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Myth: Northern and Eastern Provinces are the Traditional Tamil Homeland
Reality: There is no Tamil Homeland in any part of this island.
Northern and Eastern Provinces were
administrative divisions initially created by the British. The criteria for
demarcating these provinces were
1. Easy access from the coast.
2. Administrative convenience
3. Cartographic convenience (Southwestern border of Eastern Province)
2. Administrative convenience
3. Cartographic convenience (Southwestern border of Eastern Province)
Thus we have several long and
parallel-to-the-sea provinces. Subsequently, the borders of these provinces
were changed several times by the post-Independence Sri Lankan governments for
various administrative reasons. There is no record by anyone anywhere to claim
that the British were demarcating a Tamil Homeland when drawing the boundaries
of Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Thus it is extremely insensible and
unthoughtful for the Tamil ethnonationlists, this include even known Tamil
academics (e.g. S.J. Tambiah, A.J. Wilson and S. Arasartnam) and lesser known
academics (e.g. C. Manogaran) and self-appointed "academics" (e.g.
Satchi Ponnambalam), not to mention all the Tamil politicians and of course LTTE
to accept the administrative boundaries as that of Tamil homeland. The Tamils
ethnonationalists must be eternally grateful to the British colonial masters
for their visionary favour!
For a geographical area to be a defined as a
homeland of a particular group of people certain prerequisites must be met.
1. A distinct civilization must have emerged
from that region.
2. The existence of a politically autonomous entity over a significant length of time.
3. A long continued habitation by the same people
4. The concept of a homeland must have historically evolved in the minds of the people.
5 The cultural landscape must reflect the culture of the people All these should have objectively acceptable credible evidence.
2. The existence of a politically autonomous entity over a significant length of time.
3. A long continued habitation by the same people
4. The concept of a homeland must have historically evolved in the minds of the people.
5 The cultural landscape must reflect the culture of the people All these should have objectively acceptable credible evidence.
The areas of Northern and Eastern Provinces do
not satisfy any of these prerequisites and Jaffna peninsula which is
predominantly inhabited by the Tamils are most numerous satisfies only the last
of the above conditions. (Tamilnadu of course satisfy all these conditions).
Thus it is not only factually incorrect but also a disgrace for the Tamils to
consider a piece of earth that does not satisfy the above requirements as Tamil
homeland. On this basis anyplace with a sizable Tamil population can become a
Tamil homeland!
Myth: Sinhala Buddhist civilization did not extend to Northern and Eastern Provinces where a Tamil civilization existed.
Reality: No distinctive Tamil civilization existed in any part of the island but the Sinhala Buddhist civilization spread all over the island.
First of all, the present distribution of
Tamils (the maximum spatial spread of Tamils in the history in the island) in
the Northern and Eastern Provinces is limited to a few definite areas. This
includes Jaffna Peninsula and the adjacent lands in the mainland, Batticaloa
and the vicinity and a few littoral areas in Trincomallee. Thus to say that the
entire Northern and Eastern Provinces came under a Tamil civilization is
nothing but a blatant lie.
Second, the toponymy (place names) in the Tamil
areas indicate that most of the current place names are Tamil translations of
the original Sinhalese names. Third, there are over 600 ancient Buddhist
shrines big and small distributed all over the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Archaeology Department has identified them on the ground and mapped them.
However the civiliztion-cleansing and cultural-cleansing programs which TULF
started and perfected by the LTTE have almost totally destroyed the evidences
of most of these ancient shrines.
Fourth, in spite of these sacrilegious
activities of the Tamil extremists, a large number of scared Buddhist places of
worship (e.g. Nagadipa, Seruwila, Dighawapi) remain in these two provinces.
Fifth, many a evidences of Sinhalese-Buddhist hydraulic civilization is abound
in these two provinces. There are numerous stone inscriptions of
Sinhalese-Buddhist kings are found in these two provinces. Sixth, the official
records and communications of Portuguese, Dutch and English amply prove that
these two provinces remained under the suzerainty of the Sinhalese Kings.
It is only in the 12th century that permanent
Tamil settlements emerged in Jaffna and thereafter Hindu Tamil culture has
spread outward. But it did not create a distinctive and a unique Tamil-Hindu
civilization distinctly different from that of Tamil Nadu as the Sinhalese did.
Tamil People
Myth: All Tamils supports Eelam
Reality: All Tamils do not support Eelam
Yes, all LTTE supporters and sympathizers here
and abroad support Eelam. Some of the Tamil people who have been treated
brutally by the LTTE and other Tamil terrorist organizations that have
supposedly entered into democratic politics oppose Eelam. Some of the former
terrorist organizations now with representatives in the Parliament and support
the government openly opposing Eelam.
Another group of Tamils specially the middle
class and wealthy also oppose Eelam as their livelihood is totally dependent on
the country at large and among the Sinhalese and not on an exclusively Tamil
Eelam. Further they fear that if Eelam is ever realized that they would be the
first to loose as it might compel them to leave their present jobs and status
and settle inside Eelam. More than anything else they fear to live under LTTE
which is authoritarian, undemocratic, brutal, unpredictable and intolerant of
traditions of Hindu culture and society. The number of Tamils killed by the
LTTE (a rough estimate is around 4000) is far greater than those who died as a
result of the war. Those Tamils whose children were forcibly conscripted or
abducted by the LTTE to fight for Eelam. A large number of Tamils in the East
also opposes Eelam.
Unfortunately, those Tamils who have left for
greener pastures, including academics, who live comfortable lives in Western
Capitals extend unreserved support to Eelam and thus LTTE. Obviously, they may
be trying to pay in dollars for the guilt of enjoying western standard of
living while their brethrens are suffering under brutality of LTTE. A large
number of Tamils have refugees as a result of LTTE attacks and strategy.
One of the sorry ironies in this saga is the
support extended by Tamil political parties to Eelam and LTTE. What this means
in real terms is nothing but endorsing and legitimizing terrorism,
assassinations, destruction, and all the miseries directed against not only the
Sinhalese but also the Tamils themselves. The Tamil political parties in Sri
Lanka thus become unique in the world as representatives who assures not the
welfare of their people but their destruction.
Myth: All Tamil speaking
people supports Eelam
Reality: Tamil speaking
Muslims oppose Eelam
The concept of a "Tamil speaking
people" was devised as a strategy by the early Tamil political parties
e.g. Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (Lanka Tamil State Party erroneously
translated as Federal Party) to co-opt Muslims into Tamil political strategy of
separation. However, Muslims realizing the covert intention of the Tamil
political parties and subsequently the Tamil terrorist movements, disassociated
with this concept and rejected Eelam altogether. Muslims have openly declared
that they do not want to become a minority within a minority. The fate of the
Muslims at the hands of the LTTE has galvanized the Muslims to openly oppose
Eelam and LTTE. The Muslims fearing the extremist Tamil claim of homeland, have
resorted to demand the southern Eastern Proavince as a Muslim region pausing a
direct challenge to Tamil homeland.
Myth: Tamils are one of the
two majority communities in Sri Lanka.
Reality: Tamils are a minority
in Sri Lanka.
Tamils in Sri Lanka considered them to be one
of the two majority communities (other being the Sinhalese) under British
dominance. The British themselves nurtured this position for their own reasons
during the colonial rule. Thus the Tamils elites were reluctant to accept that
they were a minority in Sri Lanka. They then cultivated this mentality among
the ordinary Tamils as well. They tried all tricks in the bag to artificially
remain a majority. First by opposing universal adult franchise and second by
demanding 50% of the seats in the Parliament for the minorities they tried to
cling on to the artificial majority status they enjoyed under British. The
British at the time, however, rejected this by arguing that any artificial
measure to reduce a majority to a minority and eleveate a minority to majority
is bound to fail. The pathological inability of the Tamils to accept the fact
that they are a minority was expressed by the dictum proposed by S.J. Tambiah
-a Tamil academic living in the West, as a "minority with a parity
claim".
Tamils are and will be a minority under the
democratic system in Sri Lanka. This is not the fault or a conspiracy of the
Sinhalese. It is the plain fact. In fact current fate of the ordinary Tamils in
this country at large and in Jaffna and the East in particular is a result of
the continuing inability of their extremist political leaders to accept the
fact and the reality that they are a minority. When the parity cannot be
achieved through democracy, the Tamil leaders have resorted to violence and
terrorism. What a leadership!
