A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Can Sri Lanka be the 30th State of India?
( May 16, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Prime
Minister Modi in his address during his recent visit to Sri Lanka at
the UN Vesak Day Celebrations stated: “whether it is on land or in the
waters of the Indian Ocean, the security of our societies is
indivisible”
UPFP MP Udaya Gammanpila echoed the silent sentiments of many in Sri
Lanka and questioned Modi’s authority to make such decisions for Sri
Lanka. He is quoted in the press as stating: “that his speech and
actions only confirmed that Modi has partially acquired Sri Lanka as a
province of India”. He went further and said “Modi indirectly says that
our actions affect the security of India, and therefore we cannot do as
we please. Is this not a threat towards our independence?”
The Hanuma Bridge has not even been conceived, or is there a blueprint
for construction, in circulation? But rightly or wrongly, it is already a
bone of contention.
The fear psychosis
What Modi said and what perhaps, he meant, may have been taken out of
context. But if there is a fear that Sri Lanka is at risk to be
swallowed by India, then it is a sad day that our High Commissioner in
New Delhi did not raise this concern before the official invitation or
even after as Mr. Modi could have done “due diligence.”
On the other hand, if Mr.Modi wanted to raise the issue of making Sri
Lanka, a sovereign state as an appendage of India, at the whim and fancy
of a more powerful and larger neighbour, the matter could have either
been treated with derision or diplomatically handled.
Let us imagine for argument that Sri Lanka could be added as the 30th
State of the Republic of India at some distant future, what action are
we talking in Sri Lanka to safeguard our integrity, our independence?
The viable solution to this vexed question is that we in Sri Lanka have
preserved our sovereignty and our freedom as a small island in the
Indian Ocean over 2500 years or more and we are able to defend ourselves
as we have done one way or another in the past. Shall we say, “have no
fear Ravanna is here, or better still, our Mahinda is here?”
For a moment, may we also consider why would India want to be saddled
with Sri Lanka, with all the “hum drum” of our varied activities and
problems with added burden of debt? Is India so desperate to acquire Sri
Lanka now or later?
The new world order
Whilst the world is witnessing a new phenomenon of isolationism,
protectionism, “America First”, or “India First”, there appears to be a
vacuum which has been created and is being filled by mutual cooperation,
globalism and international understanding among nations.
We see this in the role Sri Lanka is playing as a friend of both India
and China, not through default, but through necessity. As a result it is
able to talk to both China and India on equal terms, without
aspersions, but openly.
Who knows why Modi came to Sri Lanka days before the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) in Beijing?
Could Sri Lanka have acted as an honest broker to diplomatically sound
Beijing about the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key
part of the “New Silk Road”? This corridor runs through disputed
Kashmir, which India has quite naturally rebuffed.
Sri Lanka has eyes to see, but will she be heard in Beijing?
What is seen by the outside and what is commented on, is not what is seen diplomatically from the inside?
“Wars begin in the minds of men and it is in the minds of men that the
defences of peace must be built.” This is part of the UN Charter. It is
well know but more easily said, than done.
It is not size of a nation or the voice of a people that matters today in global politics. It is quiet diplomacy.
The BRI (Belt & Road Initiative) would see 60% of the global
population and around a third of the global GDP which will be linked
through a network of Chinese Bank (AIIB) $100 billion fund, bank rolled
into ports, railways, roads, energy power grids and industrial parks
that will make once a camel road, as the new development powerhouse of
the 21st Century. The aim of this move is to ward off the thought of
conflict in the resolution of national and international dispute and
turn to development infrastructure as the new diplomatic tool of
survival over the forty or more years of the foreseeable future. Could
it be the Marshall Plan of Asia and Africa?