Nullifying Homeland claim: Indian Malabar Tamils have no claim to homeland in Sri Lanka while Ceylon Tamil name was used only after 1911
We have arrived at a crucial juncture. It is time to place proper arguments on the table and nullify the lies and distortions. There are some key questions that now need to be asked and answered and the GOSL must be literate enough to handle matters without simply giving in because pressures are affecting their political survival. All Tamils before 1911 were known as Malabar coming from India. These Malabars do not have rights to claim eelam/self-determination/
- Can the Tamils prove they are indigenous to Sri Lanka (are they distinct from the Tamil Nadu Tamils who are Indian nationals) to claim a separate homeland as they are now doing?
- Can Tamils who find roots to Tamil Nadu and the Tamil gene have right to seek self-determination in Sri Lanka when they have been referred to as Malabar Tamils? Malabar Tamils are today known as Sri Lankan Tamils.
- Question repeated – Are Sri Lankan Tamils descendants from Indian Tamils?
- Is it also not correct that Tamils from Tamil Nadu arrived as migrants during numerous South Indian invasions and stayed on in Sri Lanka? Can immigrants claim self-determination simply because they have been living in an area?
- Why did colonial rulers – Portuguese, Dutch and the British refer to Tamils in Sri Lanka as Malabar Tamils coming from Indian Malabar coast? Why was this name never challenged if the colonials were wrong to refer to Tamils as Malabar Tamils?
- It was only in 1911 that the British introduced the term ‘Ceylon Tamils’ under the influence of Ponnambalam Arunachalam then Registrar General who compiled the National Census report in 1911. Before 1911 there were no people called Ceylon Tamils.
- The census of 1881, 1891 and 1901 census is evidence that Tamils were known as Malabars and not Ceylon Tamils. The census of 1824 too mentions Malabars and not Tamils.
- LTTE – TNA or any other Tamil politician can only refer to themselves as Ceylon Tamils only after the period 1911 because prior to that they were called Malabar Tamils.
- How can Tamils who can refer to themselves as Ceylon Tamils only after 1911 call for self-determination and demand homelands? Prior to 1911 all Tamils were referred to as Indian Tamils/Malabar Tamils –these entities cannot seek self-determination/homeland in Sri Lanka because their homeland is in Tamil Nadu,
- There is also need to straighten the distortion that there were no separate kingdoms except kinglets that were under one king (emperor) At no point in time has parts of Sri Lanka functioned independently or separately other than when Portuguese and Dutch were ruling parts of Sri Lanka while the rest came under the Sinhala emperor.
- There are arguments about disenfranchising Tamils – has it occurred to those peddling this argument that these Tamils were brought in as coolies to work on plantations for the profit of the colonial rulers. Why should countries that did not ask for or need these coolies have to declare them as citizens when the colonials should either take them back to where they brought them from or look after them in their countries because the coolies were brought in for their profits only.
- Has it occurred to all these human rights activists that Sri Lanka small as it is had to deal with 2 types of incursions – Indian indentured labor and Indian illegal immigrants and these make up the problems that Sri Lanka is constantly having to deal with.
- Do ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ have anything of their own created in Sri Lanka? “all Tamil artwork – songs, films, dresses, religious statues; and, even traditional food ingredients are imported from Tamil Nadu, India. None is made in Sri Lanka and none was ever made in Sri Lanka” (Dilrook Kannangara)
- “There are no local Tamil inscriptions. All inscriptions found in Sri Lanka that contain Tamil writing are of Indian (mostly Chola – a south Indian dynasty that is now extinct) origin. The only Tamil historical chronicle relating to Sri Lanka is called Yalpana Vaipava Malai. It was written by a South Indian in 1736 under the colonial Dutch patronage.” (Dilrook Kannangara)
- Dr. Karthigesu Indrapala in his doctoral thesis states with evidence that there were no Tamil settlements in Ceylon before 13th century bringing to zero all bogus claims by LTTE, TNA and LTTE linked historians.
- We also need to have an answer to a question never answered. If Eelam or separate homeland is given to Tamils will those Tamils living outside of that homeland relocate to the new homeland? They will necessarily have to because they cannot have a homeland to call their own and then live in other parts because the basis of seeking a separate homeland was on the grounds that they were being discriminated outside of their homeland area! Is this question not important for we cannot accept a notion of a separate homeland for Tamils only while Tamils also reserve the right to live in other parts of the country purchasing land, property, residing and working whereas Sinhalese will be denied this right in the new homeland. Therefore, those claiming to want a separate Tamil homeland must first explain why larger number of Tamils are living amongst the Sinhalese if they are discriminated which is the grounds on which separatism is being sought?
- Explanation is also needed – is it not correct that LTTE did not allow a proper census of the north and east because they did not wish to make public that the population was less than 400,000. Given the increase in ‘Tamils’ is it not valid for us to wonder how many of these ‘Tamils’ are actually born in Sri Lanka or descending from citizens of Sri Lanka or are they really from Tamil Nadu who have crossed when LTTE were controlling this terrain. LTTE did say 33% of its cadres were from Tamil Nadu.
- What explanation do the eelamists have for over 200,000 Tamils migrating to Sinhala areas and away from LTTE held areas since 1983? Why is it that ‘refugees’ desire to ‘escape’ oppression and go to only western shores when they could easily go to Tamil Nadu? Why is Canada, US, UK, Norway, Switzerland, France, Australia, New Zealand the preferred destination of ‘refugees’? While over 1million Tamils are now living overseas majority now holding foreign passports and are foreign citizens why are they wanting a separate eelam/homeland?
- Is it also not correct that the Eastern Province was artificially created by the British in 1873 and before that it was an integral part of the Kandyan Sinhalese territory? Was this not why the Kandyan king gave refuge to the alien Muslims who were attacked by the Portuguese in the eastern province? If so Tamils or India or any other party have no right to include East under Eelam and separate homeland.
- “free denizens and pay duty to the Sinhala King for the land that they enjoyed as the King’s natural subjects do” (Robert Knox describing the Malabars)
- “foreigners naturalized” Dr. John Davy referring to both Malabars and Moors.
- Who is the architect of these distortions – SJV Chelvanayagam promoting communal extremism, advocating Christian missionary ambitions, and aligned with separatist elements from South India! Sadly the former President Kumaratunga accepted an invitation to be chief guest at his memorial oration.
- Chelvanayagam’s lies were such that after forming ITAK camouflaging separatist notions by referring to the party as Federal Party in 1949 he states “Tamil speaking people in Ceylon constitute a nation distinct from that of the Sinhalese by every fundamental test of nationhood”
- Moreover the term ‘self-determination’ comes from the decolonization applicable to colonial territories seeking independence from foreign domination – Tamil Nadu sought this during India’s independence citing that Tamil Nadu was never part of India, as India was cobbled together for administrative benefit of the colonial British.
- How can Tamils who have been referred to as Malabars coming from Tamil Nadu until being referred to as Ceylon Tamils from 1911 claim demands for nationhood and self-determination?
- Next we have the argument of Tamils claiming to want to have autonomy over their own – well that too has also been given for 36 subjects of the 37 subjects under the provincial councils implemented following the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord have been devolved to the provinces. Why is it that only the Northern Provincial Council is having problems and demanding land and police powers too? Why cant they perform with the 36 subjects already devolved to it? If the NPC Chief Minister is having enough time to go on world tours complaining, drafting resolutions on genocide and colonization why is it he does not have time to investigate why the NPC does not utilize the funds it has requested to develop the North? When we already have a federal set up in place what is it that the NPC Chief Minister and elements of the TNA linked to LTTE demanding?
Before we accept any solutions by the West or federalists and liberals who are ever willing to cede what is not theirs we need to be given answers as to why people who were known as Malabars by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British should be given a separate homeland in Sri Lanka when their homeland is in India/Tamil Nadu. The next question is the usage of Ceylon Tamils as a distinct race came only after 1911 and on what grounds can Ceylon Tamils demand self-determination too for a history of just over 100 years?
Evidence based answers are kindly sought for these questions and until such time answers are forwarded and accepted draft constitution should not make any provisions for bogus demands based on lies and distortions primarily because leaders and officials in office have been too lazy to counter lies with factual evidence nor have they appointed academics and historians to produce historical evidence to produce before any international podium to nullify the lies and false propaganda.
Shenali D Waduge
- www.lankaweb.com
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- www.island.lk/2003/11/
19/midwee08.html Case against a federal constitution for Sri Lanka
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