Tamils, the North and the State – Vishwamithra

“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
-Charles de Gaulle

03/03/2016 

When we discuss in our high-sounding socio-political conversations of reconciliation or accommodation, we simply mean a genuine feeling of empathy, based fundamentally on compassion and kindness. Whether one is a Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim or a Burgher, reconciling oneself to the feelings, ambitions and desires of the other is not an easy human endeavour. Centuries-long myths have taken their toll and prepped the hearts and minds of our people. And it is not specific to Sri Lanka alone. All humankind has proven to be most receptive and consequently susceptible to the moods of the contemporary world. From the dawn of time, man has ventured out to be part of a group, family or a sect. Instead of living alone, he had realised that numbers give not only strength, they give a sense of belonging.

That sense of belonging gave man his desire and ambition to endeavour out together and conquer what was to be conquered. That desire for conquest is still going on unrelentingly.

That unrelenting ambition of man has helped land a man on the Moon; it has propelled him to carve out lush green fields out of desert sands; it has given us the smartphone and the fax machine and it continues to drive him through the proverbial peaks and valleys of victory and defeat. Man’s mastery of the universe, though not complete by any standard, is breathtaking and mind-boggling. And when the spirit of man continues to conquer everything around him, as Jawaharlal Nehru uttered in his Independence address: “a moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance”.

Yet, when one comes back to the basics of human decency and human graciousness, time and time again he has failed to contain his mean anger and primeval fears; he has resorted to the most wicked endeavorus of violence and man’s inhumanity to man has been well chronicled for all to see. In the words of Herodotus the father of history, “It’s impossible for someone who is human to have all good things together, just as there is no single country able to provide all good things for itself”. Man’s unyielding march towards bettering himself has given the world all wars and conflicts; it has left the world with more questions than answers, it has redirected the journey towards self-centred parochial ends. And in this pursuit of parochial ends and selfish goals, he has invented cocoons that nourish him; he has produced bubbles that protect him and patriotism, nationalism are essential parts of those cocoons and bubbles. To quote French President Charles de Gaulle: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first”.

Read More