New Constitution and the myth of Eelam

By L.K.N. Perera

Opposition leader R. Sampanthan’s recent justification of LTTE’s struggle to form an Elam State and the unanimously passed resolution in the Northern Provincial Council to form an autonomous state in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, need immediate attention of peace loving members of all communities.

At the same time it is reported that terrorist leaders such as Nagulan who are responsible for mass murders and who were believed to be killed in the last war, are now surfacing one by one. It is also reported that Britain’s Labour Party has given assurance to the Tamil Diaspora that it will support their call for self-determination.

It is unfortunate that our academics who are paid by public funds and who are more qualified to answer this baseless Eelam theory have failed to respond to Mr Sampanthan and Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. Also the learned members of Sri Lanka Branch of Royal Asiatic Society have paid no attention to this important issue. The more unfortunate factor is that leaders of Hela Urumaya or National Freedom Front who undertook to protect the interests of the Sinhalese have also failed to expose the bogus nature of the Eelamists’ claim for a separate state.

A careful examination of Mr. Sampanthan’s justification of LTTE activities makes quite clear that it is an endorsement of Prabhakaran’s inhuman terror campaign that existed for the last thirty years. The irony is that he has forgotten the misery of his own people during the war.

Undoubtedly by such irrational statements Mr. Sampanthan approves,

a) the killing of thousands innocent civilians by bomb attacks.

b) the attack on the sacred temple of tooth relic at Kandy

c) the attack on innocent Buddhist Pilgrims and killing of 200 pilgrims at the sacred Jayasirimaha Bo tree at Anuradapura.

c) the keeping of camps in which thousands of Tamils who opposed to Prabhakaran’s tyranny were inhumanly treated and killed.

e) Killing of 600 police officers who surrendered during Premadasa regime.

f) the brutal killing of his own leader, the late A. Amirthalingam, and the killing of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President R. Premadasa .

g) Killing of politicians like Duraiappah and academics like Dr. Rajini Thiranagama. At a time when the government is probing into the activities of military intelligence members who brought peace to all the communities in Sri Lanka, surely it is the government’s duty to probe into the atrocities of LTTE too and bring all those who are responsible for those mass inhuman murders. So that extremists of both sides will not be able to set fire to Sri Lanka. Also it is the duty to probe into the killings of brutal murders of important figures like Mr. Amirthalingam, and Dr. Thiranagama, Senior Lecturer of Medical Faculty of Jaffna, as one of the first steps in bringing peace to Sri Lanka.

When one peruses the role of Mr. Sampanthan in the seventies as elicited in the Sansoni Commission Report, his justification of terrorist activities is nothing new to him.  Leaders like him tacitly approved violence.  They never condemned such activities in those days.

However, before dealing with the question whether Eelam is a myth or not, I would like to pose the under mentioned questions to be answered by Mr. Sampanthan or Mr. Wigneswaran or any TNA, TULF leader, or an educated member of the Tamil Diaspora or even Jayalalitha aor Karunanidi.

1) If Tamils had their own kingdoms in the North and East please explain as to why Robert Knox who was arrested in Kottiar (near Trincomalee) was handed over to the Kandyan King instead of taking him to Jaffna, the so-called Capital of Eelam?

2) What have you got to say about Wallipuram Gold Plaque which categorically confirms that a Sinhalese King named Wasaba was ruling Jaffna too even before 2^nd Century BC?

3) What have you got to say about three Buddhists Pagodas in Delft Island and the Buddha Foot Prints and caskets found in Jaffna Peninsula and kept at Jaffna Museum for exhibition?

4) What have you got to say about Kantharodaya Buddhist Temple at Chunnakam?  In Mahawamsa it is described as Kaduruboda Temple at Hunugama.

5) What have you got to say about historical records in British Museums which confirm that most of the Tamils in North and East were brought to Sri Lanka by Dutch and British for the purpose of cultivation of tobacco? Firstly, it is the Dutch who got down Tamil workers from India for tobacco cultivation. It is the duty of the Government to publish these documents even at this late stage.

6) What have you got to say about King Gajaba’s wars in South India which are described not only in Mahawamsa but in South Indian Stone Inscriptions too?

7) What have you got to say that when the Dutch captured Jaffna from the Portuguese, they went to the Kandyan King for legal title and entered into a treaty called Tennekumbura Treaty in 1766.

8) What have you got say about ancientness of Sinhala language compared to Tamil language which is said to be of recent origin as stated by Professor Neelakanta Sastri?

9) What have you got to say for non-selection of Tamil language by Americans as an ancient language and the selection of Sinhala Language as one of the oldest languages? It is appropriate to mention here that Sinhala language was selected by them after critical examination as one of the few oldest languages in this world and was exhibited in moon.

10) What have you got to say about ‘Mahawamsa’ which is recognised by eminent historians all over the world as the only book that describes a continuous history of a country for a period of well over 2000 years? One has to bear in mind that Mahawamsa stories are corroborated by Stone Inscriptions not only in Sri Lanka but in South India too.

11) What have you got to say about the book on ‘South Indian History’ by Professor Neelakanta Sastri who describes the history of South India with no reference whatsoever to a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka?

Origin of Sinhala language goes back to Anglo Saxon age. Sinhala is an Indo Aryan Language unlike Tamil. History of Sinhala language is divided into several eras, such as present day Sinhala, Medieval Sinhala and Ancient Sinhala etc. From that it goes to Prakrit, Sanskrit and to Indo Aryan and finally to Anglo Saxon family. It was German Professor Wilheldem Gaiger who found similarities in Sinhala and German languages. Therefore Sinhalese have an inborn right to seek assistance from the UK and Germany to protect and save their brethren Sinhalese from the grip of Eelamist Tamils who have become a headache to them also.

Eelamists’ claim for an independent state or province is based on a never existed Eelam State. The so-called Eelam State does not have any historical or archaeological evidence in Sri Lanka or in India. It is the Tamil politicians who propagate this myth. Stone inscriptions found in the North and the East are clear evidence that it was the Singhalese kings who ruled the North and the East throughout history. Portuguese came to Sri Lanka in the 15^th Century. Before the Portuguese conquered Jaffna, it was the representatives of Kotte Kings who ruled Jaffna. Prince Sapumal in 1412 AD became the last Sinhalese ruler in Jaffna.

If there were Tamil kingdoms in North and East in Sri Lanka as claimed by Mr. Sampanthan, surely there should be evidence such as Tamil stone inscriptions to that effect. Not only that there should be archaeological evidence. One has to bear in mind that there is not a single piece of archaeological evidence regarding the so-called Tamil kingdoms in North and East. Whereas the very existence of Three Dagobas in Delft Island is a clear proof that there existed Singhalese kingdoms even beyond Jaffna from immemorial time.

The most unreasonable factor in this Eelam theory is that Tamils should have a separate homeland in Northern and Eastern provinces just because they are the present day majority. At the same time, under this theory they also have the sacred right to live in any part of Sri Lanka. But the Sinhalese have no such right to live in the North and the East. The end result is that the Sinhalese should live in South only and that too along with Tamils and Muslims. The other obnoxious factor in this theory is that Eelamists do not speak about a homeland for the Sinhalese who are the original inhabitants in this island. The fact that the Sinhalese have a well-established continued history for a period well over 2,500 years has been completely ignored by the founders of this so called Eelamist theory.

Primarily it was late S.J.V Chelvanayakam who propagated this myth among the Tamils while ignoring historical rights of the Singhalese to the North and East. He paid no attention to archaeological evidence manifestly available in those two provinces. His only consideration was the majority number of Tamils living in those two provinces. Moderates like Duraiappa, Mayor of Jaffna, were gunned down at the very beginning with the connivance of TULF leaders. Other leaders of Tamil Community such as Amirtalingamm, Sivasubraminum and Sampanthan followed Chelvanayakam while knowing well that their claim for an independent state in the North and East has no justifiable historical basis. They based their Eelamist theory mainly on the majority number of Tamils living in the North and East. Population was the only criteria that mattered. It is unfortunate that none of the Sinhala leaders has challenged these Tamil leaders for them to justify their claim. Instead of that, all leaders in successive governments have granted their demands one by one while ignoring rights of Sinhalese in those two provinces.

The following passage of an article written by Mr. Sivasidambaram, one time President of TULF, shows as to how they justified Tamil Eealm State in the Northern and Eastrtn Provinces. His position is that by becoming majority in an area, such area could be named as a homeland.

The article published in the Sunday Observer of 26^th September 1993 said: “It is also significant to note People in Jaffna, Vavunia, Mannar Batticoloa and Trincomalee voted for the candidates of Tamil Parties, i.e. the Tamil Congress, the Federal Party and TULF. In the face of all these a person with even the meanest intelligence will accept that North and East are the Traditional Homelands of the Tamils and Muslims.”

The irony is that during his lifetime Muslims were chased out from the North by Prbhakaran for which Mr. Sivasidambaram or Mr Sampanthan or any other leader in TULF had no comments.

Needless to say that the so-called Eelamist theory is a draconian theory. It ignores the rights of other communities. For instance under Eelamist theory, surely Muslims in Kashmir Province have the right to demand a separate homeland in that Province because they are the present day majority. Sometime later in this century, Tamils in the UK or Canada too will claim that they have a right to self-determination regarding areas they predominantly reside.

It is unfortunate that both the present as well as former Government machinery have failed to counter these bogus claims. Professor G.L. Peiris the former Foreign Minister, is directly responsible for the present situation. He failed miserably to counter this false propaganda work of Tamil Diaspora at that time. Instead of countering this false propaganda, he was having only pedagogue talks during his period.

As a result of removing the subject of History form school syllabus in the Seventies by former Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike on the advice of Badiudeen Mohamed, the Minister of Education at that time, today the younger generation of Sinhalese and Tamils are denied of learning the true history.

The myth of a never existed Eelam State propagated by the Tamil politicians who live in luxury in Colombo made the youth in North to join a war. Mr. Sampanthan, Mr. Amirthalingam and Mr. Senadirajah were in the forefront of their hated campaign in the seventies as reported in the Sansoni Commission Report. However one has to bear in mind that not even a single child of these leaders joined the war and died in battle. It is the ordinary Tamil youths who sacrificed their lives at the instigation of these politicians. Sinhala politicians as well as Tamil politicians almost forced the poor to have their education in Sinhala or Tamil languages while they sent their children to Sorbonne, Oxford and other universities abroad. Now the same politicians are again adopting the same method to drag the innocent youth from both sides to a new war, not for any other reason but for their own survival or existence. Readers are advised to examine the Sansoni Inquiry report for better understanding as it explains hypocrisy of several politicians who dragged the Tamil Youth to the last war.

Dragging the Sri Lankan Army to another phase of the separatist war was a decision taken by late Mr. Premadasa. The Jayewardene government handed over the war to the Indian Army and was able to keep the Sri Lanka Army out of war. This was a blessing in disguise. During the stay of the Indian Army in Sri Lanka, not a single soldier died. However when Mr. Premadasa came into power he was ill advised by his advisers and without considering the consequences, he issued a deadline to the Indian army to leave Sri Lanka. Not only that, he claimed that the conflict was an internal matter and India should leave the problem to the Sri Lankan government and LTTE to solve by themselves. If the policy of the Jayewardene government had continued, surely our Army would not have to face such a large number of casualties in the last phase of the war.

The role played by the JVP in sending the Indian Army back is also questionable. JVP leaders surely cannot escape blame for dragging our Army to this war and causing   30,000 security forces deaths unnecessarily.

In those days it was reported in papers that when bodies of Indian soldiers reached their homes, the India people went against LTTE. Their sympathy for the LTTE began to diminish.  If the Indian Army had continued the war, even the people in Tamil Nadu would have openly opposed the LTTE.

What we learn in our school days regarding the Portuguese and Dutch periods was that when the Kotte Kingdom became weak, the rulers in distant parts, became independent and Jaffna was no exception. In 1519, the Jaffna ruler who had close links with the Kotte Kingdom was deposed from power by his son in law, Sangili.  Thereafter the deposed ruler requested assistance from Kotte and a Portuguese army was sent. But Sangili was shrewd enough to have separate dealings with the Portuguese and managed to retain his power for a considerable number of years. However, when Sangili started harassing Catholics, Jaffna residents sent some representatives to Goa, Headquarters of the Portuguese Empire for redress. They requested the assistance of the Portuguese to bring down a Royal Prince from Kotte kingdom for them to live in peace. Their request did not materialise but the Portuguese some time later captured Sangili and sent him to Goa and he was later beheaded. The interesting factor is that those rulers in Jaffna had given their daughters in marriage to Kotte Princes which shows that there was no such animosity between the rulers in Jaffna and Kotte or Kandy.

Thereafter there were few rulers in Jaffna such as Puvirajapandaram, Kasinayanar, Sekarajasekaram and Pararasasekaram, etc like Prabhakarn who ruled a part of Sri Lanka in the recent past. This must be the so-called Jaffna kingdoms Mr. Sampanthan speaks about.

The Sinhalese were never treated as enemies of Tamils in those days. By the time the Portuguese came to Sri Lanka in the early 16^th century, the Tamils community had a greater power in the administration of the Kotte Kingdom. They were holding powerful front posts. Minister Alagakkonara is said to be a Tamil who had much influence on the Kotte King.

In this connection it is worthwhile to note that in 1617 the Portuguese entered into a Treaty with the Kotte King regarding Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee to have a legal title to those areas. In the same way the Dutch too entered into a treaty with the Kandyan King in 1766 and got the legal title to Jaffna and other areas.

Going back to the early part of history of this country, there is clear historical and archeological evidence that the Sinhalese had their kingdom in Anuradhapura before 2500 years. King Pandukabhaya established the Anuradhapura Kingdom in 437 BC. Sena and Guttika, two merchants, invaded Sri Lanka for the first time in 247 BC and this was recorded in Mahawamsa as the first ever invasion. Thereafter Elara invaded Sri Lanka in 205 BC by defeating Sinhalese King Asela and became the king. He was a Chola and he ruled the country for well over 40 years. In 161BC King Dutugamunu was able to defeat him and bring the whole country under his sway. Kalinga Marga too was another invader. Arya Chakrawarthy was the last to invade. A remarkable factor is that none of them were Tamils and people who remained in Sri Lanka after their defeats could not be regarded as Tamils under any circumstances. Apart form those invasions some Sinhala kings have got down armies from India to safeguard their interests from internal rebellions. King Mugalan got down the Pandyan army to fight his brother King Kasyapa who constructed Sigiriya, a world heritage site now.

The Anuradapura Kingdom was close to India and it was vulnerable to invasions. Thereafter Sinhalese kings were in search of more secured places. They shifted the kingdom to Polonnaruwa which is said to be the second kingdom in our history. From there, the kings shifted the kingdom to further south. Later day Sinhala kings established their kingdoms in Gampola, Yapahuwa, Panduwasnuwara, Raigama Kotte, Seetawaka and finally in Kandy.

These are well known facts. Anybody can read Mahawamsa which is recognised by the whole word as the oldest record in any country. Also anybody can check aforesaid treaties in Goa and Dutch museums if they are really interested in knowing the true history of this country rather than accepting the Tamil politicians’ words as the gospel truth.  Also it is worthwhile to mention here that distorting history and instigating youth has become a method of earning easy money for Tamil Diaspora. They are employing professors in Western countries to give a distorted history to Tamil expatriates and political leaders in those countries. For instance King Kasyapa who constructed Sigiriya has been labelled by Tamil Diaspora as a Tamil king. A hired professor has delivered a lecture and King Kasyapa was labelled as a Tamil king. His name was distorted and he was identified by a Tamil name “ Kassappaah’ When this professor put forward the said theory before a seminar in Britain, a member of Seruwila Chaityawardena Committee, Professor Wijayaratne, who is authority on archeology, had questioned him and exposed his distortion of history. It is interesting to note that this professor who was funded by Tamil Diaspora, thereafter, did not deliver such public speeches.

However if Mr. Sampanthan did not know the above historical events, really he should be ashamed of his ignorance of the history of this country. By propagating myths of a homeland and spoiling the minds of the Tamil youth, he and his party have dragged the Tamil youths to an unnecessary war during the last three decades. However, I believe that Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Wigneswaran, like myself, had school education with history as a subject. Therefore Mr. Sampanthan or Mr. Wigneswaran should desist from dragging the Tamil youths to a new war again by spoiling their minds. In the given circumstances I leave it to the readers whether these leaders could be regarded as genuine leaders or not.

When th eIndian Peace Keeping Army was in Sri Lanka, Brigadier Haturusinghe was the chief commander in the Trincomalee area. One day he came to my chambers for some matter and I found that he was having a half a dozen of books on Robert Knox, purchased from Lake House Book Shop. When I asked the reason for him to purchase those books, his reply was that Indian Generals were asking him as to why the Sinhalese do not leave Trincomalee where they have no right to live. Brigadier Haturusinghe has informed them that the Sinhalese were the original inhabitants of this area and promised them to bring independent evidence to establish their rights to the Northern and Eastern Provinces. That is the reason for him to purchase those books. Later I came to know that the Indian Generals learned the truth from those books.

The role played by NGOs too should be exposed as they too are responsible for adding fuel to the communal tensions. While their mother countries were actively engaged in selling arms to both side those NGOs intervened in Sri Lanka to settle the war in Sri Lanka. They secretly assisted Prabhakaran in numerous ways. For instance, Redbana, a Norwegian organization, has funded the Gandhi Movement to settle down upcountry Tamils in the Wanni District in violation of their own rules and regulations which allows funding only projects for children.  The danger posed by the Redbana-funded Gandhi Movement was brought to the notice of the Jayewardene Government by A.T. Fonseka, Superintendent of Police, by a special report. But it was ignored.

Not only that J.R. Jayewardene did away with Army patrolling in Valvettiturai beach to satisfy the late Mr Amirthalingam. This shortsighted decision made Prabhakaran and his clique to have easy access to India. This fact was revealed to me by the late Brigadier Donald Hewagama. Anybody can verify the truth of this statement from Army records.

Records in Army will further show that the Jayewardene government gave strict instructions to deploy two army members, one to have the rifle and the other to have ammunition in patrolling beach. This ridiculous procedure was of no use and made the Army to abandon the patrolling of the Valvettiturai beach allowing Kuttimani and others to smuggle arms and ammunitions from India. In addition to all these facts, the Jayewardene government made a historical error by accepting that the North and East were the traditional homelands of Tamils.

One of the reasons for the Western powers to ignore the rights of the Sinhalese to North and East is the Government’s failure to convince the Western powers of historical rights of the Sinhalese to these areas. The Norwegians too are not aware of the true history of Sri Lanka. So we have to blame ourselves and not others.

There are several reasons for the Western powers to divide this small country. One is the possibility of finding oil.  The other reason is the trade and military value of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.

Today many foreign NGOs are operating in Sri Lanka with hidden agendas and their main aim is to destabilise the government. The present provocative statements made by Tamil politicians may be the result of those NGO activities because these NGOs cannot survive without conflicts.

Norwegian Peoples Aid was such an organization that openly as well as secretly, assisted the separatist movement. Prabhakaran’s Satellite Antenna was a hot topic on those days. Another hot topic was sending bullet proof jackets to Kilinochchi but detected in Vavunia by the Army.

It is the duty of the Government machinery to convince the international community, the bogus nature of this homeland claim of Eelamists. Eelamists should be exposed under any cost. There should be counter propaganda in countries where Tamil Diaspora is formidable.

Deterioration of the Public Service is one of the reasons for the unrest involving minorities. Granting political rights to government employees by the S.W.R.D Bandaranaike Government in 1956 and the abolition of the superior civil service called CCS are the two main reasons for this chaotic situation. Those days politicians had no say in administration. They had only the right to complain regarding the conduct of an officer to the minister in charge of the subject. People sought relief form Government Officers and not from politicians. The rule that every complaint should be replied within seven days was strictly followed by those officers who too were supervised by eminent civil servants unlike today.

When grievances of public are not met, unrest arises. They start thinking that because they are from a different community, they are ignored by the government. Today no replies are sent to the people and therefore they are compelled to go behind politicians for redress. This becomes the harvesting field of politicians like Mr. Sampanthan. To counter this baseless propaganda of a homeland theory, time has come for the Government to arrange eminent scholars from both sides to have a TV debate on the subject.

I believe that this letter will be an eye opener to both the Sinhalese and Tamils who like to live in peace. It is the duty of the government to refuse demands for separate provinces for Tamils under the new constitution.  However if their demands are granted, to some extent even in the name of non-existing Tamil cause, surely it affects India too. For instance, the Kashmir Problem too is somewhat similar to the Eelam Problem. The Muslim community has now become the majority in that State during the last few decades. They are now at war for a separate state like Tamils in Sri Lanka who have become the majority during the British period as many of them were brought to Jaffna for tobacco cultivation. Please see the records available in British Museums. It is the Dutch who started in bringing workers from Kerala for Tobacco cultivation.

At the same time one has to bear in mind that there were few cholas who remained in the North after the defeat of King Elara, a Chola Invader who is recognised by Sinhalese even today as one of the most humane kings in our history. He was given a royal funeral and the public was prohibited from travelling by horse or by dola when passing the tomb of King Elara. Of the defeated Army of King Elara, a few remained in Sri lanka without going back to their motherland India. Sometimes the offsprings of them could be identified by their ancestral names. Also there is evidence that King Gajaba brought a large number of cholas as prisoners to Sri Lanka. Also there is a large number of Tamils, Malayalis and Pandiyans who got settled down in various parts of Sri Lanka and mixed up with either Sinhalese or Tamils. Therefore, the purity of the Tamils as well as the Sinhalese is only a myth and to fight for a separate country for Tamils is meaningless.

Also it is necessary for the Indian Government to realise that granting an autonomous state by dividing this country will be the first step to divide India too.

In the given circumstances, I believe that all Sri Lankans should unite and oppose TNA efforts to divide Sri Lanka which is now emerging as a nonviolent country. In the seventies Tamil politicians started a similar campaign in the same fashion as reported in the Sansoni Report. Their next step will be the sporadic killing of Police Officers. Third step will be to have ad hoc hartals here and there. This method happened in the seventies. Therefore we have to nip the bud by taking meaningful steps unlike President Jayewardene who tolerated all these activities in the initial stages. Nobody wants another Elam war. Lack of statesman like late D.S. Senanayake and Lakshman Kadiragamar is severely felt in these days.

D.S. Senanayake was instrumental in establishing settlement in the North and East. He had the vision to have one nation. For this purpose, he distributed lands in south to Tamils. Ratmalana is one of such areas where a Hindu vidyalaya was established. If his mission succeeded surely the next generation of these colonies would be a mixed one who would speak both Sinhala and Tamil languages and there would be no room for racist politicians.

At a time when all communities are living in harmony, I am at a dilemma as to why the Government is not taking legal action against all those who repeatedly make provocative statements based on an unfounded bogus history that was created to suit their false claims for a separate state called Eelam. In India laws are strict and if somebody speaks for separation he will be kept in custody for months. Therefore, it is the duty of this government to adopt such laws in the new constitution.

Mr. Wigneswaran has already failed in his administration. He has proved that he is unable to solve even the drinking water problem of Jaffna. If he was really interested in uplifting the living standards of the people in his areas surely he should have used his office to call financial assistance from members of Tamil Diaspora who live in luxury in foreign countries. At the same time he should have called them to give little assistance to the Sinhalese too. That is the coexistence we expect from Mr. Wigneswaran. The people cannot be cheated always by slogans. Poor attendance at the so-called recent memorial meetings shows that the Jaffna youth are not that foolish unlike the youth in the seventies.

Also it is the bounden duty of the Government to probe the activities of all foreign NGOs which may create unrest in Sri Lanka.

(The writer, an advocate, labour consultant and ex-judicial officer, is the former President of the Lanka Academic Association. He is also the Vice President- Seruwila Chaityawardena Samithiya. He can be contacted at lknperera@gmail.com)