Who really wants Tamil Eelam and who is going to benefit by creating a Tamil Eelam are two questions we need to answer. That Tamils in both South India and North Sri Lanka demand Tamil Eelam is understood but who will realistically benefit by the creation of Tamil Eelam and is that why the eelam project is being promoted is never pondered. The answer to that has always been staring us right in the face though Sri Lanka’s leaders have chosen not to admit and acknowledge it. In so doing, we have allowed the expansion of a bigger Eelam now even encapsulating the country’s central plains. Our politicians and their coterie of advisors have much to answer for in creating debacles for this nation some of which are now irreversible.
To answer the question we need to go back in time and start putting the puzzle together
§ India was never a nation-state until 1947. India was created by the British amalgamating separate independent princely kingdoms and territories. India as a nation has a history of only 69 years.
§ Invasions from South India have been taking place. In fact 17 times this Dharmadweepa has been invaded by South India (Pandya, Pallava & Chola) since 230BCE. They wiped out entire Sinhala villages ransacked & plundered Buddhist royal capitals Anuradhapura & Polonnaruwa. They ruled at different times for around 170 years. Our nation has been invaded and occupied by foreigners for 613 years. (colonials for 443 years & Indians for 170 years) Our nation has been terrorised by Indians – Sena & Guttika (ruled for 22 years after killing Sinhala king Suratissa brother of Devanampiyatissa), Chola Elara (ruled for 44 years after killing Suratissa’s brother Asela. Elara was slain by Dutugemunu who unified the entire country), 7 Indian Tamils invaded until they were deposed by Valagambahu. In the middle of 9th ce Pandyans and Cholas invaded leading to the abandonment of Anuradhapura which had been the capital of 1400 years. In 993 Raja Raja 1 invaded forcing Mahinda V (last king of Anuradhapura) to flee but was captured, taken to India as prisoner. Vijayabahu chose Polonnaruwa as the capital whose son Parakramabahu 1 reigned for 33 years. In 1201 Kalinga Maga invaded (ruling for 21 years). Noteworthy about these invasion was that orders were to destroy Buddhist temples, viharas, plunder the wealth and give the land to Cholas from India. The invasions & insecurity were the sole reasons for Sinhala kings to take their capitals southwards. During reign of Parakarama Bahu III, Pandyan army led by Chakravati invaded the nation and succeeded in taking the sacred Tooth-Relics to India but the Sinhala king went and brought it back to Lanka. The last of the terrorism has come from terrorist Prabakaran & LTTE again a by-product of India.
§ South Indian invasions have been accompanied by mercenaries, violence, explicit intent to destroy traces of Sinhala Buddhist civilization in the North, criminal activity, demographic change. History always repeats. Note the constant demands of present-day South Indian leaders for the Indian Government to invade Sri Lanka to create a Tamil state.
§ Initial calls for Dravidistan (Tamil speaking states) started in December 1916 with the release of the “Non-Brahmin Manifesto” with British imperialist patronage. The movement was given a militant edge by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Naicker. Important to note that the Dravidian movement until 1947 was a handmaiden of the British. Periya even pleased the British not to leave Tamil Nadu. For the British the divide and rule fitted well into the Aryan-Dravidian theory. But the British Cripps mission in 1942 refused to grant a separate Tamil state.
§ It was the Indian Justice Party who in 1920 started a call for Tamils to live separate of Brahmin-controlled India. In the 1950s the demand for Dravidistan was dropped to be replaced with ‘Tamil Nadu for Tamils’ which India weakened through the 1956 States Reorganization Act along linguistic lines and ironically enough the Sinhala Only Act came the same year.
§ It was in 1949 that the DMK Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was formed demanding a separate state and it was also in the same year that Chelvanayagam (Christian Tamil born in Malaysia) formed the ITAK (Federal Party) also calling for a Tamil state. There cannot be independent Tamil states all over the world where Tamils live so with 72million Tamils living in Tamil Nadu and with hardly 2million Tamils living in Sri Lanka the homeland is nowhere else but in Tamil Nadu.
§ DMK dropped the separatist demand in 1963 but India’s Central Government craftily used the Tamil factor to start militant groups covertly in Sri Lanka. Eelam in Sri Lanka calls are coming from non-Tamil leaders in Tamil Nadu. India’s aim was to keep theTamil independence movement divided and be able to exert overt control over it.
§ It was in the late 1970s that the Indian government clandestinely started to take unemployed Sri Lankan Tamil youth to India to train in armed combat (JAIN commission report lists out these training centres and numbers trained) Tamil New Tigers was created by Prabakaran in May 1972, he killed the first Tamil in 1975 (Alfred Duraiappah) and rechristened TNT as LTTE in May 1976 the same year/month of the Vaddukoddai Resolution. Coincidentally it was in May 2009 that LTTE and Prabakaran were annihilated militarily.
§ India trained not only LTTE and Prabakaran but some 35 other Tamil militant groups including Tamil civilians in armed warfare. LTTE was backed by Indian intelligence agency.
§ It was India that came to the rescue of a cornered Prabakaran in 1987 and whisked him off to India. It was India’s explicit knowledge that LTTE used Tamil Nadu as a logistics hub. LTTE even had offices in Madras (Chennai). Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MGR Ramachandran even gave money to LTTE as did the Indian Government in exchange for LTTE’s agreement to sign 2002 ceasefire agreement.
§ It was India that quickly drafted the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord peddling bogus notions of a Tamil-Homeland encompassing even Eastern Province (which was always ruled by the Kandyan Kingdom while there never existed any independent Tamil kingdom except when invaders from South India were ruling the areas they captured)
§ It was India that forced the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987 making Sri Lanka introduce the 13thamendment and the provincial council system so that by merging two provinces (N&E) India would be able to secure Trincomalee its prize target. It is why the 13thamendment needs to be removed in toto and provincial council systems be removed as well.
§ It was India that promoted Indian agent Vartharaja Perumal as the Chief Minister of the merged NE and got him to declare unilateral declaration of independence in 1990 which President Premadasa quickly dissolved forcing India to fly Perumal to India so he would not spill the beans.
§ It was India that used the ‘concern for Tamil’ card to penetrate into every area of Sri Lankan polity – economy, society, cultural and even political tapping into and bringing under Indian influence a plethora of public figures ranging from politicians, public officials, academics, journalists, media etc.
§ It was with India’s consent that the 2002 ceasefire was brokered by Norway, clauses all approved by India. It was after obtaining India’s approval that the successive UNHRC resolutions were presented. India is a periphery of British influence that controls this part of the world and the West does nothing without the consent of India’s Centre.
§ Eelam has worked marvellously for India which has been able to make steady progress into every area of Sri Lanka. India influences our energy, our food, our economy and even our political decision making. Riding on the backdrop of Tamil grievances India is setting up housing, livelihood programs, land takeovers even in the Central plains where demographic change is staring Sri Lankan law makers in the face with rise in Tamil births. Using scare tactics and might of the UN/UNHRC, India has been able to reduce high security zone areas, hand over lands to people who never even had title deeds to lands, close down military camps and reduce military making it easier for India to influence the Tamils living in these areas. The transmission of Indian satellite tv across the North is a good example of how Tamils are more aware of Chennai filmstars than those in the island.
§ Isn’t it puzzling that even after India, US, UK, Canada and 32 nations have banned LTTE why these nations do not go after LTTE and its direct and indirect promoters as these nations go after Al Qaeda/ISIS even after the Sri Lankan Government used the UNSC Resolution 1373 to ban 16 organizations as LTTE fronts and named 424 individuals as being linked to LTTE?
§ The rigid caste division among Tamils is another factor that enables India to control Tamil polity to their advantage as India does in India. India is able to influence the caste in North Sri Lanka, East Sri Lanka and Central Sri Lanka and soon with rising Tamil populations in South Sri Lanka India will begin another wave of trouble. India has consul offices in North, Colombo, Kandy and Hambantota. We do not even know the number of Indians at present in Sri Lanka as tourists, as tourists working illegally, illegal Indians, Indians living in Sri Lanka, Indians married to Sri Lankans, Indian buying land in Sri Lanka from business/marriage etc… notice how India is always looking at ventures in the North and East that enables them to control key strategic areas or use these areas as watch towers (Sampoor power plant is just one example)
§ All of the trade agreements with India have been only to India’s advantage. The historical psychology of taking all and giving none prevails in all of India’s dealings with its SAARC neighbors. Where Sri Lanka accrues any advantage India has been quick to cut short these with additional clauses. The ETCA enabling a free flow of Indians to flood Sri Lanka is to allow invasion by another name. The Hanuman Bridge is another voluntary invasion option agreed by Sri Lanka’s visionless leaders craftily peddled by India having ensure Sri Lanka is virtually bankrupt with no option but to agree to anything for political survival.
Britain and India are well in control of separatist movements. When India has successfully controlled & is well in control of both the Dravidistan movement as well as the Tamil Nadu for Tamils separatist movement in India (encompassing millions of Tamils) it is a piece of cake for India to control Sambanthan and coterie and their Eelam. The visits by TNA & other Sri Lankan Tamil leaders on a regular basis to India is a prime example of this influence being exerted. The manner Estate Tamils vote at elections is another example of India’s influence.
Therefore, it is time we identified who the real enemy is. Tamil Eelam has been prostituted by many. For NGOs who are the intelligence units of foreign governments, by stationing these entities in troubled locations foreign governments have been able to gather data and information which they use whenever they want to press buttons. With most charities being foreign Christian missionaries the global expansionist agenda of the Church is well on track – statistics of Tamil Hindus converting to Christianity/Catholicism in both Tamil Nadu and North Sri Lanka is ample evidence of this. The Eelam cause tied to the discrimination by Sinhalese has been perfect to enable Tamils to go abroad as refugees and through them add to the separatist kitty via monthly forced/voluntary disbursements and their numbers used to influence foreign parliamentarians, their political decision making against Sri Lanka. There is little that needs to be said about the unbias of UN & its entities– the bombing of a hospital by US in Afghanistan that killed 14 doctors and 42 people which US admitted, saw nothing of the reaction UNHRC took against Sri Lanka after listening to third party sources.
We really have to ask ourselves who is really controlling or in control of the Tamil Eelam agenda? Is it really with the aim of addressing Tamil demands or is self-rule & autonomy with the land division on the wishlist of all those who had been peddling the eelam bogey for their own advantage and has nothing to do with Tamils? Will Tamils end up in a bigger soup under Indian influence in trying to break away from the Sinhalese drawing upon a mentality that has been engrained into their psyche from childhood? Food for thought for Tamils and much to think about for the Sinhala leaders and polity.
Shenali D Waduge
srilankaopinion 