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: Lanka Guardian 1996.03.15

Page 1
LANKA
GUAR
VO. 18- No. 21 March 15, 1996 P
RANIL: TAKES
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PRABBHA KARAN 3 PONNAMBALAMs AN
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ESH GUNASEKERA
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RAL INVASIONS
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ICES PUB
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Introduction by Regi Sir Towards Effective Devol Some Thoughts on the Lakshman Marasinghe De WOlutiOI1 aIld POWer Development, by Bertra. Devolution of Power, Th NeelalIl Till Chiclvall Towards A Compromise Breakthrough in Sri LaI Control of State Land - Sul Illil Bastia. Il The Structure and Cont Choices and ProbleIlls O Context of Devolution P
President Chandrika Kuu August 3, 1995 Text of Government's De Text of Govern Ile Int's Di January 16, 1996 A Commentary on the D Gover Innent January 16 The Bandaranalike- Chel' The Senanayake-Chelva AIl'Ilexure C Text of the IIdo-Sri LalI] The Interim Report of th Parliamentary Select Co Excerpts form Gamini Century"
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Page 3
WEWS BACKGFOUWD2
CEMENT AND THE
Mervyn de Silva
n an increasingly unfriendly global
economic environment where the prospects of foreign aid, particularly "untied" aid, are poor, cash-strapped "Third World" regimes take the easy option of selling the family silver. First to be sold are loss-making State corporations, a legacy of a once fashionable "socialism". The chairpersons and the managers of these state-run enterprises Were often party loyalists or the kith-and-kin of minister or deputy minister. They made money and contributed generously to party coffers, keeping a reasonable percentage for themselves.
Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, a former international civil servant, a star of the Oxford Union, and a Tie Tiber of an elite professional family, Was far from satisfied that the Puttalam Cement Corporation deal was above board. He decided offence was the best part of defence - in this case, defending "transparency and accountability", part of P.A.'s polls ргоппise and prograпп — апclhe leveled charges which alas had an explosive effect and a political fall-out he did not (or could not) anticipate.
Mr. Kadirga mars monumental Tilistake and misfortunes were promptly spotted
by Opposition Lea masinghe as the opportunity. Groo conventional and g WateranS - Pres PETEdS - TOWE di fa5t. The T of no-confidence:
"Whereas this take prompt and the specific alleg Minister of Foreig and dated 19th J. Sed to Her ExCel tilt i Ste" | bribes amountin to set aside a 23rd March 1994 Putt IT CETTEet
The P.A.'s Court tribute to the O tacticS. IT'Stad Oil til IO-COficēTICE ment was ready te Tär’s StatĒTÈht WitēWEIT til for deal, and the Tle has dome ir repar P.A.'s "transpar good governance'
BRIEFLY
to make him Cabinet secretary.
“NOT GUILTY” pleads Edit
The Editor of the SUNDAYTIMES pleaded "Not, C trial before High Court Judge, Upali de A. Gunaward om March 8. Mr. Simha Ratmatunga, the editor, is char President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The state led the Publisher, Mr. Ranjit Wijewardene. The trial Will result
NOT CRICKET
It was decidedly "not cricket". Recognising Mr. Bill he arrived at the grounds a large crowd - over 10,000 Writer - broke into "boos" before the Sri Lanka-Kony It was tit-for-tat. The Australians refused to play in the "Tiger" terrorist attack on the Central Bank buildingi
Contrary to conventional wisdom, a man is honou country even if the 'matives" in another place, hoot conservative government of Prime Minister John How

P.A.'s CRACKss
der Mr. Rai| Wickrg
U.N.P.'s Widow of Ted in Parliament's uerrilla Warfare by two sidents Jayawardenie - the U.N. P. leader esult was this motion
government failed to effectiW3 actiOrn On gation Ina de by the In Affairs, in a letter anuary 1996 addresIlency the President Official received g to Rs. 30 million Cabinet decision of 5 pertaining to the Corporation Ltd."
er-OWe Was the best position's choice of F agreeing to debate
Totion, the Goverdebate Mr. Kadirga
to the House. But un, till:3 PUT TALAM dia exposure in itself, able damage to the arcy, a CCOLIIT tability, " Good Guy i Tage, t
OT
Builty" when the lang CommEnced ged fibr defa IIning
evidence of the ne. On April 4th.
Tweddell when I said one sports a match began. Sr Lākā ir in mid-February.
rgd in his own
hill. The new ard has decided
is no surprise that the self-elected "watch-dog" (clean consience?) of the P.A., the "Mulberry Grounp" has made its ownmowe. While the C.I.D. is reported to have commenced inquiries of the whole sordid business, the Bribery Commissioner may launch his own inquiry. Mr. Kadirgamar took off to Egypt, an Official Wisit.
MAHA SANGHA
While the Opposition has pounced on the Foreign Minister and his serious allegations of top-level bribery and corruption, the MAHA SANGHA trained its heavy artillery on the P.A.'s "Devolution Package" which the Buddhist clergy identify with Prof. Pieris, the campus think-tanks and NGO's, all part of a
network blessed by Western donors.
=;
GÜARDIAN
Wol. 18 No. 21 March 15, 1996
Price R5. 10.00
Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd. No. 246, Union Place ColorTEO - 2.
Editor: Mervyn de Silva Telephone: 447.584
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CONTENTS
Meaning of the Tamil
"Liberation Struggle" 3. Negotiating in a
Secessionist Crflict
Thë Hayo "intellectuals"
Play The Specificity of Sri Lanka Waiting for Zyugarlow
Hollards of Heart ԲՈ

Page 4
The Wen. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Maha Foreign Minister, a Thera, recognised as a leading spokes- professional whose man of the Maha Sangha Said in an been challenged, as interview With the SLOay Tries: "Con- battering ram. AS in stitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Pieris fare, so in politics. says the government does not accept timing" and the the so-called concept of "traditional
Oeland" of the EELAMSTS but it Would be the inevitable result of the package..."
On the question of discrimination, he Le said: "If Tamils are discriminated "LELLUr against mainly because they are My left Tamils and if the Sinhala people hawe been given certain privileges because I FLE É they are Sinhalese, then there is So theլ definitely a justifiable Tamil problem. Oטer U But there is no such issue".
Oleg C
What is the direct outcore of this I BL LE Buddhist agitation led by the Maha Offerti Sangha? The P.A. is likely to reconsider TE WE the "constitutional reforms package" (the Sழப்து devolution proposals) put together by Prof G.L. Pieris. The P.A.'s Wulnerability COLIll. is not only exposed by the onslaught Ar llad IP of the Maha Sangha, BUT the disagree- YOLL FC ments WITHIN the 8-party coalition. How TT C) allied is the Peoples Alliance? The - question Carnot be awoided.... certainly TLEl mot after the Statement of ND UNLF, led Afld Ejl by Minister Srimani AlhulathTudali Li Widow of the party's founder Mr. Lalith прс Athulathrmudali. "We feel very strongly Rélé Lë that further amendments are necessary" YOLL CF she said. Her main objection is to "Union TS LL of regions", and the attefript to destroy A I Lope or erode the sovereignty of the State. TE W
It is now clear that the Opposition 蠶 leader has bided his time to select the ideal battleground, not just any available TU G. battlefield, The 5,7y Leader hlas Such c called the controversial deal the K-Gate O III.(I.
... after Foreign Minister Kadirgallar's exposures, in his first opinion on the So tյoլ Puttalan CenTrent privatisation issue. Why II
I plea
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickrema- YOLI Tı singhe evidently bided his time since this was not just a bazaar Scandal. It LIT 5 involved offers frommany firms, including I CILI foreign, certainly from our big neigh- SIL: LIL bours, Pakistan and India, And the bids EBL Lt C. ranged from 10 million US dollars to Der lLzE 41 million US dollars. Birth
If anything was "transparent" it was OLIT Fll the discord in the "Peoples Alliance". Will The Opposition Leader let the contradictios and conflicts. Within the "alliance" multiply and mature. He has used the L -
a

highly regarded Wickremasingle has set about the busiintegrity has not ness with a cool-headed professionas the opposition's lism. And now for the debate.
Conventional War- It will take bags of Puttalam Cement The "target", the to cover the Widening cracks in the battleground. Mr. Peoples Alliance,
Waiting - 19 tter from Kundasalle
Oe,
eT LILLIS tirrie LJS Lite Free SC COLUIS EA ÉLÉK: TEOLLË
மd prioriபு
OLI, loUe.
LU, you said, Las pregnar lt
2. LL62
Titց
Lad defiIsed Éle: LLKOTJJ LUCIS SleF LL.
se ha Le called Ll the pasture in the Tight e: calf Stoler bəy muğal or LLUild Creatı IITe=? LC SLITSe COLIC"I be шs шеге Поппе вагlу ешкеліпg,
Fue Vet Itad felt Tight Inside ought out a Lee Luhite calf
Irld dearl.
FC | HLII, SCIC1 tecked the dairy records arld coirtfir:Tried
S. Le LLE SELL
aless Crise
sLL spected cortagious chLrOrlic CalUrg the tests confirTried his LI FILLE LO COLLETT TIL FLEET It? Of No! Oh yes, Tiss! Te Fte sicci decisors
ke e COTT TI fees.
I see, lоше,
ny lettet LUCIs la fe led for her life, I told the Vet List, you I List please race her LL'ell.
did, so in my letter ot Take the usual happy Chatter as a fine animal, sleek arid supple aaLa LLLLLL LLLLLLLaaLCL LCL LLL LLLLtTTTTTL T gfa dark, வாய்ாal Lorld Irid death had brought filosold suffering IIIIIII LLOrld. loUe, is our fiture promising?
U. EKa Linhalti la ke

Page 5
Meaning of the Tamil
H. L. D. Mahindapala
r. Sachi Sri Kantha (WGYIKA
Guardian February 1, 1996) deserWes a reply not because his comments need refuting (in fact, ignored his earlier comment where he was tilting at the Solid Windmills of 77:5. We W. Koń 7W775) but because he, like Tost other Tamil:S in the diaspora, refuse to face their brutal history which records the inhuman oppression of Tamils by Tamils from the time of Sankill (1519).
But before I go further let The hasten tu add that my two articles (Larika Glada, October 15, 1995 and Nowellber 1, 1995) which, Lundoubtedly, hawe pricked Mr. Sri Kantha's guilty conscience, were definitely meant to be attacks On the Tamils who treated their fellowTamils as sub-urban slaves, I was focussing on the 75 per cent of the uppercastes in Jaffna who never lifted a finger to liberate the oppressed Tamils for over five centuries. I even pin-pointed that the loud-mouthed champions of Tamils today despised and segregated the low-caste Tamils like the Was Who were never allowed to Walkin daylight. One of the points stressed by me was that no other community in Sri Lanka - Muslims, Indian Tamils, Burghers or Sihal55E – EVE'teated B ElberS of their own community in this degrading Taller. Even a Writer like H. W. Tambiah, who is generally inclined to argue that the sun that shines over Sri Lanka comes out of the Tamils' ears, (See Yé7 M*5 a7Taf Cit/5Y3,7 75 ffW7e? 5ôy7/iğ7ßé7Se), has stated Categorically that the Tamil low-castes were treated as "abject slaves" by the upper-castes. On this Bydeltog Wrote 15 tils ITUSt BE tilg darkest chapter in Sri Lankan history.
Unable to answer this point Mr. Sri Kantha says that "the Caste group known as Odyas among the Sinhalese shared the same hierarchical order similar to WWE as of the Tails." So What? Wheren't all Asian Societies, whether Buddhist or Hindu, hierarchical? For that Tatter, aren't all Societies and institutions LLLLLLLLa S LLLLL LLLL LLLL La LLLLLaLLLL LLL
hierarchical socials hierarchly at the t Castes at the base []T1 thÎS St:{}fE, thE of Jaffa hawe Set being the most oppressors of the an oppression Whi indelible stigFila O Science. As an ext atter Tipts to Eduate
WEas. If Mr.
anything about SriL that the royas, b stes, Were newerth Nor Were they fic: daytime. They WE gypsies who roarTI country, day and r
BéSides, I Wêr nciarchical Structu Russell Who said slavery among the but it was of the personal bondsme (C/W77La PoWscs 77ova Coү75ѓїUNoол, Words, I Was Sayin a hierarchical Soci among the Sinhal however, is in the slaves by the two quote Robert Knox Sinhalese society
and after having 20 years. Writing disposition he says malicious towards ( anger doth not last bloodshed among It is not customar Very rare that they as to their Slawe: Relations p. 102,
Сопрare this to Jäffriä Whs Wérè f Negro slawes in AnT slawes they Were ni mobs, and even E t0 CO55, thig Ca5t 50 || upper-caste Tamils

"Liberation Struggle'
structure EuthOW the op treated the Subof the Social pyramid.
Lipper-Caste Tamils . a unique record of пBartlВ55 aПј СТUB| r OWn people. It is ch Wi||Iriër Thain aS Earl [] theIT SCCjä| CCF1– CLUSĒ, Mr. Sri Kärtha
the Odyas with the
Sri Kärla kroWS åka he should kOW eing nomadic outcase slawes of any Caste. Irbidden to Walk irn Te the Sri Lankan ad freely all over the light,
1 IUT LIFEF la LFB re and quoted Jane : "There had been Kandyan Sinhalese mildest for TT, slawes 1 to the owners." War fக 3ெ7ரமுர்7937-7947) mother g that there not only ety but ewen slawes tase. The difference, treatient of these COmmunitiBS, Let me Whäd krite like the back of his lived With the for about the Sinhalese i: "They are not very one another, and their long; seldorf or newer them in their quarrels. y to strike; and it is give a blow as Tluch S." (Krox, FHistoricā/ issara Publications).
thE TäTli SlaveS Of C) better off ta' the erica. Like the Negro murdered, lynched by burnt alive for daring barriers. Besides, the not only aided the
importing of Tamils from South India by the Dutch but abetted their imperial masters in transforming the caste system to legitimise and enforce the status of the imported Indian Tamils as slaves. This WaS a bolaľnza LO the Jaffna Tami|S who had no hesitation in reducing their OWn IOW-Castes into untouchable Slaves. They were denied the basic human rights. They were even denied the right of Worshipping in Hindu temples. The Churches too faithfully adopted the vicious caste system. They segregated the low-castes by erecting separate pe'WS. Apartheid became the Cofficial doctrine inside the tabernacles of Christ in Jaffna long before it emerged as a fascist instrument of the elitist Whites in South Africa. The Church leaders Woke up to Christian charity - not to mention liberation theology - only after the Christian domination, grforced through their imperial masters, waned in the post-colonial period. Then the Churches joined hands with the Tamil communalists to denigrate the SinhalaBuddhists, ironically Enough on human rights.
However, no low-caste пап апопg the Sinhalese Was debarrad froT) entering any Buddhist temple, or to be a BLludd HİSt Tok like the HinduJS. NOT WETE there separate places of Workship for them as in the Churches. The upper-caSte Sir Halese HaWe || GWGr refUSEd to prostrate before a low-caste monk and Worship him. Despite the inherent evils of the hierarchical caste system, the Sinhalese used it essentially as a division of labour to make the hydraulic/feudal Society functional. With the active assistance of the Tamil Brahmins, Churches and the colonial masters, the Tail upper-caste transformed the caste system into an inhuman instrument of oppression and suppression of their own people. Through that system they exploted their own people, initially to increase their profits from the tobacco, paddy and other farming enterprises and, later, in the post-Donoughmore period, to protect and consolidate their political power.

Page 6
There is a discernible pattern in the
reactions of the Sinhalese and the Tamils to slawery When, for instance, the Britishers were pushing the Kandyan peasants into slawery in theirtea plantations the Sinhalese newer gawe in. Faced with their stubborn and silent protest the British imperialists had to importindentured labour from South India. For trying to protect their dignity the Sinhalese had to pay the incalculable price of their traditional homelands being confiscated and ejected from their homes. The Tamil society, on the other hand, was quite comfortable with slavery and happily went along with it. They encouraged their colonial masters to import slaves from South India and, under Colonial protection, exploited their low-castes as cheap slaves. They rejected from their Society the Indians brought as slaves to the tea plantations with the same kind of contempt they rejected Indian slaves brought by the Dutch to Jaffna. Today the Jaffna Tamilleaders show a patronsing interests in the Indian Tartnils, after allying themselves with the British inperialists who exploited the slave labour of the estate Workers for nearly a century, purely to add numbers to their communal politics.
Consider this With the record of the Sinhales. Their record reveals that it is they who took the first step to liberate the Tamils, long before the Mr. Welupillai Prabhakaran came on the scene. The Prevention of Social Disabilities Act, 1957 of S.W. R. D. Bandaramaike — an Act which prohibited segregation in buses, schools, churches and, in general, the oppression of the loW-Castes — stands as a monumental landmark not only to the liberal spirit of the Sinhalese but also to the enlightened and pioneering efforts of reforming the dismal and the discriminatory legacy left behind by five centuries of Colonial rulers. However, te FireWeltir of SOCII DiSabilitiĖS ACt ran into serious obstacles laid by the all-powerful upper-caste in Jaffna to block its implementation. Undeniably, the greatest achievement of Mr. Prabhakaran is in the dismanting of the obscene and the oppressive cate system in Jaffna that dehumanised Jaffna Society SinCe the coming of the Dutch.
The act of Tamily. was a double-edg against the Sinhale the Lupper-Caste Ta hawe bean their opp tions, Consistent in Chelyanayakam-Por ship made them pe Buddhists as their youths also had a S0Cial ing Terit in society. They had si of their leadgrS a Sil and political failur moments they Woul gWET, the SillalgSE democratic, instituti remedies for each those Tistakes. F political mistakes tha raised Were remedie four decades begini Self-COTective ITEC worked tardily at t I til Sill-Bud: three Centuries, en 1980s', there Were BitTg.Ched II Stituti CastigisST. Täiställe necessary through i Jaffa. Ewell thild; GodfrOT Oxfordar Castest ore reW: ble than Wester II COServative aTE Withdrw into a tin did not leave the breadth for any ki Es wärtiälf Cérll forCES WErg SO. Ste steisin that they lo: Consequently, afte Prgwelton Of Soci: Wiolent over throw of ragile of Jaffna W.
AS iri ta C353 | the South, the Unre: COld Ot la WEEE if the linguistic, Cultural demands Oi granted by the "Sir
Trīt". Lik ti in them a determi the entire Jaffna they felt had betray The Tami elite uli the years, confirm

uths taking up arms ed we apоп — 1) se and 2) against Tills of Jaffna Who геssors for generadoctrination by the Tala T läderrceive the SinhalaETIES. But TETTII clear grasp of the their Gästg-ridder rst hand experience corrigible oppressors es. Is their Sober, Galist at WEi ETTEј ПЕТЕ WETE Ola and structural and every one of or example, those li | lt, Till E||lt Flid We di Within the turbulet тing from 1956. The hanis I, thought it imes, was inherent hist Society. But for ding as late as the Oreedies for the ons of oppressive di ruthlessly, and if extralegal i wicolence, 59 Tan Thills, WHO returld Cambridge found arding and comfortaberalism. The rigidly jarlCE of Jaffla, le Warp ofits OWrl, space of a hair's nd of passage into ury. The dor Tirolarit зеped in feudal cast touch with reality. the failur of til 3 al Disabilities Act, a tha illuan a WCW7 ass irħawi tabolg.
if the JVP youth in st in Northern Society En appeased EWET eligious and other oth Tamil glitE WETE hala-Buddhist gove
JWPers, there was nation to overthroW Establislet Which ed the T1 in the past. ng Jaffna had, ower d the belief of the
"boys" — рагticшlaгlуіп the temple впtгу Crisis at Mawi ddipuram in 1968 whēn the upper-caste closed ranks against the low-castes - that there was no escape from the oppressive Tamil past into a liberated future through the entrenched Caste base. Most of all, it was the OSS of human dignity, by being treated as Social Outcastes, that hurt the lost. Equally insufferable was the inborn and internalised caste prejudices that made the low-castes the pariahs (a demeaning and an opprobious epithet derived from the Tamil word parala, according to the OED) of Jaffna Society. Deluded by their SrTiug Superiority, the Upper-caste did Otrētālise Lihat the SL bolērsās Ēām forces were running far deeper than the Һate сапраigп whipped up by them against the Sinhala-Buddhists. Explosive tectonic forces were rising from under their feet to blast the crusted surface of three Centuries of the Casteslave System. The politically bankrupt Tarni =סrם unalוחחחסn-Cסח therס סח Blle had gramme or policy to rescue themselves and Jaffna from the ever-widening cracks of feudal Castleist.
The Tamil elite planned to escape their impending doom by "putting forward more and more rapacious demands". (S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Hansard 1939, quoted by Jane Russell on page 240). increasing demands at each critical stage was a deliberate tactic adopted to appease the unrest growing from the oppressed sub-castes below. The Tamil elite refused to heed the lesson of King Canute that there was no Way of rolling back the caste forces rising against them. Their predictable reaction was to hastily prop up their declining feudal power through anti-Sinhala-Buddhist slogans. They resented any interference that Would topple this power structure. Their paralled objectives were (1) to accumulate as much money as they could from the Sinhala-Buddhist South and (2) preserve their privileged personal and political position in the Tamil North. Both - the money from the south and the privileges of the north - Worked in tandem to Consolidate their dominance over Jaffna society. They never wanted to part with either. The issue of discrimnation they orchestrated so successfully Was not about their abominable discrimi

Page 7
nation against their own people but the perceived threats to their privileged positions both in the South and in the North, Only Tamil chauvinism could give them the slogans to promote their acquisitive instincts in the South, especally through the language issue, and exploit the North by keeping their own people in submission.
By turning the anger of Tamils against the Sinhalese the Tamil elite successfully deflected the rising political tide against the ISglwgSfTCT tflgir Wri Talk Tid fil. In raising the communal Cry they Were able to sweep under the carpet their failure to stand up for the basic rights of their own people by obstructing social reforms. Further Tore, the anti-SinhalaBuddhist cry was the opium fed to the Tamil Tasses to legitimise and prevent the dismantling of the oppressive feudal society of Jaffna. The Jaffna upper-caste was determined to preserve Jaffna as their traditional feudal haven, particularly for their retirement. The loss of privileges deriwed from feudal Casteist Would hawe been a5 great as the loss of pensions derived from serving, in their parlance, "Lha Sinhala-Buddhist governments". The two-pronged machinations of the Jaffna upper-caste to retain their traditional Supremacy were directed simultaneously against (1) the "Sinhala-Buddhist governments" and (2) their own sub-castes. They held on to their precarious positions by pitting (2) against (1). Naturally, they resented any outside LLLLLLLL00 LaL LLLLLaLLLL LLLLLLLL0L0LLLL LLLLLL prestige, position and power in Jaffna. This point is illustrated amply in the obstructionist tactics of the ChelwanayaLLLLLL LLLLL LLaaaLLLLLLLL a LLL LLLLLLLLS Wertion of Social Disabilities Act. It Was also the only time When both parties - All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the Federal Party - buried the political rivalry of the Jaffna upper-caste and ganged up to protect their privileged position against the low-castes. It was a concerted and a contemptible attempt to deny the fundamental rights due to the low-caste Tamil slaves of Jaffna.
But after three Centuries the outdated caste system was crumbling. And the inavitable storming of the Jaffna Bastille LLLLLaL S LaaL S S LLLS LLLLLLaLLLLLLLS
loW-caste "boys" ra Florines in Jaffrina, al Lp On their Caste ordered those high behind the cadjar "chicken pore" for to be a l kçirdi. Culf "r dished out by the reversed roles Withg on top of their cruel thern experience, sc jt was to be an op for Cities. The
ness of Centuries
by the si Tıpole act Cook butin making in the lost utili: lgt to diktats of t Were inescapable
Wii 15 al fanci pariahs who had their powerless Tha
It was also po arrogant elite, Who of distreSS, refLSEd With the low-caste: Mr. Prabhakara's at last, dethroned f fEfdom Of POrıları wanayakarts in the
LET VEF
The goo
In the WG Of Fe a letter with a pse MUSIITT" With the ti ALSE" This Writ LT TE ||gdg |PTE ta MLISTS. Beef comment of this you made a pre-еп shing in the Feb. SElvirates COTI rings of Sri Lankan East Muslim Count SBI tad irii it Werre diġatiS ir March 1 of 400 complaints and Werbal abuse: the United Arab E.
Wilsof Wat

ided the upper-caste ind Cocked their legs -ridden tables, and 1-cast ladies hiding Curtails to Cook the I. It was leant evolutionary justice" former slaves Who great delight by sitting masters and making r the first time, what pressed caste/slave accumulated bitterWas expressed not of forcing them to the Tamil elite obey, ating Inanner - no, e new regime which EðLut the indiwidual s of the low-cast lothing to fear from SES.
etic justice for the i gwgl i tgir hur to share the toilets в п геfugee camps. "liberation struggle", Orewer the feudalistic balam and the Chel
Eck of Jaffla. His
"liberation struggle" finally brought to the low-caste Tamils the kind of equality which the Tamils enjoyed among the SirrlıhıdleSize in the South and the kirild of equality the "Sinhala-Buddhist governments" hoped to introduce in the North through the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act. The essential meaning of Prabhakaran's "liberation struggle" is that Fle freed the low-caste Tamils front their Lipper-caste oppressors. And the essential meaning of the pre-Prabhakafan protests and derroristrations of the Tamil elite led by the Federal Party and the Tamil Congress lies in their desperate struggle to retain their privilegas, both in the South Erld til North. T3 Chelwanayakam-Ponnambalam eliterrerely led a rearguard action to protect and preserve the privileges inherited from a declining, fascist caste system. |1 fair IBSS to M. Präbhäkardrl it mILIS be stated that his liberation struggle was a movement of the Tamils, by the Tamils and for the Tar Tills Who Were, oddly enough, against the upper-caste Tamil exploiters of Jaffna. It is indeed a remarkable coincidence that Mr. Prabhakaran named his organisation the LTTE — Liberation of Tails from Tari|| Exploiters
d and the bad
b.1, there appeared audonym "A Patriotic tilg "Cara TdS: A TabS er Had Eriticised the akaran for ill-treating re. I sat doW to Controversial the Tle, Tpotiwe strike by publi| 15 issue, Kalinga Tentary on the suffeWOTEr in the Middle lies. The figures prerevealiпg iпdeed. 11 1995 alone; average a Tonth on physical 3CO Sri Lankans in Tirates prisons.
Fiat "Patriotic Muslim"
FläS aS äT äISWEr C) Kälinga SEléwiratne's commentary? If the Wealthy MUSliTT|15, il the Middle ESt. Er differElit from Prabhakaran, why folks like the young Sri Lankan maid Sithi Unisa had to face a firing Squad?
LLLLLLL LLLLLL a LaaLL LL aLS LLLLLLLLSS 15 issue, you are overplaying the card of Chandrika Kumaratunga as the "peace maker. Here is a lady who could not make peace With her own brother Anura Bandaranaike. So, how Cal TarTills like me expect her to make peace with Prabhakaran? First het her prove her Sin Cerity by making peace With Anura.
SECTI STI Kilih:
Fukuroi City, Տիl:Luka Japan.

Page 8
ELUSIVE PEACE: Negoti Secessionist Conflict
Howard Wriggins
simple two-party negotiation bgcame more complex as sympathetic Tamils in Southern India supported the Tamil movement in Sri Lanka with money and arms. The government of India itself became directly involved in two ways: it became a TE diator Between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil insurgents, and a provider of a TS, Safe houses, training camps, and logistical support to various Tamil factions.
Four years of intensifying conflict produced a War of Secession. In July 1987 President J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India signed the India-Sri Lanka Accord, which provided for the end of hostilities and the entry into Sri Lanka of an Indian peacekeeping force to protect the guerrilla fighters while they laid down their arms. However, because the accord had been arranged without the direct involverient of the leader of the most militant Tail faction and provided less than independence, the guerrilla movement turned on the Indian peacekeepers and the conflict was resumed. After a year and a half of costly but indecisive warfare, the Indian army Was told by Jayewardene's successor, Ransinghe Prema dasa, to go home. The conflict has continued between the government of Sri Lanka and the most dogged of the militants.
To understand the development of the spirating hostilities, mutual distrust, and growing violence in Sri Lanka, it is important to examine the background to the Tamils ethnoSecessionist struggle and to trace over time the negotiating exchanges between the principal protagonists as they sought a negotiating foTTI Lula to delimit the issues and Exchäfliged offers and Counteroffers om details; the shifting balance of capability on the ground as the struggle escalated; changes in the negotiating participants: and changes in the goverthrilent's position and the issues at stake as successive offers were rejected by the most militant Tari factioriS.
Background
Sri Lanka is a multiethnic island state off the South Coast of India, the size of West Wirginia, With a population of SorThe 15 minillion people. Sinhale See make up 74 percent of the population. Indigeпошs Tamils represent soпе 13 percent
ES
Алёвхялл/гласаг
Tagorators ra.
of the total: they are ir the NortherT and although a third oft generations in the
Wrls of the South speaking community laborers brought to British in the ninetee On the tea estates |alidS: theSg Tari particularly active p community, often Ca for another 7 percer
Sri Larka lewer nation-building expe ted struggle for ind time of independence the 69 percent Sinh 11 percent indigenc and the 6 percent together shaped a C. that provided for a de tary Systern With SuE for the rights of the independence was there have beer in three presidential el
Eyer Since the C dence, however, the cultural standing of TT|| COITTUlitie:S Of Coltetion. Sin: rhair tairied that. Tarn represented in Parl Teäracy, andi As Sinhalese saw it though they were a of the population, mc of the Workers in and One third of all Wgrg Sri Lälkan TE argued that democr; the majority Sinha les Undercut their oppo the years virtual secC bas been imposed their personal Sec increasingly threater
From 1956 or War dynarmic betWeert t TärTI COTrTUriitigS In SLC Conflicted S perceptions and mu

ating in a
of the protracted f began in 1977.
concentrated largely
Eastern Provinces, hem haWG |Wöd for goities and Tarket A SECTd Tamillare des Cerdants Of the island by the nth century to work in the central highS haWe 10t beën olitically. A Muslim tle Moors, account
t
went through the rience of a protracependence. At the a spokespersons for talese majority, the Jus Tamil minority, I Moorish minority onstitutional bargain mocratic parliamlerstantial safeguards minorities. Since established in 1948 a parliamentary and ections.
Oming of indepenrelative political and the Sinhalese and as been a source alēSe zealots hawe is a We been overiarnent, in the bLIliversity placements. in the early 1950s, substantial majority bre than 40 percent ha CleriiCal Serwice university graduates mils.** Tamils hawe atic government by e has systematically irtiriities, that Ower ind-class citizenship on them, and that urity has become Ied."
a action-action FC Sirhalege and gained morrlenturn. ituations, reciprocal tual and escalating
fears beCOT18: Crucial to an Understärlding of events. At stake was the nature of the Sri Lankan state. The Sinhalese majority favored a centralized, unitary state of the kind inherited from the British; the Tamils sought a more decentralized state that Would permit them to manage their own affairs, especially in the Jaffna peninsula where they were concentrated. That normal politics could not meet Tamil Teeds was demonstrated ower ad Ower again, most particularly in 1958 and 1969 When Carefully negotiated agreements On decentralization between government and Tani spokespersons were abandoned under pressure from Sinhalesa protesters.
Linguistic and cultural nationalism intensified this issue. Politics within the Sinhalese community focused increasingly on Buddhist Symbols and on legislation defining Sinhalese as the island's official language, reflecting an exclusivist conception of the Sri Lankan polity. This focus reinforced Tamil suspicions that the original constitutional bargain was being revised to their growing and ineradicable disadvantage." Tamil defensive anxieties intensified their calls for a federal structure and devolution of CentraliZation, Which in turn Intensified Sinhalese fears that the indigenous Tamil minority really Wanted to join with the 55 million Tamil-speaking people in Southern India. It was as if the majority Community had a sharp sense of inferiority, its own Sinhalese Buddhist identity being perceived as undergrowing threat in a region believed to be dominated by the large Tamil community in India, only 25 miles across the Palk Sträit.
Underlying sociodynamic factors having little to do with intercom rural relations Were also at Work. From 1956 on educational policy had set Tamiland Sinhalese youths on separate educational tracks, each to be taught in its indigenous language, so that communiCation between them bēCäTE TOE and more difficult. A rapidly growing population and an expanding School system Were producing graduates at a rate far faster than the economy was producing jobs, intensifying a sense of rivalry between these asymmetrical communities. Within the two communities competing political leaders, each seeking to Win a political following at the experise

Page 9
of local rivals, intensified corrurial consciousness and exaggerated popular fears of the evil intentions of the other community. Moreover, the Tamil community was itself divided structurally beWeer the numerically dominant Wellala (farmer) and the Contesting Karaiyar (fishermen) communities, the latter rallying lower eastes resentful of "Wellala domination". Ironically, largescale goveLLHHLLLL LLLLLLLH LH LLL LLLLLLLLL LL hitherto uninhabited land, instead of easing population pressures, produced in effect apples of discord between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, each holding that the other was getting an unfair share of Scarce status-and wealthgiving land. Thus there were a number Of iltfactable || 0 Cal for CaS at Work to irripede a negotiated resolution of Sinhalese and Tamil differencës.
Before the 1977 election that brought J.R. Jayewardene's government to power in a sweeping victory for the United National Party, Tamil youths, based Tainly in the Jaffna area of north Earl Sri Lanka, had become er Tıbbittered and derlanded the Creation of a independent state in the northern and eastern parts of the Country, to be called Tamil Eelam. The United National Party's election manifesto promised to deal with specific Tamil grievances while reaffirming the government's commitment to a Unitary governmental structure.
On coming to power one of Jayewardenie's first rowds was to rescind the orders regarding university entrance that had been promulgated by the previous government, and which Tamil youths Considered particularly discriminatory. And wery early in Jayewarderle's adminiStration the Tamil language was given a substantially higher constitutional status that before. But these easures proved insufficient to soften the demands of Tamil youths for Tamil Eelam. The analysis in this chapter turns now to negotiations between the Jayewardene government and elected Tamil members of Parliament about What additional grievances should and Could be corrected and how that should be done.
Two-Party Negotiations, 1978-82
From 1978 to 1982 principal negotiations focused on defining the structure and powers of proposed district development Councils as a way of meeting Tamil demands for greater decentralization. At the outset the negotiating parties were the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), then occupying eighteen seats in Parliament and designated the official opposition, and President J.R. JayeWardene, whose United National Party
(UNP) held a th Parliament. There W. the two sides.
the 1977 ECt Ligeså FTC F mingly in Tamil-sp platform demanding areas. Although sympathetic to thi Tamil youths, TUI reassured the gove moderates ready te tion of Tam|| griew репdепсе.
Jaye Wardene sto erS above all the United National Pa Lanka was overly awer, the UNP had WHOSB. WIEWS diffe OF THE TWEE ST LE (ՏԼFP), long an at Buddlist interests Tar Til CCTS. BE se sa Wany devoluti as the first step to island, Jayewarder promptly offer the T. Front the extensi, Tanded Out Of sea split his party and : which was ready cessions he might Nor Could Jaye WarC Tamil spokesperso that proposals that dEICE WETE TIEWEarth steps.
Moreover, there items on the go introducing a new tion, and accelerati huge irrigation and While foreign donor. mood. In addition, t0 Eē libĞfälized til: been a stagnant, administratively c Thus the Jayew. caught in the mid Tail and Sinhales slowly in respondin demands. These and again emphasi; Ce in the norther Wil CBS.
The government authority and an a men, altho Ligh the combat experience Outset Was ill-discip almost exclusively ment of Tails reduced by the pregovernment. There police.

ree-fifths majority in as little trust between
iOStle Tati United iad Wort Ower-WHIGжеаiking areas on a g Secession of those
publicly sounding e more intransigent F leaders privately filment that they were negotiate a resoluanCES Short Of inde
Odhead and shouldithles, TillEmbers of his rty. He held that Sri Centralized. HowI iflu artial Tier Tibers red little from those inka Freedom Party wocate of Sinhalese
at the expense of cause many. SinhaleOnfrOIT Centralization Ward partitioning the 13 WIS TEILIK:tart to alii United Literatio red Wolution it dethat to do so. WOLld strengthen the SLFP, to exploit any conTake to the Tamils. lene entirely discount is who publicly held fell short of indepenleless significant first
Were other priority Wernment's agenda: presidential Constiturig construction of a hydroelectric System S. Were in a generous economic policy had open up what had Semilisocialist, ard ontrolled economy. rdene goWerTiment, dB betWBBl Tilitart e Zealots, proCope Eded g to reiterated Tamils Tāds Were W zed by acts of violenT and eastem pro
possessed official my of some 13,000 t army Was Without and at least at the lined. The army was Sirihalese, recTLitaving been sharply Ceding Bandaranalike Were sume 14,000
The Tamil youths at first seemed to be no match for government forcës. However, they quickly learned the arts of guerrilla warfare, in part from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, but also in training camps organized in India. They early demonstrated unusual resolve when arrested, committing suicide by biting into cyanide capsules rather than reveal the loveTen't SĒCrütS.
In 1978 the government and the Tamil insurgents had differing perceptions of the value of time in resolving the conflict. The government at first was in no hurry. The number of Committed activists, limited to the north, was thought to be in the low hundreds. Internal rivalries had always plagued Tamil politics, and some leaders of the United National Party hoped these divisions might solve the insurgent problem with only a modestly increased presence of the national artTay and police in the Jaffrina arga. However, the elected leaders of the Tamil United Liberation Front, who were mainly legally oriented, feared that unless there was more rapid progress in resolving Tamil grievances through negotiation they would be thrust aside by the more violent Tail factions.
a la Corried
Notes
1. See KM. da Shä, Mirigg Eric Isrisias F LYlEE SLKSeHHuS eeLeL S LL Oe LCOOke K00rTS YLOLOkeOk (Lanham, Md. University Press of Artierica, 1986).
2. For background, see H. Wriggins, Cyr, st75 of a Wai Watar (Princeton University Press, 1960), pip. 79-104; Michael Roberts, Čig LOLOHkLTOHOS LGCOHOOO OO eTk LCLuk LC LLeLeeLOLH TT Paki Colomba, SriLanka: Marga Institute, 1979).
3. C.F. de Silwa, Se7 (AF&A, A Hiskiy (New Dalhi;
Wikas, 1937), p. 239.
4. For details of a communal outbreak following the
LGLGLL MMLLLLLL LLL 00LS LLLLLLL LLeLGGGLMLLLLLL LL LLL LMMMS CTCHCHCL kk LHLHHO KeLLLLLLLrLLLEES LSeHLH TkS CkOTTT TTk LkLSkkk LLLkeLOuH CCkueHH CCCCLS L LEeeuuH kHLHHLTLOL F3"Algiestarta 15N Syilgrigy, 1977. (Sassional LLMLL LLLS K MHHHLHHH LLLLLLL LLaL LtLtLtLLL LLLLHHLLLuOLHH Report) (Colombo, 1980).
5. Bonedict R.O.G. Anderson, i.e. Carl Lists TTMTeTkL LLH HHkT TTO Oek CeSeCLLLLL LL LLLCLLLCHLGLOLOH (London. Versa, 1983); Robert N. Kearney, CanLGGGLTmOmeTTT TeOkL LLkekeLeLekeT L HeLLe CLeLLHeLeLO LkL LCTALCLtLL (Duke University Press, 1967).
LCS LLCLL LLaTTMLa0S LLTTLT LLS 000S00LLSLLLLLLC LL0aLLLL
LLLLLL LLLLLMLSS TT LLeHOHOOOS ST LLLLLLLHHLHHLSE ZLYHLHHLHH החTa בח#5"חםStruggia (L, חבלH "army LibérahלB 3:7:7. Informaliоп Свnlar and Zed Books, 1983).
TS aaMMM LMTaSLMMMCCLaLLLLSS LLLCL LLLLLL aLeeeLL
Syster II: Continuity and Change Under Corditions of War", paper Eid at ha A5:5Çociation of Asian SLJdiBS TIESeling, Bislin, Märch 1994, For dell'Egil LLT LCCClGTCMLLu LLLL LLLL SLMLMC LLLCSSS LLL0LLL LLCaa LLLLLLS LCC 0LeLTLLLGLLLtLGGS LLLS aLLaLLS Erld FRBjarni Thiranagama, 77 hego Erckgr7 Party at: 77ra TeOkLkS Lkeke T T KLOeOOkL S TT LLLkLkLk AeuTLeHOHkLk (ClarenTort, Calf.: Sri Lanka Studess Institute, 1990).
7

Page 10
Dear Sir,
and recognised scholar".
Sikil
TODAY'S
Kindly recall my visit to your office in December. I Karachi" published in your respected journal on Nov. 1 by a former Indian diplomat, Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar basic ideology of Pakistan but also presented Scurrilous of a diplomat but perhaps acceptable from a politician tryi
Mr. Editor, Sir, you were prepared to place an article it
I now forward an article on the subject by a renowne
e aVOC *
Ahmad Hasan Sheikh
t's only now after two and
a half decades that loud and clear W0|Ceg froIIIn that I dira (Gaillidhi in heis. exultant moment of victory had pronounced as the graveyard of the two-lation theory have started reaching our earsaffirming faith in it.
Thig EffiTTtill d'Ogg Tot Cog SJ much from the "collaborators of separate Muslimaliorhoodas fromthed"revolutidsaries who had participated in its "burial 35 a TedifSuTectionists of MLukti Bahini.
TE TEISE tid haS, da Wrigid lESS 0 account of self-analysis and more on account of the Hindu's continuing thrust against the polluting' presence of Muslim identity in the subcontinent, all of which he regards as his Bharat Mata (mother India).
Political and economic strangulation apart, what the "liberator has been doing in Bangladesh since the heady days of 1971 is to Subvert and Sother the cultural identity of the Muslims of Bangladesh. It was courtesy the "intellectuals - the Wotaries of Bengalee-ism-that Hidu di WS ble to make first inroads into the faith of the vanguard of B MLSirl freedorf1 Tlowêmält WE USEC to CaII E35t Pakista.
Overtime the magic had Worked so Will that What Was Islamic cate to denigrated as "communal', linked as it was with the West Pakistani'exploiters' and What Was Hindu came to be revered
inte le
as 'secular, and as it Was With the
As an Oct 1 Bangla, Dhaka, ha: RahrTman's goverTnTn all offices and Cou tle Occasio of t festival of "Durgapu money from the p each altar Tadē fic: haps no other Wa gratitude Would haw "liberators'.
But only a few W. of India report publi ber 1973 quoted him moot in Dhaka that tried to Wield the W lism to perpetuate had failed", ard a SS: alism had been ba of Bangladesh".
HOW WEI "SECLUlar in the soil of Bangla been highlighted b Dhaka journalist, Wh against Pakistan in book, "Raw and probably Would haw priately titled as Bangladesh".
It is al Wal-do-CL Hindu dia's Terci political and econ Bangladesh.

KARACHI
drew your attention to an article titled "A Solution to S LLaaLLLL LLL LLLL CLLSSS LLLLLS LLLL LLL LLLL HCLL HCCLL ... As I mentioned Mr. Aiyar had not only attacked the views about the existence of Pakistan, views unbecoming ing to gain cheap popularity from uneducated voters.
CC CHLHHL LLaaCLLLLL LLmHHHHLLLLLL LHCHLLLLLLL aL SSS LL CLLLaHL aaaaLLLLLLL
d journalist and a scholar of reputed viz. Ahmed Hasan
Rai Riaz Hussair1 (Press Attache)
With regards, Yours sincerely,
2ctuals play
lence liberal, linked
di "EeratorS".
973 rĖport of Desh sit, Sheikh Mujibur ent not only closed its for two days on he principal Hindu a' but also provided ublic exchequer for ridol Worship. Pery of expression of e gone Well With the
reeks later, a Tires 53 o 12 NOVETas telling a students the "Pakistanis had eapon of cornfurla
their rule but they Serting that "commuLis: Ed fr TIT LE SC)
ism" has dug its feet desh Sir Ce ther1h35 y Zainal Abedin, a o had taken up arms
1971, in his latest Bangladesh" which e been more appro"lē "L f
Teted account of less ravishing of the omic Landscape of
But what Tierits particular attention is the en Slavyerlent of the MLSilir.Tı Tirid that is taking place with the collaboration of "intellectuals" in the la se of Culture ad In Oder IT OLLI00k.
"Above all", says Zainal Abedin, "cultural and religious identity of 90%; people of Bangladesh is being eroded out by systematic attacks on Islamic values", the objective being "to undermine Islam in the lives of Bangladeshi Muslims so that their blending with Hindus is facilitated". Under the pretext of Bengalee culture, "the aim is to promote Hindu CLILU".
He points out that "RAW backed intellectuals take infinite pains to prove to the new generation that the liberation War of 1971 disprowed the validity of the Two Nation. Theory and generated tle Spirit of Secularist. However, this is totally Wrong. The War of liberation was directed against the then West Pakistan domination and exploitation and not against Islam and our Muslim iden
tity".
It is true he says that "their demand for emancipation found expression in Bemgalee mationalis Ti", but "this Was purely in the context of Pakistan and at no stage the people intended to part with the Two Nation. Theory". In fact, "the ermergence of Bangladesh is in LLaLaLaaLLa LLLL LaLaLHHLLLLLLL S LL0LLLaH LLL 1940", and "onca rerunciation of Two Natioп Theогy is accepted, reunificatioп

Page 11
of India becomes obvious". In his eyes, "propagation and promotion of Bengalegisrn is a conspiracy against the Very foundations of Bangladesh".
He poses the question "Why Hindus of West Bengal do not support Bengalee nationalism against Indian (Hindu) nationalism. Why the idea is being drummed to people of Bangladesh only?..... Bengali speaking Hindus and the Muslims could never become One national in the past. Now that the ideological, cultural and political differences between the two have grown futher, how can there be any rationale for a common Bengalee
ātrāli".
But the "intellectuals" who are escoced according to Zainal Abedin in warioLIS academies of art and Culture and the media are busy in promoting "Erahministic and a theistic diseases in the body-politic of Bangladesh. Bangla Academy, for instance, financed With public money", due to dominance of pro-Indian elements is in effect working for the revival of Indian Culture. It has been promoting books written by Hindu and secular minded "Muslim" Writers. Bangla Academy is allergic to anything Islamic.
Ils doors are shut for al| Muslim nationalist Writers While Works of even third grade pro-Indian Writers who claim to be secular are published".
Cornmenting on the opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina's ringing of a metal bell to inaugurate a function at the Banga Academy in Connection with the Bengali NEW Year of 1398, Zainal Abidir Say S.
"Sounding a metal bell (an integral part of Puja or Hindu form of Worship) was unprecedented not only in any function of Bangla Academy but also In the history of Independent Bargladesh. Now link it with tha kinding of the Mongal Pradeep - first of its kind in the Shilpakala Academy premises by Sufia Kamal and you will easily discover where the reins of these two organisations actually lay. The sponsors of these practices claim that these practices are only ceremonial. But let me ask thern will a Hindu start his work with recitation of "Bisilla"?
Shilpakala Academy, an organisation set up to promote art and culture of Bangladesh, favours "Indian artists Tore thar those of Bangladesh with higher
standing..... (It) in activists and Seek songs, dance and 1993, the Academy Jatra festiwal (ope in rural Banglades rated by Prime Mi SpOnSOTS, actOTS, E Bangladeshis but of this Jatra, ten W the dress, deCOra these Jatras Teflect 5jā Vā35.
Bangladesh has ted with in moral corrupt the moral Zairal Abedi 1C "Hē lätiö Which gled against Urdu Hindi filliS; ad iš
TE offici: || ||C:t rly the Banglades programmes, whic at to the Tail Test of the dar necessity of the Muslim culture, no of Bangladesh lar as li-sociall Charac generally shown Cap On Fishead, a TE SHOW as Ha personalities resp. religion is ridicule. light".
BTW is also "p liberal CLIlturd. In is shown that yOL in revolt against revolt against the purpose of depic destroy o Lur traditi family ties. In mi. scenes are sho social values".
Rabindranath T in Tost of ETW hardly any play shown, or his S. his poems are OCCasion of Rab wersary, BTW's dancers display Hindu symbol of presentation of E punches in Tage)
CE EW | names in its diff "adoption of Hii Muslim boys and

vites da Cultural s to popularize their
drama." In January organised a national in air opera popular 1), which was inauguister Khalida Zia, İt5 Id audie Cal WEITĖ || out of eleven Writers ere Indians. Naturally ion and dialogues of ted Indian Culture and
am St. Er i'r UrdaIndian Wid:0 fill:5 t0 is of the youth and es with surprise that had fought and strugnow proudly watches tēls to Hiri di ITILISic".
ronic media, particulash Television, purvey h are mOSlly (EDUgprinciples of Islam. In mas, on the plea of
story, the traditional IIIs and social Values e ignored. When any ter is depicted, he is With a beard and a At time, evil characters ji, Maulwi, Pir etc (i.e. lected in Islam). The and projected in poor
romoting a pseudo to
most of the plays it Ing boys and girls rise
their parents. Wives husbands. The main iting such acts is to Orlal Social values and any plays explicit lowe Wr disregarding Our
agore is over projected 's dramas, "There is Where Tagore is not 2ngs are not Sung or lot read....... (OTI LH3 dramat':S bith arriHeroines, HeroS and or their foreheads the "Tilak", "Ewen between Eid programmes, BTW re items.
orn only uses Hindu arent programmes, the indus nick names by girls has become quite
common in Bangladesh. Hindu names like Sawan, Sagar, Som Lindra, Nadi, Abantika, Sauraw, Sujan, Shentu, Rajiv, Torun, Gagan, Anita Eipasha Shinata, Shanti, Amit, Ajit etc, hawe infiltrated into MLIslir familiĒS. Musli Tifa Tiili ES COLuld not think to keep such nicknames even іп pre-partition era wһеп Bапgladesh was part of India and the Muslims were a minority".
Rarely, "there is any mention of atrocities committed by Indian forces and Hildu f'Lulda Teritalists On MuSliT5 il India including Kashmir". But "plays about Razakars and Abadars of 1971 are repeatedly telecast" by BTW,
A number of Indian-sponsored and financed papers constantly carry on "wilification campaigns against pronationalist elements. They Lunabashedly Criticise partition of India and directly and indirectly propagate for merger of Bangladesh. With India. They spread disinforTatiani, discorterat and ProTot disharmony amongst different classes, particularly with reference to events of 1971 liberation War. The aim is to ITıpede national integration and progress. They also vehemently oppose Bangladesh's friendship with Muslim countries".
Indian textbooks are being prescribed in many prestigious private schools from K.G. level to higher classes. These books hawe all Hindu characters and preach and promote Indian causes, Hindu Culture and history. As a result of a vigorous drive to attract students from Bangladesh to educational institutio 15 in dia, ä5 many as one hundred thousand Bangladeshi students are presently studying in India, Incredibly, even children of Class to W are sent to India for education. A craze has developed among bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians to send their wards abroad, particularly to India for studying.
Recently, according to Zainal Abedin, the Indians, hawe adopted "a nowel Way to contact and recruit important religious and political leaders of Bangladesh. They send Sorre of their Indian Muslit stooges to Bangladesh to approach high religious and political personalities of Barngladesh. MoLularna ASad Madni of Deobard, Alhaj Kashani Baba of Dargah Nizartin-luddin Aulia and ulermafrom Airther Sharif hawe been wisiting Bangladesh for the purpose" and trying to sell the line that partition of India has done no good to Muslims and therefore the Muslits should Work for re-unification of India,

Page 12

স্থািপ্ত *******
&&&&& ৪×

Page 13
The Specificity of
Towards a Comparative History of S
Eric Meyer
cOTparativo story of 70a and Sri Lanka reveals (a گر LC CHLS HGLLTCCCCHCL LH aLaaS CSCTL LLuLHHLHC LCC CuC LLuLL
Ari Lanka C1C2 tratas Somme of the major elements of the Indian World and can in fact be regarded as a SGrt Of ThiCTOCOSIT Of India. But 5gg1 in a different perspective its characteristics are strongly specific. The aim of this paper is to delineate comparative aspects of the history of Sri Lanka and India during the period between the 15th century and independence.
The natural and climatic features of Sri Lanka parallel those of south India. the Wet South-Western regions can be compared with Kerala, the Kandyan up-Country. With the Nilgiris, the lowlands of the dry zone with the plains of Tamil Nadu. The society and culture of Sri Lanka result from the juxtaposition, and іп a large пеasшгe the combination of LaL LLLL LLLLLL aLaLLLLL LLL LLLLLLLLS During the historical period, various groups coming from the continent settled in the island. Some of thern spoke languages and belonged to cultures Originating in the Indo-Gangetic plains. LLLLLL LLLLL LHHLaLLLLL LLLLLLLL0 LL LLLLLL kings established in the centre-north of the island, and of the large Buddhist monasteries which they protected, these elements slowly fused into the Sinhala Cormits/y (for race). Other groups, probably more nummer OLUS, Car T1E3 from the nearer Southern part of the peninsula. MS Of tESE LISt läVE EEd it the evolving Sinhala community over a long period. By the end of the first millennium AD, when Buddhism disappëarÉd from the Continent Where ney religious fort This de Veloped (especially devotional Saivism), and when expansio|St State:S WEITE EStablised in Sout India, a Tamil identity solidified in the LLL LLLLLL L0aLL aL LLHL L LLLLaLS LLLLL LLLLLL combined influence of climatic change, expanding maritime trade and unsettled conditions created by was with the Chola erpire and other Indian powers, the highly elaborated hydraulic systern, upon which the ancient civilisation was built, eventually collapsed. After the 12th century, the core of the Sinhala popular
tion drifted towards the Central hills, Whil la EOECE th3 CE3|| TarInil cor T1 Turnity. separation increas talca betWeall tha: || links of the island Wi by slo II leans Sever of a rich Sir Fala || influenced by the fic res of the middle
groups Continued te integrating With Orne nity or, as in the C keeping an identity
The internal orga Society reflected the as in the irrigated Nadu, the ri:Ce-CLu numerically and hie among both the Sin the Orth ETT TITIIS Castes WerB TOre both sides of the Syster Tls and W0Ca religio Lus practices - Hindu - dari Wed fi
The first disting the rasilie C2 of BLI
ES Survival Was relatively stable Whic extended it community of monk brāhs TriCl irlu JEI ar end to its pati kings, and the de reached a point O. establish Tert of M India.
TE SECOT di Stin ted from the lengt the colonial imp centuries of foreig coastal areas, a C the interior. Integral the World Tarket W India. Following th fCCLSEd o ciliar Portuguese and th

Sri Lanka
iri Lanka and India
L L LCCC TT LCCC LC TLC TCLuLT TTC LGLCCGCCLuOLTTC LCL KOCCCLTLtCTL aroWing f as a 7/Cocosm of (rida.
the South West and e the Jaffna peninsu3 Coft Sri Läkar Although geographic Ed the Cultura disWo CommunitiES the Eh the Citigt WETE ad. The development iterature was deeply Urishing Indian cultuages; and different D settle in the island, or the other commuase of the Muslims,
of their own.
slisation of the insular Se lidian influel CeS: ar 55 of So Luth Ta,Til Itivating caste was 3rarchically dominant lalas (goyigama) and
(Wellalar); the fishing Cor la SS the Samme On Palk Straits; kirship bulary Were similar, – El ELI|Hist "OFT India,
Jishing factor lay in ddis in the island. Ilk E. l0 Flat Of 3 monarchical System S protection to the is, while the growing ce in South India put onage by the local cline of the Sangha fo return. With the LUIS liri StateġS iri1 r J rt1
guishing factor resulh and the depth of act: fJLIr-3ard-l-hallif
COTITätilo il tE entury and a half in tion of the island into was stronger than in le trading êComOTy Tion set up by the e Dutch, the British
imposed in the interior a plantation system for coffee, then tea and rubber production, which became the dominant feature of the economy and made it Wullable to the fluctuations of the World market. While the British revenue systern in India was mainly dependent on peasant agriculture and climatic fluctuations, taxation in Ceylon Was based on the plantation sector.
Moreover, after a short experiment With ruling Ceylon from Madras, which elded in failure, the British administration of the island remained separate from that of India and Contributed to its continuing particularism. While encouraging the migration of a new group of South Indian manual Workers for employment in plantation and Urban jobs, the British discouraged their intergration in the local Society, contrary to the age-old patterm of acculturation. At the lewel of représentations, while they reinforced in India a taxonomy based on caste and religious categories, they upheld in Ceylon a taxonomy based on so-called "racial" and linguistic Categories.
Finally, the growth of a nationalist movement in Ceylon, although parallel to the Indian freedom movement, enha riced the distinctiwela SS of Life island from India, and inside, the separateness of the different Comunities, as it was in a large measure based on a growing consciousness, among the Sinhala people, of Sri Lanka as a holy land of Buddhism, and to a lesser degree among the Sri Lankan Tamils, of Jaffra ES repository of the Saivite Tamil tradition.
The beginnings of the modern period in Sri Lanka are signalled by the rise of the Ilaritile trade from the 14th Century. On Wards under the impulse of Muslim merchants. The next phase involved the expansion of the European demand for spices (a market eventually captured by the Portuguese in the 16th century). The development of coconut and arecanut cultivation, cinnamon pee

Page 14
ling, gem digging and pear diving provided important export resources for new states. Which cale into existence along the Western Coast in interaction with South-West India, such as the Kingdom of Kotte. The West-Bast routes of trade linking Sri Lanka. With the West Asia and Europe on one side, South-east Asia and the Far East on the other, became more important than the northsouth axis linking the island with the peninsula. But South Indian groups such as Weavers, fishers and agricultural labourers continued to trickle in and were integrated into the caste System of the Silla||ES 3.
After the arrilaxatior of Kotte and of Jaffna by the Portuguese, the channels of exchange with India were kept open by the new Sinhala kingdoms establisited in the interior at Sita Waka and Kandy. Even under the Dutch who expelled the Portuguese in the middle of the 17th century and attempted to Cut Kandy from access to the Coasts, the Indian connection Was Ilaintained by the intermediary of the (mainly Tamil) regions of the north and east. The Kandyan kings married princesses from Madurai and in the 18th century a Nayakkar dynasty of soLuth Indian (Telugu) origin came to power in the highlands. As protectors of the Sangha, these rulers played an important role in the revival of Buddhism. By the end of the 18th century, however, they were finally cut from the mainland by the British conquest, and their authoritarianisri intensified by the British intrigues made them unpopular.
The establishment by the successive European powers of a systern of direct rule in the coastal regions left a deep imprint on the economy, society and institutions, which distinguished Sri Lanka from India and brought it closer to the la Vanese experience, The Island Was integrated into a network which linked it with the world market of agricultural products, whereas India Under the Mughals was the major World centre of textile manufacture and exports. As a result, Ceylon was much more dependent on a limited range of products Cựgif | Which It Fläd rlo CCTItrol. The Salagama, a South Indian Weaver caste turned into cinnamon peelers, produced under a system of Compulsory labour the main article of export, which was exceedingly profitable for the Dutch Company. But these profits were imperiled by frequent revolts encouraged by the Kandyan authorities.
12
areas control: Roman civil law Earles thall tuisil leis Individual land righ instead of the traditi in a family share Village land. Perso tended to erode although the Dutch mony of high ca besto Wedhi Colorificit TĒ, the So-Called Country, who form. gentry. The courts focal point of publ of lawyers, genera the Burghers of Dut, became very influЕ the mudaliyar, they of a Tiew elite in th developmert of Wes red the Continuing pli iITELJEd With a "Col: development in Col and Jaffna, WāS ĜñC. Who left their lark furniture.
At the tull of the the Eritish took ov Western influence new thing in Sri Lar did Was to extend generally make it me in India, they had legacy of a vast it With the dynamism trade economy, no of a highly caste SOciety. They attemp like any other colony WHO Häid Tadg til SOLuth-east Asia Ort than in India; but t that Ceylon, with it: deeply influenced b another sugar islan fil With Sla W35 Or at Will.
While the British to the Dutch after they reinforced the Էյքtween 1796 Briti the strategic value o lee, Galle) for mulir Coasts. But as SC themselves unpopu SLJCcession of polit delinked the Ceylon that of Madras and Crown Colony. Inst Kandy into a tribul they attempted to

ld by the Dutch, the Was imposed much the British in dia. ts became the rule, onal undivided rights
(paraguwa) of the rial and familial law
status hierarchies, recognised the hegeSte goyigarma and itles upon their headTudaliyar of the Low da, kirild Ofları ded of law becate the ic life, and a class |ly recruited among Chor fixed descent, intial. Together with or Ted the backbone e 18th century. The term education erth SUDwer of these groups Conial Culture"... Urban O Tito, Galle, Matara uraged by the Dutch On architecture and
19th century, when er from the Dulch, was by no means a ika. What the Britis it to the interior and Drapervasive. Unlike not t0 deal With thië mperial system, nor
of an autonomous o Witte intricacies -conscious peasant jtejto IL||B the Island , With administrators ir careers in Africa, le Caribbean Tathier ley Could not ignore 5 arcirit CiviliSation y India, was not just Id" which they could coolies and govern
returned Indonesia le Napoleonic Wars, Control on Ceylon 1815, because of fits ports (Tricomag the South Indian Horn as they found lar as a result of a ical mistakes, they ddrinistratil fTOFT Tade it a separate ead of transforming any 'princely" state, conquer it in 1803:
the War ended in failure. They then added fuel to court intrigues so as to destabilise a young king, until then rather popular, and eventually succeeded in annexing the kingdom in 1815.
The cession was recognised by the aristocracy and the Sangha in a Written convention by which the British undertook to protect the Kandyan traditions and privileges. But the Kandyans Were soon disillusioned and in 1817-18 they joined e riasse a rebellion stirred up by the appearance of a pretender, This rebelion Can De Compared to the great upheaval of 1857-58 in India, in that it involved people who had lost faith in the fairness of the Raj. But there are also obvious differences: it flared in Tediately and not long after the annexation; and its repression Weakened the Kandyan aristocracy to such an exten L that it Could lewer rĒCCWr. Whila the British chose after the Mutiny to corne to tells with traditional forces and pamper the princes, in early 19th Century Ceylon, where they felt the legitimacy of their rule to be more secure, they did not hesitate to foster the Tissionaries and openly denounce the Contents of the Kandyan Convention by severing the links between the state and the Sangha. The missionaries gave a major impulse to the development of English medium education in Colombo, Jaffna and to a lesser extent in Kandy and Galle, and they insured the formation of an anglicsed elite conforming to the programme proclaimed in India by Bentinck and Macaulay.
The economic strategies developed by the British in the early 19th century were parallel in both countries. They aimed at distantling the impeditients to free Enterprise. Un til 1832, Lha East India Cor Tipany retained the cinnamor momopoly and manipulated prices to suit its interests on the continent. A Commission of enquiry pointed out this anomaly and on the basis of its report the monopoly Was abolished together with the Corvee system which supposedly hindered the development of free enterprise, while private appropriation of uncultivated land Was encouraged shortly afterwards. These measures enabled European adventurers and speculators to lay hands On a substantial part of the Kandyan highlands and open coffee estates; but the reluctance of the local Willagers to accept Working conditions akin to Slave abour led the planters to attract coolies from Tamil Nadu, first on a temporary

Page 15
basis, and later when tea replaced Coffee as the major crop, as permanent läbÕLréS.
At that stage, the evolution of Ceylon radically deviated from that of India, in spite of similarities with some regions of the continent such as Assam, Coorg and Travancore. The strength of the plantation economy model was such that when the Coffee estates Were abandoned in the 1880s as a result of a leaf disease and of South American competition, the island was so dependent on that system that tea Was promptly adopted as a substitute, soon followed by rubber. Contrary to a common view, the plantation and the subsistence Sectors did not operate in Watertight COT1partments but were linked, so that any Crisis on One sector affected the other. Enterprise was by no means limited to Europeans: in the latter part of the 19th century, Ceylonese invested in estates (especially coconut) the Wealth amassed in theiriñadirect inwolweTlent in the plantation economy: between 1868 and 1906, 72 per cent of the land areas sold by the Crown Were acquired by non-Europeans. The estates eventually provided a large amount of Warious resources to the local population: regular employment in coconut and rubber estates, Casual employment on tea plantations; arrack, Coir and latex manufacture; carpentry and Wood products; transport, building, trade in agricultural produce, and derived activities in towns and roadside markets. The rising standard of living on the island at the beginning of the 20th century stood in clear contrast with the continuing SubsisterCE Grises On the Continent Hrld contributed to attract Indian immigrants whose numbers exceeded that of the indigenous Tamils of the north and east.
The colonial state backed the planters' interests because its budget depended on custon duties paid by that sector. For Want of a survey and settlement on Indian lines, the administration was unable to lay the basis for a general and tax. The only taxation based on agricultural production was the Very unpopular paddy tithe, levied by tax farmers or commuted to a fixed payment, which was finally abolished in 1892. This is in obvious contrast With India where the taxation of agricultural produce was the mainstay of the budget and a decisive factor in the development of rural discontent and of the nationalist movement.
The "plantocracy was very influential
in government circl civil SEVEt:S WETE in the planting ind Plariters' ASSOCliatica powerful lobby in successfully agitat public roads forth an abundant supply goWemment devote of its budget and ol by poll tax cort L. of rādi ārd railw: areas. It promulgat nance proclaiming Uncultivatg-d Orir reg (such as by slashfor which nobody c. grant, and Sold it prospective planter: lands DECELITTE SCE Ceylonese Tiddlert and prompted the the remaining lan. establishing a Syst failed to a Test la restricted the living village subsistence indiscriminate dafc tions led to Soil e paddy fields, dryin of fuelwood, and grounds for cattle. environmental prot much more the expansion than in
The supply of So Luth India Coolie fTOT LutoLIchilable through the acti usually older labo advances by the p Workers whom the indebtedness (and ture system like lice til to Maurit US ! travel and Working palling until the em Willer thG COWür: interwentio of th: improwed the situ: Wards, populationg thal else Whare in nuing immigration 1930S WIS T1 i factor.
In the British irri on India, Ceylon place, but the eC. Colti Bit Wigg. Si activities of the Sa agencies and expr: 1555 SITIE WEr

es (ai the beginning quite often involved ustry, and later, the Ce te St the country). They ad for cheap land, air private use and of coolie abour. The d a substantial part * the labour provided ters to the building ays in the plantation gd i 1840 an Ordias Crown land any ularly cultivated land and-burn Cultiwators) ould furnish a Written for a song to the 5. Wher these CrOWT irce, European and en entered the game villagers to part with i. A new legislation Il of land Sette Tart ind alienation, Which space available for cultivation. Moreover Irestation by plantarosion and silting of g of springs, Scarcity scarcity of grazing Thus landhunger and lems in Ceylon Were result of plantation Il dia.
stable and obedient
abourers, generally Castes, Was ensured wity of "kanganies', Irers Who Were given |EditTS LO TECTLJit èW By controlled through
mot under an il dellInger distance migrad the Caribbean). The
Conditions were apd of the 19th century, ision to tea and the Colorial authoritiĖS til, FTIT 1901 ) |rowth Was Tore rapid SOut Asia; the Corti
Cf || 5 Urti|| 13 Tmportant Contributing
perial systern Centred occupied a marginal nomic links with the gnificant through the The barks, rT3 ragging rt-import firms. Indian 3 present in the rural
credit market (the nattukottai chettiars from south India), the rice and the cotton trade (the Borahs and the Sindhis from western India) and the retail of imported goods (Muslim merchants from Kerala). Their competition was resented by the Sinhala traders, especially the karawa from the West coast, and led to tensions including severe anti-Muslim riots in 1915. Communal violence Was until then almost unknown in Sri Lanka, and in any case less common than in India. The 1915 events, caused by conflicting economic interests rather than religious differences, were a portent of things to COTE
The exclusive emphasis on plantation agriculture led to the neglect of peasant subsistence agriculture. Paddy cultiwation suffered from the lack of Concer for irrigation and the abolition of Corvee labour by which the reservoirs and channels used to be cleared and repaired. Any attempt at restoring the hydraulic Works of the dry zone was foiled by the persistence of malaria until the 1940s, and the competition in the town and plantation rice market of cheap paddy produced in India and Burma. Even the abolition of the paddy tax did not improve the condition of the peasantry, nor increase rice productivity. As a similar stagnation occurred in the paddy-producing areas of eastern India (in contrast with the development of Punjabi agriculture), the plantation system was probably not the only factor responsible.
There is a tendency to overstress the rationality of the British rajin South Asia. Recent research has shown that there was a larg a mOLInt of improwisation, expediency and contradictions in the colonial practice both in India and Ceylon. But in the latter country the authorities had at their disposal a much den Ser retWork of Ciwill Serwarts, better Communications and irfJTIT13tiO systems, and therefore more efficient tools to impose their policy. The nationalist answer to British raj has been constructed as the major trend in 20th century India's history, until Some Cambridge-based historians started to question that exclusive estphasis on the basis of local level studies in political mobilisation. In Comparison, Sri Lanka's path to freedom has usually been described as relatively smooth, uneventful, and rather parochial: but if the emphasis is put con India's regional and mot national history, the difference is less obvious.
13

Page 16
In both Countries there was an attempt by the British in the second half of the 19th century to restore the authority of the traditional elites. The Services due to temples and to Kandyan chiefs were registered and caste hierarchids were legitimised, especially in Jaffna (although they were never officially recognised in censuses as in India). A conservative brand of Buddhism was encouraged and an attempt at "moralising' social practices Was made by condemning polyandry, and exposing corruption in the administration of temple properties. The decay of the Kandyan aristocracy was attributed to alcoholism (which the British had themselves fostered by encouraging the Opening of ta Werns up-country for fiscal reasons).
At the same time the dyramis Tn of the Westernised low-country elite was censured exactly like that of its Bengali Counterpart. Its economic success Was condemned as speculative and exploitative of the peasantry, and its pretensions to represent the nation were denounced as LumaLuthentic. Its mer Tibers Werë barTed from access to the higher administrative posts While at the Sarne time English missionary Schools and the professions Were liberally opened to these so-called "brown Sahibs'. Members of this new bourgeoisie Were ethnically diverse and di Wided into riwal Coteries, but had ni Luchi in Common: English was their second or often first language, coconut or rubber POfOperty thair fawo Lurite in Westment, la W or possibly medicine the career to which they destined their children.
As in India, religious revivalist movements were started by members of the elite in an attempt to Counter missionary influence in education. As early as the Thiddle of the 19th century, Arumugan Nawalar tried to recreate a Hindu Saivite tradition in Jaffna, by the end of the Century, the Anagarika Dharmapala played a Tajor role in the development of a Buddhist revival first supported by the theosophists (who were also active in India during the time of Annie Besant and B G Tilak) and later emancipated from their influence, Dharmapala kept close links with India where he spent a large part of his life restoring the sacred places of Buddhism.
Again as in India, the period of the first World War. Witnessed an upsurge of nationalist Tilitancy and a stiffening on the part of the colonial authorities, a face to face which could erupt into open Conflict. The first centenary of the
14
cession of Kandy in an opportunity, but
of tile colonia a intentional plot whic of the troubles. The and the imprisone a leaders of the arOLJSed the sympat of the population, in rates; but it did поп-cooperatioп mс to it. Wicca |dia after the 1919 In the early 1920s,
ties in Ceylon Were the potential rivalrie munities to break th
These events ar from those which of tha Indian na SS the deeper cause trajectories of the in India and in Ce) depth of the coloni, contributing factor i leaders as determi the Wasternised Iri gap between the tle local dolinarts in Sri Lanka, and Tobilisatier Which II ration moyerThérits Si might have been Tic Se in Ceylon. Fin Certainly not a pl: debates as lively Bombay Would nor the Ceylon Nationa in the after at of remained a Weak or factionāli riwalries. ( characteristic of OC shown by the rec "Cambridge School's but the lational lea Congress proved parochial interests.
Three specific fact situation require sp first is that the Bri Ceylon a showcas rule. The Second is Welcomed Gandhi : generally regarded India. With Some should impinge on C Ways; in the 1930s a led by D S Senari become the prime dence, Was quite Moreower, anti-India fuelled by the natic ganda of party and

1915 provided such t is rather the panic thorities than any h was at the basis execution of rioters it of the main Sinhaationalist movement ly of large segments cluding Tamil modelot lead to a vast werment comparable Inged British rule in A TritSar ma SSa Cre, the Colonial authoriable to Tanipulate S betWeem tha CCTle movement.
a not very different Couraged the growth
movement. Among S for the different lational Towerthents lon, the length and all impact may be a as also the lack of led and Cohesive as dian brahmin S. The anglicised elite and
was possibly Wider
the kind of mass hade the non-COOpeo impressive in India ire difficult to organially, Colombo was ace where political as in Calcutta or ally take place, and | Congress founded the 1915 repression ganisation, riven with oterie Was also a all Indian politics, as ent Studies of the of historians of India, jership of the Indian abola to rise ab OW3
ors in the Sri Lankan |ccial Tention. The ish chose to make 9 of gradual home that even if Ceylon and Nehru, its elites developments in liffidence lest they eylon's independent nd 1940s, the group ayake Who Was to Tinister at indepenclear on this point. in sentinents Were onal-populist propaunion leaders such
as A E Goonesinha, who accused immigrant Workers of being responsible for the largescale unemployment in urban and plantation areas during the depression, and Indian traders (especially the chettiar) of depriving Ceylonese owners of paddy, coconut and rubber properties of their lands. These developments are exactly parallel to those which led to the separation of Burma (another Buddhist country) from India, but they never took in Ceylon a violent turn as in Burma, probably because the Ceylonese elite had then choses the parliamentary Way Which gawe the In better prospects for political advancement than crisis and confrontation.
The third factor is the lack of Social tensions in the rural World comparable to those which underlay Gandhi's mass mobilisation. After the abolition of the paddy tax, in spite of the repression of Slash-and-burn cultivation and of the andhunger resulting from plantation expansion, there was until the depression no widespread peasant discontent, because most peasants Could draw some advantages from the opportunities created by agricultural expansion. When the depression set in, the villagers whose numbers had been inflated by an early population growth found themselves deprived of these opportunities or even thrown out of employment. The dramatic malaria epidemic of 1934-35 owed its deadly character to the fact that many peasants were undernourished. To counter the prospect of an impending crisis, both the colonial government and Ceylonese leaders such as D. S. Senanayake were quick to revise the land policy hither to biased towards the estate sector, along the lines suggested in 1929 by the Ceylon Land Commission. Land redistribution to peasants in the Wet zone, and later the large-scale restoration and creation of hydraulic works for paddy cultivation in the dry zone, succeeded in defusing peasantunrest, At the same time, the bases of a Welfare state were being set up, in the form of free dispensaries and Schools.
The transfer of power by the British to the Sri Lankan elite was a long drawn out exercise. A legislative council established during the 19th century had been opened to Unofficial representatives elected ja arroward COTILIral basis. The enlargement of the electorate in the 1920s under governor Manning had left the communal system intact, the colonial motto being then 'divide and rule' in Ceylon as well as in India. But in the

Page 17
late 1920s, the Donoughmore CommisSion, Semt to the Island about at the Samme time as the SiO COITIISSio to the Subcontinent, suggested a different course: the abandonment of separate electorates, universal franchise, and a system of limited horne rule with dyarchy. While the governor retained responsibility for a W and Order, justice, finance and foreign relations, a board of ministers (Without a prime minister) elected by a state Council was to manage home affairs, education, health agriculture, industries and corrtunications. The refor Ts were adopted in 1931 - well before the provincial devolution of 1937 in India, Sri Lanka thus Served as a test case of gradual decolonisation, possibly to show the Indian nationalists the benefits they could gain from collaboration with the raj.
The political class reluctantly accepted the new system. Uniwersal Suffrage compelled them to play the electoral game, without giving them full responsibility, and even its supporters such as LaL LaLLa LLaLLL LaaHLLL00LLLHL LLL LLLLLL influence when confronted with the emergence of a Marxist movement led by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. The communal system of representation died hard and led Tiany politicians to revive caste, religious or ethnolinguistic loyalties to el Sure Wote banks for themiselwes. The rise of communal politics in the 1930s was in a way the outcome of the majority rule implicit in a representative syster in which the institutions did not provide for a measure of federalism. Some leaders of the Tamil minority in Jaffna induced their people to boycott the elections for two years, and they later advocated an equal representation for the Illinorities (about 30 per cent of the population) and the majority. On the other side of the deepening divide, S W R D Banda Taraike started a CorTTILJal Towement, the Sinhlala Mahāsatha, reminiscent of the Hindu Mahasabha in India.
But at that stage there existed in Сеylonпо separatistпоvement comparable to that advocated by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. During the Second World war, Whereas the collaboration of the Muslim League with the British, in contrast with the CLluit India TOWEITrent of the Col= gress, pawed the Way for Pakistan, the good relations of D S Senanayake with the British and his ability to integrate the Jaffna Tamils into the political system, ensured the independence of Ceylon as a unitary state. Om the other
hand, the Ceylone LOW Country Sinha to gain the Suppo excluded the India cially the plantatio distributiÕI Tiga SU government jobs.
a ban on migrator SerioUS Crisis de Wel Sector in 940. At of the immigrants' and beccan1 = Statig ed for CadCS Contention betweer
Furthermore, the complete indepen. followed a path we of India and Pakist ties created by the opposite effects. A became the headq рапеse wаг іп s есопоmy benefited rioLS Contra Cts, fr. rubber and grap olarl Thing ap på rätu: laid the basis for E Was to become a Lankan polity after cultural prices wer producer and cont of the COSLers: better organised, t tion systems war footing, malaria W by syster Tatic spora
On the political powers given to t arresting the Tarc encouraged it; the L by D S Senanaya made him appear : in WieW of thlé traf Very moment when Teat threatered th continent. In a Way. dence frofs) India the SaTg Circumst: for the CTE:ation Col prepared by the Sar ower the August 19 As early as June 1 ter, then COTITE ded the War Cabin Constitution submit ke. The Teport of the sion sent to Ceylor served as a basis f. lasted for three ye there Were actual ot the Attlee govermit priority to the burni independence of C

se leadership (mainy lese), partly in order rt of the Kandyans, Lm immigrants (eSpeIn Tamils) from land res and from Sarne Il dia Totaliated With y TowerTents, and a oped in the plantation independence, most Were disen franchised ess, their fate remaia major bone of rdiääld Sri Laka.
TVt Vārd dricē f 3 Lākā ry different from that in the new opportuni3 War had practically fter 1942, the island Järters for thig älti-JaOuth-east Asia. The immensely from waDIT the demand for lite. In addition, a S was set up which a Welfare State Which ha|Irmark of the Sri independence: agria guaranteed for the rolled for the benefit public services were le health and Educae given a Sounder as partly eradicated ying of DDT.
side, the extensive he military, far from h to independence, Infailing support given ke to the War effort as the perfect partner sfer of power, at the the Luit dia TowaThe British raj om the СеуӀопеse indeрепWaS guaranteed by inces which provided Pakistan, and was me man Who presided 47 transfer of power. Զ44, Լքrd MoլImtbat|der-in-chief, persLaat to exatile a draft edby DS Senanayaié Soulbury Commis1 by tha end of 1944 r a negotiation which ars - not because Stacles, but because ment chose to give ng Indian issue. The Ceylon Was therefore
proclaimed only in February 1948, although it had matured during a longer Period thal on the Continert.
Compared with the violent conditions that prevailed in India, Pakistan and Burma, the transfer of power in Sri Lanka appeared as a transition as smooth as had been the takeover of the Low Country in 1796 and that of Kandy in 1815. Defence and co-operation agreements ersured that Britain kept an influence on foreign relations and economic affairs. The more radical nationalists such as Bandaranaike, and the Marxist leaders who were becoming popular, could therefore describe the operation as a case of non-genuine decolonisation.
In a way, 1948 does not represent a major Watershed in the history of the island. The peaceful character of the transition could not hide for long a series of Weaknesses, which Were to appear a decade later, With a succession of crises culminating in the 1980s with the Tamil separatist movement and the JWP uprising in the south. It is perhaps the Sri all size, the high degree of education, Communication and politicisation which made the Sri Lankan problems appear So untractable, as in the Cases of Lebanon of Cyprus.
But in spite of these major differences, the study of Sri Lankan history can shed SOThe light on certain aspects of Indian history ard contribute to its Critical exa Thiration. If Ora COinSiders Indiä aS a state throughout the Todern period, the history of Sri Lanka appears as basically specific: the limited relations between India and Sri Lanka hawe always been of a nature different from those between the centre of India's power (be it Delhi or Calcutta) and any of its peripheral parts. If on the contrary the focus is on the regional aspects of the Indian World, there are Tore similarties for example between Kerala and Sri Lanka than between Kerala and Rajasthan. That a comparative study of Sri Lanka and Kerala opens a rich field of research in political economy as Well as history has been amply demonstrated (see Rex Casirader, EPMM. December 2, 1995).
This essay is an adaptation of a chapter originaly published in French in a Wolume On the history of modern India edited by Claude Markowits (AFfosfaire de WW7ờie Mifader77G, 7-32-7252, Paris, Fayard, 1994). The author Wishes to express his thanks to Alice Thorner for her help in translating and editing the text.
15

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Page 19
Waiting for Zyuganov
Rethinking Marxism's impasse
Dayan Jayatilleka
WWie 'Crisis of MAG-x75/77. Fie E77 of Магжsү77; haа бge/7 proc'аў77еa' 7of г77gre/y fy /їs eү7ег77/es дуї виег7 fѓ5 Д7елдs. Сал ѓ7е соWадse of Sоиfefало' Soviet style socia/S and the fa/Le of Marxists to Magлtify алdiagree цдол arly Liversa/agency for socia/carge LOCHO LLLLLLL GLLL LLLLCLOLY YLL S LYLCLLH LLL LGLM SS S YtLYS LOLK YLLLLL LLLLLLLlLLLLLLL LCLEL caused the derise of ready existing scala/ST? W.C. S dead, and Wii LGLGLGLOLOL0 KLCL LLLLLLLHHHH S YLCO0LOLOLHS SYYL MariST, Wasa MariST, Wie' а5дасf of MMarxisлт ёs /л сү5is? ИWaf is Marxisn's Origina/ Sin? How can M*ExfSY775 SFENCFFFG/ A3CLé77a. De OWestCOW776 SQ AS sea ev 77'ye if foi escape for is curren CLW-de-sac.? W7 sort, CW7 — Wa' Wilcopy C-777 - MAMWLAWSW77 Ete Геиїиесі?//7 иwha/ ију сал7 fӱ7е ѓег77ег7Co//s Nožeo/cgWса/ av7ої слуѓуva/ resoуугсgs of Wтдаvva//5лтт Де сормулалуалМасу? As Makists, it is CL77tent too us so SeGIK AYISWEEFS o (Wiese qLessia/7s и//e и е иал от гла Party of Депут fo Take it's cong back W7 Russia.
PART
Marxism and the Intangible
There are two major interpretations Within Marxism, concerning the motor force of history; two different identifications of the basic Contradiction which propels large scale qualitative change. One is the Contradiction between the forces of production and the relations of production. This view holds that at Some point, the growing forces of production come up against the Constriction of the existent relations of production. A Luace Cor Todification of this the SiS - as introduced by Stalin in his Econd77ič Pro 15/gw775 CC/524 536 577 Ŵ7 W7eg W55FF" - envisages a situation in which the relations of production becorThe afetter on the future/potential growth of the forces of production.
The Second major thesis identifying the motive force of Socio-historical change is the contradiction between classes; the class struggle. Of course, the two interpretations are far from mutually exclusive and the latter can be
seen as caused by of the former.
In a striking leap C ty or perhaps intuit are denied him by and denouncers - cited above, envisa a contradiction Eaty relations of producti (resulting from error Kautsky and Trots| such a Contradiction ConsequêmCes from an analytic framew identify post 1917 Socialist. Indeed Counter-revolutional more charitably, id form of property bu of defining it socia: bCotin Le:S tFloirik describe post rew. socialist or Ewell as stem led not onlyfr tude, but alSO frOT) of Socialismas a Su Capitalist and the Containing a seric Contradiction betwe relations of product pantly, we may dis motion of SocialiST earth'). Hence, wha: the USSR Was lo socialissT-indeed, fc exact opposite; SO tionary than capital the capitalism he h that of Germany, Writing as it were, th
Degfelde TS of Ki Would argue that ift for anything, it is to Marx (and Engel: of socialism as aris advanced capitalism of Consumer goods. looks a question the noW Well known rep admitting the possibi Russia making a di the COTUnal "mirt the Russian revoluti for the European r Marx added this las but however great

and the expression
if theoretical originalion - qualities that his legion of critics Stalin, in the essay ged the possibility of Ween the forces and On, under Socialist Ieous policies). While ky clearly visualised predicting the direst it, they did so within ork that refused to "Soviet society as Kautsky deemed it y While Trotsky, Értified a Col||CtiWE It stopped Well short list. In the case of rs, their refusal to lutionary USSR as "building Socialism', DIT Lhadoretical Exacti= an aprioristic notion ccessor to developed refore incapable of Busly consequential the fJTCS ad te ion, (Somewhat flipCerT ECHOBBS iri th Bir I, of a "hea Wen Con at Was being built in t ärld Could mot Etje ir Kautsky, it was its "mething Tore reacis 1. One notes that ad i Third Cluded Which, as hie Wäs rew up Nazi fascism
utsky and Trotsky hey could be faulted of excessive fidelity s) who clearly spoke sing on the basis of With its abundance . This defence overit stells from Marx's bly to Wera ZaSulich, lity of a revolutionary lirect transition from Socialism, provided On acted as a signal evolution. Certainly, mentioned proviso, the importance one
attributes to it, however great the emphaSiS Orle gives it, the problem remains that any Russian socialism/communism arising on the basis of the mir, and not issuing from the Womb of a developed Russian capitalism, in fact bypassing such a stage, had of necessity to be Very different from a socialism arising in Britain or Western Europe, whatever the degree of assistance from a Victorious European proletariat. This is so, unless one can argue that Marx and Engels enWisaged a 'substitionism" by the exterial-in a Context other thal that of colonial conquest - which could compensate for bypassing the internal evolution of a developed capitalism. This needs to be explored.
Stalin's particular merit Was that he not merely admitted, but cautioned of and indeed drew attention to the possibility of such a contradiction (between forces and relations of production) and its Seriousness in a system which he Unambiguously saw as Socialist and Which he was the architect and artisan of.
Mao certainly conceptualized contradictions, including antagonistic ories, under Socialism and (non antagonistic ones?) Under communism. However, though he spoke of those between mental and Thanual labour and town and country, Mao clearly emphasized class struggle as the funda Tental Contradiction in post-revolutionary society. It was Liu Shao Chi, Deng Hsiao Peng and less explicitly Chou en Lai, who followed the Stalin thesis of the Contradiction between forces and relations of production under socialism. It was not entirely a fiction When the Maoists critiqued this school of thought as "Bukharinite" and in the interests of accuracy it. Would be correct to termita Stalin-Bukharin thesis (though its evolution was a two step one and does not date from the period of the Bukharin-Stalin bloc).
Professional Sovietologists and the more literate of journalistic commentators on the fall of the socialist system in the USSR and Eastern Europe hawe been unable to suppress their glee at the irony of history in which Marx's discovery, that the conflict between the forces and relations of production, led
7ך

Page 20
to the unravelling of "Marx's estate", so to speak. They were correct, of course.
The question then is why is it that the Marxists of these countries, failed to See this. A facile reply Would be that they were not really Marxists. Is it really correct that they were unable to discern the growing problem. The answer is 'yes' and 'no'. There were many social Scientists and theoreticians who grasped the problem of economic stagnation and technological backwardenss. Apart from the period of ideological grotesquerie, Where the USSR was characterised as a 'developed socialist' society - and this was precisely the period in which the economy was stagnating - these loyally dissenting ideologues became increasingly influential. The Andropow and early Gorbachew years were, in a sense, their moment. Where then, did they fail? In the first place, they did not Wish to admit that the problem was one of a contradiction between the forces and the relations of production, because to do so Would hawe been to rehabilitate a Stalinist thesis or Worse still, to make ConCessions (they Wrongly thought) to Maoist notions of funda Tental contradictions under socialism. Therefore, the problem as seen merely as one of economic growthstagnation/technological backwardness. The farTIOLIS "Scientific and Technological Revolution" (STR) Was Seen a quick fix. Their outlook or the problems of Socialism closely mirrored that of Walt RostoW (and World Bank orthodoxy) about the Third World
Secondly, and more pertinent to us here, was that they did not understand the content of one of the most important aspects of the Scientific & Technological Revolution under late capitalism, which they were hoping to emulate. They failed to Comprehend the Crucial importance of information technology, of information and the da Wning of the information age, which bourgeois thinkers such as Marshall Mcluhan had focused on as early as 1962 and Zbiegniew Brzezinski had described as the "tech retronic revolution'. The STR, economic growth and even the forces of production were understood by Soviet and Sovietized Marxists in exclusively Langible, physical, material, quantifiable terms. These Marxists forgot or did not know Lenin's remark to the effect that "intelligent Malerialism has riflorg in CCTTOs With intelligent Idealsim tham with mechanistic materialism'. That is Why Mcluhan's notion of the 'global village' - and its implications for socialism - escaped them almost completely. Thus it is that a grave philosophical flaw, that of Techanistic, Vulgar materialism, blinded
18
dominant Marxist intangible i.e. 'inf been incorporated = force,
This had i Sgwgr: STR of the West, wit O ir for å til St. technology Could ni SOwiet adwar Ca3 ir technology could II Certain ceiling. The spin-off benefits o' Soviet military and : the civiliar sector. A relations of producti on the further devel of production and aw tion of this develop of production that in ped were the force production.
The Contradiction of informational proc tOS 0f infoTTiaticola: sted itselfin two wa over, Firstly, as We är irtir lā| 0 til Where the necess: Tört Of the fürCes fettered. Secondly, i.e. the lewel of iter DT, Marx og Writ rarn of Cheap cor down the Chinese W the Stagrant, Self-s China in particular, i In similar fashion, thi forces Of Inforfflatior West, batterged the symbolized the e: relations of infor under Socialist.
The Marxists also that certainly in To{ tion shaped culture
et of it. Tag Te information and cult stood. This is is Marxism's major lac even So un dogmatic Debray has allege Cuestion, Indeed or xism (during and a a Corpus of concept of any rival school of sed but easily Verifi: Second International cacy of the Right Determination alte years, its use by Marxism's major lacu Weakness. Within its National Question, y the Cultural Gues as the TOSt Cotable

to the fact that an Jrmation" hiad W s a vital productive
implications. The its heavy emphasis rage and retrieval t be replicated. The
space and military ot break through a re Were hardly any
existing levels of pace technology for bowe all, the existing On acted as a fetter pment of the forces en caused a retardaerit, since the forces aeded to be develois of informational
between the forces Luction and the rela| production manifeis, or operated twice hawa discusSed, at trasystematic level, try further developof production were at an External level systemic contradicten of the battering simodities, breaking Wall and subjugating ufficient systems of and Asia in general. Ea hugely developed ial production of the Eesiin Wall Which kistent protectionist national production
failed to understand del times, informaand Was a Compolationship between ure Was not undersurprising, because LUIT WAS Tot — ES : a thinker as Regis - the National that subject, Marfter Marx) contains S that are the equal thought. A suppresble fact, is that the 'S and Lenin's advoof NatOS to Self dated by several
WoodsOW WIIS. Ina, indeed its major
theorization of the as and is precisely tion (with Gramsci
exception). This is
turn is linked to Marxism's inability to grasp the link between past and present, between continuity and discontinuity, not in the social real, not in the real of socio-economic relations, but in the realm of thought, attitude, behaviour, habit, etc.
It is this structural Weakness in Marxism that made it impossible for Marxists to grasp, let along foresee, the Contradiction that led so greatly to the collapse of Socialism as a systern: that between the forces Of informational/Cultural production and the relations of informationallcultural production.
For his part, Marx knew that while material force can be opposed only by material force, ideas become a material force when they are grasped by the masses. Marx's Marxism or perhaps the sub-text, the secondary, hidden discourse of Marx's Marxism (perhaps we should callit Marx's other Marxism, that of the Other Marx) was not one in which materialism was exclusively physical, tangible. Ideas - masses - material force. And as With ideas, so too with rhythms, With rock music This was painfully discovered by the power bloc in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Marx's (or the Other Marx's) notion of materialty and of the production of the material, Was ЛОt reducible to the BСОПОТTic and Was very different from the materialism of Sovietized Marxism, ideas could be a material force, the intangible could become the laterial. For this Marx, there was 10 Chinese Wall between material and mental production - and tördsformatiofo Oa to the Oter was a contingent process ("When...... grasped by the masses") - contingent upon Tediation by the collective, the Tlass. In this Other Marxism then, what is crucially determinant, is not the physical, the tangible, but the collective, the Social. Or, more simply put, the people.
A Pгелnature Objїшалу
The "Crisis of Marxism", the "End of Marxism" had been proclaimed not merely by its enemies, but even its friends. Wallerstein spoke of this crisis in the early 1980's while Ronald Aronson, in a searching and sensitive work, has declared that Marxist is over. Hence the title of his book: After Marxis. The collapse of Soviet and Soviet-style Socialist and the failure of Marxists to identify and agree upon any universal agency for social change are the two main pieces of evidence he produces of this daise. But is this evidence sufficient? Is Marxism, once deprived of those two attributes, a dead Marxism? It is incumbent upon us to seek out

Page 21
that Marxist. Which is dead and that which is alive, or rather, that within Marxist which is dead and that which remains alwa. The sa Tie is true of the farrious Crisis of Marxism. Which Marxistin, Whose Marxism which aspects of Marxism is in Crisis?
The main reason for declaring a crisis of Marxism was held to be the increasing gap between its predictions of polariza tion and of the vanguard role of the proletariat on the one hand, and the actual evolution of Capitalist Society on the other. If this Were cause enough to de Claré the Crisis Or derTise Clf Marxism, then it is almost two-thirds of a century old, since Eduard Barnstein made precisely these criticisms in the early part of the century. The point is ot: Wh1eth Ber" BBrInStei1 WaS C0rre-CL. Th B point is that even if he were, there was enough witality and explanatory power in Marxism to act as inspiration for revolutionary upheavals at least till 1979
If the point is that of the collapse of the Socialist system, then why is it that the Survival Of Cuba and its SLCCESS at ensuring Social Welfare despite the disappearance of its patron, is being ignored by the theorists of Marxist's end? Could a systern that was not superior to Capitalism, have Survived the decades long, even tightening blockade plus the economic, psychological and spiritual fallout of Soviet Socialism's disappearance? Could a system that was not superior to capitalism have survived all this without slashing the social welfare systern and while continuing With the advanced redical scientific research that Cuba is undertaking? And all this in a Small island, 90 Tiles from the Sole Super power? This achievgrent cannot be explained away as merely one of Cuban nationalism, because it begs the question of Why Third World nationalisms — Ewen thiloSe2 Lunder praetoria ni SyStĒTS - have collapsed. While Cuba has not. It also begs the question as to why nationalisII, or patriotism has found its strongest expression in Socialism in Cuba. Perhaps the "nationalist' explanation points to a strength rather than a Weakness of Socialism, i.e. Socialism, When it is not imposed from Without, is the firmast and truest guarantee of independence, sovereignty and indeed, of the national interest.
NOITE I of thi5 is ir trided to åWĊid the problem of the collapse of Socialisrn in the USSR and Eastern Europe - and its implications for Marxism. But why identify a philosophy, an ideology, So completely With a syster's destiny,
particularly when th Sewes had blu and Whatlawer notio long acknowledge relation to the post Engels" definitio Epg|Weën "method" "system' With refere ewer Ore Walid Will Cally determined poc nomic system?
Furthermore, Whil thesis or even para to HäWë been er TOT. by repeāted failu based upon it, Ca (say, Physics) be When experiments thesis Within Marxis med and Te Wised E ories remain to be ES SCİECE CTITICOL de Oli51Ed Wit t iSITl.
The other major XIST IS OWEJr EECa Lu upon or identifiabl IS Eother a TOW ! target dead Centre identification of the cipation occurred as Maо, апd poss Writings when he revolution's destiny the Weight of Chir The shift away from til of the West fLUIda T1ghta | Weg Flix has been tentative, Stant, but One With ; from Trotsky's prE revolution and his road to Paris lies Lein's "Advanced pe" and Stalin's "Di The shift Corles differentiation batW (the proletariat) ar peasantry)
When Fanon, M Lin Biao Wirtually at 3 rd e Wër të WWO
O Flag ||Tlstedt delise of Marxi TlatiS EE3C3LJSe M: not dependent on HgBrity - Gr, at dependent upgrl | It IS CÓITSG Watiwa SäCorld Interflätion tāt 5 i : Marxism, reacting rist Maoist and adopted a version sting that the cont

e philosophers therTeprint for a system mis they did hawe are d to hawa had little evolutionary Context?
Tial disgriti
and (Conceptual) ince to Hegel is surely th regard to a historilitical and Socio-eco
la this Orthat Scientific digm can be deemed eous or Superseded, res of experiTents n any science itself deered to be dead, fail? While many Til hawe to be abadoand While many new
elaborated, Marxism be Said to hawe been ne collapse of SOCia
* argument that MarSe there is no agreed agency of change, |ld - Eg Il || || ||B 2. Surely the shift in main agent of emanat least as far back sibly with Lenin's last
spoke of the World being determined by landia and Persia? the original identificarn proletariat as the :le of êmancipation, qualified and inconsia long history ranging diction of a Russian |alВГ ТЕПЕНГk that the through Calcutta, to Asia, Backward EuroOnot. Forgot the East". bolder With Maois's een the leading force d the main force (the
Marcuse, Debray and andoned the Western ld's urban proletariat, ho Crisis, Still le SS the ST. fOT that Te&SUIT! arxist's fortures Were fidelity to the original
aast häd rit Berl It for many decades. Marxist, that of the al äftar Octoberto 1917, a yardstick. Soviet to the Castro-Gueva'ew Left challenges. of this attitude, insiradictic) EWE In tha
ܓ¬.
Socialist and capitalist systems Was the driving force of history, while the "Victorious ruling Soviet proletariat was the main vehicle of change. But this had no effect on the optimism of revolutionary Marxism, and the radical left.
Marxism's main emphasis, strength ad Contribution Was Tot the model Cof a future Society. Here it resolutely turned its back on the Utopian Socialist tradition. It's main strength and emphasis was its critique of capitalism. This still remains relevant and therefore Marxist Carnot ta Said to bog dåd. It haS EGET argued cogently by Wallerstein that Marxism's validity is a matter for the future rather than the past, since Marx posited a model of pure capitalism and of a capitalist World, which will be approximated only When the non-capitalist hinterlands of the globe are fully subjugated and transformed. Here, Wallerstein follows Rosa Luxemburg who predicted capitalism's final crisis as resulting froп the disappearance of the pre-capitalist hinterlands which, she Said were essential for capitalism's growth - just as their penetration was.
The Chinese identification in the 1960. gf Lī ār citādictis of ti globe, remain Walid, except for that between the World socialist system and the world capitalist system. (This exists only in residual form, in the case of Cuba). The other contradictions between LL LLaLLLLL LLLLLLaH LHHLLLLLLL LLL aa Third World and imperialism; between capital and labour in the capitalist courtries and finally, inter-imperialist contradctions, remain intact, though their form may have Changed. Chiaբas 1994 LLaHLLLLLLL LLL LLLLtLLLLLLL LLLL LaaaaLLLLLLL L 0L0L0 that "countries want independence, nations Want liberation, peoples Want rewoUtiO' haS not beel invalidated. Ma O formulation also reveals a development of a complex notion of history, first introduced by Lenin when he modified the International's old slogan of "Workers of the World Unite', to that of "Workers and Oppressed Peoples of the World Unite'. In doing so, Lenin revealed his understanding of history not as a unitary process of class struggle but as a confluence of class and popular struggles, generated by contradictions of exploitation ("workers") and oppression (oppressed peoples). He also introduces a 12 W ager Cy, a reW Category', 'OpporESsed peoples of the World'. Not 'nations' mot “the peasantry", though there is quite obviously an overlap.
Y7a de Carl WYLECEV
1. "Taking class struggle as the key link
19

Page 22
| An interview with Romesh Gunaseke
by Tina Faulk
he post-colonial novel is a paradoxical beast.
It expresses the joys and traumas of What hawe been Corra to be called, politely, "emerging nations', yet - Writers in English being post-colonial elites - it often expresses perspectives of the Colonisers rather than the colonised, Written in their language, rather than that of indigenous people.
Ironic too, that some of the best-known post-colonial Writers (Naipaul, Rushdie, Ondaatje, Mistry,) are also exiles, forced to abandon their homelends for those of the erstwhile-Coloniser or another previous colony. Thus Ondaatje and Mistry in Canada, Naipaul, Rushdie, and Roriesh Guriesekera in the UK.
Roles Who?
If his name is not exactly well known in Australia, it is hardly the author's fault, for is first Collection of short stories on his native Sri Lanka, Mio Afs. Mod, Was Well received and his novel Aea/ Was a contender for the Booker Prize of 1993.
January the Sydney Writer's Festival heard Sri Lankan-born Romesh speaking about his work in the State (Mitchell) Library of New South Wales.
Guinesekera, born in 1954, the son of a rowing expatriate executive who left Sri Lanka in the 1960s, was schooled in the Philippines and the UK. He has lived in London since the 1970s, where he studied Philosophy and English and married an English Woman. He has Worked as a development aid officer in several Countries and now Works for the British Council in London. Heef and MfoWikifi5V7 MMCW7 Hawe been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Hebrew and Dutch.
20
Yet AedifiStart һоппеland, passag| for that Wolaile, he island.
"I remembëred my childhood, th through the fr deathless air. M. closeness of the The lapping of th lotus leaves, the it and the Corio glide of a hornt troubles, no c. swaying to a mus peace that se though the jung fury at any mom
FeSfis GunESE! colonial morality ta of sins committed in tes too tangled u: to notice the encr tears down their W. reef, fragile and E metaphor, is threat from Within.
Romash GundSe Sydney Writer's F importance of In pushing into the r to recover fragme. the deep. Reef is a memories, for its a child, with his farm middleclass diasp king intellectuals, f Sixties, a Country to tens With W
TE2315.
A7eef is endleSS enchanting, with its ve insights, its dre redolent of the long afterrh001.
 

heart
arly evocative for his s of nostalgic longing rtcatchingly beautiful
Fle COCOut tradS Of ! sound of the breeze nds. Simple, pure St of al missed the tank - the reservoir. a dark Water, flapping Warr mair rippling over ants rising, the silent ill. No demons, no irrion. An elephant ic of its own. A perfect Tld Eaterlal e Wen le might Unleash its ent..."
Kera's powerful postle, a Genesis story paradise by new-elin their own lives aching storin until it prld, just as the coral eautiful, the novel's ned With destruction
kera, Speaking at the Estival stressed the mory for a Writer cesses of the past its, like pears from | about Temes Tibered author emigrated as ly, part of the Worried ra of English-speaOm Sri Lanka in the 1еп шneasily corning at self-government
funny, Warm and sudden sharp incisimy prose passages low heat of a tropical
Reef, a novel of migration and memories is also a novel of expatriation. Its protagonists, Triton, the child brought to Work in an affluent suburban household, who grows into a talented Cook, is the silent obserwer, the serwant Who Watches, loyal yet judgemental. Triton's master, "my Mr Salgado" is a man of the new elite, the colonial bourgeoisie who step in to run the Country once the colonisers have gone. A mild, bookish man, "the sad expression of a hurt heron would struggle in his face" set in his genteel ways, who fails to understand the political forces unleased by the end of colonialism. Salgado's mistress, lovely Nili, is a modern Woman, impatient with tradition, passionate, impulsive and headstrong. Devotedly, like Ishiguro's butler, in The Renais of the Day, Triton serves them both, the perfect cook, the diplomatic man gt's was ill.
Around them all, the reef, a metaphor for the island, which protects the superstructure as a skin does the internal organs of a hurlan body, the blood, veins and nerve endings, until the reef comes under siege, dissolves and disintegrates.
Guesekera invites his readers to dive into the exhilarating, occasionally murky World of Third World living; a love cake, made for Miss Nili's delectation, with tem fresh eggs; leftover milk, poured into a clay pot of water, which swirls, "a slow cloud of liquid smoke, uncoiling and running along...unfurling gently in a silent underwater burst of white", and the serene image of the great reservoir of Water, the ancient tank, a sea of whose shallows SWar. With Wildbirds.
Rortlesh Guinesekera Wanted, he said in Sydney, to Write a short book. Feles' is short, but it is memorable.

Page 23
solned tilscorporation for job Security and a chance to move up the later. What Will privatization do to my ambitions
- Corporation Employee
 

Privatization does not mean retrenchmentor layoffs,
In the case of many companies the terms of the privatization do not allow retrenchment. In fact, you can look forward to
a lot more opportunities to advance.When your corporation
is privatized, the new owners will look to expand and diversify its activities.There will be a great emphasis placed on productivity and management efficiency. Improved productivity could lead to profit-sharing and other benefits, In addition, you can acquire useful new skills and knowledge, If you have the drive and determination, you will have ample
Scope to achieve your objectives.
It is important to realize privatization is a means to
an end. It is a means to improve our living standards, foster
technological progress, Create employment and take our nation into a more prosperous tomorrow. In order to achieve these aims, privatization has to be executed in the
appropriate manner.
That is the task of the Public Enterprise Reform
Commission (PERC). Its mandate is to make privatization
Work for Sri Lankans today, and for generations to come.
Every privatization is a carefully considered decision
that takes into account the interests of all sectors of society,
the general public, the state employees, the consumers, the
suppliers, as well as the country's overal economic vision,
PERC's mission is to see that privatization works.
In doing so, your interests are always being well looked
after,
With privatization everybody has a stake,
P E R C WATCH FULIN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
PUBLICENTERPRISE REFORM COMMI55ION,
Bank of Ceylon - 30th Flixir, No. 4, P.O. Box 2001, Bank of Ceylon Mawath, alamh | Sri Lanka Telephan:34-1-33375,8 Fa:4-137&ll

Page 24
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COLOM
BE WISE. CARD - WISE
BANK OF CEYL
Rankets to the UNation
TELEPHONE: 447823 - Ex. 418O & 418

Τρ
AYMENT TERMS
WEST JOINING FEE?
many more ours with the
/ISA CARD.
2ntre Manager,
ARD CENTRE, Ceylon
EYLON MAWATHA,
BO - 1.
$ع2
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