Nation is an alien concept in Sri Lanka, to the extent that
there is no word in Sinhala for Nation. We translate it as Jatiya, but
when one is asked what is his/her Jatiya, the answer is Sinhala, which
is the race. The definition given by the Oxford dictionary to the word Nation
is, “congeries of people, either of diverse races or common descent, language,
history etc., inhibiting a territory bounded by defined limits”. I was told that the Tamil word for Nation is Thesam,
which I do not know whether the correct translation.
However in ancient Sri Lanka Sinhalas and Tamils lived
together as one Nation. There were Sinhalas in the army of Elara and there were
Tamils in the army of Dutugemunu, one may be Velusumana. The war was against
Elara, the invader, not against the Tamils, as misinterpreted later. Ven.
Buddhagosha, who translated Sinhala commentaries of Tripitaka to Pali, was a
Tamil monk. Sinhala Princes married South Indian Princesses very often. There were invasions and wars among the
Kings. There were no wars between the two races, Sinhalas and Tamils. In tenth century we had a great influence of
Pandyans in our culture. They were treated as a friendly Nation. In Polonnaruwa
era we had separate Tamil platoons fighting for the Sinhala King. Epigraphs
were established in Tamil for the use of the Tamils. Hindu gods came to the
Buddhist temples to stay. In turn Buddha became a reincarnation of Vishnu.
Magha who ruined the country was not a Tamil. Prince Sapumal who conquered
Jaffna in the fifteenth century was a Tamil. In Kandy era Tamil Kings who ruled
the Sinhalas were the guardians of Buddhism. Since the two ethnic groups lived
together through out the history the language of one ethnic group was known by
the other group and vice versa. Therefore there were one Nation and two
languages. We wanted to have one
language in recent times and as pointed out by Colvin R. De Silva this lead the
country to have virtually two Nations.
However after the invasion of Magha, mostly Tamils and some
Sinhalas went to North and mostly Sinhalas and some Tamils went to South. There
were predominantly Tamil kingdoms in the Northern Sri Lanka. With the abandoned
old Capital there was a natural barrier between the North and the South. This
led to the present concentration of Tamils in the North.
Very interesting features we can gather from the history
were the establishment of epigraphs in Tamil and having separate Tamil
platoons. What is the meaning of establishment of Tamil epigraphs? It means
that the State communicated with Tamils in Tamil. We, modern Sri Lankans, had
to shed lot of blood to understand this simple truth. What is the meaning of
having separate Tamil platoons? It means Tamils were trusted and were treated
in dignity. Let alone the Tamil platoons, in modern Sri Lanka we had very
limited recruitments of Tamils to the Forces. There was the origin of the
problem, the National problem. Petty
minded Sinhalas and their power hungry leaders allowed Tamils to internationalize
the problem, rather than solving it at the early stages.
Nation is comparatively a modern term. In India the concept
of Nation derived with the freedom struggle. Gandhi was single handedly
responsible for mobilizing masses to such an extent against the British rule.
Thereby the Indian Nation was emerged. In respect of Japan, there was the
Second World War. Especially the defeat and thereby the necessity to rebuild
the country, put the entire Nation together. In the case of Singapore they had
a strong benevolent leadership, which mobilized the entire Nation together in
order to have prosperity, although there are different ethnic groups. American
Nation emerged with the war for the freedom. The emergence of the concept of
Nation is associated with fighting together against a common enemy and with
strong leadership. Common enemy can be external; another Nation or it can be
internal; poverty.
In ancient Sri Lanka we had enough disasters to put the two
groups together. There were wars all the time. There were internal wars among
the princes and there were invaders to fight with. In the absence of war, a
strong leader ruled the country. This volatile situation helped to put the
ethnic groups together and there were no fights between ethnic groups.
In modern Sri Lanka unlike in India there was no strong
freedom struggle, which put all the ethnic groups together for the achievement
of a common goal. At the early stages there was
Anagarika Dharmapala at this side and Arumuka Navalar at that side.
Those two lead two different streams. The combined struggle, which did not shed
blood, was a feeble one. We did not face any disaster like war. We did not know
the language of each other. In this vulnerable stage, shortsighted Sinhala
leaders fueled communal feelings in order to come to power rather than treating
Tamils with dignity. This was equally met by the Tamil leaders and this led the
country to the civil war, which further divided the Sinhalas and Tamils rather
than uniting them as one Nation.
At present with so much of mistakes done and so much of
distrust has been crated between the two ethnic groups, there is no way of
solving the problem within a unitary state. In order to have one Nation we
should have at least a federal constitution at this juncture. Now it is not
enough to have just two languages as Colvin R. de Silva pointed out. One cannot
point out the history and argue that the regions cannot be demarcated based on
ethnicity and the different groups should be treated with dignity within a
unitary State. Damage is already done. The Sinhalas should realize this. The
voters should realize this when they cast their vote, rather than voting for
utopian concepts. If we wait further
there would be further damage done and it would be inevitable that we would
have two Nations in this country.
Therefore the President, if she is a real leader, should act
right now. She should shed her sweet
dream of continuing as the executive Prime Minister once her term is over. The
lady leader in the adjoining country set the example. In any case the
Government does not have the majority in the Parliament even with the JVP. If
she cannot convince the JVP she should act decisively for the sake of the
Nation. The UNP together with the masses, despite her unacceptable conduct,
should strengthen her hands for this task, which is the task in my view.
(Published in Daily Mirror on August 10, 2004)
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