Eelam Virus- A rejoinder......!!!

Eelam Virus- A rejoinder

By E.A.V. Naganathan

Comfortably ensconced in Toronto, Canada, Mr.Sebastian Rasalingam has stretched over the miles and the decades since Independence to deliver a harsh verdict, in his article, "The Eelam Virus" of the June 18, in the Daily Mirror ,on Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan, founders of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi or Federal Party with Mr. S. Vanniasingham, Dr. V.K. Paramanayagam, etc. He has epithetised them as "evil", which for a Christian such as he, is a strong indictment,

Let us look at the facts, including the term "Eelam", and the concept of the right of self-determination of nations, which is the paramount political ideology on which the U.S.A. and thereafter so many other nation states have been created, and continue to be so, as the history of the U.N. bears witness, where every now and then, like the stars which are discovered and then named and admitted to the zodiac, so many submerged nationalities are re-discovering themselves, assuming a new life ,being born, and taking their due place in the comity of nations , on a footing of equality and parity with the rest of the world

In 1948, it was Mr. Ponnambalam who awoke to the realization of the fact that the Soulbury Commissioners had betrayed the minority nationalities of this country by handing over the state entirely to the majority nationality with all the levers of power in the hands of its leaders. Dr. Naganathan took Mr. Ponnambalam’s move to join the government particularly keenly as it was predicated on the basis of support for the Government’s Citizenship bill and the Indian and Pakistani Registration bill, which dis-enfranchised 1 million Tamil-speaking voters. These bills were the first nails driven into the Tamil coffin by the permanent majority element in the country bent on establishing their permanent political supremacy.

Federalism has been perjorized into a dirty word in the dictionary of the politics of the majoritarians of this country, but in all the rest of the world it is accepted as the best modus vivendi for mediating in and resolving a conflict situation in a pluralist country such as ours, on a permanent basis with constitutional validity.

“Sinhala Only” [the second nail in the Tamil coffin] was obviously just and fair to the permanent majority. By the same token it was unjust and unfair to the permanent minorities .One is at a loss to divine the provenance of the cry quoted by Mr. Rasalingam, as attributed to the I.T.A.K. ie “Drive the invaders from the Tamil homelands”. There is a historical sense in which reference to “invaders” may be rationalized. In 1616 the kingdom of Jaffna was conquered by the Portuguese. No similar conquest took place in the case of the kingdom of Kotte as it was devised to the King of Portugal by the last king, Don Juan Dharmapala 1 in 1598.Conquered by the Dutch from the Portuguese, and by the British from the Dutch in 1803, Jaffna was handed over to the permanent majority on a platter by the Soulbury constitution, without reference to the people.

The proper procedure would have been to have had a Constitutional Assembly, as more recently in the case of Iran, to devise a constitution for the whole country, without hole in the corner discussions with the respective political leaders in Colombo, and then referred the document to the people at a referendum. But, Soulbury knew where the British interest in the comprador, tea and rubber, export – import economy lay.

Unfortunately, Bandaranaike defected, created the S.L.F.P. in alliance with the Left and upset the apple –cart in 1956. He gave a place to the permanent majority, but sadly, by the same token, denied it to the permanent minorities.

“Eelam” is the correct Tamil name for the island “Ilankai” is a corruption of the Sanskrit “Lanka” and has the same meaning of “an island”, “bright”, “beautiful”. Eelam has a further profound anthropologico- semantic dimension. It shares the same stem as “hela” amd harks back to the pre-Aryan and pre- Dradivian settlements, when the country was inhabited by its indigenous peoples, the Nagas, Yakkhas, Asuras and Rakshasas.

They are the common ancestors of the present permanent majority and permanent minority. Gauthama, the Buddha visited three Naga rulers in K.K.S., Kelaniya and Mahiyangana. “Eela” is to the Tamil of today what “Hela” is to the Sinhala.

It is an exaggeration to say that the Tamils in Colombo had a dominant position in commerce, banking, professions and every walk of life”. Education at the hands of the Christian and Hindhu missionaries was all that the Tamils of the North and East could claim the benefit of under the British. The full thrust of British economic development and the massive capital investments made by them in the plantation, banking, insurance, storage, transport , mining and import- export sectors were in the South, West and Centre, the full benefit of which accrued to the permanent majority. The Tamils had no alternative but to leave their homelands and come south, and engage in professions or take up jobs in the public or private sectors, which were run exclusively from Colombo, under the Unitary system of government, installed by the Colebrooke Commission in 1832.Theirs was a “remittance economy” To this day under the Unitary system , so beloved of the majoritarians, the same British companies under their new majoritarian ownerships have a stranglehold of and dominate the country’s economy.

It is as well that the Tamil leaders had the good sense not to support the socialists, because they quickly jettisoned Parity of status after making peace with Sirima and forming the U.F. It was Dr. Colvin R. de Silva who made “Sinhala Only” constitutionally valid in the 1972 Constitution. Under a Federal constitution the Tamils of the North and East would waste no time in making tracks back to their homelands, if that is troubling Mr. Rasalingam. I am surprised that with his Canadian experience, Mr. Rasalimgam should repeat ad nauseam, about barriers to inter-state movement in a Federal state.

I am unaware of any Cholian connection where Dr. Naganathan was concerned. It was Mrs. Retnapoopathy Naganathan”s family, the Wirt Senathi Rajas of Alaveddy, who have a tradition of Cholian descent. Dr. Naganathan was the head of the Hensman family of Sangilithoppu, Nallur, and , as such descended from the Revd. John Hensman, first Tamil clergyman of the Anglican church, and anteriorly from the Revd. Mathew Philips, patriarch of the Tampoe Philips family, who was a catechist of the Dutch Reformed church. His ancestral home, the Arasakesari Valavu in Sangilitoppu has connections with Arasakesari Pandaram, Regent of Jaffna in 1612, better known as the author of the Tamil classic, the “Raghuvamsa”. But that would connect him to the Kalingan nobility.

The I.T.A.K. always stood for civil disobedience , in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. When Martin Luther King led his march on Capitol Hill, Washington, he was not set upon by the White American majority, who believed in White supremacy; nor did the police descend on him with batons. But when the I.T.A.K. leaders and close upon a hundred Tamil gentlemen of good standing sat in quiet dignified silence on Galle Face green to protest the Language laws, they were beaten up while the police looked on. What price, Mr. Rasalingam, the strategy of non-violent resistance!

Let me make two predictions. The present situation forebodes ill for any dissent with the establishment, and particularly for the working class, as T.U. action is ruled out. But there is a good deal of want and distress among the masses which must find ventilation of its grievances in political action. The J.V.P. have forgotten the lessons they learned at the hands of the forces in 1971 and 1989. The nationalities or ethnic question if you will, in this country, will never be settled if the rule of the right of self-determination is not applied to all those who qualify.

DAILYMIRROR.LK