Sobitha Thera’s message : The Pathway to True Peace

Tamil issue destabilized this country. Then starts the horror story: If President JR had one hate —it was for the Bandaranaikes – and his hate for Mrs. B got the better of his judgment, he went after her like a bloodhound, removed her political rights and of course her civic rights and made her a non-person and, to whom did he do this, but to someone who was a close friend and much liked by Indira Gandhi.

by K Godage

( December 12, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The most venerable Sobitha Thera has not died in vain, though we shall miss him dearly, his passing has made us focus on what he stood for, he is mourned by all religious leaders and people of all religions and all ethnic groups in our country; this is a rare happening and we must all not only take account of it, but we must take his message forward.

This presents a huge challenge because ‘Nationalism’ by which is meant “patriotic feeling”, is often taken to an excessive degree and radicalized out of fear and insecurity in our country. Whilst nationalism would be out of the love for ones country, it could also be because of xenophobia and chauvinism which could also include irrational dislike; and excessive nationalism born out of fear of a perceived ‘enemy’, for instance, Conversions to Christianity by certain well-meaning persons, have in our country become an issue and this has led to a lack of trust.

Our so-called Ethnic Conflict at the end of the day is a sad clash of so-called ‘Nationalisms’. The rise of Tamil Nationalism was to my mind a reaction to certain events. The Tamil people were indeed fortunate that the American Missionaries who were not allowed by the Anglican Archbishop to establish schools in the South, (which they considered to be their preserve), went to the North and established English language schools in almost every town in the North. This worked out well for the British for they needed people with a knowledge of English to administer the country.

British government

The North was arid and water was scarce so this was indeed a blessing, once they received an education they quite naturally sought political recognition and to be treated as equals with the majority community, the Sinhalese; and this is where and when it all began to go wrong. The English language was their ticket to liberation – the Tamils took to education like ducks taking to water: the jobs were in the public sector as there was no private sector other than in the plantation area and for that the British brought labour from India.

From the beginning of the British era, the Tamils remained a community separate from the Sinhalese, retaining their distinct identity. They had a distinct culture, though the Sinhalese shared Hindu religious practices, language separated them. In 1919, they formed the Ceylon National Congress, which in 1944 became the All Ceylon Tamil Congress.

In 1931 the country obtained Universal Suffrage and with that came ‘territorial representation’ which resulted in a Sinhalese majority in the State Council; the Tamil reaction was adverse and hostile for territorial representation was not in their interest. In 1933 British government centralized the administration; Though the administration was centralized the Tamils and the Sinhalese remained separate communities, with their different languages, the only commonality was that they worshipped the same Hindu Gods. There was no single Multi-ethnic community.

The Tamil response to the territorial representation system which resulted in the Majority – Minority situation, was to call for ‘Balanced Representation’ — or for 50-50 representation which the British quite naturally rejected. Despite this the foremost advocate of ’50-50′, GG Ponnambalam, joined the DS Senanayake government as a Minister and broke away from the Federal Party and formed the “Illankkai Thamil Arasu Kachchi”. He did not last long in the UNP led government.

Political history

The next landmark in our post-independence political history was 1956 and the Sinhala Only Act, (the Sinhalese Buddhists claimed that they had been deprived during Portuguese, Dutch and British times for 400 years and claimed the right to decide the destiny of the country), which without doubt, set in motion the Tamil struggle; though in 1957 SWRD tried to find a solution on the basis of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact that was blocked by the so-called Sinhala Nationalists; Dudley Senanayake sought to address the problem and also entered into an Agreement in 1961 to establish District Committees in the North and the East and devolve power to the people of the North and East, but that effort too was negated by the same Sinhala so-called nationalists and the Sinhala majority in Parliament did not concede any rights to the Tamil people, not even in 1965; in 1971/ 72 the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike adopted a new constitution and transformed our country into a Republic and reconfirmed Sinhala as the only State language, this new constitution also removed Article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution which protected minorities.

What was sad and quite unbelievable was that the Marxist Ministers in the government who had been screaming “Two languages ONE Nation, and that One language will create two Nations”, had Tamil made a national language but that was only in name, – it has not been properly and meaningfully implemented throughout the country because the political will was absent; that government also introduced ‘Standardization’ to limit the numbers who could enter University from the North and East; We had only conceded ‘an inch’ to the Tamil people, there had been no devolution of power and they were not accommodated at the Centre either; and in 1976 — twenty years after the Sinhala Only Act, the Tamil political parties passed the Vaddukodai Resolution calling for the establishment of a separate Tamil State!!! In 1977 Sirima Bandaranaike government fell and JR J came into power and on receiving a 4/5th Majority created the Presidential Executive system.

I must now pause here to record an important fact, namely that in the post-independence period India never once interfered in our internal affairs, not in 1956 when we passed the Sinhala Only Act and discriminated against the Tamils or when they were set upon by Sinhalese thugs whenever the Tamils protested, in 1958, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1977 and in 1981 India never came to the aid of the Tamil people even with words of support; The Tamil people of our land were also attacked in 1977 and 1981 and can we forget the burning of the Jaffna Library with over 97,000 books and rare manuscripts also in 1981 and finally in 1983.

Tamil issue destabilized this country. Then starts the horror story: If President JR had one hate —it was for the Bandaranaikes – and his hate for Mrs. B got the better of his judgment, he went after her like a bloodhound, removed her political rights and of course her civic rights and made her a non-person and, to whom did he do this, but to someone who was a close friend and much liked by Indira Gandhi.

Indira had protested at what JR did to Mrs. B and JR is said to have been rude to her; most unfortunately for us India had as the High Commissioner here — Mani Dixit (pronounced Dickshit), he was a devious character, brilliant in the manner he endeared himself to the aged President. Though India destabilized our country I do not think India supported the establishment of a separate state in Sri Lanka, for that would have been disastrous for India, for it would have rekindled the doused embers of the effort to create the separate state — Republic of Tamil Nadu which they attempted to create in the 1960s, the Indian intervention could perhaps have been intended to achieve Pannikars project of annexing Lanka to India as she did to Sikkim, succeeding to the British Empire, to ensure India’s security.

Another perverse act of the JR Jayewardene Government must also be recalled he permitted the import of onions and chilies from India and took the bottom out of the economy of the people of the north and pauperized them, this was another reason for the support for the uprising. Yes, we did indeed provoke the rise of Tamil nationalism, likewise, the Muslims practicing ‘Brotherhood’ in all its forms and their economic well-being as a community has led not only to envy but sadly to hate. Fortunately, this government has taken up the challenge and is bringing legislation to criminalize ‘Hate Speech’ and any actions to provoke communal disharmony.

A brilliant suggestion made recently is for the Buddha’s discourse on Loving Kindness, an extract of which is as follows: “Just as a Mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life may we have boundless love for all beings; thin stout tall short those living far or near, those seen and unseen, those born and yet to be born, yes may we have love for all beings without exception…..”. These teachings of the Buddha should be practiced – as suggested once by the late Ven. Sobitha; this should be read or recited in all classrooms before class begins. If we start with our children then we can change our country and our world.

May I conclude with Bishop Duleep Chickera’s words in his tribute to Sobitha Thera “May his memory lighten our darkness, convert us into disciples of the truth and bring us peace”.