The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy

Photo via The Killing of Rohana Wijeweera, BBC

 04/04/2016
The impulsion towards nationalist sentiment in politics, has in our view, exceedingly profound roots in the life style of the modern man, which makes for homogeneity of a single high culture within any political unit, and which condemns those not masters of the said culture, or unacceptable within it to a humiliating, painful second class status (Ernest Gellner, Nationalism, pp.102-03, 1998).

Introduction

A revolutionary mood gripped Sri Lankan youth in the mid-1960s, particularly our universities.  There were half a dozen or so revolutionary groups that had sprung up but the movement later known as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), led by elusive and charismatic Rohana Wijeweera was unmistakably in the ascendant. It was the most successful, serious and determined organization amongst Sinhalese youth.

Their bases at universities were very active and they publicly argued in support of the oncoming revolution. It was more of a moral persuasion than political, either you were going be a part of the revolution or against it. If you are against it you are noted and you will be on their death list. For me they had publically announced the death sentence because I had publically challenged them. Your friends all of sudden becoming enemies   and the enemies of the revolution would be severely punished. The revolutionary wave was so powerful the JVP had just outnumbered other revolutionary groups in the university for the first time. The JVP leader in Kelaniya University declared at their student council election victory in 1970 that they were the future. He spoke passionately and persuasively, but he was doomed. One year later, he died attempting to free Rohana Wijeweera from Jaffna Prison.  The movement he allied his name to the party no more successful than he was. Forty-five years later, they are banished from the terrain they wanted to occupy, a purely Sinhalese, Buddhist polity. It was a vision of a working class revolution that excluded minorities and even portrayed the hill country Tamil working class as fifth columnists and reactionaries loyal to India.

On the 5^th April 1971 midnight the revolution began in earnest and it was confined to the areas where the Sinhalese lived. The simultaneous attacks on   police stations went in line with the plan that had been drawn up years before as part of the revolutionary strategy.

Between 187-89 the JVP’s armed wing murdered left wing leaders and also trade unionists and activists. Built on a foundation of Sinhalese chauvinism it remains hostile to dissenting political opinions and even the existence of human beings within Sri Lanka of other cultures and religions.

This exclusionary nationalism is deeply embedded in the JVP’s DNA, marking their political practice even today. It leaves them with the dubious and contradictory position of upholding majoritarian ethnic nationalism while at the same time adhering to a  ‘proletarian internationalism’. Their answer to the great question of post-Independence Sri Lankan politics, the rights of ethnic minorities is simply to wait for the socialist revolution.  Their political vision is untouched by the need to widen their electoral coalition, persuade voters or make any compromises with the real problems and challenges facing Sri Lankan people. Dissecting the JVP’s ideological and political articulation explains why. 

Roots of Ethno Nationalism                              Read More