[TamilNet, Friday, 18 October 2013, 05:59 GMT]200 years of imperialist outlook, knowing very well that there are
two historically evolved nations in the island but engineering
unification for imperialistic purposes, has always gone against the
nation of Eezham Tamils and contributed only to its genocide in every
respect, including in its territory and demography, writes an academic
in Jaffna. The academic was commenting on New Delhi’s External Affairs
Minister visiting Jaffna harping on making Sri Lanka ‘tri-lingual and
united’. The academic compared it to early English Governor Sir Robert
Brownrigg’s policy outlook in 1813, recognizing parity between Sinhala
and Tamil languages, but that policy foundation not leading to parity in
territory and power.
On 10 July 1813, the third English Governor in Colombo, Sir Robert
Brownrigg, who was vested with the task of the conquest of Kandy (1815)
and colonial unification of the island, wrote to the then Colonial
Secretary in London on the importance of recognising Sinhala and Tamil
with parity, since a territory from Puththa’lam to Batticaloa northwards
was Tamil-speaking.
Brownrigg, referring to certain Ceylon Civil
Service regulations drawn by his predecessor Maitland, “as to the
qualification required in the knowledge of the native languages,” wrote
the following:
“The Portuguese and Sinhalese only being mentioned
excludes one which is fully as necessary in the Northern Districts as
the Sinhalese in the South. I mean the Tamil language commonly called
the Malabar language, which with the mixture of Portuguese in use
through all the provinces, is the proper native tongue of the
inhabitants from Puttalam to Batticaloa northward inclusive of both
these districts. Your Lordship will, therefore, I hope, have no
objection to my putting the Tamil on an equal footing of encouragement
with the Sinhalese.”
A Special Investigator of the Tribune, who
was delving into the Ceylon Government Archives in Nuwara Eliya in 1956,
traced the copy of the despatch from Brownrigg to the British Colonial
Secretary Right Hon. Earl of Bathurst.
A feature on the despatch
appeared in the then prestigious Colombo journal, Tribune, on 12 January
1956, to cite at the policy foundation under which the British
imperialist administrative unification of the territories of the
distinct linguistic nations in the island was made, and to denounce the
‘Sinhala Only’ law that was in the making at that time.
But the world knows what happened thereafter.
Even
the language parity the British imperialism conceived to sustain a
unitary State in the island was so easily abrogated once the British
left, proving that in the historical context of the nations in the
island, language parity in law or constitution alone is meaningless
without internationally guaranteed parity in territory and power.
* * *
One
also has to carefully note a significant reference Brownrigg was making
200 years ago on the territory of Tamils in the island.
In his
despatch, he draws a horizontal line from Puththa’lam (Northwestern
Province) to Batticaloa (Eastern Province), including those districts
(There was no Ampaa’rai district at that time. It was just Batticaloa),
and says that north of it was Tamil-speaking (the parts of North Central
Province falling within that line was also largely Tamil-speaking at
that time).
The language parity policy initiated by the British
for the unification of the territories of the two linguistic nations for
the creation of a unitary State could not save the territory of Eezham
Tamils either in the British times or thereafter.
British
imperialism also effected demographic changes in the conquered territory
of the Sinhala nation in Kandy, by bringing in plantation labour force
from Tamil Nadu. But, for various reasons this didn’t affect the
territorial claim and power of the Sinhala nation, compared to the
plight of Eezham Tamils who were always at the receiving end in
territory and power, in the ‘experiment’ of keeping the island as one by
all the imperialists of the last 200 years.
* * *
The
colonial trading empires of the Portuguese and the Dutch maintained the
separate territories in the island. It was the classical colonialism of
the British that wanted to administratively unite the island into a
unitary State and the Colebrooke–Cameron Commission of 1833 drafted the
blueprint.
Despite proven failure of the State, adamantly
continuing and after culminating the imperialist experiment of 200 years
into genocide of Eezham Tamils in 2009, the imperialists of today have
come out with another ‘Commission’ in the name of Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
The LLRC recommendations
stemming from the neo-imperialist policy outlook of today that doesn’t
shun genocide, speak with bold atrocity that no district belong to any
ethnicity in the island, which in a State with a dominant nation
practically means that Tamils will have no territory at all. Against
that backdrop, the recommendations speaking of making the island
‘Trilingual’ also means that the use of Tamil in practice will be
nominal as in Malaysia or Singapore.
The LLRC recommendations
have been given with international validity as basis for solution, by
the imperialists in Washington and New Delhi.
Like New Delhi
imperialism ingeniously engineering Eezham Tamil masses with a will in
the island to inevitably vote for certain elements that would help it to
interpret the will to the contrary, Washington imperialism has managed
to find elements in the diaspora to speak on the ‘virtues’ of LLRC-based
resolution.
New Delhi Establishment’s External Affairs Minister
Salman Khurshid talking of ‘trilingual unity’ without any reference to
the territorial integrity of the nation of Eezham Tamils and the without
any measures to counter the everyday land-grab and Sinhala colonisation
of the territory of Eezham Tamils, has to be understood in the
background of the 200 years ‘experiment’ of imperialism in the island
that always wronged the Tamil nation.
Earlier, New Delhi sent the Thirukku’ra’l expert former President Abdul Kalam to inaugurate the ‘Trilingual’ hoodwink.
* * *
Because
the Eezham Tamils did not challenge the Colebrooke-Cameron unification,
or because it was too late when they started challenging it, thanks to
pro-imperialist and Colombo-minded leaders among them like Ramanathan,
the Sinhala nation today thinks that the unity of the island is its
fundamental right. If the LLRC–13A–Trilingual design of today’s
imperialism is not challenged, within few years the imperialism would
tell that the ‘ground reality’ is that Tamils don’t have a nation of
territory in the island.
Peoples in India inherit a heritage that
has waged the most unique anti-imperialist struggle of humanity. They
have a heritage of grasping all the nuances with which imperialism
operates. They have to understand why Eezham Tamils are put in a
position of opposing an imperialism that has put itself in the shoes of
the British imperialism in continuing or even worsening the injustice to
their nation.
Peoples in India, including our brethren in Tamil
Nadu, have to be extremely cautious about the orchestration of their
so-called ‘national’ media and intelligence-operated ‘research’
foundations cum academics that eulogise an imperialist ‘experiment’ that
furthers the genocide of a small nation in their backyard.
As an
immediate power in the region and as a country of one sixth of
humanity, India’s Establishment in New Delhi is primarily responsible
for not only allowing an African scenario of genocide to take place for
the first time in South Asia, but also for shielding it and furthering
it.
![Salman Khurshid [middle] in Jaffna](http://www.tamilnet.com/pic.html?path=/img/publish/2013/10/Salman_Khurshid_Jaffna_06.jpg&width=1200&height=929&caption=Salman%20Khurshid%20[middle]%20in%20Jaffna)
