromise. The referendum had not been held for more than fourteen years when the emergency was lifted last year. Once the emergency was lifted the two provinces were de merged though still there is one governor for both the provinces. The Indo Lanka agreement, in any event is a dead letter today, and the President having taken into consideration all these facts should appoint two separate governors for the two provinces. The civilian administration in the eastern province, under the governor to be appointed, should be strengthened together with the armed forces.
The Tamil racists maneuvered and failed to become the rulers of the entire country during the fifty years I have referred to above. They wanted to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country by making the Sinhalas a "minority" with artificial representations in the legislature. Today the Tamil racists try to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place by creating a separate state in the eastern and northern provinces. In the process by the artificial merger of the two provinces they manoeuvre to reduce the Muslims and the Sinhalas in the eastern province to a minority. Unlike the Tamil racists the Sinhalas have never failed to recognise the Muslim identity, and in fact at least from the time of king Senerath they have protected the Muslims and their identity and it is time for the Sinhalas and the Muslims in the eastern province to join together to defeat Tamil racism.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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