Tamils: Thy Kingdom Come?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
17 December, 2007
Countercurrents.orgDr. Kohona, Palitha, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary is not a fool. He is a Thomia n (not a mean academic feat!) and he has gained his doctorate from Cambridge, UK. That means, what he has got in his gray material ‘up there’ should suggest that he is a learnè d person with some finesse.
We must verify however, Kohona’s public utterance ¾ his ‘educated view’ on the history of Tamils. Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary thinks, loudly I would have thought that, the Tamils have never had a Tamil Kingdom in the island of Illam, prior to the creation of colonised Ceylon. Such thinking no doubt, must influence his political landscape; his historical conviction; and his world view. The euphemism that is played out here is very rudimentary. What Kohona is actually saying here is that, the Tamils are aliens and it is the Sinhalas - ONLY the Sinhalas who have the sole right to the soil. In other words, they are THE sons of the soil - Pumi Putras. Surely, it will impact the way in which the Sri Lankan foreign secretary would present the Sinhala - Tamil conflict on the world stage, as well as, how he would re-present the citizens of Sri Lanka, including the Tamils.
History, as we know, is always written by victors. Some how the Tamils have read historical texts to believe that they did, after all, in the distant past had a Tamil kingdom - Yarlpana Iratciam. Space does not allow to discuss about the various archaeological findings of that kingdom. But we must focus here on the main thrust of his contention.
SUSPECTKohona’s premise is highly suspect. He arrives at denying the existence of the Tamil kingdom (by implication even the existence of Tamils as indigenous people) by speculating the inaccuracy of the “Cleghorn Minutes.”
Before I go any further, I have to say, it reveals what value the Foreign Secretary has placed on the ancient culture and the civilisation of the Dravidians. Does Kohona think that the Tamils have rested their whole history on the weight of a British civil servant’s record of the Minutes, a few lines, one might add.
Hugh Cleghorn, Ceylon’s first Colonial Secretary wrote in the Minutes:
The different nations from a very ancient period have divided between themselves the possession of the island. [Ceylon Almanac and Annual register 1855.]
Kohona thinks that this record was a misapprehension. Let it be. But that does not alter one iota of the history and the geography of the Illam Tamil polity.
BasicsAny prep-school student of an earlier generation will be able to give an accurate and objective account of Ceylon history without the influence of racist bias of State propaganda. Unfortunately - after Swabasha: the Sinhala ONLY politics have thrust upon text books subtle historical subversions. Sadly, Tamils were portrayed as traditional adversaries of the Sinhalas. Tamils were seen as Kalla thoni - boat people, aliens from India who don’t belong to the Sinhala land.
When the Portuguese occupation of Ceylon began in 1505 they noted that there was a distinct Tamil Kingdom in the North.. They did not deny the existence of TWO distinct Sinhala kingdoms. The Dutch ousted the Portuguese in 1656 and ruled until 1795. The Portuguese of course, over ran the Tamil Kingdom including the Southern Sinhala Kotte kingdom. When the Imperial British power arrived on the shores of Ceylon in 1795 they acquired distinct territories; separated by language, religion, heritage, culture and history. The hill country Kandyan Sinhala kingdom is yet to fall into the hands of the colonial powers. The Kandyan Sinhala rebellion [terrorism?] against hegemonic powers were heroic. In 1815, the Kandyan Kingdom fell, after much resistance, into the hands of the British.
The colonial history of Ceylon, quite apart from other historical sources, reveals that the existence of a Tamil Kingdom was not a manufactured myth, as implied by the Foreign secretary, Dr Kohona. It is therefore beside the point, whether the “Cleghorn Minutes” was accurate or not. Cleghorn however, as a scholar himself, had no axes to grind as Colonial Secretary, to fabricate the existence of a Kingdom that is after all, at this juncture, under their thumb. The Tamils at this point were not asking for separation.
The unification of Ceylon was only a colonial administrative device.
ConclusionLet me make, in conclusion, just three points:
Firstly, what I have written above is plain historical facts. Some e-mail comments I receive on a regular basis seem to suggest, and even threaten, that I must NOT enter into such discussions. On the contrary, they advice, I must pray, leave it to God and sit tight with sealed lips. I humbly suggest that we are talking of different gods. No god supports human oppression, preventable ethnocide and lack of liberty and human freedom. At least mine doesn’t. It is therefore, my utmost responsibility to pray and do what I can in a modest way, with my pen and my voice, to support my suffering brethren. When such senior ministers of the state have the audacity to question the existence of Tamils as an indigenous nation - that is the hallmark of debased, racist, dirty politics. It is such politics of the gutter that governs the Tamil people. No self-respecting Tamil can distance themselves from this violent quagmire until a durable solution is found.
What Velupillai Prabaharan essentially did was to transform the whole psychology of the Tamils. From being victims of Sinhala oppression, he changed the mind-set of victim hood to not accepting such appalling dehumanisation. That under girded the rationale of résistance.
Secondly, our Sinhala friends still gain much political mileage out of portraying Tamils as arrivals from Tamil Nadu. They have indeed conveniently forgotten their history. Historians are of the mind that there is no clear historical evidence prior to 247 BC of Sinhala presence on the island. In contrast, archaeological excavation of burial mounds in the regions provide evidence of Tamil presence which pre-dates the Sinhalas at least by three centuries. The 1982 Annaikottai excavation revealed that the ancient people practiced Siva worship.
On the other hand, a short research paper entitled: Explorations of the Concept of Tamil Buddhism runs against stereo-typical views. [Uppsala University]
I quote:
There are two important observations to be made. Tamil Buddhism was never a dominant religion in Tamilakam, nor was it equally spread over Tamilakam [India]. Tamil Buddhism was concentrated to ‘pockets’ or ‘centres’ that all were trading centres. These were in the Cera-region Vanci, in the Cola region Kanci and Kaverippumpattinam, in the yalppaanam [North Sri Lanka] region Kantarodai and Vallipuram, and in the present Eastern region Tirukkonamali. [P.37]
In p.33 the paper notes:
A frame of Tamil Buddhism that considers formal parameters like language, space and time only could be formulated thus: Tamil Buddhism is transmitted by a ‘Tamil Sagha’ 14th century.
I bring these above findings to the surface with some reluctance. But these points puncture the pompous prejudice and the sole ownership of Buddhism claimed by the Sinhala. I for one, don’t care who landed in Ceylon first, and least bothered from where we landed - especially after so many centuries. What both, the Sinhalas and the Tamils need to concentrate is this. The reality is we find our selves together on this beautiful island. Now how best can we live side by side peacefully? How can we together dismantle oppression and hegemony?
To be or not to be. That is the bone of contention, really.
Finally, Palitha is best equipped, one would think, to cut through the Sinhala racist agendas than getting sucked up into corrupt politics. One thing is for sure, even as foreign secretary, he is not above citizen journalism. Certainly not above polite and constructive criticism. In the final analysis, as foreign secretary, is Dr Kohona part of the problem or part of the solution?
That is the question.
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