Colombo, Sri Lanka: Two different regions that existed at the time of the arrival of the British in this country, were unified into one for the convenience of colonialism. But sooner or later it dawned upon them that this sort of unification could not go on for long. As the British were leaving the Indian sub-continent, there was bloodshed in that great country resulting in the division of the land as homelands of two nations-India and Pakistan. Malaya disintegrated into Singapore and Malaysia.

The process of disintegration did not end there. Pakistan disintegrated again into Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is the lesson of history. In this case it is belated here. The reasons are the trust the Tamil leaders reposed on the majority community and the patience of the community.

Having been victims of Sinhala- Buddhist chauvinism in a bilingual, multi-religious society with diverse cultures, having witnessed the state aided colonization in their homeland with the ulterior motive of making them a minority, having been deprived of their language rights and having been denied their right to education and employment for decades, the self-respecting Tamil community fights against oppression and struggles for freedom.

In the long annals of their freedom struggle, they launched parliamentary, extra-parliamentary democratic struggles based on non-violence and Gandhian philosophy and appealed to the majority community to grant them their legitimate rights. Through their passive and democratic articulation, they appealed to the conscience of the international community. But they were of no avail.

Neither the British imperialism, nor the international community that belittles a freedom fight by branding it as terrorism and by imposing a ban, did not care to respond. On the other hand the international community was insensitive to the continuing acts of violence and genocide against the Tamil community.

It was in such an unfortunate context, when the Tamils were orphaned, that the youths had to take up arms to win their legitimate rights and realize the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people.

The international community including Britain that had not responded to the call of the oppressed Tamil people for decades and that had failed to do the right thing at the right time has no moral or ethical right to intervene unjustifiably in their fight for emancipation.

An English translation of the Editorial of Colombo based Tamil national daily, Sudar Oli

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed