Tamil Nationalism, the signal factor

Please consider the following

Now, please ponder over these facts:

• Mavai Senathirajah, now a Member of Parliament, was a youth activist in the Federal Party. He joined it in the 1950s when it was agitating through peaceful democratic means for the rights of the Tamil people.
  
• R. Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) joined the Federal Party in 1950s. He participated in all the peaceful agitations of that party.
  Senathirajah and Sampanthan who did not take arms were motivated by Tamil Nationalism. Senathirajah was arrested and ‘given the treatment’ a few times. Once he was beaten severely and the law enforcement authorities thought he was dead and dumped him on the roadside. He was picked up by passers by and treated.
  
• Douglas Devananda, now a minister, joined Eelam Progressive Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), one of the four original Tamil militant groups which took up arms, saying peaceful agitations had failed to win for the Tamils their rights.
  
  
• Varatharaja Perumal, now a supporter of the government, joined the EPRLF giving up his economics lecturer post in the Jaffna University for the same reason.
  
• Sri Kantha, now a Member of Parliament, joined the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) for a similar reason.
  
  The motive force that made Devananda, Varatharaja Perumal and Sri Kantha to take up arms was Tamil Nationalism. They had no personal grievance. Non-violent activists and the armed groups then were very small bodies. The biggest of the armed groups, the LTTE, had about 30 cadres.
  
  Then, 1983 changed the situation. There emerged a new group with wounded pride and personal grievance. They were attacked because they were Tamils. They were uprooted from their homes and villages because they were Tamils. The angry Tamil youths thirsting for revenge swelled the ranks of the militant groups.
  
  Taraki (Sivaram) in a research article published about a decade ago had computed that in 1985 over 15,000 Tamil youths were with the different armed groups.
  Military operations have added another category. They have created generations of boys and girls who have personal vengeance. They have seen their fathers, brothers or relatives killed.
  
• Pulenthiran who was involved in the Aranthalawa maccacre was one who saw his father killed.
  
• Balraj who died recently, was a child when the people in his village were driven away.
  Please consider these historical facts:
  
• Ellala ruled Anuradhapura for 44 years during 205 B.C. to 161B.C. The Mahawamsa praises him as a just ruler.  Sinhalese still celebrate Dutugemunu’s victory over him. Why? Sinhala nationalism.
  
• Dhatusena, Mahanama Thero’s nephew, defeated the Tamil King Pithiya who ruled Anuradhapura during 455- 473 A.D. by getting the support of the Sinhala people by whipping up Sinhala nationalism. The Sinhalese still venerate him for delivering the Sinhala nation from Tamil rule.
  
• The Kandyan Convention excludes Sri Wickrama Rajasinha and his heirs from any future claim to the Kandyan throne because they were Tamils. Why?  Again, Sinhala Nationalism.
  
• And most importantly, the Sinhalese still hold the destruction of their dry zone civilisation by the Cholas against the Tamils.
  
  These show that Sinhala Nationalism is a portent factor in Sri Lanka.
  So is Tamil Nationalism. We know that Sinhala and Tamil nationalisms are very strong factors. They emerged in the second half of the 19th Century – Tamil revival predating the Buddhist revival ‘by a whole generation’ (quote from K.M. de Silva’s ‘A History of Sri Lanka’ Page 442) – and they developed in parallel till the language issue made them clash. Now to my point.
  
  
• Mavai Senathirajah is not with the government. So are Sampanthan and Sri Kantha. They are demanding that Tamils be given their rights.
  
• Douglas Devananda and Varatharaja Perumal are with the government. They too are demanding that the Tamils be granted their rights.  They are for full implementation of the 13th Amendment and for further improvement. Devananda’s objective is: Autonomy in the provinces and joint rule in the centre.
  
• Karuna and Pillayan too are for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment.
  The basic factor that runs common in all Tamils is Tamil Nationalism.
  Army Commander Sarath Fonseka had correctly identified the problem. He said recently that Tamil nationalism should be taken into account. History has taught that no nationalist movement can be tackled by military operations. Military measures strengthen nationalism, not weaken them.
  
   Look at this interesting example from Jaffna history:
  The Dutch used all possible means including General Baptisms and Mass Conversions to make the Jaffna peninsula a Christian territory. A Dutch report claimed in 1634 that “nearly all natives are Christians in Jaffna.” Later they claimed Jaffna was “wholly Christian.”
  
  The British defeated the Dutch in 1796 and by 1806 Protestant Christianity had almost disappeared in the Jaffna peninsula. American Missionaries who went to Jaffna ten years later, reported frantic activity of rebuilding of Hindu temples destroyed by the Dutch.
  
  Tikiri Abeysinghe in his study ‘Jaffna under the Portuguese’ has this comment: “It is reasonable therefore to believe that many years before the end of the Portuguese rule, no one in Jaffna practiced Hinduism openly.”
  
  And please remember these recent events; JVP was crushed militarily in 1971 and 1989.  Now it is the third political force in the country. The lesson: The JVP cannot be crushed militarily unless and until social discrimination is removed from the Sinhalese society.
  Nationalism is a stronger force.
  

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