My evidence

In the opening piece of this column I recall the happy days when, as a 16-year-old, I marched from my school to Jaffna esplanade to take part in the Independence Day celebration. My grandchildren do not do it.

This is a sad story. It started over the question of the status and use of Tamil language; a consequence of the June 5, 1956, Sinhala Only Act. Federal Party (FP) protested and decided at the 1956 August Trincomalee Convention to launch civil disobedience movement, if the Tamil language was not given parity of status before next August.

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike government took the first step to implement the Sinhala Only Act on January 1, by ordering that the registration letters of the motor vehicles be changed to the Sinhala letter Sri. A few days later, the Ceylon Transport Board sent buses with Sinhala Sri to Jaffna. FP youths led by Amirthalingam tarred the Sinhala letter and wrote Tamil Sri over it. The FP launched the anti-Sri campaign on January 19 accusing the government of thrusting the Sinhala language on the Tamils,

The FP intensified its campaign against Sinhala Only by calling the Tamil people not to participate in the independence day festivities on February 4, 1957 and to observe it as a day of mourning. The Tamil people obeyed closing shops, keeping off the roads and flying black flags on private and public buildings. In Trincomalee, a FP youth Natarajan, was shot dead by unidentified persons while climbing the clock tower to hoist a black flag.

The government supporters reacted with the tar-brush campaign. They tarred the Tamil names on street and shop name boards. Stray instances of violence were reported.

Bandaranaike was upset by this development. He was aware that denying the Tamils their language rights would create dissension. He delayed the enactment of the Sinhala Only Act which he vowed to do within 24 hours, to work out a scheme to accommodate the rights of the Tamil people. He had two schemes in mind - establishment of regional councils with decentralised powers and an arrangement for the reasonable use of Tamil. But, he was prisoner in the hands of Sinhala chauvinists whom he had made use of to win power.

He instructed the Attorney General and the Legal Draftsman to incorporate a provision in the official language bill to ensure citizens the right to communicate with the government in their mother tongue. The draft did not satisfy the Sinhala extremists who rose in revolt. They pressurised Bandaranaike to adopt the clause, “The Sinhala Language shall be the one official language of Ceylon.”

Following the FP threat of civil disobedience, Bandaranaike suggested a compromise formula: 1. Regional Councils to which power would be decentralised; 2.Constitutional amendments to guarantee fundamental rights and 3.The use of Tamil within the framework of the Sinhala Only Act.

FP rejected it saying that Tamil language rights cannot be protected under the Sinhala Only Act.

In March 1957, Bandaranaike proposed a 4-point scheme which said: 1. Tamils will have the right to be educated in Tamil; 2. Tamils would be allowed to sit the public examinations in Tamil but should study Sinhala within a prescribed period; 3. Tamils could correspond with the state institutions and expect to receive replies in Tamil and 4. Local authorities in Tamil areas would be vested with powers to transact business with the Central Government in Tamil.

Sinhala extremists opposed that formula, especially provision 3, which enabled Tamils to correspond with the government in Tamil.

Bandaranaike conceded in the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact he signed on June 27, 1957 (a) the recognition of Tamil as the language of the national minority in Ceylon and (b) the language of administration of the northern and eastern provinces would be Tamil without infringing the position of the Official language.

The B-C Pact was destroyed because of the pressure of Sinhala extremists and political opportunists.

In 1972 and 1978, Tamil was recognised as a national language and the 13th Amendment raised the status of Tamil to an official language. It said that Tamil would also be an official language. But that provision has not been fully implemented for 20 years.

Now, after 50 years, Prof. Tissa Vitharana has identified the implementation of the Official Languages’ provision of the constitution as one of the priority areas for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment. The other priority area is the appointment of the Interim Council for the Northern Province.

Objections have already been raised against these recommendations by Sinhala extremists and political opportunists. And, their hold is strong!