The fate that befell

The old song, ‘Jaffna people betrayed us’, is being replayed frequently by upcountry Tamil leaders nowadays, to quell the rising tide of dissent among youth against power hunger.

The theme of the song is about the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) voting for the citizenship law.

The leaders do not tell the complete story. I wish to place it on record, as I had followed the events and wrote of it in my book, ‘Out of Bondage: The Thondaman story’. And, most importantly, Thondaman (senior) had approved of it.

Two laws were enacted to deal with the citizenship issue. The first was the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948. It determined who a Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) citizen is. Section 4 of the Act dealt which dealt with that, said;

(a)    A person born in Ceylon, will have the status of citizen by descent, if his father or, paternal grandfather or, paternal great grandfather was born in Ceylon before 15 November 1948;

(b)   A person born outside Ceylon before 15 November 1948, will have the status of citizen by descent, if his father or, paternal grandfather and paternal great grandfather were born in Ceylon;

(c)    A person born in Ceylon on or after 15 November 1948, will have the status of citizen by descent, if, at the time of his birth, his father is a citizen of Ceylon.

This act conferred citizenship by descent, on Sinhalese, Ceylon Tamils and Muslims, but not, on Indian Tamils and Indian Muslims. This law made all Indian Tamils, including Thondaman and Abdul Aziz, stateless.

Members of the Ceylon Indian Congress, All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Bolshevik Leninist Party and Communist Party voted against the Bill. All Ceylon Tamil Congress Leader, G.G. Ponnambalam, called Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, who moved the Bill, a racist. The entire Tamil community, Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamils, were indignant of it.

The second law was enacted in August 1949. It laid down the procedure and requirements that the disfranchised Indian Tamils should satisfy, to gain Ceylon citizenship. This law, Indian and Pakistani (Residents) Citizenship Act, specified that a married person to be granted citizenship, should have 10 years of continuous residence, while an unmarried person have seven years of continuous residence from 1 January 1939.

By the time the second Bill was enacted, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress had split in two over the question of joining the D.S. Senanayake government. Ponnambalam, K. Kanagaratnam, T. Ramalingam and V. Kumaraswamy joined the government. Chelvanayakam, C. Vanniyasingham and V. Sivapalan remained in the opposition.

The G.G. Ponnambalam faction voted with the government, in support of the Indian and Pakistani (Residents) Citizenship Bill. Chelvanayakam, Vanniyasingham and Sivapalan voted against it. Chelvanayakam, speaking against the Bill, called the requirements laid down to gain citizenship, “rigourous and difficult to satisfy”.

The most difficult part of the requirement was the proof of 10 years continuous residence for married persons and seven years continuous residence for unmarried persons. Most of the Indian Tamils were in the habit of visiting their villages in India for family functions and festivals.

Subsequently, Chelvanayakam formed the Federal Party (FP) in December 1949, and campaigned consistently, for the restoration of citizenship for Indian Tamils. He charged G.G. Ponnambalam of betraying the Indian Tamils.

The FP made the restoration of citizen rights to the stateless, one of its main objectives. The resolution adopted at the inaugural meeting held on December 18, 1949, spelled out four objectives. The first of them was:

“The recognition of the right of every Tamil-speaking individual, who has made Ceylon his home, to full citizenship rights.”

And Jaffna Tamils taught Ponnambalam a lesson in 1956 by rejecting his leadership. FP swept the polls.

I was in Jaffna during the election campaign. Thondaman and Sellaswamy were star speakers. They called upon the Jaffna Tamils to reject Ponnambalam and the other three who voted for the Indian and Pakistani (Residents) Citizenship Bill.

Sellasamy’s exhortation at the Jaffna esplanade meeting still rings in my ear. Said he, “Please teach those who betrayed us (Indian Tamils), for the sake of ministerial posts, a lesson. Reject them. Reject them completely.”

Jaffna Tamils rejected Ponnambalam and his party. The uncrowned king of Jaffna was humbled.