Page 1
(U23 ili J.
CS
voL 1, No. 9
JUNE 1
CAMPAIGN AGAINST
EXTRADITION OF
TAMIL YOUTH
The ça TipaigIl against the extradition of SOThe Lankan Tail youth arrested in Tamil Nadu, alleged to be members of the Liberation Tigers, has received widespread support, both in India and Sri Lanka.
Despite the strenuous efforts Iliade by the Lankan governIIc who sent the top brass of the police, including its IGP,
Mr. Rudra Rajasinga Tm, to Madras it is learnt that there is no immediate prospect of the arrested youth being extradited, The Tamil Nadu IGP, Mr K. Mohandas, is reported to hawe said: "We are only interested in the law and order aspect and are not concerned with cxtradition or the reward Inoncy', The reference to 'reward money" is the offer of the Lankan government of Rs. 2 million to the Tamil Nadu police for effecting the a Trest of the leaders of the rival factions of the Libera (i011 Tigers, Unna Maheswaran and Prabhakarall,
No sooner the arrests of these came to be known, the Sri Lankan government contacted the Indian authorities, both at central and provincial level, with a view to extraditing them. However they understinated the gathering opposition to the extradition Ilove. In South India and Sri Lanka, several organisations protested against the handing over of these youth to the Lankan authorities On the ground that they fell into the category of political prisoners, and also because of the certainity of their being tortu
red by the Lankan police,
Orne lawyer representing the youth said, "If they are extradited, they would be mercilessly tortured and then killed. There will be nothing left of the 1.''
Il dia ha 5 I10 Teaty with Sri
extradition Lanka and
TAMIL, NADU IPA
Twenty political parties of Tamil Nadu, including the ruling AIADMK, in a letter to Princ Minister, Indira Gandhi hawe Lurged the government to reject the Lanka Il government's plea for extradition of the seven arrested Tamil youth and to grant political asylum to them and other Tamils "who have sought refuge in India to escape the wrath of Sri Lankan police and ar IIly".
The following is the full text of the letter dated 1.6.82 sent to Mrs. Gandhi signed by the twenty parties:
** Hon. Madam Pri IInc. Minis
tet,
We the undersigned leaders of all political parties in Tamil Nadu appeal to WOL to interwene in a mater of great urgency, concer. In and shock to the people of Tamil Nadu.
India has been maintaining friendly relationship with Sri Lanka for a long time. We wish that the relationship between the two countries should be further developed and strengthened.
But Tamilians living in Sri Lanka are under constant attack due to racial discrimination and from time to time subjected to violence and
 

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there is no reason why the Indian government should enthusiastically support the Sri Lankan govern Ilent's request for extradition of the arrested Tamil youth, thereby risking Lundu e Lunpopularity in Tamil Nadu, An al-Party Conferemce of political parties in Tamil Nadu has unanimously passed a resolution urging the Central government not to accede to the request for extradition, There hawe been public ITleetings, demonstra
40PENCE
tions, poster campaigns, and petitions to Mrs Indira Gandhi, all on behalf of the arrested sewen TaThil youths, who hawe become known as "The Madras Scven'.
Tamil Times also understands that, within Lanka itself, a mass of evidence is being gathered to show to the Indian authorities the extent of torture and inhuman treatient () which Talli youth already in custody have been subjected.
ARTIES OPPOSE EXTRADITION
oppression. You are quite aware that this matter is causing great concern to the people of Tamil Nadu.
Tamilians in Sri Lanka had to struggle hard to establish their civil rights. Sri Lanka a TIThy continue their hum against Tamil youths. Due to persecution and harassment the Tamil youths had to cross Over to India to escape from army and police atrocities.
Following some un fortunate incidents in Madras police had to arrest a few of the Il.
Taking advantage of this situation, an attempt is being made by Sri Lanka police to extradite thern to Sri Lanka.
Il the circunstances the
political parties in Tamil Nadu
EXTRADITION
beg to submit our appeal to WOLI, as follows:
1. Under no circumstances should these youths be extradited to Sri Lanka. If at all they have committed any offence in this land they can be charged in this country under the law of this land,
2. We request the GovernIllent of India to grant political asylum to all Sri Lankan Tamils who have Solight refuge in India to escape the wrath of Sri Lankan police and army. We Once again appeal to you to interwene in this matter 01 humanitarian considerations early and save the innocent youths for the Iture and harassment of the Sri Lanka aIIIly and the police."
OPPOSED
WITHIN SRI LANKA
Several groups, including political parties, trade uniors sard Civil rights organisations have expressed opposition fo the extradition of the Tarra lil Jyouth arrested irti South
India.
In a lengthy statement expre
ssing opposition to extradition. T.N. Perera, a Polit Bureau Ilenber of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, states:
"With the reported arrest of a number of Sri Lankans by
the Tamilnadu Police, the question of human and political rights of persons said to be in the movement for the creation of a separate state of EELAM has taken a new tu III.
Contd.. oni page 13

Page 2
2 TAMIL TIMES
SINHALA BALA MANDALAYAL
“A SINHALA-B
“This Country Sri Lanka) which has a population of 75 per cent Sinhalese has still failed to bring about a Sinhala-Buddhist Raj. To establish Sinhala-Buddhist State is our
immediate objective', said Mr. Sri Perera, QC, President of the Young Men's Buddhist (YMBA) Association, at a recent meeting held under the auspices of the re-actived
Sinhala Bala Mandalaya (SBM).
The SBM is led by wellknown Buddhist personalities: and powerful Buddhist priests. It has launched a country-wide campaign under the slogan, “SAVE BUDDHISM AND THE SINHALA RACE.'
The exhibitionist religiosity and the extreme racist оvertones that characterised the SBM's motorcade to the city of Anuradhapura, carrying aloft the Sinhala Warrior King Dutugemunu, who had trounced and killed the Tamil King, Elara, in the days of yore, and the large meetings it conducted in various parts of the
inevitably created an atmosphere of tension, fear and insecurity among the Tamil speaking people of the country.
Although the Tamils have been subjected to frequent racial violence, the scale and intensity of the present cam-, paign by the SBM is such that the Tamils fear that a racial bloodbath is inevitable and imminent. The Tamils would seem to be resigned to suffer another bout of racial violence, this time incited and instigated by those who don yellow robes and are expected to preach the message of peace, harmony,
country arousing the base emotions of the Sinhala- Their message of violence and Buddhist population, have intolerance receives wide pub
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JUNE 1982.
AUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SETUP
UDDHST RAJ’
licity in the media which has the effect of rousing racial hatred against the Tamil people.
The purveyors of this racial intolerance and religious bigotry do not seem to recognise the reality that Sri Lanka's population is multi-racial and multi-religious. The country is
By R. GANESHAN
not inhabited by SinhalaBuddhists only. Over 30 per cent of the population are non-Sinhala-Buddhists. There are Sinhala speaking Christians, Sinhala speaking Muslims, Tamil speaking Hindus, iTamil speaking Muslims, Tamil speaking Christians and English speaking Christian Burghers inhabiting the country. But the racist rabble and the religious fanatics go about the country campaigning for the setting-up of a monolithic theocratic state in which all
others, except the SinhalaBuddhists, will be subject people.
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The substantial majority of Buddhist priests in the country go about attending to their daily religious duties as prescribed for them in the scriptures. Unfortunately some of them, who are will-heeled and
well-known in the country for
their power, position and influence, and not for any contribution to the development of Buddhist thought or practice, have entered the political arena time and time again, under the pretext of protecting Buddhism and saving Sinhala, with disastrous consequences.
CYNICALABUSE Both the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have been guilty of the cynical use of the extremist sections of the Buddhist clergy for their political advantage, for the
yellow robe still has magical properties for the purpose of vote-grabbing.
The SLFP of the late Mr.
(Contd. on page 3)
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Page 3
JUNE 1982.
Contd from page 2
S.W. R.D. Bandaranaike made use of the Buddhist clergy in
1956 in its campaign of “Sinhala Only'. The UNP used the same clergy in its cam
THE) 钮。 You are Prime Minister not of
countrymen. 2. You must hold the scales even
Christians and Muslims. 3. Religion and Language should
paign against the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact in 1958. Both these campaigns resulted in racial pogroms against the Tamil speaking people. The evil of the
4. You should do everything to
hitherto prevailed.
political use, or rather the ... AND
abuse of the Buddhist clergy, m concretely manifested itself “A Sinhala Bala Vegaya has be when, to the horror of the en- country. The Sinhalese people do tire nation, two of the highly government comes to power. Ther
must join hands to work out a co Sinhala race - ” Asgiriya Maha Naya the SBM at Kandy.
: HOW IS THAT FOR A MESSAGE : OFPEA CE d{& LOVE
“We have now with us a militant force consisting of 18,000 : Buddhist monks. There is no one to come forward to battle by : : enlising this formidable warrior force. There is not a single Sinhalese . .
leader who is prepared to say 'I will go to battle and come back in : : triumph'. The battle can take place any time. When it happens this : bikkhu regiment will step in. As far as we are concerned living or : dying in battle is the same. Even if we die there are no wives or : children to shed tears for us. Whether I die in Kandy today or die in
Kotte tomorrow it is all the same. There are thousands of bikkhus : : who are prepared to join the battle to save this country, I am : : appealing to newspapers like the “Davasa”, “Rivi Rasa” to support : ; us in this struggle.” - Ven. Sobitha Nayake Thero.
placed Buddhist priests who took part in these campaigns . were charged with the brutal
murder of the then Prime wearing yellow robes and a Minister, Mr Bandaranaike. shaven head.
T:# and other while the Noble Lord BuS ote imprisonment. ddha propounded the eight
One would have assumed that fold middle path and enjoined this tragic experience would his followers to preach the
have mad
e the lay politicans message of peace, some
ཞུ། ་་་་གསable lessons. Buddhist priests bring total
o . disrepute to Buddhism and the It S a sad reflection of the yellow robes they wear by times that the much respected preaching the message of a yellow robe has become a convenient garb for smugglers and criminals who jump bail. It was not long ago that a Buddhist monk (always halfshaven and a well-known globe-trotter according to MIGARA of Weekend news paper) was nabbed by the Sri Lanka customs when he attempted to smuggle in goods
等暴邸亭等等革拳萃肇毫举举杀杀举等等够萃亭革粤琴亭等亭翠率歌等等,
'And the Doct
“The pursuit of the doctrir anyone. Hate may or may nc whom it is directed, but it person who hates. The Bud over real or imaginary wrc injuring themselves first. T oppressive atmosphere whic spiritual growth. A pers sensitiveness can feel this op Lanka today.
If Buddhism is love and con can touch it, let alone destr merely an empty shell devoid earlier it disappears the bel
- of all things one would least expect him to smuggle sarees - which he did. Only the other day, mother alleged criminal wanted in the UK for jumping bail and facing a charge of smuggling narcotics stealthily slipped into the country under the guise of a Buddhist monk
.**竇紫費竇會***究會*脅寶會費會會會*會會宵會會竇穹費驗會*

TAMIL TIMES 3
SSSMMSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSSSSLS SSSSAASSMSSAS SSSSSSMSSSMSSSMSSSMSSSMSSSS LSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLS
V ... ily of the Buddhists, but of all
ly among Buddhists, Hindus,
be treated equally. correct the situation that had
Maha Nayake of the Asgiriya: Chapter to the Prime Minister, Hon. J. R. Jayawardene, August 1977.
NOW
come vitally necessary in this not get any benefit whichever efore all Sinhala Organizations mmon programme to save the ke Thero, at a recent meeting of
street thug. One priest, by the name of Ven. Sobitha Nayake Thero, is reported to have said at a recent meeting of the Sinhala Bala Mandalya, “We have now with us a militant force consisting of 18,000 Buddhist monks. There is no one to come forward to battle by enlisting this formidable
warrior force... The battle can
take place any time. When it happens, this bikkhu regiment will step in. As far as we are concerned, living or dying in battle is the same. Even if we die, there are no wives Or. children to shed tears for us. Whether I die in Kandy today or die in Kotte tomorrow, it is all the same. There are thousands of bikkhus who are prepared to join the battle'. How is that for a message of peace?
箏學學系學拳拳拳等率學學學為等學駱學學率學等等等學等敏等學等學
rine of Hate'
le of hate is not good for t injure the person against does definitely injure the ihists who get worked up ong doings of others are hey are also creating an n is not conducive to any on with even a little pressive atmosphere in Sri
npassion, who in this world oy it? But if Buddhism is of the essence of love, the Etter it is for the world.”
- Dr. E. W. Adikaram
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.htm wwwwwwwwww.
E people in news
Manik Sandrasagara, who jumped bail from UK, where he is facing a charge of smuggling narcoties stealthily slipped into Sri Lanka under the guise of a Buddhist monkwith shaven head and wearing yellow robes. It is reported that Britain will formally apply for his extradition from Sri Lanka. ኣ
UMA MAHESWRAN SENTENCEDTO 15 YEARS
Uma Maheswaran, believed to be one of the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Sri Lanka was sentenced to a term of 15 years rigorous imprisonment along with Sellapah Nagarasa for the attempted murder of the late C. Canagaratnam, the former MP for Pottuvil and District Minister for Battica|loa by shooting him on 27.1.78. A third accused, N. Vamadevan was acquitted. The trial took place in the absence of Uma Maheswaran. The High Court Judge, Tudor Alwis, who conducted the trial stated that the motive for the attempted murder was that the late Canagaratnam, although elected to parliament under the TULF ticket, later joined the United National Party and became a District
Minister.

Page 4
LLLLSSSLLLSLLLLLSLLLLLSLLLLLSLLLLLL
POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
HOUNDING OF MRS. B.
While the infighting within the SLFP(S) continues with
unabated bitterness, particularly on the question Anura Ban daranaike's return to the fold and his restoration in the party, and the business tycoon, Upali Wijeyawardena, and his
newspapers, the 'Island' and the "Divaina', doing everything possible to re-establish Anura at the top, the ruling United National Party is determined to continue hounding Mrs. Srima Bandaranaike and if possible to destroy her politically.
Despite the arbitrary and undemocratic manner in which the UNP government deprived her civic of her rights and thus eliminating her chances of contesting at the next elections, Mrs. B. has been able to gather widespread support for the SLFP among the Sinhala people. In addition, the main beneficiary of the religio-racist campaign conducted by the Sinhala Bala Mandalaya to 'Save Buddhism and the Sinhala Race' has
been the SLFP.
R.P. Wijesiri, MP, now belonging to the Maitripala faction of the SLFP, has become the hatchet-man for the government in its campaign of mudraking and mudslinging against its political opponents, especially Mrs Bandaranaike. Recently he made allegations in parliament that six bags, presumably containing money, had been delivered, again presumably by a foreign power, at the Rosmead Place residence of Mrs B sometime last year. Mr. Wijesiri did not furnish any supporting evidence for his allegation. However, the government, with the entire opposition voting against, rushed a resolution through parliament appointing a Select Committee to probe into the allegations.
The undue speed with which the government moved and the manner in which it reacted to the allegations in appointing a Select Committee demoinstrates clearly that the whole, scenario was premeditated. If the government thought that
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JUNE 1982
BYSHANTHI
the allegations were so serious and wanted really to unravel the truth behind the allegations, why wasn't the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police called upon to
investigate? Why a Select Committee of MPs? The whole thing smacks of abuse of power - a charge upon which Mrs. B was herself stripped of her civic rights
TAMIL PARTIES TO BOYCOTT ELECTIONS
The TULF Members of Parliament have hernme nrisoners to their parliamentary life and, as a result, the Tamil Cause' has suffered, is a view that has gained currency among the radical sections of the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka. This rather critical view has become more and more strident with the apparnently never-ending 'amity talks that the leadership of the TULF are currently engaged in with the UNP government.
Recently seven political groups and student associations met to discuss the
proposal that all Tamil political parties should boycott the next parliamentary elections due to be held in 1983, and in the meantime to commence a campaign to urge the TULF MPs to boycott parliament. Leading this campaign is the Tamil Eelam Liberation Front
(TELF) led by Dr. S.A. Tharmalingam. These groups critical of the TULF's failure to adopt a more militant line with a view to fulfilling the mandate given to it the last elections in 1977 to set up a separate state of Eelam.
However, the Tamil Suyadchi Kazhakam led by the former MP for Kayts, Mr. V. Navaratnam, which also participated at the meeting of the Seven groups, did not seem to be attracted to the view of boycott as it believed that, “it was meaningless to boycott the elections and parliament since it was the only forum available for the Tamil people
to make their voice heard.'
Some anti-TULF groups also have expressed the fear that, if all other Tamil groups boycotted the elections, the TULF would walk away with all the parliamentary seats.
VIIMALARASA RELEASED
A few hours before he was due to sit his final examination, A. Wimalarasa, an undergraduate of the Jaffna University, was arrested in April 1981. Since then he had been kept in detention at the Panagoda Military base without trial. He was not charged with any offence. Nor was he produced before any court. He was held in detention for over 400 days.
Now he has been released
together with several other Tamil youths who also had been similarly detained.
The release of Vimalarasa and others was forced out of
the government by a campaign
of demonstrations and hungerstrikes organised by the students of the University of Jaffna and assisted by their colleagues in the other campuses. Vimalarasa's mothel
joined in the hunger-strike.
The strong-arm tactics of the police and the army in their attempt to frighten the university students to abandon their struggle proved futile. They carried on with their campaign and demonstrations in defiance of the police ban. The people of Jaffna gave the students their whole hearted
Support.
The campaign for the release of Vimalarasa and his eventual release marks a new phase in the development of the relationship of forces in the country, particularly in the Northern Province. The emer. ging student movement in the North is a new factor that the established political parties have to reckon with. The students have demonstrated that there is another method of conducting a struggle besides crawling before the
(Contd on page 15)

Page 5
JUNE 1982
"O.O.O." SINHALESEAF
years, the development of а,
full-throated Sinhalese TAMILS HAVE N
tionalism, marked by Sinhalese political, economic and || Solution to the problems of Sri
social self-assertion, has pro- Lanka's largest minority co
duced its antithesis in the form of Tamil nationalism. Both were inevitable developments, after centuries of foreign domination. The difference is that while the Sinhalese are now free, the Tamils feel they are not, 77hey have a new master-the Sinhalese/ Notwithstanding the impressive list of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, that “all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law', that “no citizen shall be discriminated against on grounds of race, religion, language, ..... '' and so on, it is a fact that large segments of the Tamil community do feel that they are being treated as "second class citizens', a subject people in effect.
PHYSICAL SECURITY What is worse, they find that there is now no guarantee of physical security even in the heartland of the traditional Tamil territory, let alone in other parts of the island.
I believe that a lasting
TAMIL I
mmunity could only be found, first, by the recognition by the Sinhalese of the legitimacy of Tamil nationalism and, secondly, by the provision of avenues for its full expression. Unfortunately settlement in
By Ganini Na
the past had failed mainly owing to Sinhalese intransi
gence.
CYRIL MATHEW
SYNDROME It is this intransigence, reflected in the intensification of Sinhalese nationalism, that has made Tamil nationalism take more extreme forms, in ; ) terms of both objects (secession) and methods (violence).
Can this vicious circle of Sinhalese nationalism (or communalism?) feeding Tamil t nationalism (or communa
s
lism?) and vice versa, be ever broken without entailing ge
nocide or sundering Sri Lanka? || ||
Some Sinhalese leaders appear to believe that force is "the only solution.' This is
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TAMIL TIMES5
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what has been described by some critics as the “Cyril Mathew syndrome.’ It was tried out in Jaffna in June 1981 and elsewhere in the island in August that same year.
But, as the late MP for Kopay, Mr. S. Kathiravelpi
Varatne
7------سسسسس---س--س---سسسسسسسس--
ation between the two nations an defeat the very security, and therefore the existence and identity of the Sinhalese nation, particularly as foreign ntervention in such a conFrontation will become ineviable.' We have seen how iberation movements in full cry elsewhere in the world have attracted various foreign OOWerS.
If force has to be ruled out in his day and age, the only emaining peaceful option is a apid and real devolution of state power.
This was what was proposed when the establishment of listrict development councils was discussed originally. But Sinhalese nationalism stood in he way, just as it did when vMr. S. W.R.D. Bandaranaike proposed the establishment of egional councils and Mr Judley Senanayake planned o set up district councils. In this regard, it must not be orgotten that in the vanguard if the Sinhalese opposition to he Bandaranaike - Chelvanaakam pact was no less than Mr. J.R. Jayewardene. The Sinhalese fear continues o be that any degree of egional autonomy would ventually lead to a situation then the Tamils of North Sri anka would link up with outh India to pose a threat to nem, as in the ancient past. This fear may be a lurid xaggeration of the possibilies of the modern day but it is nere. It is, in fact, the biggest umbling block to Sinhaleseamil accord.
resh evidence of this is
provided by the emergence of a new organisation to “defend the rights' of the major community, the Sinhala Bala Mandalaya, which staged a show of strength in Anuradhapura last week.
This ominous development has come about even as President Jayewardene's Government, after protracted negotiations with the Tamil
United Liberation Front, plaဖြုံး to delegate more powers
to the DDCs, which now are no more than appendages of a
central administration directed from Colombo, and the TULF is prepared to accept it as a 'half-way arrangement to sepa
ration.
Equally ominous, in the North a new and radical movement is emerging in consequence of the growing disillusionment of many Tamils, especially of the younger generation, with the present ! leadership which is regarded by them as being "too moderate". The recent student demonstration in Jaffna is eloquent evidence of the new manifestation.
I believe it is in the self-interest of the Sinhalese themselves, even at this late
stage, to agree to a more equitable sharing of state power, which is at the crux of the Sri Lanka communal problem.
To quote Mr. Kathiravelupillai again, “.....The last
hundred years of British rule saw the unconscious creation of a myth by the English educated Sinhalese and Tamils who entered the political arena that there was one country, one nation and one people, though multiracial, but struggling for freedom from British rule. The British left this country in 1948 but the shackles and the myth remain. Full freedom, independence and the mutually unrestricted exercise of sovereignty for both the Sinhalese and the Tamils now depends on the restoration and reconstitution of the Sinhalese and Tamil now depends on the restoration and reconstitution of the
(Contd. on page 12)

Page 6
6 TAMIL TIMES
"The sovereignties of the inhabitants of the island namely people of Kandy, Kotte and Jaffna revived to the respective people', observes Balasubramaniam (Tamil: Times, March 1982) himself reviving Tiruchelvam's argument before the bench at the Trial-at-Bar. This was perhaps a good defence strategy at the trial in question. However, it is a very dangerous and selfdefeating line to take in defending the rights of the Tamils against oppression by the Colombo government. It is a pity that many who speak for the Tamils of Sri Lanka do so in the manner of pleading before a Royal Commission or a Colonial Secretary in Whitehall. The British are gone and are not likely to return in order to redeem the Tamils. In any case, Balasubramaniam's statement contains a number of historial inaccuracies and a series of specious arguments.
The conception of sovereignty that Tiruchelvam and his latter day followers use is, to say the least, controversial. The Kingdoms of the period to
which reference is made did
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not operate on the basis C anything remotely resemblin 'sovereignty of the people' Far from this. being the cas the Kingdom were almo, personal properties of th royal families in question, an were run in alliance with th economic, social and religiou elite of the country. Indee
the lower classes were oppr ssed so totally and ruthless that contemporary oppre sions may seem rather benig To speak then of the sovere gnty of the Tamil peep "reverting' to the people : general is nonsense. In fa such sovereignty was conf rred on them, if at all, by th imposition of universal adu franchise and the emergenc of representative institution Balasubramaniam quotes th Cleghorn Minutes as stating i 1855 that the Kingdom c Jaffna Patnam and its court
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JUNE 1982
TAMILS AND VEREIGNTY
exercised jurisdiction "in the g northern and eastern parts of '... the Island from the limits of , Puttalam and Mannar to the it river Koomane or Koombue. kkan'. This may well have d' been true in the ninteenth e century and even earlier, but s! the historial fact is that the d eastern parts of the island
m rtha Gnani
e
were under the suzerainty of ly the King of Kandy more S- frequently than not. In any 1. case, it was disputed territory i- and settled by force of arms. le That is to say, whoever won in the last war, could claim it as ct part of his own Kingdom. In e- fact there is no evidence of the le || King of Jaffna even having lt sent his troops and ministers ce to govern the territories S. outside the peninsula. Far ... from this being true, even the in territory outside the Jaffna f peninsula inhabited by Tamil S speaking people was administered independently by chieftans called Vanniyars in many cases. It is a moot point whether all of them acknowledged the suzerainty of the King of Jaffna. Some of them often came to terms with the King of Kotte.
To base the claims for the restoration of the rights of the Tamil people on such a tenuous interpretation of events that happened four hundred years or so ago, is to ignore the changes that have occurred since then. Many leaders and commentators on national and international questions have been known to ignore certain aspects of the relevant history, but to ignore
the developments, tour court, of such a large segment of time, is, I am sure, rather original. Nevertheless, during these four hundred years enormous changes have occurred. Even if one ignores the emergence of an entirely new
economic order both nationally and internationally and thej
attendant changes in the production and social relaions and the expectations that people in Jaffna have from life, one cannot ignore the redistribution of the Tamil population that has occurred. When so many people left their 'sovereign territory' and settled elsewhere, did they take their 'sovereignty' with
them? Or on the other hand, did they abdicate it? If they did the latter, can they reclaim it? If they do not want to reclaim it, and if the successor states to the Kingdom of Kotte and Kandy refuse to accept them, what will be their status?
Furthermore, does it mean, as it undoubtedly should, following the logic of the argument, that the descendants of people who migrated to Sri Lanka after the British consolidation in 1815 are not entitled to the same rights as
the descendants of people who where there before? The defe
nce of the rights of the Tamils that is based on the dubious notion of 'sovereignty of the people' derived from the sixteenth century will inevitably lead to the betrayal of the hill country Tamils, of Colombo Tamils and other Tamils distributed throughout the island. The successive Colombo governments since 1952 have tried to harass and humiliate the hill-country Tamils, but even if if it did finally give citizenship to a certain portion of them. The sovereignty argument would undermine their status more completely than any Sinhala chauvinist could.
WHAT ABOUT THE
MUSLIMS? And where would the
argument of a historical "sovereignty of the Tamil people', place the Tamill-speaking Muslims? One of the useful concepts to emerge into the political discourse of the island since the Sinhala only act of 1956 was the notion of the 'Tamil-speaking people'. It was broad in its sweep, including as it does Muslims,
hill-country Tamils, Colombo's merchant Tamils and
others who migrated since the
(Contd. on page 7)

Page 7
JUNE 1982
(Contd. from page 6)
dissolution of the Jaffna Kingdom and yet know on other land than Sri Lanka. In addition, it created an altogether new structure of interests that was innocent of the taint
of racism and religious bigotry:
all who were adversely affected by the Sinhala Only Act. Such a position, however lukewarm the support of some sections within it, was nevertheless a politically sound and morally strong one for the leadership of the Tamil struggle to take. Such a position also made it clear that the struggle was not to restore the privileges that the Jaffna Tamils were losing rapidly in a changing society, but was a quest for justice and equality as a general principle: Every human being is entitled to be treated equally by his/her government and its minions. This is the basis of the modern state and is enshrined in the declarations of the UN in many of its instruments. However, the argument based on sovereignty will establish a whole new basis for such a consideration: those who can prove their ancestral connections to the "Kingdom of Jaffna patam'. I wonder what is in store for those who do not meet the requirements?
LEGITIMACY BY CONQUEST Balasubramaniam observes “In other words Ceylon is an Island with two states viz, Tamil Eelam and Sri Lanka. The Tamils of Ceylon are therefore entitled to decide to remain as a separate state (having been conquered only by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British and their sovereignty having revíved).” Thís ís a very strange statement. It seems to mean that conquest is a legitimate and, even, in to day's world, an acceptable way to acquire sovereignty over a people. Hence the only thing the Colombo government has to do in order to gain legitimacy for their policy of oppression is to conquer Jaffna. In so far as the argument has been made that the presence of the army in
Artha Gnani concludes that the rights of a people are based F on present and continuous membership in a community of citizens, acknowledged and effected by law. 'If and when such a membership does not guarantee an equality in law and treatment, one must seek to change the law by whatever means at hand'.
If one is entitled to use whatever means at hand, how then can the development of an argument, that the Sovereignty of the lands in the North and East of Sri Lanka which are predominantly populated by Tamils lies with the people living there, be considered unacceptable?
If one must seek to change the law by whatever means, it is then axiomatic that those who attempt to change it must not be discouraged. But it would appear that A.G. is attempting to do just that. Having made the accusation that "many who speak for the Tamils of Sri Lanka do so in the manner of pleading before a Royal Commission or the Colonial Secretary in Whitehall', A.G. goes ahead to do just the same.
If legal arguments are ineffe
AREJOINDER C
Jaffna means precisely that, sovereignty too must have reverted to the Colombo government
The entire argument propounded by this school of thought is without merit either in political and historical terms or in terms of common sense. Everyone should know that legal briefs are presented to a tribunal that is able to adjudicate and enforce its decisions with the help of the executive. To whom, I wonder, are the lawyers appealing in this case? It is this habit of approaching the problems of the Tamils which has to the present impasse. Far from it being a simple legalis
mic and political problem in
which the history of the last
led "
tic problem, the situation confronting the Tamils is a serious socio-econo

TAMIL TIMES 7
ON SOVEREIGNTY By R.T. Paran
ctive and "the British are gone and are not likely to return in Drder to redeem the Tamils', why then does A.G. spend all the effort and energy to disprove the argument about sovereignty lying with the Sri Lankan Tarmils.
Either the phrase of A.G., 'change the law by whatever means', does not include verbal discussions, debates, arguments and negotiations or he does not mean what he says at all.
In the last sentence he states “there is no other alternaiye’. To what is there no alternative? Is there a suggestion that there is no alternative to a negotiated settlement with the Sinhalese? If so he has not tleveloped any argument to prove this point. It is stated as if it is a very well known and accepted universal truth. Furthermore it would appear that he had already decided on the conclusion and then strung together all the words in front iust to arrive back at the same conclusion. Is the purpose of the whole venture to disenchant and demoralise the Sri Lankan Tamils? To argue that it is not wise or advantageous to seek to establish a sovereign
independent state, is one thing, but for a son of the same community to say that the community has no right to seek a state is an entirely different ball game'.
The sovereignty argument is inly one string among many on the bow. It may be that when the bow is tensioned this string might break. But it ! certainly does not need someone on the pulling side of the , bow to sever it beforehand.
Cold, legalistic and intellectual debating points may be appropriate in an academic atmosphere, but they have to be reassessed for their emotional impact before dissemination to the general public especially when the topic is one of great relevance to a whole community and more or less deals with the life or death of that community. The public at large does not receive these debating points in the detached atmosphere of an academic lecture theatre. The interested parties are emotionally tensed and charged. If A. Gs intention is not to deflate the morale of his people, let him keep his thesis for academic seminars, in calmer times.
few hundred years since the .
Portuguese, Dutch or British conquest too plays an important part. It is time to abandon these exercises and get on with the reality in hand. SPECTRE OF 'ZIONISM' Facing the reality of the electoral, economic and military power of the government in Colombo, one must restore the rights of all the people, not merely those who lost heir sovereignty in the sixeenth century. To speak therwise is to invoke the spectre of "Zionism': the nalienable historial right of a people to a territory. Indeed it s possible to argue that the truggle in Sri-Lanka is between two forms of the “Zionistic” argument: Sinhalese/Buddhist 'Zionism' und Tamil “Zionism''. And inless both sides abandon hese arguments, and establish
a modern multi-religious, , multi-linguistic nation state (with adequate safeguards, including regionalization of the administration), in which citizenship, with its implication of unqualified equality, is the basis of membership, there will be nothing but continued 'violence and disruption in the island. Indeed one can state a sociological law here: to
invoke one 'Zionism' is to invite the parallel invocation of a counter 'Zionism'; to invoke Sinhala chauvinism is to invite the parallel invocation of Tamil chauvinism and once begun, the chain is almost impossible to break. However, as the initiators of chauvinistic politics, indeed as : the first of the "separatists', the Sinhalese have no other alternative but to work towairds the establishment of a (Contd. on page 10)

Page 8
8 TAMIL TIMES
SRI LANKA
SIN
SEEING THE PICTURE UPSIDE-DOWN
Well-meaning friends of this paper living in the South, have
been trying to persuade us to give the SATURDAY REVIEW a more orientation. Since anything well meant has not only to be accepted with good grace but also examined in all honesty, let us test this advice against al. logical frame.
The beginning of wisdom as someone said is to call things by their right names. What does 'national” mean? 'National' means pertaining to a nation, and a nation means a body of people marked off by common descent, language, culture, or historical tradition. In Sri Lanka today, we certainly have one country and one State. But do we have only one nation? To talk of one Sri Lankan nation at this stage of our history is nothing less than a piece of duplicity, whether conscious or unconscious. It would be like opening the stable door to allow the horse to bolt and then closing it again so that everyone can pretend that the quadruped is safe inside. The horse in fact fled long ago. In 1956.
1956 marked the beginning of Sinhala nationalism, and Sinhala nationalism has come to stay. There is nothing wrong about it; not only that, it was historically inevitable. What was wrong about it, was the anti-Tamil animosity that preceded it and then came in its wake. Anti-Tamil mob violence began on the very day the Sinhala Only Act was passed, when a small group of Tamil M.P.s led by the late venerated leader S.J.V. Chelvanayakam sat in silent protest at the Galle Face Green and was stoned and attacked by a mob. That day alsc marked the genesis of Police indiscipline with the Police being told by the powers that were, not to interfere with the proceedings. In short, mob violence against Tamils and Police approval of it were both given the seal of official
'national'
sanction
ABSORPTION? The very bedrock of Sinhala nationalism was forded on Aryan descent, the Sinhala language, Sinhala culture, Buddhism and the historical tradition of Sinhala possession of this country, each one of which effectively excluded the Tamils from the mainstream of Sri Lankan life. This naturally left the Sinhala leaders in a state of dilemma. What could they possibly do with the Tamils? Push them into the sea? Naturally they had to be absorbed into the Sinhala mainstream. But how? Peacefully, if like Marlowe's Shepherdess who boasted “Nobody can rape me, no Sir, because I am most willing', the Tamils had said: “We are most willing to be absorbed'. But over the past twenty six years they had made it loud and clear that they are NOT willing to be absorbed. So there the Sinhala rulers' peaceful option ends. The other option is violent absorption; and it is this process that we have been seeing over the past several years. But unfortunately for the Sinhala people, their politicians and mass media have inverted the picture. They are seeing the same picture, but seeing it upside down. All what they see is Tamil obduracy, Tamil communalism and Tamil Tigers!
There is a third option open to the rulers: accept Tamil nationalism. It was as inevitable as Sinhala nationalism, and equally valid, and it has come to Stay.
As we said earlier, the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. If anything Sinhala is national and anything Tamil is communal, then we are only clinging to a Myth. The SATURDAY REVIEW can speak up for two nations. The entire mass media in the South speak up for only one. That is ou difference.

JUNE 1982
NHALA NATION
Saturday Review, a weekly English journal published in Sri Lanka, in its issue of May 15, 1982, editorially commented on the subject of SINHALA NATIONALISM' and urged the recognition of the developing phenomenon of TAMIL NATIONALISM. The well-known Sri Lankan journalist and Jt. Secretary of the Movement for Inter Racial Justice and Equality, Reggie Siriwardena, entered into an argument with the Editor of Saturday Review putting forward the view that what masqueraded today under the guise of 'Sinhala Nationalism' was the ideology of semi-fascist groups which he characterised as unqualified 'Sinhala Racism . Ketheeswaran Loganathan entered the arena with his contribution that the pre-requisite for a comprehension of the National Question in Sri Lanka was the total and absolute recognition of Tamil Nationalism' as a historical reality, and noted the degeneration of 'Sinhala Nationalism, once a progressive force in the context of anti-colonial struggles, into national chauvinism.
Tamil Times is pleased to reproduce this exchange of views with the kind courtesy of Saturday Review.
SS RACISM, NOT NATIONALISM
In your editorial of May 15, written in answer to those friends of your paper in the South who have urged you to give it a more "national orientation, you write:
1956 marked the beginning of Sinhala nationalism and Sinhala nationalism has come to stay. There is nothing wrong about it; not only that, it was historically inevitable. What was wrong about it was the anti-Tamil animosity that preceded it and then came in its wake.”
Leaving aside the historical inaccuracy contained in the first sentence (for 1956 marked not the “beginning of Sinhala nationalism' but the capture of state power by social forces espousing this ideology), I wish to show that your position here is both inconsistent and unsound.
You concede not only the historical inevitability but also the legitimacy of what you call 'Sinhala nationalism' (some of us have a different name for it, but more of that later). Your objection, then, is not to 'Sinhala nationalism' but to the "anti-Tamil animosity' that accompanied it. Yet in the following paragraph you write:
The very bedrock of Sinhala nationalism was founded on Aryan descent, the Sinhala language, Sinhala culture, Buddhism and the historial tradition of Sinhala possession of this country, each one of which effectively excluded the Tamils from the mainstream
of Sri Lankan life. (My emphasis).
BEDROCK OF SINHALA NATIONALISM
Let me clarify what precisely is the meaning of the elements you identify as constituting "the bedrock of Sinhala nationalism'. "Aryan descent' - that is, the myth of the "Aryan race' and of Sinhala descent from it (a myth that, not fortuitous, has its origins in the doctrines of those 19thcentury German racist theorists who prepared the way for Nazism). The Sinhala language and Sinhala culture' - that is, this language and culture used as part of an ideological construction which defines them in distinction from and opposition to Tamil and South Indian cultures. "Buddhism' - that is, not the teachings of Gautama the Buddha but a politicised creed which makes religion the

Page 9
JUNE 1982
ALISM O
vehicle of racial domination as
well as an institutionalised
structure which is manipulated by the State. “The historical tradition of Sinhala possession of this country' - that is, the assertion of the right of the Sinhala people to possession of the whole of Sri Lankan
territory, buttressed by the
Mahavansa myth of the consignment of the island by the Buddha to the protection of its guardian deity, and by the claim (with whatever shuffling of historical evidence) that the entire island was a
Sinhala kingdom at the begin
nings of its history.
RACIST IDEOLOGY
In short, the elements you correctly identify as "the bedrock of Sinhala nationalism' can be seen, when fully spelt out, as nothing other than the elements of a racist ideology (and that is why 'Sinhala racism' would be a more accurate term than your euphemism of 'Sinhala nationalism'). There seems to be some vague comprehension of this fact on your part when you say that each of these elements "effectively excluded the Tamils from the mainstream of Sri Lankan life'. How then can you accept the legitimacy of 'Sinhala nationalism”, complaining only against its “anti-Tamil animosity', when, by your own demonstration, the very 'bedrock' of this "nationalism' involves the exclusion of the Tamils from the mainstream of Sri Lankan life? You cannot have one without the other. This is the fatal intelectual and political contradiction in which you have placed yourself.
It is painful to those of us in the South who, with limited means and strength at our disposal, spend a good part of our time trying to combat Sinhala racism and to demolish the myths and fantasies on which its ideology is based, to see you conceding its rightness and even its permanence. For you hold not only that "there is nothing wrong about it' but
tal divergence in our respective
alism' complaining only against its anti-Tamil animosity .... You could not have
RAC
that "it has come to stay”. You are, in other words, endorsing the legitimacy and viability of those very forces who are oppressing (and, whenever possible, slaughtering) you, who are using the myths and slogans of racism to project the idea of a "unified Sinhala nation' (which necessarily involves identifying the Tamil as the enemy against whom that unity must be forged), and who are striving by this means to submerge the other contradictions of our society and to arrest the struggle against exploitation and oppression in
“SATURDAY
EDITOR'S CC
We recognise the fundamen
positions. Mr. Siriwardene virtually asserts that Sinhala nationalism is a non-fact. He sees only Sinhala racism. As for us, we see both:
We are prepared to concede to Mr. Siriwardene one point straightaway (although this is not going to please him either). When we said “1956 marked the beginnings of Sinhala nationalism' we WERE guilty of a historical inaccuracy. We should have said more correctly: '1956 marked the beginnings of the political entrenchment of Sinhala nationalism”, because the beginnings of Sinhala nationalism could be traced to the early years of the century. Sinhala resurgence spearheaded by Anagarika Dharmapala left a perceptible and healthy influence on Sinhala thinking, culture and literature. When Mr. Siriwardene argues: “how can you accept the legitimacy of 'Sinhala Nation
one without the other', our answer is this: the fundamental elements of this early phase of Sinhala nationalism were the raising of the self-respect of the Sinhalese, and rejection of western and alien influence. No Tamil could possibly have found any objection to this.

TAMIL TIMES 9
SM ?
all its forms. You may believe that in taking this suicidal position you are speaking for the Tamil people. What gives you the right to speak for us and to issue certificates of legitimacy to that racism against which the best elements of the Sinhala people are fighting? What makes you think that, even if you get that separate nationhood you claim, we want to live in a racist society?
Reggie Siriwardene
50/2B, Siripa Road, Colombo 5.
REVIEW’’ )MMENT
FAITACCOMPLI
When Ceylon won its independence in 1948, State Power
had already passed into the exclusive hands of the Sinhalese, but it was not until 1956 that the arrogation of this power took place as a matter of right. The choice of building up a homogeneous Ceylonese nationhood after independence was entirely in the hands of the Sinhalese people. If instead they had chosen to build it on an exclusive Sinhalese Buddhist foundation, as it happened, it was certainly an unfortunate development but that is something which neither Mr. Siriwardene nor we could have helped. All what can be done is to look at it as a fait accompli.
In seeking to reject Sinhala nationalism outright, Mr. Siriwardene, we are afraid, is only trying to throw away the baby along with the dirty bath water. We do not think the Sinhala cultural upsurge that occurred in the late fifties could have been an authentic by-product of Sinhala racism. Lester James Pieris, maiden achievement in the Sinhala cinema "Rekawa' (1956) and Saratchandra’s ““Maname” (1956) both of which remain as watersheds, and the emergence of a sensitive and celebrated critic of the Sinhala arts like Mr. Siriwardene
A DISCUSSION
himself, could not have been all mere coincidences that could be de-linked from the
Sinhala nationalism of that time.
A nationalism built on race, language or religion is certainly distasteful, looked at from the classic marxist ideology. But socialism itself, like nationalism, can have two faces like Janus. If Mr. Siriwardene cannot bring himself round to accept the fact of Sinhala nationalism we can not possibly expect him to accept the fact of Tamil nationalism either. The longer the Tamils take to accept the fact of Sinhala nationalism the more vulnerable they become to the theory of assimilation; a theory which Trotsky, a Jew himself, favoured when Jewish separatism first surfaced in the Russian revolutionary movement.
REGGIES REJOINDER
31 May 1982.
The Editor, Saturday Review, Sir,
While thanking you for the generous space given to my letter in your issue of May 29 and your attention to it in your reply, I hope you will grant me the opportunity to clarify some of the matters at issue between us, since they are questions of great importance to the Tamil people.
I agree that in relation to the colonial period it is possible to speak of 'Sinhala nationalism' since the Sinhalese were then a subject people. However, when you see in the nationalism of the Anagarika Dharmapala era only a “healthy' movement directed towards raising the self-respect of the Sinhalese and rejection of western influence, you are fundamentally wrong.
The ideology of Anagarika Dharmapala and his associates had, in addition to it: anti-British and anti-western elements, a strong racist component directed against
Contd. on page 10

Page 10
10 TAMIL TIMES
ــــمحسعسسعـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ۔
(Contd. From P.9)
both Tamils and Muslims. (For the evidence see, e.g., Dr. Kumari Jayawardena’s analyses.) This isn't surprising because the class of small Sinhala traders and businessmen who were the Anagarika's base were much more directly in conflict with Tamil and Muslim traders than with British interests, which they were too weak to challenge, except rhetorically. (As Prof. Ralph Pieris has shown, the Anagarika, while making antiBritish speeches, wrote letters to the Governor assuring him of his loyalty)
RACIST CHARACTER Even in 1956, Sinhala nationalism still had a certain duality: on the one hand, it expressed the aspirations of the rural bourgeoisie and the Sinhala-speaking petty bourgeoisie to break up the monopoly of power by the westernised urban bourgeoisiei (that is why it made possible a temporary cultural upsurge); on the other hand, it was anti-Tamil and racist in character because of the rivalry for economic advancement and employment between these classes and their Tamil counterparts. It is in the interests of those classes who assumed leadership of the nationalist movement that one should look for explanation of the fact that, as you put it, the Sinhala people failed to build up "a homogeneous cုပ္otics:| nationhood” after independence. Let us not forget that in 1956 and immediately after this concept was affirmed in the South only by the working-class
movement, whatever the betrayals and crimes of its leadership later. FASCIST GROUPS There can be no question: today, however, of the interests of oppressed or underprivileged social groups in the South being articulated through Sinhala nationalism; what masquerades under this name is the ideology of semifascist groups, and that is why today I would speak unqualifiedly of Sinhala racism and not of “Sinhala nationalism.'
As for Tamil nationalism, you are wrong in your conjectures about my position. As long as a people are oppressed. I recognise that 4. their nationalism has a necessary role to play in their emancipation, even though iti must ultimately be transcended in the historical process. Not do I believe in "assimila
TAMIL NA A HISTORIC
Sir,
This is in response to your Editorial of May 15 on the metamorphosis of Sinhala Nationalism into Racism and the reply to Reggie Siriwardena (May 29) on the equation of Sinhala Nationalism with Racism. I only hope that the above exchange will not develop into another hackneyed debate on whether racism is a logical extension of nationalism, determined bv. objective conditions, or only an unfortunate but a gruesome aberration, caused by the dominance of certain subjective conditions.
(Contd. from page 7
secular state based on citizenship. It may take long and it may take an enormous amount of hard work and it may cost lives and it may cause shame and embarrassment, to the various governments that will come to power in Colombo, but there really is no alternative to coming to a settlement.
However, there is no hope that this will come to pass in the immediate future. Consider the antics of the present
government: they hold talks,
negotiate and make promises to the leaders of the Tamil people, thereby legitimising: the existence of a separate interest. Surely, the government in Colombo does not need to be told, once again, the grievances of the Tamil people? What is stopping
them from legislating mea
sures that would remove the
iniquitous and discriminatory laws perpetrated by benighted governments for the last
twenty-five years?

JUNE 1982
tion', because I recognise both the need and the desirability of linguistic and cultural diversity in a future socialist society of Sri Lanka, in which I firmly believe the Tamil people will find their due place as free, equal and voluntary participants.
Yours faithfully, Reggie Siriwardena
TIONALISM AL REALITY
The nature of relations between Nationalism and Racism is dialectical and cannot be explained by the mere citing of political anecdotes, as you have done. Neither, could it be explained by an emotional treatment of Sinha
humanists like Reggie Siriwardena, who feel a deep sense of guilt, shame and shock at the intensity of the racist onslaught being unleashed against their Tamil 'brethren'.
All that I wish to state at present is that the pre-requisite for a comprehension of the
To conclude, the rights of a people are not based on ancestral connections and spurious historial arguments, but present and continuous membership, acknowledged
and effected by law, in a community of citizens. If and when such a membership does
not guarantee an equality in law and in treatment, then one must seek to change the law
la racism by Sinhala liberal
National Question in Sri Lanka is the total and absolute recognition of Tamil Nationalism as a historical reality-both inevitable and irre versible - and the de facto existence of a Tamil Nation. Corollary to the above, is the need for a total and absolute recognition of the degeneration of Sinhala Nationalism, once a progressive force in the context of anti-colonial Struggles, into national chauvinism and a camouflage for class exploitation within the Sinhala Nation. As to whether Tamil nationalism, now a progressive force, will traverse the same path, is a matter to be determined by the history of class struggles within the Tamil Nation. In any event, such speculations will make little sense to a people at the receiving end of political, economic and cultural genocide. Unless one comes to grips with the above realities, any debate on the National Question is meaningless.
Yours sincerely, Kethleeswaran Loganathan
ܫܦܝ
by whatever means are at hand, and however long it takes, and not engage in fanciful reconstructions of history, spurious legalisms and socio-political delusions. One must do this, not because the Sinhalese are to be "trusted', but because there is no other alternative, given the material and practical reality of Sri Lankan society, economy and ecology.
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Page 11
JUNE 1982
TROTSKY
HAUNTS
LA BOUR
Many feared the Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, during his lifetime. The Czarist regime put him on trial after the abortive 1905 uprising and exiled him to Siberia. That did not prevent his escape and subsequently joining hands with Lenin in the victorious revolution of 1917. Stalin dreaded Trotsky and exiled him, but he was not satisfied. He put him, in absentia, through the infamous Moscow Trials in 1936 and Trotsky was condemned. He continued to haunt Stalin who suffered many a sleepless night until his assasination in Mexico in 1941.
Ever since, there have been an incredible number of groups and groupscules which have claimed the right of inheretance to Trotsky’s Fourth International. There are at least Seven Such groups in the UK and six in Sri Lanka claiming to be the authentic inheretors of the Trotsky legacy.
But what is of immediate relevance is that Trotsky has begun to haunt the leadership of the Labour Party to such an extent that the Militant Tendency, which openly admits to be Trotkyist, and which had hitherto been allowed to operate within the Labour Party, suddenly faces expulsion following a long and vicious campaign by the right wing assisted by the media. What is ironic is that Michael Foot, who was not so long ago been the target of attempted witch-hunts on allegations of his left or red leanings, is leading the campaign against the Militant Tendency. Finding that over the last few years, the constituency Labour Parties and the rank and file have bagun to assert more and more in determining party policy at Conferences, the right of the Party has made the Militant the scapegoat.
Tendency
What happens to the Militant Tendency is of some relevance to the Sri Lankan left in that the NSSP (Vasu-Bahu group) has strong ideological and organisational links with this Tendency. Ted Grant, the real leader of the Militant in the background, who recently visited Sri Lanka to attend teh NSSP Conference had a strong influence in the growth and development of the NSSP as a party. The Militant and the NSSP belong to the Workers Committee for International.
SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION
If the Tory government bungled in their judgment about the invasion of the Falklands by the Argentinian junta, there was one government which knew about the plans for the invasion six months before it actually occurred, and that was the South African government.
Argentinian Chief of Staff, General Mario Menendes, who was appointed Military Governor of the Islands after its capture, visited South
Africa during the latter part of
last year. His mission was to find out whether, if Argentina captured the Falklands, South Africa would offer the use of the Simonstown Naval Base to Britain in its effort the recapture the islands.
Although the South African government denied the strong TUIIT10UlrS of supplying military equipment to the Argentinian junta during the recent war, the question that has to be asked is why did the South Africans did nto alert Britain about the plans for the invasion. The probable reason is that South Africa is a member of SATO (South Atlantic Treaty Organisation). The other members of this unofficial murky outfit established in 1977 include Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - all military fascist dictatorships who are pledged to aid
each other in the event of
external military confronta
tions. It cannot be doubted
that, under the terms of this
Treaty, South Africa would
 

TAMIL TIMES 11
have been called upon to respond with military assistance during the recent crisis.
FALLOUT FROM
FALKLANDS The hospital ship, HMS Uganda was specially requisitioned by the British government to join the Falklands task force. The notice issued by Captain Biddick to the ship's Company said that the Uganda would serve as a hospital ship and that "in the very nature of the case, active service cannot be excluded ....' but there was a snag. The entire complement of Indian crew raised the question whether the Indian government had approved of their going to the Falklands to do battle for the British.
Captain Biddick, who had earlier promised to answer any questions from any member of the crew, did not know the answer. He allowed the crew to leave the ship, but told them in no uncertain terms that they would not find jobs with any Peninsular and Orient vessel in future. Although the Indian crew was
I this threat to their jobs, no
warned by the Captain with
such warning was issued to a number of British crew memibers who also quit the ship at Gibralter, though öne would assume, that it would have been their moral obligation (if there was any justification for the war) to stay on and fight, if necessary, on behalf of their country
Stranger still is that those Indian seamen who agreed to go on the Uganda were to receive only £50 a month whereas their British counterparts received £288.
POSTAL VOTE FOR OVERSEAS LANKANS Draft legislation has been prepared to enable Lankans temporarily abroad to vote by post at general elections.
Prepared on a directive from 'President J. R. Jayewardene, 'this legislation is mainly for | Lankans working in the Middle East and other countries.
The procedure recommended is almost on the same lines as existing legislation for postal voting. The only difference is that the certifying officer will be the Sri Lankan envoy accredited to the country in
which the voter is residing.
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Page 12
12 TAMIL TIMES
SS
Contd. from page 5 Sinalese and Tamil states .... Pancha Sila or co-existence is thus the only solution to the problem of the two nations in Sri Lanka. .... Wise Sinhalese leadership should understand the problem in its full
magnitude.'
TAMIL BUDDHISTS The discovery of remnants of Buddhist monuments in the North has given rise to the belief among some Sinhalese that their civilisation prevailed
for a considerable period in that part of the country as well. Those who cling to this belief seem to discount the possibility at one time there were many Tamils who professed Buddhism.
The following excerpts from a lecture by historian James T. Rutnam should provide food for thought for such people: '....We are all heirs to the national legacy of Sri Lanka. We find Buddhist monuments: in Jaffna; we also find Hindu shrines and temples throughout the island. Nilakanta Sastri has described in an article on "Buddhism in South India' that “from the dawn of history up to the 14th century
AD, or even later, Buddhism
held a considerable place South India and left its marl in the monuments and liter tures of the land.’ Jaffna only about twenty miles fro) the subcontinent. We hav necessarily to draw the righ conclusion from this uncha llengeable fact.
BUDDHIST TAMIL EPIC “The great commentator o the Buddhist scriptures, Bu ddhagosa, was a South Indian So were Buddhadatta, Dham mapala, Sangamitra, Bodh Dharma, Ilam Bodhiyar anc Seethali Sattanar. The greates Buddhist epic "Manimekalai was written in Tamil by a Tamil in the 2nd century AD,
Even Kaccayana, the autho
of the first Pali grammar, came from South India, which over a millenium continued to be a centre of Pali Buddhism
Mr Rutnam notes that Sir Charles Elliot, while acknowledging that Buddhism came to the country under the auspices of Asoka, wrote that “Sinhalese Buddhism has probably a close connection with South India than the legends suggest and Conjeevaram was long a Pali centre which kept up intercourse with both Ceylon and Burma.'
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rippu and other places suggest a South Indian culture in ancient Sri Lanka but there is no archaeological evidence at all to suggest a North Indian colonisation.''
Mr. Rutnam concludes, "It
is therefore not surprising that
we have Buddhist monuments in Jaffna 'so close to the south-east coast of India. The megalithic burials in Pompa
Sathya Sri Sai Baba is to pay a visit to Sri Lanka shortly. President J. R. Jayawardene has announced that he will be welcomed on his arrival as a state guest.
Sai Baba and his entourage
SAI BABATO VISIT SRI LANKA
will be provided with accommodation at the MPs Hostel, the Sravasti, since his group is too large to be accommodated at the Acland House, where state guests are normally provided with facilities.
Classified Advertisements
£3 minimum for up to 12 words. 20p for each additional word. Box numbers add 50p for U.K. and £1.00 for other countries. All advertisements must be prepaid by P.O./Cheque in favour of Tamil Times Ltd., 82 Chandos Crescent, Edgware Middlesex, U.K. Advertisers must give their name, full postal address and telephone number (not for publication) If paying by cheque, please write your name and address on the back. COPY DATE: 15th of month of publication.
MATRIMONIAL - DEATH Matrimonial correspondence PILLAI - Romesh, husband invited from medical doctors, of Sri Kanthi, father of
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Page 13
JUNE 1982
Contd from page 1
The people of this country as well as the people of India have now come face to face, for the first time, with the question of defending the human and political rights of persons persecuted for political activities, including their right of not being subject to extradition.
“The local press has continuously published reports of the moves on the part of the Sri Lanka government to get these persons in custody in India extradited.
“If these Sri Lankans in custody are handed over by the Indian government to the Sri Lanka government it will mean, apart from being an infringement of the generally recognised right that the persons persecuted for political activities are not subject to extradition, that the extraordinary and reactionary laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act passed by the Sri Lanka government will operate against them. They are also liable to be detained, tortured and kept without trial
and without the possibility of anybody meeting them - not even their lawyers.
"Although we do not agree with the politics of those in the so-called Tiger Movement, we are of the view that the treatment meted out to them and contemplated against : them by the government should be denounced by all sections of the people of this , country. The concentrated attacks on the basic rights of those said to be in the “Tiger' Movement, after having aroused feelings of hatred against them among the people by large-scale propaganda through the mass media is reminiscent of the beginning of the massacre of thousands of young people by the government through the use of armed forces and the police in 1971 and the complete denial of human, political and democratic rights for the entire population of this country in that year and thereafter. Therefore, it becomes a matter of great concern to the entire masses of the people of this country
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TAMIL TIMES 13
SSSSLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
from North to South and workers' organisations and all West to East, irrespective of others who stand for demoany differences whatsoever....' cratic rights to unite to agitate
TREAT THEM AS for these youth to be treated
as political prisoners.
P OLITICAL “Though we think that the PRISONERS-NSSP methodology of struggle in
Dr. Wickremabahu, the Ge- volving terrorism adopted by neral Secretary of the Nava some of these youth is Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), inappropriate and may prove in a statement issued on futile, We firmly stand for 28.5.82 stated: their democratic political rights. The entire responsibi“The NSSP condemns the Lity for the development of the attempt of the Sri Lankan phenomenon of terrorism lies government to obtain the with the successive governextradition of the Tamil ments of Sri Lanka, which Youth leaders, Uma Mahes- I have continued to oppress and waran and Prabhakaran arres- i terrorise the Tamil speaking ted in India. We call upon all people'.
TEACHERS UNION SAYS
“DON°THAND OVER'
The Ceylon Teachers Union Tamil Nadu Police have has sent the following letter to arrested several Sri Lankan the High Commissioner for Tamil youths including Uma India in Sri Lanka: Maheswaran and Prabhakaran
“The Central Committee of Though we do not agree with the Ceylon Teachers Union theses youth politically, we which has a membership of appeal to the Indian govern47,000, met on 5th June 1982 || ment not to hand over these and adopted the following youths to the Sri Lanka
resolution: government'.
“We are informed that the (Contid on page 15)
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Page 14
14 TAMIL TIMES
“STATELESS TAMILS OF SRI L.
Petition To Mrs. Gandhi
The following is the text of a petition submitted by the Academy of Science for Tamils in Ceylon London) to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, during her recen visit to the United Kingdom, on the plight of the stateless Tamil of Indian origin in Sri Lanka.
“It is not our intention to urge you to consider th burden you with the task of human fact and historic going through the enormous background that these 82000
research and its findings on stateless Tamils are not of Ini the subject of 'stateless Tamils' origin. They are Ceylonese b in Sri Lanka. birth and children of the fift
Madam, you are well aware generation. It is true tha of this problem at your door chauvinists argue that they ar step and a solution to this of Indian origin because the
problem, we believe, should fore-fathers are from India be one of your top priorities in This is denied in Sociologic the programme to enhance studies by Indo-Sri Lanka Indo-Sri Lankan relations: scholars. A recent book o particularly, in the context of this subject and a booklet o the Srimavo-Shastri pact of plantation workers, by Natic 1964 which lapsed on 30th nal Union of Workers of S. October, 1981, thus, leaving Lanka, are enclosed for stud yet another 820,000 stateless by your advisers. Tamils in Sri Lanka whose In this context, Madam, W future will very much depend wish to draw your kin on the stand taken by the Indi- attention to the observation an Government for a negotia- made by the father of you ted settlement. nation Mahatma Gandhi an The recent visit to Sri Lanka your late father Sri Jawaharl by the Indian President accom-, Nehru on the plantatio panied by Mr Eric Gonsalves, workers in Ceylon.' is ample testimony that a When Mahatma Gandhi visi working programme is on the ted Ceylon in 1927 he told th agenda. Thus, in negotiating a Indians: solution to this problem with “I would ask you to live a Sri Lankan Government, we sugar lives in milk. Even as
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JUNE 1982
ANKA”
cup of milk, which is filled up to the brim, does not overflow when sugar is added to it but sugar accommodates itself in the milk and enriches its taste, even so I would like you to live in this island, so as not to become interlopers and so as to enrich the life of the people amongst whom you are living.' Emphasising the human aspects of the issue, Prime Minister Nehru speaking before the Lok Sabha in 1958 said:
“The problem is, in the main, that of the Ceylon Government, because these people, according to our showing, are not Indian nationals whether registered or not, we feel that the issue has dragged on for so long. The Ceylon Government have their difficulties, but they should realize our position just as we are prepared to consider their difficulties. It is: obvious that we cannot ask a large number of people who, have been horn in Ceylon and have lived there to walk across. to India or accept them as our lationals.'
Despite the three Indo-Ceylon agreements reached by Ceylon and Nehru administration between 1954 and 1962, it was for sociological reasons and human considerations that your late father did not conclude any concrete pacts with the Ceylon Government. Therefore, we urge you to give due consideration to his observation in pursuing your policy on the question of stateless Tamils in Sri Lanka. We suggest and strongly
urge you not to renew the pact but to negotiate with
the Sri Lankan Government to grant Sri Lankam citizenship to the 820,000 stateless Tamils, "who are battered and bullied' because, “while Sri Lanka is obsessed with its
communal composition India is concerned with the mainte
nance of good neighbourly
relations'.
As you are well aware, the Island's peace had been
disturbed by recurrent violence which first appeared in 1958,
10 years after Independence, when hundreds of persons, particularly Tamils, were kill ed and thousands of Tamil refugees were relocated from Sinhalese to Tamil areas. The mext major outbreak of vio-,
lence occurred in 1977'.
“In August 1981, the third
major outbreak of communal violence took place after tension for five months bet
ween ethnic groups...”.
In the third outbreak of
violence, an Indian journalist stresses the fact, "one new element was the concentration of violence against the Indian estate Tamils and this in a way internationalised the conflict'. He adds further, "In the view of ICJ, physical security of the minority Tamils must be ensured and there should be no recurrence of communal violence so frequently directed against the Tamils if peace is
to return to the island'.
Thus, for permanent peace
and communal harmony in the island, a solution to the problem of stateless Tamils necessarily implies a solution to the problems of the Tamil community in the Island whose interests and bonds are inext ricably integrated. You will no doubt appreciate the importance of 'peace' in the Island for good-neighbourly relations and for the continued maintenance of "Peace Zone'
Indian ocean.
We, therefore, urge you,
once again, to stress and impress upon the Sri Lankan Government to grant Sri Lankan citizenship to the stateless Tamils and to ratify the “Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination'.
THE CENTRAL BRITISH FUND TAMIL REFUGEES REHABILITATION
DJ NNIER
THE ST. PETER'S CENTRE Cranfield Road, Brockley, London SE4 Saturday, 24th July, 1982
at 6-30
p. m.

Page 15
JUNE 1982
(Contd from page 13)
The letter has been signed by the Union's General Secretary,
Mr. H.N. G. Fernando.
TELF AGAINST
EXTRADITION The Tamil Eelam Liberation Front (TELF) led by Dr. S.A. Tharmalingam, in a letter to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister,
M.G. Ramachandran, has requested "not to extradite Tamil youths taken into
custody by the Madras Police. The letter adds: "Many Tamil Eelam youths have been in custody for several years without ever being brought to trial. Some of them have been done to death after arrest and are said to be missing by the
authorities here.
“The police authorities here
are known to have brutally beaten up and tortured the arrested Tamil youths and have proceeded to record, under duress, statements by them confessing to crimes they are alleged to have committed. Such extracted confessions have been made admissible in evidence against them in a Court of Law.'
BOOK REVIEW SA VTENDUSM
Mr. K. Gnanasoorian, M.Sc. of the London Saiva Siddhanta Centre, has produced yet another masterpiece titled SAIVITE HINDUISM - A Primer for Beginners', to meet the needs of the Saivite children living in the west. A work of this nature has been a crying need for the new Saivite generation springing up in England, America, Canada, Australia and in the African Countries. The children of Saivite Hindus, who have temporarily or permanently settled down in these countries, receive their education in English and consequently they have no access to the fundamentals of their religious truths, most of which are found in Tamil books. Mr. Gnanasoorian's attempt to reach these children through this beautiful book is indeed commendable and praiseworthy.
The book is dedicated to no less a luminary than the Guru Maha Sannithanam of the
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TAMIL TIMES 15
LLLLLLLLS
Kauai Aadhenam, U.S.A., Sri Sivaya Subramuniya Swami, and it has been released at the Benares Hindu University by Sri-La-Sri Kasivai Muthukumaraswamy Thambiran Swamigal, Head of Sri Kasi Mutt, Thiruppanandal, on the occasion of the Annual Conference of the Saiva Siddhanta Maha Samajam. Madras. These make the book all the more
auspicious and valuable.
The book is reasonably priced at US $ 5.00 or £2.00 and should prove very useful and handy to all children in the West and elsewhere who lack a knowledge of Tamil. Copies are available at the London Saiva Centre, 72 King Edward, Road, London E. 17. United Kingdom.
“RESTORE CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS'
The Sri Lanka Workers Association of UK has called upon the government of Sri Lanka to restore without delay the citizenship and voting rights to the plantation workers of Indian origin.
The Executive Committee of the SLWA recently adopted the following resolution:
“Recognising that the plantation workers of Indian origin are a part and parcel of the working people of Sri Lanka, the SLWA condemns the Srima - Shastri Pact under which the plantation workers are continuing to be forcibly
repatriated. d
“We call for an immediate
end to any further repatriation ليب
and call upon the government to, without any further delay restore the citizenship and voting rights of the plantation workers, which had been arbitrarily and unjustifiably denied to them since 1948.
Mr. Ranjit Mendis, the Secretary of the SLWA said
that their Association has
: resolved to commence an international campaign on the question of denial of basic human and democratic rights to the plantation workers in Sri Lanka.
Contd. from page 4 government for concessions on the one hand, and taking pot-shots at policemen on the other.
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Page 16
TAMIL TIMES
THE CURSE OF COLONISATION
One of the problems that has always agitated the minds of Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka has been the large-scale state-aided colonisation of their traditional homelands in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by those belonging to the majority Sinhala community.
The Tamils of Lanka suffer many disadvantages owing to their minority status in the national context. But they have historically constituted a substantial majority for Several centuries in the Northern and Eastern provinces However, this position has been undermined over the years by scheming politicians, both of the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party by the implementation of a deliberate policy of discriminatory land distribution. This policy has had the effect of transfering hundreds of thousands of people belonging to the Sinhala majority community into Tamil areas. Already, substantial areas in the Eastern Province which were once predominantly inhabited by Tamil speaking people - Muslims and Tamils - have been transformed into Sinhala majority areas, or in the process of being transformed as such.
The curse of this policy has now begun to adversely affect even the heartland of traditional Tamil areas. The census statistics of 1981 have brought this problem into sharper relief. For instance, these statistics reveal a remarkable change in the ethnic composition of the Eastern tamil city of Trincomalee:
1953 1981 070 Increase Sinhalese: 15,296 86,341 564.46 Tamils 37,517 93,510 249.24 Moors 27,748 74,403 268.13
The danger facing the Tamil speaking people is self evident, if this policy of state-aided colonisation continues. They face the inexorable prospect of losing their identity as a community inhabiting a reasonably defined area which had been their traditional homeland, This danger has already been highlighted by the International Commission of Jurists in their recent report on the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. The Commission recommended that the government must revise their policyon colonisation.
In pure electoral terms, what does this development lead to? Particularly in the context of the proportional voting system, that was introduced recently, the Trincomalee District, which had hitherto returned, or was capable of returning only Tamil speaking MPs - either Muslim or Tamil - will in future return a mixture of Tamil ana Sinhala MPs. This will be the case in other traditiona Tamil areas too where there had been a large influx of Sinhala people under the state-aided colonisation schemes. What does this mean in practical terms? The electoral system which is already weighted against the country's minorities, in that the 70 per ceni
PUBLISHED PRINTED AT NEW LIFE PRESS, 8/16 CORC
 
 

NBRIEF
y Mr. Cyril Gardiner, Chairman of Galle Face Hotel Colombo has donated Rs. 100,000 to the Sri Lanka Medical Library.
The European Economic Community (EEC) has conceded Sri Lanka a better garments export quota under the third Multi-Fibre agreement entered into recently.
Large number of Lankans are now Seeking admission to taly for domestic service there and between 4,000 to 5,000 visa applications await processing at the Italian Embassy in Colombo. About 500 to 600 Lankans have already been admitted to Italy in the last six months.
A About 50 drug traffickers who were operating a ganja Smuggling racket between Lanka, UK and Australia are now serving prison terms, R. Sunderalingam, DIG (Crimes) announced recently. Among those in foreign jails are
Lankan businessmen and playboys of the Colombo jet set th The Lankan government ade a grant of Rs. 1.5 million to assist the recently held Conference of World Buddhist Leaders and SchOlars at Colombo.
k “BADDEGAMA', the Sinhala film based on Leonard Woolf's novel, Village in the Jungle, has been bought by Channel Four, the British Television network. This is the first Sinhala film bought for nation-wide telecasting by a British TV company.
At The Philiatelic Bureau of Lanka issued a stamp on May 24 in commemoration of the 124th Birth Anniversary of Lord Baden Powell, the Founder of the Scout Move
ment.
A Rs. 507.5 million project to upgrade technical education is to be launched in 1983 with aid from the Asian Development Bank, Swedish International Development Authority and the United Nations Development Programme.
THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE TAMIL TIMES WILL CARRY SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDING ARTICLES, SPEECHES AND COMMENTS CONCERNING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORLD EELAM TAMIL CONVENTION HELD IN NEW
OR.
M. L. VASA INTHA KUMARI RECITALS ON CASETTE
'Great Plan Recordings' have donated 100 sets of Two Casettes each of the live recording of Dr. M.L. Vasanthakumayi's two recitals in London held last year, to the S.C.O.T. Their wish is to donate the entire proceeds the sale of the casettes to the Jaffna Public Library Fund.
Price, for a set of two casettes:
UK: E5.75 All other countries : £6.50 (Price includes postage). Please write to : S.C.O.T., 69 Streatfield Road, Harrow HA3 9RP UK. Cheques/PO/MO to be drawn in favour of S.C.O.T.
Sinhala-Buddhist population presently enjoy nearly 85 percent representation in Parliament, will be undermined by a further reduction in the political representation of the minority Tamils and Muslims.
Any political party which claims to defend the interests
of the Tamil speaking people ought to give the highest priority to ensure that they are not reduced to the position of a minority even in their traditional homelands.
BY TAMIL TIMES LTD., DNET STREET, LONDON N1 6HID. TEL: 01 729 5453