கவனிக்க: இந்த மின்னூலைத் தனிப்பட்ட வாசிப்பு, உசாத்துணைத் தேவைகளுக்கு மட்டுமே பயன்படுத்தலாம். வேறு பயன்பாடுகளுக்கு ஆசிரியரின்/பதிப்புரிமையாளரின் அனுமதி பெறப்பட வேண்டும்.
இது கூகிள் எழுத்துணரியால் தானியக்கமாக உருவாக்கப்பட்ட கோப்பு. இந்த மின்னூல் மெய்ப்புப் பார்க்கப்படவில்லை.
இந்தப் படைப்பின் நூலகப் பக்கத்தினை பார்வையிட பின்வரும் இணைப்புக்குச் செல்லவும்: Tamil Times 1982.09

Page 1
(USASA
CS
WOL 1 Nr. 12 *
SEPTEMBER 1982 *
OPENCE
WILL SLFP CANDIDATE BE DISQUALIFIED?
With the polling day (October 20) fast approaching, and as he presidential election cal Tipaign is gathering pace with the six electoral COIT balar is going round the country holding rallies and Illectings, | he Lanka Sana Sanaja Party candidate, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, has introduced a highly sensational issue in the carth
paign, which threatens to feci till: LICIT: Of The
election.
To the obvious delight of MT, J. R. Jayawa Tidene and the ruling United National Party NP). Dr. Di Siwa Taised a crucial question before the people when he recently appeared on television : Can MT, HEcoT Klubbek addu Iwa |he Sri Lanka Freedon Party (SLFP) candidate, be disqualified on an election petition and will he be prevented froTh a 5.5 L Illing office even if he is
elected
Dr. De Silva besides being a veteral politician of national standing is one of the country's ellinent lawyers and functioned as the Minister
of Constitutional Affairs in the United Front government Uf 1971 Liflder Mrs. STillid
Ba:India Tarnaik, e.
The question of the deprivation of civic rights of Mrs. Banda Tanaike by the present gover IIIlent and the issue of the Tesloration of her rights hawe 50 faT played a T1 important part in the opposition's campaign. Despite being deprived of het civic rights, she still Teillains the President of the SLFP. Appearing on television, Dr. De Silva explained to his viewers the legal
concept of "AGENCY', and citing legal precedents, hể suggested that Mr. Kobbckadui wa was a candidate of a arty whose President was Mrs. Bandaranalike who has been prohibited from taking part in the electic T1 Cor its carpaign by Wirtue of the derivation of her civic rights. He suggested that there was a real risk that, if an election petition was instituted, the COLITIS Tigh hold Lihat Mr. Rbbek, addu wa Was 10 enti
I led to assLIThe Office,
In such an eventuality Dr Dr Silva pointed out Mr. J.R., Jayawardene would be declared elected even if he came second, and therefore asked | he people to support his own cal Tididat Lure,
Although the SLFP lawyers and politicians have strenuously attempted to discount Dr. De Silva's assertions, the issue has become a major one in the campaign and thrown the Kobbekaduwa Lamp into ITILIch çığı fusioTı,
The UNP and J.R. Jayawardene hawe lost no tirile im laking the issue further and exploiting the situation, The saic controlled media are Working Wertille in creating as much confusion as possible in this among the people,
The Blätt äld half-lea Tited interwention of Mr. Anura Bandaranalike in the campaign on the Side of Mr. Kobbekaduwa has further exacerbated the fricio II withiI the SLFP camp. Cleverly upstaged by a combination of his own sister, Chaldika and her husband Wijaya Ku Inaratunga and Mr.
issue
 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE JR TIPPED TO WIN
The presidential election campaign in Sri Lanka is hotting up with the polling day fast approaching. As accurately predicted in the August issue of the Tamil Times, six candidates are in the running - the incumbent J. R. Jayawardene United National Party); Mr. Hector Kobbelkaduwa [Sri Lanka Freedom Party), Dr. Colvin R. De Silva Lanka. Sama Samaja Party), Mr. Wasudeva Nanayakkara (Naya Sama Samaja Party, Mr. Rohana Wijeweera Janatha Wimukthi Peramunal, and Mr. Kumar P'in mambalamı All-Ceylon Tamil Congress).
Of the other known political parties, the Tamil United Liberation Front is not partipating in the elections; the Ceylon Workers Congress, whose President is Mr. S. Thonda than, a Cabinet Minister, is supporting J.R. JayaWardele.
Although six candidates are in the running, there is little doubt that the real contest is between J. R. Jayawardene and Kobbekaduwa. Kobbekaduwa, who was an unknown quantity in national terms, has been catapulted in to thc Talioral scene by fortuitous circumstances - the deprivaIion of Mrs. Bandaranaike's civic rights, and het disability 1) It is the election.
One lar fact T that favouTed J. R. Jayawardene was that |he SLFP, the only party which could have challenged the UNP on an equal footing, was split and continued to remain split until JR decided
Kobbockaduwa, Mr. An Lura Banda Talaike was denied SLFP IJIlilitiul, The disappoilled Anlura ha 5 inteTweled to tell the people that Mr. Kobbekaduwa was on what he described as a short-term temporary contract with three specific dutics to perform - to Test OTe Mrs. Bandaranaike's civic rights, dissolve parliament and hold fresh electio15.
on the election. However, the surprising and LII expected official recognition granted by the Election Chissile to Mrs. Bandaranalike"5 SLFF and the award to it of the traditional "Hand' symbol must have coine as a rude shock to the UNP stalwarts and JR.
This election is unique in Ilany ways. It is the first ever presidential election; it is the first time that a system of preferential voting is being used; and for the first time television will play a Tole in the campaign. All six candidates hawe been allocated 45 Inilutes of broadcasting. Most importantly, the votes of the Illinority ethnic communities - Tallils and Muslims - will have a significant effect on the outcome of the elections,
There are nearly eight million registered voters. Sri Lanka has always had a reputation for a fairly high turn out at elections and generally the a Werage Woting has been in the region of 80 per cent. On past performance, it is confidently anticipated that at least 6 million persons will cast their Wotes. Ho Weyer, this average is likely to be upset to sole extel if the Tali wers were | heed the call for non-parti. cipation and boycott of the electins. Although the TULF klie'a'idecl ) In a boyco It ii iis Ict engaged in all active organised campaign anong its Տարրըrters for a (positive) boycott. In deed IIlamy of its leaders hawe f0 Lund it com wenient Ego abroad.
On the assulliption that 6 Tillion of the registered voters will cast their votes, a candidate should secure at least 3 million votes to achieve victory on the first count, I he fails to obtain 51 per cent of the first preference volcs cast on the first Count, then the sccond preference volcs have to be counted and if this were to happen, the best laid
1ld. In sage 10

Page 2
2 TAMIL TIMES
- TAML TIMES -
TAMILS de THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The main contenders in the forthcoming election for the most powerful position in Sri Lanka are the UNP and SLFP nominees - J.R. Jayawardene, the incumbent President, and Hector Kobbekaduwa, a former Minister under Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike. Both men go around the country unashamedly asking the Tamil speaking people for their votes.
The record of these two parties is replete with innumerable acts of discrimination against the Tamil speaking people. Whether in government or in opposition, they have conducted themselves as if they were in existence to serve only the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate. They have used the Tamil speaking people as a political football to be knocked around in their quest for power with calous and cruel disregard to the damage and destruction done to them and their property resulting from their racist propaganda.
The UNP commenced the so-called independence era with the dastardly act of downright perfidy against the 1.2 million Tamil speaking plantation workers. Their voting and citizenship rights were deprived at one fell stroke. Scheming and designing individuals that they were, the UNP leaders engaged in their diobolical plat of state-aided colonisation to make the Tamil speaking people a minority in their own traditional homelands of the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.
The SLFP elevated Sinhala as the one and only official language of the country with the Sinhala only Act in 1956, granted Buddhism almost the status of a State religion, and continued with greater vigour the UNP's policy of planned colonisation of Tamil areas. When the late Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the then Prime Minister, entered into an agreement with the late leader of the Federal Party, Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, to mitigate the effects of the Sinhala Only Act upon the Tamil people, the UNP under J.R. Jayawardene spearheaded a countrywide campaign in collaboration with some racist rabble in yellow robes to ensure the unilateral abrogation of the agreement between Mr. Bandaranaike and Mr. Chelvanayakam. The racial pogrom unleashed against the Tamil speaking people in 1958 was the direct result of the evil genius of JR and his campaign. No amount of empty and meaningless platitudes or soothing words from him today could obliterate from the memories of the Tamil people the cruel and diobolical game he played on that occasion.
The SLFP on the other hand, not only continued with the denial of the voting and citizenship rights to the Tamil plantation workers, but also contrived a pernicious pact with the Indian government to compulsorily repatriate them. When Dudley Senanayake, the then UNP Prime Minister, as a quid pro quo for the support extended by the Federal Party in 1965, attempted to introduce regulations for the reasonable use of Tamil Language in official communications and the courts, the SLFP, again in colaboration with the extremist sections of the Buddhist clergy, campaigned and demonstrated against the enactment of the regulations.
BOTH PARTES HAVE PRESIDED OVER SEVERAL INSTANGES OF GENOCIDAL RACIST POGROMIS DIRECTED AGAINST THE TAMIL SPEAKING PEOPLE.
On the general question of democratic rights of the people as a whole, both these parties have time and time again suppressed their rights, and more particularly denied the workers and trade unions of their right to strike, picket and demonstrate. The summary dismissal by the present government of over 50,000

September 1982
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OPPOSITION IN DISARRAY
Elections are won sometimes by design and sometimes by default. If J. R. Jayawardene wins this election, it would be more by default on the part of the opposition.
The unexpected decision of the Elections Commissioner to grant official recognition to Mrs. Bandaranaike's SLFP could not have come at a
better time for restoring the
badly divided image of the SLFP and restoring its lost fortunes. The SLFP has been split into two rival factions for nearly 18 months and both were engaged in a mutually destructive and fratricidal struggle from which J.R. Jayawardene and the UNP expected to reap undeserved high political dividends. However the Election Commissioner's timely decision had an immediate positive impact in raising hopes of a united SLFP and sent Mr. Maitripala Senanayake's SLFP(M) into instant political wilderness.
Although Mr. Hector Kobbekaduwa has been put forward as the SLFP nominee, it has been made demonstrably clear that he doesn't command the undivided and total support of the person who matters most in the SLFP, Mrs. Sirima
Bandaranaike, who wanted her son Anura nominated as
the SLFP presidential candidate. The anti-Anura camp, which included his own sister Chandrika and her film actor husband Wijaya Kumaratunaga, Succeeded in resisting Anura's claim. Mrs. B. having been deprived of her civic rights is nọt in a position to
address meetings in support of the SLFP nominee even if she wanted to. Anura has so far failed to appear on a common platform in support of Mr. Kobbekaduwa. People have got used to the habit of considering the Bandaranaike name as synonymous with the SLFP.
Mr. Maitripala Senanayake and his dissident group, having failed to obtain official recognition from the Election Commissioner, have been making strenuous efforts to rejoin the parent SLFP, promising support for Mr. Kobbekaduwa. Mrs Bandaranaike’s adamant refusal to let the Maitri group rejoin the party has resulted in further loss of support for Mr. Kobbekaduwa. Mr. R. P. Wijesiri of SLFP(M) and MP for Harispatuwa has already joined the UNP. Mr. Wijesiri and P.B.G. Kalugalla, a former Minister and a long standing SLFP stalwart and a few others who were with the Maitri group have pledged their support to J.R. Jayawardene.
THREE LEFT CANDIDATES
The left, in this contest, has three candidates - Dr. Colvin R De Silva of the LSSP Vasudeva Nanayakkara of the NSSP and Rohana Wijeweera of the JVP. A unique opportunity was offered to the Lankan left on this occasion to field a common candidate opposed to both the UNP and the SLFP. Such a course of action would have provided an
Contd. on page 3
workers for merely exercising their legitimate right to strike in July 1980 is a blatant and clear example of the attitude of these parties to the fundamental rights of the people.
On any count, neither the UNP nor the SLFP deserve the support of the Tamil speaking people at this election or any other election so long as they persist with the policies they have hitherto pursued. It is not a question whether one belongs to the “RIGHT' or "LEFT" in the political spectrum. While it is right that the Tamil speaking people should campaign and struggle for their inalienable right of self-determination, whenever an opportunity presents itself they should vote against these parties who have been primarily responsible for the plight of Tamils today.

Page 3
September 1982
LSGSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSSSSSSLSSSSSSLSSSSS
Contd. from page 2
opportunity for the left to restore its image amongst the people. Since the LSSP's decision in 1964 and later the CP's to enter into a coalition with the SLFP, the Lankan left has gradually lost its traditional hold even amongst the working class. The collapse of the left was reflected in its almost total eclipse from the parliamentary arena following the July 1977 elections.
Dr. De Silva, the veteran leader of the LSSP would have been an ideal common left candidate. Among the opposition candidates, he is the most experienced, powerful and colourful candidate. Although the LSSP's ideological position was seriously compromised during its coalition with the SLFP, the left presenting a united front and putting forward a common candidate in the person of Dr. De Silva against the UNP and SLFP, would have probably led to a polarisation of class forces, both at the leadership and rank and file level. Such a course of action would also
have given the working class, which has taken a severe beating at the hands of the UNP in the recent past, and which remains divided, dispirited and disoriented, a much needed moral boost. Sectarianism and opportunism have reigned supreme and the working class is destined to suffer for a further period.
The role of the Communist Party (Moscow) in this election is inexplicably opportunist. Up until the announcement of the presidential election, the CP has been in close collaboration with the LSSP and strongly critical of the SLFP. How and why the CP decided to back the SLFP's Kobbekaduwa and not the LSSP's Dr. De Silva beats one's imagination.
The NSSP led by Vasudeva Nanayakkara agreed to support Dr. De Silvas candidature if he contested on a clearly defined left programme. On Dr. De Silva's failure to be bound by such an undertaking, the NSSP put forward its own nominee, Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara. While the position of the NSSP in demanding that Dr. De Silva base his
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TAMIL TIMES 3
campaign on a left programme is correct and understandable, to what extent Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara contesting would further the interests of his own party or the working class remains a debatable question. The NSSP parted company with the LSSP on the precise question of the latter's association with the SLFP. In this context, some supporters of the NSSP itself suggest that the party leadership has failed to grasp this opportunity to wean away the LSSP from the SLFP. It is reported that the Revolutionary Marxist Party accepts this line of thought and therefore has decided to back Dr. De
Silva.
The Janatha Vimukthi
Peramuna has always held the rather arrogant view that all other left groups or parties are opportunist and counter-revolutionary. The JVP is bent on organising itself as the sole left force in the country and therefore its interest in united front activity with other left groups is marginal, to say the least. With those views, it would have been futile for anyone to expect the JVP to support Dr. De Silva.
TULF”S
“NON-PARTICIPATION'
The position adopted by the TULF in this election is the most pathetic. TULF is the biggest opposition parliamentary party in the country. More than that, it can claim with reasonable justification to represent the substantial majority of the Tamil speaking people. While its decision not to field a presidential candidate was predictable, its almost half-hearted call to the Tamil speaking people for "non-participation' in the election constitutes an act of
abdication of leadership and
responsibility. If the TULF, after due consideration, came to the view that participating in the electoral process is not in the best interests of the Tamil speaking people, then the TULF leadership has an unshakable duty to go before the people and actively campaign for a positive boycott. If the leadership is not convinced
of a boycott, then they should give the correct message to the Tamil people as to what they should do with their votes.
The UNP and SLFP which have been jointly and severally responsible for the innumerable acts of discrimination against the Tamil speaking people are going around the country, including the traditional homelands of the Tamils, asking for their votes. Dr. Colvin R. De Silva, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Rohana Wijeweera from the left and Kumar Ponnambalam of the Tamil Congress are also seeking their votes. Either the TULF leadership should have openly campaigned for a total boycott of the election and called upon the people to refuse to cast their votes as a symbolic act of defiance, or it should have specifically advised the people not to vote for the UNP or the SLFP and asked them to cast their votes for any one of the other candidates, which in effect would have meant an antiUNP and anti-SLFP vote.
Participation in election constitutes a political act. An active boycott campaign of an election is also a political act. But a "non-participation' declaration at the leadership level and leaving the people to decide as to how they should exercise their franchise and run away from the scene of nolitical action is the act of a leadership which at best is opportunist and at its worst politically bankrupt. On both counts, such a leadership doesn't deserve the continued support of the people whom it claims to lead.
DIRECT DIALLING
A new Automatic Telephone Exchange with subscriber trunk dialling facilities to and from the northern Tamil city of Jaffna commenced functioning from 18th September.
It is now possible to make telephone calls and receive calls from other parts of the country by direct dialling. Although smaller and less populated cities in the country had enjoyed these facilities for quite some time now, Jaffna did not until last month.

Page 4
4TAMIL TIMES
'DEATH SENTENCES-CRUEL & BARBARIC’ SAYS M.I.R.J.E.
Commission Law, which the
'The Tamil youths, Kuttiman ni and Jegan, who were tried under the Prevention of Terrorism (Special Provisions) Act, have been sentenced to death. The MIRJE is opposed to the imposition of death sentence as a means of punishment, as being cruel and barbaric”, the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (President: Fr. Paul Caspersz; Secretary : Reggie Siriwardene) said in a statement released following the death sentences passed on Kuttimani and Jegan.
The statement adds, “It ill becomes a Government which claims to be Dharmista and a champion of Buddhism to seek to take the lives of these youths. It is a bitter irony that the United National Party, which when in opposition, was so critical of special legislation and laws with retrospective effect, should, when in office, enact similar legislation. The so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act incorporates all the most iniquitous aspects of the infamous Criminal Justice
mic,
UNP so justly denounced.
“The Prevention of Terro
rism Act is in effect throughout the island. Under its
provisions, any trade unionist,
student activist, opposition politician, progressive acadesocially active monk, critical journalist or dissident poet can be taken into custody, kept for eighteen months without being produced in Court, tortured and brought to trial on charges which are supported by confessions inadmissible under the normal law. As the Judge who passed the sentence on Kuttimani and Jegan stated, this piece of legislation itself provided him with no other choice. It is significant that he expressed regret at having to impose the death penalty.
'Kuttimani and Jegan are the first to be sentenced under this deadly legislation. The struggle against this draconian law is the struggle for safeguarding the democratic rights of all the people of this island.
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September 1982
HUNGER-STRIKE BY DIETAINEES
Protesting against the inhuman conditions under which they were held, several Tamil detainees held at the Panagoda Army Camp went on a hunger-strike on September 9. The strike ended when the Army Commandant of the camp gave an undertaking to meet the following demands: O to give prescribed quantity of food O to permit three baths under a shower every week and removing the prohibition on
purposes. They can now wash when they please O detainees will be permitted daily 1 hour's exercise in the open within the prison between 4.0 and 6.0 p.m.
parcels to detainees by
families will be opened and examined in presence of
detainees; also when they are delivered by hand O military police authority will made every effort to make a speedy delivery of detainees' correspondence
2 cakes of soap to be given
detainees using the water taps in their cells for bathing
to every detainee each month.
T A M L TIMES
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السلسلطتستند

Page 5
September 1982
A MEGALITHIC BURI. AT ANAIKODDAI, JAl
It is over fifty years since the first megalithic urn burial site in the Island was discovered at Pomparippu. Not much excitement was created by the discovery, as its significance was not known at that time. In the past fifteen years more megalithic sites have been discovered in the Island and their importance for the study of the early history of this country is beginning to be realised. It is not surprising therefore that the discovery of the first megalithic burial site in the Jaffna District in December 1981 has led to much excitment in that area.
The discoveries made by an archaeological survey team from the University of Jaffna during the first two weeks of December 1980 are indeed sensational. For a very long time nothing was known about the pre-and proto-history of the Jaffna District, and one had to be content with the legends of the Nagas of the Chronicles that passed for history. For the first time now a scientific study of the proto-history of that region has been made possible by the archaeological discoveries at the mounds of Anaikoddai, about four kilometres north of Jaffna town.
One of these mounds had been harbouring a veritable burial complex dating back to pre-Christian times, until it was laid bare by workmen removing earth to fill the Navanthurai Lagoon. It was at this point that a team from the Jaffna University had moved in to save some of the precious artefacts and skeletal remains from being subjected to a second burial in another place that was being reclaimed from the lagoon.
The discoveries include skeletal remains from extended burials and urn burials, iron tools such as spearheads and daggers, parts of copper bangles and a copper rod, a large amount of black-and-red ware that is typical of megalithic sites in Sri Lanka
and South India, Roman rouletted ware and even objects with dateable writing, one of which goes back to the third century BC.
There is a reference by the Dutch writer Valentyn to some finds suggesting a sort of Roman settlement in the first century AD in Mantai in Mannar, more or less comparable to Arikemedu on the opposite coast of South India. But the evidence now appearing is of very much greater significance, for they confirm the lurking anticipation a few of us have had, since the discovery in the twenties of the urri burials at Pomparippu, that there was a megalithic phase common to the
whole of south India and Sri
Lanka preceding historic period.
the early
looking back it would seem that we had treated the large number of discoveries in many parts of the country where evidence of a megalithic phase had been observed with very little apprecation, not to say indifference, of their far-reaching significance.
As far back as 1886 evers had found an ancient burial place in Gurugalhinna in the Anuradhapura district. This had been also noted by H.C. P. Bell in 1892. It was a megalithic site, but the report of further investigations by Godakumbura in 1965 has yet to see the light of day. Hugh Nevill is on record as having discovered a cinerary urn at Mallikam Pitti in 1877. A. C. Hocart announced the discovery of the Pomparippu urn burials in 1924.
It will be sufficient here to note a few names of places where discoveries had been made of urn burials, dolmens, cists, extended burials, blackand-red ware, etc, all pointing to a megalithic phase in Sri Lanka. These are, to be brief, the Gedige in Anuradhapura, Katiraveli in the Batticaloa district, Padavigampola in the Kegalle district, Gurugalhinna

AL STE FFNA
in the Anuradhapura district, Kokebe in the North Central province, Makewita in the Gampaha district, Okanda, Habarana, Tissamaharama, ASmadala, Mummaragoda, Ibbanketuwe in the Matale district, Itikala, Bambaragastalawa, Kudumbigala and Panamamoderagala.
Vimala Begley and others of the University of Pennsylvania did some excavation in Pomparippu in 1970. Begley had estimated as many as eight thousand graves in the three or four acres that form the megalithic cemetery at Pomparippu.
Commenting on some of these sites, S. Paranavitana in his work entitled Sinhalayo published in 1967, wrote on page7: “these megalithic sites and urn fields are found throughout the regions inhabited by Dravidian-speaking people. The burial customs to which they bear witness are referred to in early Tamil literature. It is therefore legitimate to infer that the people who buried their dead in dolmens and cists as well as in large earthen-ware jars, were Dravidians. He continued (on page 9): “The few
megalithic monuments and urm burials discovered in Ceylon are obviously an
overflow from South India'.
We have now discovered that these are far from being 'few', and with further study are also compelled now to accept that they are not an 'overflow' from South India but part and parcel of a single matrix of culture and identity that bound South India and Sri Lanka together in the past.
While Paranavitana had chosen to call the bearers of this culture Dravidians, we would prefer to avoid names for the present and to confine our attention purely to scientific study free of political chauvinism or religious fanaticism. Is there much point in wanting to know in the present context which came first, the chicken
TAMIL TIMESS
BY Dr. James T. Rutnam
or the egg?
The University of Jaffna has an excellent staff of historians and archaeologists, led by an indefatigable scholar, Professor K. Indrapala, who is also the Director of the Evelyn Rutnam Institute For InterCultural Studies in Jaffna. A senior lecturer, S.K. Sittampalam, has now gained a doctorial degree in Archaeology, having earlier obtained a first in the Master's Degree, at the University of Poona, and young P. Ragupathy is already a M.A. (Archaeology) in the first division from the University of Mysore. They have a set of keen and diligent graduates working along with them.
These scholars seem to attach great importance to the dis
covery at Annaikoddai. Jaffna
seems to have shared a common culture with Tamil Nadu in the pre-Christian and early Christian centuries. Roman rouletted-ware has been found at such sites as Uraiyar and Kaveripatinam in Tamil Nadu, and its presence at Annaikoddai shows that Jaffna too was, as Warmington had observed in 1925, in its own way influenced by the Roman trade with Tamil Nadu in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
The excavation at Kantarodai in 1970 had exposed megali
Contd. on page 13

Page 6
6 TAMIL TIMES
SRI LANKA NEWS IN BRIEF
O New Passport Office: A new Passport Office under the Immigration and Emigration Department has been opened in the northern city of Jaffna. Hitherto, the people of Jaffna and adjoining areas had to travel over 250 miles to Colombo to obtain or renew their passports.
Rs. 1.8 million for family Planning: The United Nations Family Planning Association will begin its single biggest project in Sri Lanka next year with the distribution of contraceptives, including pills, condoms and IUDs worth about Rs. 1.8 million.
Oil Exploration: With the recent cabinet decision to farm out two off shore blocks for oil exploration to the American South East Asia Oil and Gas Company, Sri Lanka has now leased out an off-shore sea area of 25,925 square kilometres and a land area of 10,250 square kilometres for oil exploration.
Surveillance at Mannar to increase: The Lankan Government has approved a scheme
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Statue for Pandaravannian:
A statue of Pandaravannian, who has been considered a national hero, was recently erected at Vavuniya. The statue was unveiled by the TULF MP for Vavuniya, Mr. T. Sivasithamparam. O Commission to probe racial violence: A one man Commission comprising Mr. A.C. Alles, retired Supreme Court Judge, has been appointed to probe into the causes and extent of the recent inter-racial violence between the Sinhalese and Muslims in the Southern city of Galle and its surrounding areas.
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September 1982
BOYCOTT ELECTION’ SAYS LIBERATION COUNCIL
Among the many important matters taken up for discussion at a meeting of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Council, the decision to hold a Seminar on the Economic Development of Tamil Eelam received a great deal of attention of the Council. Appropriate measures are being taken to co-ordinate the work already begun in Sri Lanka regarding the Seminar, and experts will be called upon from around the world to do the groundwork in preparation for the birth of the NEW NATION OF TAMIL EELAM. The Seminar is expected to be held in New York during the month of July 1983.
Regarding the forthcoming Presidential election, the Council decided that, (a) No Tamil should contest the Presidential election. (b) Tamils should not exercise their ballot at the next Presidential election.
This decision is necessitated by the fact that the Tamils
have lost confidence in the Parliamentary system and any future support of this system will not serve the purpose of achieving their ultimate goal of Tamil Eelam. This affirmative action is the only way in which the Tamils can express to the outside world their strong political conviction in the creation of Tamil Eelam.
The matter of forming an INTERIM PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT, which was referred to the Liberation Council at the Convention, was tabled and discussed. In principle, the Council was in agreement with this proposal, and a task force has been appointed to pursue this matter further.
With reference to the sentence of death passed on Kuttimani and Jegan, the Council has already contacted the various Human Rights Organizations, and a telegram has been sent to the President of Sri Lanka calling the judgment a travesty of justice.
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Page 7
September 1982
GANAPATHY TEMPL
In Wimbledon, a residential suburb in south-west London, now stands a monument to Tamil-Hindu culture - a Temple in the name of Ganapathy, popularly and affectionately also called Pillaiyar. Normally in Indian cities and villages, the first shrine or Temple is dedicated to Ganesh and therefore it is fitting that this London
Temple - the first in Europe - should have been in His name and honour.
At first, in 1979, poojas were held every Friday in a rented hall, but the handful of devoted organisers felt they should have a permanent place of worship. As the Indian proverb says, “One cannot persuade luscious mangoes to fall into one's lap by merely chanting mantras', these men realised that they had a lot of hard work to do before their dream reached fulfilment. They vowed that within two years to the day the first pooja was offered, they would purchase, build and consecrate a proper Temple.
Accordingly, the enterprising members of this pioneering group purchased a disused church building using their own funds within an year. Between the purchase and conversion of the building into a Temple, they encountered many difficulties. Undaunted, the group went ahead. This was a gigantic task - renovating and refashioning a typical Christian place of worship to a traditional-looking Hindu Temple.
A large imposing image of
BY RAN
Pillaiyar was the first priority A group of traditional scul tors in Mahabalipuram, Sout India, was commissioned t carry out this most importal task. They also carved man other statues of other deiti and all these were brought t London, some by sea an others by air.
On September 12, 1981, tw years after the idea of th Temple was first mooted, th
main deity was installed in magnificient three day cert mony amid all the pomp an glamour one only witnesses 2 such occasions in India or S. Lanka. Thousands of devote and well wishers gathered an the atmosphere was filled wit deep devotion and serenity The remarkable religious de votion displayed by those wh participated in the ceremoni rituals of the KUMBAB SHEKAM clearly demonstra ted the need of the people fo such a Temple. A solem procession in the afternoo was the highlight of th proceedings. It was a day tha will live long in the memori of London Tamils.
The Ganapathy Temple re presents a unique achievemen in the history of Sri Lanka. residents in Britain. A labou of LOVE and DEVOTION and all Sri Lankans, whethe Hindu or belonging to an other faith, are truly prou that this small group of som of their soil have bee successful in establishing th: magnificent edifice in Londo and have helped to keep aliv
 

TAMIL TIMES 7
E OF WIMBLE DON
EMMANUEL
the religious and cultural practices of their fore-fathers. A resident priest, besides performing poojas, attends to the various needs of the Hindus, solemnising marriages, naming of children, determining auspicious days and times etc., and generally helping the people to be aware of their traditional Temple events. Abishekams are performed on request. Daily and weekly poojas are held and on festival days, special services and ceremonies are conducted.
The VINAYAGAR CHATURTH was celebrated on a grand scale on August 22 this year. A large number of devotees and worshippers took part in the pooja performances which were held from 10 a.m. and participated in a solemn procession later in the afternoon. The crowd and the atmosphere were reminiscent of similar scenes at Nallur, Kataragama and Thiruketheeswaram. Following this, on 3rd
w I MBL E D oN
and 12th September, there were special poojas to commemorate the first anniversary of the Kumbabishekam.
Adjoining the main Temple is a spacious hall where Satya Sai Bajans are held regularly.
Everyone will hope that this Temple flourishes and that the old and the young grow in the knowledge of the true precepts of Hinduism, even though they are far away from their native lands.
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Page 8
8 TAMIL TIMES
Journey's end fo the tea pickers
David Selbourne Crossing the K clani and Sitawaka rivers (they made The Bridge. Over the River Kwai in these parts), the road narrows through Puwakpiliya, and climbs up-country. We are in the (entral Highlands of Sri anka. Ironn 2.()()() ficci, i h c t ca costates are pretty as a picturc, bushes as neat as the topiary in a formal linglish garden.
Yellow and black finger posts point down russet paths to the plantations: Penrith and Kenilworth, Glen loch, Hollyrood and Duncedin. There are "gospel halls and "factory churches," as at lindoola, by the roadside; and Superintendents bungalows (Westward lo, Fili opy, and so forth), some of then as Stately as mansions. Once the fans whirred over canc hask ct chairs, Engish an Scots accens, and the morning papers, he garden reliscs, potting sheds and roses could he in the Malverns, the lawns were like haize or green velvet. Things werc well-ordercol, in the good old days.
When the car Slips close to a green, steep, near-shcer tea slope, stepped in worn grey granite, you can see the tea pickers clearly: hooled in the steady drizzle, or shrodied, under coloured plastic, blue, red, yellow; at their hips, grey wicker baskets. (You can also see that some of the highest terraces are vergrown with creepers, like abandoned Italian vineyards.) Waiting in the quiet rain at the roadside, the flanks of paticnt bullocks g listen, horn tips and muzzle hair jewelled and dripping. And beyond the next turn, there are female voices approaching.
You are suddenly face to face with them on the road, on their way to the checkweighman, leather straps around their foreheads, to hear the weight of the fully laden tea baskets, they are running you can see on the instant from a calvary of labour; Some no more than little girls (though it is easy to confuse them, with their thin legs and stunted bodies), some tired old women, with pinched lemur-like faces, teeth panstained; running near bent-double, like coalmen in our own old days; their mouths puckered, and mocked by the bloom of the roadside flowers.
Follow them: beasts of burden, they stand as patient as the bullocks (or pit donkeys), queuing at the shed of the checkweighman. He is entering the weights in a ledger, behind his wooden counter, the rain now drumming on the corrugation. When they unload the baskets from their backs, and release the straps from their foreheads, you can tell the young ones quickly: they smile with relief, and even giggle. The older women hollow-cheeked and often wildeyed with exhaustion, step back without expression, eyes long ago blanked out by labour.
At nightfall, and in heavy rain, in the 'line rooms -labour barracks, usually set deep in the plantation, isolated from other habitation, without electricity or running water (and guarded in the old times)--they
stare, in the same way stalled, or penned, like fresh with rain, and blackened sheds, or hutc them one-roomed like cach with the bisected d If you look inside, yo chair, a table; perhaps a a faded photograph or stained plaster, memen regarded. The inner "ro underground pit, will bodies even the whites guished - with a red h corner. There is a Sme funnelling blue-grey fro ways; and, gathering ar. (At ten or eleven, they But then this is a flowe A solitary chair is d with the back of a flust It is a relief to sit and d you are such a Gulliver labour. There is anael sallow faces; serious un stick legs and swollen b and coughing. Even th drawn and tired, their ey of the hurricane lamps, The plantation Tal These are “plantation might say water buffalo There are well over on Hindus brought to C India, from 1839 onwa labour on British plant of them are harijans (ie. distinct from the two and, in general, cas Tamils.' And not only one drastic blow made 1948 the country became Sinhalese Buddhist majc
The Citizenship Acts left the "plantation nation, stateless. The l tions (Amendment) Act their franchise. In 196 with India--- not register Nations, and without in status-provided for thi deportation, of 600,000 375,000, were to beco Lanka.
Stalled in a Gehenna. condition like theirs: v racial attacks, rape an 1977 and 1981; intermit the plantations in searc the “Ceylon Tamils' in eastern provinces of S already uprooted and 's which most of them ha a million of them stil thousands awaiting Sri or "repatriation," some in hiding; some who hav citizenship, but who h

September 1982
Dr
, ou of darkness; cattle. On hillsides verdant, these are hes - - - 70 per cent of lines of loose boxes oor of a stable.
u will see a bed, a wooden bench, and two on the damptoes of lives unom,” as black as an be crowded with of eyes are extinearth glow in the :l of wood smoke om the shed dooround you, children. seem six or seven. ring in darkness.) usted over quickly, ered hand, for you. warf yourself, when in a Lilliput of hard mia here in these der-nourishment in ellies: pigeon chests e young men are es, in the fitful light
dark-circled.
mills'
Tamils,' as a man , or wild elephant. e million of them. eylon from South irds, as indentured ations, 80 per cent "untouchables') as million indigenous te-Hindu "Ceylon out-castes, but in aliens also, when in independent, under rity rule. of 1948 and 1949 amls" without a arliamentary Elecof 1949 took away 4 and 1974, pacts ed with the United ternational juridical "repatriation,' or of them. The rest, me citizens of Sri
there was never a ictims of Sinhalese i plunder in 1972, tently driven to flee h of safety among the northern and ri Lanka; 400,000 ent back” to India, ve never seen; half stateless; tens of Lankan citizenship, "overstaying' and e been given Indian ave changed their
minds about leaving; some with no documents at all to their names ("do you think records were kept of the birth of all these poor people?”) who are lost and despairing in a maze of regulations; and 25,000 who simply did not get their jobs back, after a strike in July 1980.
On top of it, they are the source of Sri Lanka's greatest wealth-the tea, coconut and rubber plantations still provide over 70 per cent of the country's export income - and victims of its bitterest hardships, in a seemingly eternal conjunction.
Crowded in their sheds, they speak terribly of their lifetimes of colonial drudgery on these pitiless hillsides, as of near-halcyon days; with a timid and deferential nostalgia for the white man, whom you are representing. For, now, there are new bitternesses: the "independence" which robbed them of their citizenship, and the "nationalisation," in 1972 and 1975, which brought the Sinhalese in to manage the thraldom of the Tamils.
The Janatha Estates Development Board and the Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation have merely taken over as taskmasters. Even trade union officials unwittingly refer to the new Sinhalese in the old British bungalows as "the planters.” (In any case, Brooke Bond Liebig, Lyons, Typhoo, the CWS, et al., still control the Colombo tea auctions, the prices and the markets.) And in the line rooms-the development board says that 10 per cent have been renovated in the last decade-there is still no fight, the rain still courses down the dampStained walls on to the earthen floor, and it is still the only available running water. Moreover, despite their creation of Sri Lanka's wealth, the workers themselves are close to destitution. At Drayton Estate, Kotegala, young Muthuraman, married with two children, and a pruner-with the top joint of his left index finger missing-is sitting in a black hovel. It is Line No. 11, Room 10. He is at a rickety wooden table, covered with orange plastic, which takes up much of the tiny space; a bed fills the remainder. There is a small hand-mirror and a calendar nailed to the faded green whitewash; the inner room is Stygian.
For 25 days labour last month, he earned 440 rupees (£10.40). Of this, 358 rupees (£8,90) was docked at source, most of it for rations-rice. flour, sugar-advanced on the truck system; he was left with £1.50 for a month's labour. His friend Selvanathan, who has five children, got 570 rupees (£13.50), which included extra rairy-season shiftwork, planting seedlings. He was left with 37 rupees (90p), after similar deductions. Like
all the other workers I spoke to, he is
caught in a stranglehold of arrears, eking out life by borrowing every month for basic foodstuffs against wages.
Muthuraman can "get through' only until the twenty-second of each month, with a meagre diet of rotis, coconut scrapings, rise and dal. He may have eggs once a week, and meat once a month, if he is lucky. After the twenty-second, he and his wifewho earned a little over £5 for 26 days' labour-and their two children "just managed to survive." The end of the month is a "bad situation." As rations dwindle to Zero, with only cups of tea (which are free)
Contd. on page 9

Page 9
September 1982
mmmmmmm
Contd. from page 8 for an empty stomach, and nothing of value for the pawnshop, many of the workers starve, especially the women.
"At times of great need," I was told-as others gathered in the shed, some to speak, and some, their eyes glazed, to listen-"a jittle bit of rice or flour may be given by others. But usually we can only watch when others are starving." Blackened by darkness, they became plantation slave hands before my eyes; Negroes of the ante-bellum American south, by the light of a hurricane lamp, swarming with insects.
"No one has a surplus, everyone is struggling for survival,' they were saying. Heavily varicosed legs stood beside me. "It is a vicious circle,' Muthuraman said: "without food, we don't have the stamina to go to work, and so tose our wages. The people who are malnourished fall ill more often." And there is no sickness pay; these are labour pains shared by men, women and children.
But it is the women's life and work on the plantations which is the cruellest. "They work from the time they wake, till the time they go to sleep"; they "go without' first; they "make the sacrifices"; and are often bullied and beaten by their menfolk into the bargain. Their deficiency diseases and their physical sufferings are therefore the most serious.
Over half of them are said to be clinically malnourished. There are high stillbirth and infant mortality rates (perhaps over 150 per 1,000 births), but in the last years no official figures have been published. They earn around 60 per cent of the men's wages even for exactly the same work and the same output.
Much of the plucking of the leaves is done by the women. Digging, planting, pruning, in addition to picking, are men's work. (You can see the ragged male labourers, thin as sticks, clearing the underbrush with mattocks.)
After having got up at dawn, or even before, to fetch the water, sometimes at a long distance, the women must prepare what food there is, see to the children and do the other household labour, before reporting for "muster' at 6 or 6.30 am. If they are late, they will be stopped work for the day, and lose their pittance. Then, at the "muster shed,' where the teabaskets are usually kept, the overseer will tell them which hillside to go to.
It may be a long way, several miles; and hard going on the steep terraces, which seem to reach to the skies as you climb them. And when they reach their places, you can hear them calling in unison to each other: “poliyo, poli, poliyo poli“ (“may the baskets be full soon").
They break at noon for an hour; humping their loads, usually three times a day, to the weighman, their "chits' pinned to their baskets, or blouses. They finish at dusk but often do not reach the line rooms-and the cooking, the cleaning, the feeding, the wash. ing of clothes : un til 7 pm. What they eat, they eat last, and separately, from the men: drudging from dawn to night, on an endless treadmi!).
Systematic cheating
But you will find much worse, if you wait, and question and listen. It is not just
simple matters, such workers must provid or, on some planta baskets.
Some are much to in the heat of the cr any sense of it; shak terrible bewilderment rate of illiteracy, up higher, is three and non-plantation sector younger, will give y and verse of it: th devilish in its intrica workers' wages.
"Even in our me cheated," they say; " staff steals from us'', workers know how to the details.' There a the large deductions from earnings undèr get less weight in the advances, particularly the rations, than they the numbers of days booked.
And above all, the deceived by the che poundage in their bas deductions made for kilos) in the rain y sea of the basket itself they will be cheated have actually pickec extra unpaid weight favourites, for a pi Moreover, the balanc tirely unbooked po privately in bulk at in Hatton, and the the overseers.
But on the plantat to cooperate brings sent to do harder clearing hillside unde holes in a day for s labour for the old makers' will be put t of touch with the given work where t favourites, can keep compliant get the ea for poundage stolen "When a superintend "he will even intro his successor.
By now, it was n Outside, hoarse anc croaking in the sil estate superintendel private gardens anc work, and the esta R. R. Sivalingam, a confirmed later, "th the state, and the la estate workers.") in the last details: 'th ing for them priva work. You are alloc to do it. Accordis of the superintenc homes in Kandy, w and materials alloc plantation workers. They laugh here tion managements funds for "welfar supervision, or nurs

TAMIL TIMES 9
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSLSSLSL
as the fact that the their own raincapes, ons, even their own
bemused and weary, wded hutch, to make ng their heads in the of the defeated. (The to 50 per cent and our times that of the But the others, the u the whole chapter systematic cheating, ies, of the plantation
gre earnings, we are :very one of the field 'only a quarter of the deal with it and check 2 "mistakes' made in (up to 95 per cent) he truck system. They r rice, sugar and flour when children collect are charged for. Even orked can be wrongly
women especially are ck weighman over the kets. It is not just the
moisture (up to two son, or for the weight (up to one kilo). But about how much they l, with some of the being booked over to ercentage backhander. e excess tea, from en undage, is sold off the tea warehouses, as proceeds split between
ons, protest or refusal victimisation. "We are work as punishment." growth, or digging 125 eedlings. back-breaking er workers. “Trouble) work in isolation, out other field hands; or he overseers, or their an eye on them. The sier jobs, and payment rom the other workers. ent leaves," I was told, luce his favourites to
ght on the plantation.
guttura, frogs were nce. And, then : the ts "have their own
herds of cattle. We e pays." (That is, as ading Hatton attorney,
costs are charged to our is provided by the a chorus, was given re is no choice, workly is treated as estate led the work and have
to Siva lingam, some ints have even built | World Bank money ed for rehousing the
UNICEF, with planta- ,
liverting international training,' or health y provision; with 9,000
teachers short on the plantations, the estate schools like cattle sheds, and only 10 per cent of plantation children still in school by grade five, or age eleven,
Lay Christian bodies, like the Christian Workers' Fellowship, and distinguished Jesuits like Father Paul Caspersz and his Satyodaya Movement, try--by "social action.” adult education, publicity and protest--to make good gross deficiencies in public health, in welfare, in education, with the meagrest of resources. They are beacons in darkness.
Deathly laughter
But despite these efforts, they laugh in the line rooms at the "labour laws,' with a minimum age for workers of 14, and girl children of ten and eleven hired despite it "on a contract basis.” (To say nothing of widespread chemical spraying, without the slightest protection.) They laugh-the laughter is deathly-..-..-at the workers 'Provident Fund,' which should provide a lump sum, to which they have contributed from wages, on retirement. Workers at the Drayton plantation have been given no account, since "nationalisation," of how much is lying to their credit. And there are no pensions. The common est journey’s end, is on the plantations. You can see the unnamed mounds, body-shaped tumuli-sometimes with small metal crosses at their heads -beside and even beneath the tea bushes. They are buried on the tea lands, along the estate roads and pink pathways. "The tea grows over them," said Jeffrey Abayasekera, a lay Christian worker.
The death grant is 25 rupees (60p). A coffin costs 120. Though they may sometimes be able to call on a distress fund, they are too poor to afford the wood for a Hindu cremation. Not even their priests come. Tt is usually far out of the way, and in any case they are outcastes. "Even our bodies are manure for the tea bushes.' someone said quietly. in the stifling hutch. breaking the abyssal silence. There needs to be a threnody for all this, to reach heaven. Or, better still, one great revolutionary act, to sweep it all into oblivion.
As it is, the Sri Lankan tea economy, losing some of its traditional markets in Europe and America to North African and Indian plantations, is slowly contracting. As world prices fall, the tea acreage and the workforce are shrinking together. Some of the estates are even being handed back to the private sector and allowed to run wild, before clearance and Sinhalese occupation.
And as you drive down from Nuwara Eliya, the "sanatorium of Ceylon"- with
its race track (and hurdles) at 6,000 feet,
Tudor gables and Morris Minors, a Victorian Scotland, glens and all, but for the teak and bo-trees-you can see where a new population of Sinhalese is being settled, in the name of "rural development," or "village expansion,' on the premium tea lands. The work of enslaved Tamil generations is being cleared away for Sinhalese housing estates, carved out of the tea bushes. It is these new settlers who, as in 1977 and 1981, have brought increasing racial violence.
Waking from the nightmare
But in the line rooms you may find, ισο,
Contd. on page 10

Page 10
10 TAMIL TIMES
LLLLGLLGLLLSLLLSLSLSLSLSLSLSL
Contd. from page 1 plans of J. R. Jayawardene may go wrong.
Although it was not unexpected that the TULF will not field a candidate in the elections, its call to the Tamil people not to participate has distinctly displeased the J.R. Jayawardene camp and upset its calculations. While he would not have wanted the TULF to openly support him, for it would have had a backlash effect among the chauvinistic sections of the Sinhalese, J. R. Jayawardene
would have naturally expectec the TULF to be at least silent
With the TULF's half-hear. ted cal for non-participation, and Mr. Kumar Ponnamba. lam contesting, it is possible and likely that substantial sections of the Tamil speaking people will exercise their VOteS.
The crucial importance of the ethnic minority votes has been realised by all the candidates. That is why, J.R. Jayawardene and Hector Kobbekaduwa, who would have, in accordance with their past
Contd. from page 9
if you look, cut-out portraits of Marx and Lenin. At Drayton, there is even a plantation child called Brezhnev. The more militant unions, such as the Red Flag Plantations Workers' Union and the Union of Workers, though still smal, are
National
of their indigenous is slowly bringing th ties closer together.
This is a populati the line rooms, whi move: by deportatic frain racial attacks. ' interna migration ha
growing. After generations of inertia, they of thousands --there
talk of unity and class struggle.
Moreover, in the Northern Province, the Ceylon Tamils are engaged in an increasingly bitter struggle for secession and an independent sate of their own in Sri Lanka,
Vivuniya district of alone.-- into the Cey And the younger gen like their brother
India - are slowly w
"Tamil Eelam." And it is fear of further nightmare on the pla
Sinhalese pogroms against the plantation workers. in reprisal for the distant violence
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September 198
record, normally engaged in a contest of outbidding each other to prove who was the more authentic pro-Sinhala Buddhist leader, are today seen trying their utmost to show how reasonable they have been and will be to the ethnic minorities. For instance, the SLFP nominee, Hector Kobbekaduwa, who is not noted for his reasonable attitude to ethnic minorities in the past, would appear to have met the leaders of the plantation workers' unions whose membership is predominantly Tamil speaking, and
LSLSLSLSLSSSSSSLSSSSSSLSSSSSSSSSSSSLSSSSSSLSSSSSSSSSSSSSLSSSSSSLSSS
given five basic assurances in writing: repeal of the Terrorism Act; payment of compensation to all victims of communal riots since August 1977; all
wage increases awarded since 1977 to other workers also to be given to plantation workers; Solutions to any matters affecting plantation workers such as citizenship, land acquisition, etc. to be worked out in consultation with trade unions; and teaching appointments in schools in the plantation areas to be given to educated youth from the plantation areas.
Tamil brethren, which : two Tamil communi
in, once imprisoned in ch is forcibly on the n and recurrent flight Waves of lemming-like ive already taken tens are 50,000 in the North-Central province on Tamil heartlands. eration, in particular— harijans in northern aking from the long ntations. ibility of the rest of 2d back to India," says
S. C. Chandrahasan, a Colombo lawyer and one of the most militant of the Ceylon Tamils' political leaders. "There is no alternative for them but to move into the traditional Tamil areas. Every further act of communal violence against them will expedite it.' But, until then, hundreds of thousands of plantation Tamils will remain in the line rooms, unreached by Marx, or Christ, or “Eelam.”
"Some day,' says Chandrahasan, "there will be a Tamil exodus from the plantations." Meanwhile, they wait for a Moses in their crowded hovels; toiling for our daily cuppas under their Sinhalese pharaohs.
(By kind courtesy of “NEW SOCIETY")
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Page 11
September 1982
LETTERS
UNSEEN DESPOTISM
However much the Government of Sri Lanka and its emissaries abroad may endeavour to paint a glowing picture of the harmonious relations prevailing within the island between the races, they cannot conceal the fact that the Tamils of Ceylon are facing the gravest crisis in their long and chequered history.
To be or not to be, to survive or go completely under - that and no less than that is the question that stares every true Tamil in the face. During the 35 years of Independence, they have been reduced to sheer servitude and utter impotence in national life.
This is what exactly happens, as Viscount Bryce has said in his celebrated treatise, DEMOCRACIES, “If the racial group constitutes a majority in the Chamber, it is omnipotent. It can count on
passing all its measures ...... The Chamber, have ceased to deliberate, has become a mere voting machine, the passive organ of an unseen despo
tism'. The Tamils thus became the helpless victims of an unseen despotism.
The traditional Tamil homelands, governed by Tamil rulers for centuries, attained a high standard of civilized life long before many nations of today were born. That emiment Sinhalese ethnologist and antiquarian of international repute, a gentleman besides of high integrity and perspicacity, the late Dr. Paul E. Peiris, said “Long before the arrival of Vijaya, there were in Lanka five recognized Isvarans of Siva which claimed and received the adoration of all India. They were Thiruketeeswaram near Mahatittha, Munniswaram dominating Salawatta and the Pearl Fishery, Tandeswaram near Mantota, Thirukoneswaram opposite the great Bay of Koddyar, and Naguleswaram near Kankesanthurai. Everyone must concede that the chief influence which has been exercised on the Sinhalese Court throughout its history was the Dravidian interests of South India. I am
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LSSSSLLLSSLSLSLSSSLLLLSLSSSSS S
of the opinion that long before the arrival of Vijaya he country had been fully occupied by Dravidian races. I hope the Tamil people will 'ealize that in truth there is buried in their sands the story of much more fascinating levelopment than they had
hitherto dreamt'.
In 1948, Britain, which held
sovereignty over the whole Island, granted it its Independence. It was Independence granted, be it remembered, not merely to Sinhala Ceylon but to Tamil Ceylon in equal measure. In the interests of
both the peoples, Britain advocated the continuance of the administrative union
which Tamil Ceylon accepted only when adequate safeguards were provided. They were assured that there would be no discrimination on racial grounds; there would be equal opportunity for all and merit would be the sole criterion for participation in public affairs.
What surprises one most is that since 1948 everyone of these safeguards was consigned to the dustbin and in stead all manner of disabilities were imposed on the Tamils. Mathematical' democracy, the rule of superior numbers, made democracy a mere mockery. When the Tamils protested, all forms of State violence were let loose on an unarmed and defenceless
people.
The Tamils who are proverbially a peace-loving, kawabiding people, averse to violence of any sort except as
a last resort, bore all the barbaric excesses with patience
hoping against hope that justice would sooner, or later prevail and relief would come. They parleyed with whichever Party was in power, and made Pacts with the rulers, whoever they were, in the fond hope that truth and justice would ultimately triumph.
That prescient political thinker, Edmund Burke, once said that racial hostilities often leading to open war spring from one race denying the just rights of another race and added, “Think seriously of the folly of allowing any body of persons within the State to foster resentment against denial of rights which they feed to be part of their just due'.
The sentences quoted above depict truly the racial scene in Sri Lanka after Independence. The Sinhalese, by virtue of their superior numbers, have succeeded in depriving the Tamils of their just rights and in rendering them wholly impotent in national affairs. Resentment has accumulated over the years and may burst out with results disastrous to both peoples.
S. R. PARAMSOTHY London W5.
DIVIDE & RULE, JR STYLE
Subtle and consequential, it would appear Sir Editor, to the tiebacle that was JR's helicoptering election tour of the Peninsula, was the offer of a separate Administrative District to the neople of Kilinochchi (a sma town in the district of Jaffna,
It was reported that this offer was greeted with thunderous applause by the claque that had milled round him. "He had the power', the Sun reported (5.10.82), "to create a new District'. The offer was made gratuitously and only after the soliciting question had been put to them, whether they wanted a separate District of Kilinochchi. There was a loud yes (a resounding OHM)
from the crowds, and it was further reported, the promise followed.
The Vanni, which earlier had consisted of the administrative Districts of Vavuniya and Mannar, was further divided mot many years ago with the creation of the Mullaitivu District. Kilinochchi too was
then being prepared for secession as from above Elephant Pass, which is
Peninsular Jaffna, and it was only stiff opposition from the NP members of Parliament that saved it from administrative severance from the District of Jaffna.
What is in the mind of the Contd. on page 13

Page 12
12 TAMIL TIMES LLLLLL LL LLLLLL
EVENTS
SARASWATHY POOJA
The West London Tamil School will celebrate SARASWATHY POOJA on Saturday, 23 October at 11 a.m. at
Stanhope Middle School, Mansell Road, Greenford, Middlesex. All friends and
well wishers are welcome.
Those who wish to join classes in Tamil, dancing, music and veena are requested to telephone 0-904 3937.
率 事 来
DEEPAVALI LUNCH
On 14 November, S.C.O.T.'s
Deepavali Lunch will take place at Lola Jones Hall, Greaves Place, Off Garratt Lane, London SW 17. For tickets and other particulars, please contact Mr. R. Mahadeva, General Secretary, SCOT, 69, Streatfield Road, Harrow, Middlesex (Tel: 01-907 6836).
率 率 *
ANNUAL CAROL SERVICE
The London Tamil Congregation which meets at Putney Methodist Church, London SW15 will hold its annual Carol Service on Sunday 19th December at 3.45 p.m. There
will be a rendering of Specially composed Christmas Carols on this occasion under the direction of the Congregation's Choir Leader, Vathany Thangiah The Christmas message will be delivered by Canon Sebastian Charles of Westminster Abbey.
家 家 率
S.C.O.T. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.
The Fifth Annual General Meeting of the Standing Committee of Tamil Speaking People, (S.C.O.T.) will be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 6, in the Little Hall, Revelstoke Road, Wimbledon, London SW18.
率 家 *
WOMEN, MMIGRA.......
A conference organised by Women, Immigration and Nationality Steering Group and the Women's Committee of the Greater London Council will take place on Sunday, 24 October, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at County Hall, Waterloo, London SE1. All women are welcome. A creche for
children will be provided.
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September 1982
SSSSSSSSSLS
ABOUT PEOPLE
Research Prize A Lankan priest, Fr. A.J.V. Chandrakanthan of the Jaffna Diocese, was recently declared the winner of a $1,500 prize by MISSIO, the founding society of the West German
Bishops' Conference.
Fr. Chandrakanthan won the
prize for his research on “CHURCHS ENCOUNTER WITH CULTURE IN SRI LANKA', a study on contextual theology in the light of the Ecclesiology of Vatican II.
PH.D Mr. M.R.R. Hoole, eldest
son of the late Rev. Richard H.R. Hoole and Jeevamany Somasundaram, has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematical Logic by the University of Oxford.
In his early years, Mr. Hoole
was educated at Chundukuli Girls School and later at St.
John's College, Jaffna.
An old boy of St. Thomas
College, Colombo and the University of Ceylon, Mr. Hoole is now back in Singapore as a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics of the National University of Singapore.
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In a circular sent to all Government departments by the Secretary of Public Administration this week, the heads of departments were told that for filling vacancies no question should be asked whether the applicant is a citizen by descent or registration.
Under the provision of the Indian and Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1948, certain restrictions such as purchase of land, etc. had been placed against citizens by registration. These restrictions have been removed in the 1978 Constitution placing all citizens on an equal footing.
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Page 13
September 1982
TAMIL PASSENGERS ATTACKED & ROBBED
It has happened again and again, and now again. On Tuesday the 21st at 2 a.m. passengers in the Jaffna bound Colombo mail train were attacked and robbed by armed thugs. This time their target has been very selective: the robbed passengers were the slightly well-to-do Tamils travelling in the thirdclass sleeperette with consideration for comfort and security.
THUGS GOT IN AT
GALGAMUWA
The armed thugs are believed
to have boarded the train at Polgahawela and Galgamuwa and had been travelling in the train's buffet car; when the train passed Omanthai, about 20 of them joined by aerated water vendors, had rudely awakened the sleepy passengers, armed with what appeared to be revolvers, knives and broken bottles, and had blocked the exits so that the 50 passengers in the compartment couldn't escape to other
compartments. Many passengers through fear had voluntarily handed over their jewellery, thalikodis, wrist watches, cash and suit cases.
One aged lady had found it difficult to remove her 20 sovereign thalikodi from her neck; a thug, after minutes of struggle, had wrenched the thalikodi, leaving the lady injured. 18 year old Gowri after parting with one of her "gypsy' ear rings had found it difficult to remove the other from her ear; a thug had violently extracted it with part of Gowri's ear
A man who attempted to retaliate against the thugs was stabbed in the chest with a broken soda bottle. Another woman who was stabbed with a broken soda bottle fainted immediately. The thugs are reported to have jumped off the train with their booty when the train slowed down at a point close to Puliyankulam.
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It was surprising, according to the passengers, that though they repeatedly pulled the emergency chain the train failed to stop. But after the looting, the train had slowed down very conveniently at a particular point enabling the thugs to jump off. The cabin-boy John Koralagamage too had left the doors of the sleeperette compartment open, whereas it is normally locked from the inside. The police have taken both the engine driver and the cabin-boy into
custody.
The Police have arrested
three youths in the Omanthai jungles with 13 wristlets, jewellery and cash. They were produced on the 22nd before the Vavuniya Magistrate. They are Abeysinghe Dissanayake, J. Chandrapala and G.L. Premadasa. The Magistrate, Mr. K.D.M.K. Pethagoda has ordered that the suspects be
remanded and presented for an identification parade on 4-10-82. Meanwhile, following telegraphic protests by the Presidential candidate Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam and Jaffna M.P., Mr. V. Yogeswaran, to Mr. J. R. Jayawardene, the President has ordered Mr. W.P. Rajaguru (D.I.G. Northern Range) to submit a comprehensive report on the incident. The A.S.P. (Jaffna) Janab Nizzam who is leading the investigations has questioned the General Commissioner of the Railways, regarding the following:
(a) Why the train failed to stop even though the energency chain was pulled?
(b) Why the doors of the sleeperette - compartment were not locked
(c) Why the eight security personnel who should norma
'lly be on duty failed to trave
on the day of the incident?
Contd. from page 5
thic cultural artefacts, specia
lly black-and-red ware, in the earliest phase of that site, dating to the 2nd century BC.
One noticeable fact at Annaikoddai was the discovery of a large number of potsherds with graffitti marks comparable with those of South India. No Buddhist, Jain or Brahminical influence is revealed by any one of these finds. The Pomparippu finds compare in some cases with those at Adichanallur in the Tinnevelly District, which some date as
occasion of the prophetic words Of Dr. Paul E. Pieris when he declared publicly at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society as far back as 1919: 'I hope the Tamil people will realise that in truth there is buried in their sands the story of a much more fascinating
development than they had hitherto discovered ... for, 2000 years ago, Jaffna was an important and flourishing district. Coins in abundance have been discovered indicating a flourishing condition of commerce not only in Roman
early as the 9th century BC. times but far anterior to
One is reminded on this that.'
Contd. from page 11 to their recalcitrance and President is not hard to overweening sinister designs.
divine. Peninsular Jaffna had always been a thorny nettle to grasp and the holding of it from Metropolitan Colombo has not been a pleasurable pastime since the 1930's. If the Peninsula, inclusive of the islands, not distant from its S.W. coastline, has proved politically unresponsive to overtures of subordination from the South, would it not be a gesture of expedience to let them have it, politically autonomous, facing the consequences however portentous these may be, of abandonment
Such, to my hearing, had been the attitude of many among the majority, viz. to cut loose this running sore from the main body politic of terrirorial Lanka and nurse the integrated rest with all sagacity until the severed Peninsula is only a fading memory, the painfulness of which would have abated and ceased completely with the therapeutic passage of irreversible time.
E. SEEMANPILLAI Batilicaloa Sri Lanka.

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Page 16
PRESIDENTIAL VISIT NORTH UNDER SECURITY
BLANKET
A security blanket enveloped the northern part of the country during President J.R. Jayawardene's recent tensionpacked tour of the Tamil areas as part of his election campaign. It is reliably learnt that J.R. undertook this trip against the strong advice of the National Security Council which feared organised violence by Tamil youth groups. In no way a testimony to his bravery, JR's visit to the Tamil areas demonstrates the importance he attaches to Tamil votes for his continued political survival as President. Unprecedented security precautions characterised his arri
val in the northern Tamil city
of Jaffna on October 2. The elaborate security precautions included air cover, skilled marksmen positioned on roof tops of tall buildings, crack commando units, riot Squads, experts in the use of metal detectors and mobile bomb disposal units.
His mode of transport was generally extra-terrestrial, a well secured helicopter flanked on either side by a helicopter full of security personnel armed to the teeth. The three helicopters remained always air-borne except when the President had to be at ground-level to address meetings. On these occasions, the President's car was in the middle preceded by a pilot car, a security vehicle and an advance security car; back-up police and commando units followed to meet any emergency. While skilled marksmen took up positions on roof-tops, the venues of meetings were closely guarded well in advance by police and military units. A few days before the Presidential visit, an attempt was made by an unknown group to blow up the causeway that connects the mainland of Jaffna Peninsula and the island of Karainagar which is the base of the Sri Lankan Navy. Just before the arrival of the President in the
mysterious in the
city of Jaffna, explosions occurred
centre of the city. Government
sources attributed the explosions to extremist Tamil youth groups who they said were bent on frightening away the people from attending the meetings addressed by the President.
POLICE CRACK-DOWN Despite the heavy police
army crack down against the organisers of the boycott and hartal campaign against President J. R. Jayawardene’s visit to the North, all indications are that the response was substantial. Business establish
ments put up their shutters in
spite of police promises of protection to all those who kept their shops open. Cinema shows were cancelled and
minibus services were drasti
cally curtailed. Some children boycotted schools.
The General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Front, two of the main organisations which organised the campaign, became the chief targets for the police-army pre-emptive strike.
Three shots were fired from a passing vehicle at the residence
of Dr. S.A. Tharmalingam,
President of the TELF, around 12.30 a.m. on 30th September. The bullets damaged the walls and windows of the house. The Doctor who was sleeping at the time came out hearing the gunshots, but the vehicle had been driven
away.
On the following day, many activists were taken into custody by the police and handed over to the army. A TELF youth activist, Devathasan and M. Davidson, the Secretary of GUES, were taken into custody by the police and turned over to the
army. Davidson, who on hearing that he was being sought by the police,
voluntarily surrendered to the
police. The police detained him and it is learnt that he has
now been transferred to the Anuradhapura Army Camp.

September 1982
SLSSq SSGSLSLSLSLSLSLSL LANKAN CRICKET MERCENARIES TO VISIT S. AFRICA
It is reliably learnt that a former Sri Lankan test player has privately organised a cricket team to tour South Africa commencing 19th October. The team is expected to include 6 Lankan test players. The former test player who has masterminded this tour from behind the scenes and in total secrecy has played as a professional in Britain and Netherlands. The players have been lured into the tour with the promise of payments ranging from one to one-and-a half million rupees.
It is believed that the government of Sri Lanka is deeply worried about the impending tour. The government, following a recommendation from the Sri Lankan Cricket Board of Control, has decided to take all steps to prevent the tour taking place by invoking its international commitments, the Commonwealth Gleneagles Agreement and United Nations resolutions on contact with South Africa.
Apart from its international obligations, there is fear in Lankan government and cricket circles that the tour by
the cricketing mercenaries will provoke reprisals. The country obtained international test status only last year. They have already played India and Pakistan. The test tours of Australia and New Zealand are to take place next year. In the meantime there is an impending tour of Zimbabwe. These tours and even the test status accorded to Sri Lanka may be imperilled if the proposed tour is allowed to go ahead.
The Commonwealth Games Federation has already drawn up a code of conduct setting out what action a member association should take if there is a breach of the Gleneagles Agreement which bans sporting contacts with South Africa. A country risks suspension for gross non-fulfilment of the Agreement that imperils the games. And where infringements occur in sports outside the Games programme, these must be brought to the Federation's attention, while the national organisation must make known its opposition and request its government to adhere to the Gleneagles Agreement.
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