As a small country battered by terrorism for nearly 30 years Sri Lanka faced the menace of LTTE terrorism which was leading the whole socio economic structure into a mess. The growing pains of the people across all communities suffered from LTTE terrorism wanted to regime that can decimate the LTTE forever. This is how the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksha came into the power.

The Tamil peoples issues are on the other hand are being solved one by one (albeit too slowly?) which already came into a situation where the existence of LTTE is no longer a necessity for Sri Lankan Tamils except those who believe in a Eelam(separate state they’re asking for). What is needed today is a strong Tamil political leadership that could work collaboratively with the Sri Lankan government to lead the process into an ultimate solution within one country. Saving LTTE is not a wise decision at all under the latest development.

Saving LTTE to keep the grip of India over SL is one of the most stupid ideas- at least under current global situation where there is no place for terrorism. In fact as long as the LTTE is in the picture and as long as India is not helping the Sri Lankan government to eradicate terrorists (or helping LTTE by any means) will immediately push Sri Lanka towards those who provide help in its fight against terror – mainly China and Pakistan. On the other hand by intervening the ongoing battle of SL government to eradicate LTTE terrorism – which has a huge support from the general public of Sri Lanka – India would only end up alienating their southern neighboring country, may be forever.

If India could do anything to keep Sri Lanka away from China or Pakistan, it is NOT intervening the fight against LTTE to save them but to push & assist SL government to come up with a political solution that can bring a long lasting peace. I understand the Tamil Nadu factor, but Indian government should not, by any means – support a terrorist organization that became a social cancer for civilized world.

The next myth is ‘The …Sinhala race has just done what in such situation any ‘democratic majority’ would have reacted to safeguard its hard fought battle of nationalism’. Such comments endorse fully SL’s genocide using very shallow (or street level) notions of a ‘democratic majority’ and ‘nationalism’ especially when dealing with genocidal states. That a ‘majority’ safeguarding its nationalism by marginalizing minorities and using genocide for that purpose is unlikely to find advocacy in civil societies. India with a “democratic majority’ did not “react’ like the Sinhalese to prevent the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan. Indian leadership sensitive on the Muslim identity delivered Pakistan its statehood. India did not view that its ‘democratic majority’ was license to take the genocide road to annihilate minorities to avoid the partition of India. Indian nationalism unlike Buddhist-Sinhala nationalism was free from traces of the tribalism embedded in Buddhist-Sinhala culture. It’s unthinkable that comments that sanctify SL genocide emanate from readers in India with strong moral and spiritual underpinnings that hold the motley minorities living together relatively peacefully without having to resort to genocide to keep the Union intact. Indian and Tamilians are encouraged not to forget their invaluable roots nurtured in Indian spirituality.
The next myth is Tamils chose the violence. After suffering helplessly for over three decades from indiscriminate attacks by Buddhist-Sinhala mobs and the armed forces daily, anywhere and everywhere in SL the armed resistance came to rescue the Tamils in the aftermath of the 1983 pogrom. That the Buddhist-Sinhala leadership used state terrorism to eliminate the Tamils as early as 1963 may be gleamed from excerpts of Neville Jayaweera’s (Head of the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation) memoirs referred to in ‘SUBVERSE: Change course in Sri Lanka’ Times of India 23 October 2008. It gives a graphic account of the programme to build a chain of military bases in the North to contain a future Tamil revolt. This was long before the armed resistance or LTTE was born. Yet comments are directed at the armed resistance specifically the LTTE overlooking the noble role it plays in safe guarding Tamils lives.
Some comments are uncomfortable as the SL genociders are, with the Tamils cry(ing) hoarse “genocide of Tamils”’. Amongst others the genocide involved Buddhist-Sinhala mobs and armed forces killing over 300000 Tamil civilians, a million driven out of the country by, another million disenfranchised by revoking their citizenship, the balance over a million displaced by a scotched earth oppression and driven out of their homes in the North to live as destitute homeless refugees in the South and elsewhere and still subjected to human rights abuses. Above all Tamil political representation that was at 24 per cent at the time of independence by 2004 dropped to a mere 10 per cent; thanks to the successful Buddhist-Sinhala genocide. Aren’t these injustices grave enough for the Tamils to protest about, even that if it sounds ‘hoarse’ to some. To the millions of Tamilians in TN the protest struck the right chord.

Another myth is to characterize the armed resistance to genocide (born in the aftermath of the 1983 pogrom), ‘terrorist’. A classic attempt by SL a genocider to manipulate the ‘terrorist’ listing process occurred when the SL Foreign Minster urged Australia on 14 October 2008 to ‘ban’ the Tigers as ‘terrorist’ but in Colombo on 4 November boasted that SL Government won’t ban the Tigers. (see lankanewspapers of those dates). The FM explained ‘there was no reason for SL to ban the LTTE as it was already branded as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada some EU countries and India’. The logic is queer that the country that cries hoarse over the LTTE’s ‘terrorist’ acts refrains from banning but some far away countries do. Enlightened leaderships in the international community are for a more nuanced approach here with R2P to rectify the anomalies easily exploited by lobby pressure groups in the past.

V S Subramaniam

I have a few questions for you.

1) Is it not a fact that educated tamils particularly vellalas were the greatest supporters of britain in india and ceylon?

2)Is it not a fact that they did not give a damn for democracy in both the countries

3)They exhibited servility in both countries in exchange for british largesse

4)They were avid supporters of english education and did not take any interest in education in tamil medium.

5)In ceylon they were way ahead of sinhalas and supported open competition for education and jobs.They cared little for the govigame the dominant sinhala peasant caste or their culture but were the elite favoured by the british.The British pampered this minority.

6)In TN,they were the majority and supported quotas.Which they continue to do even today.Here again the tamil leadership cared little for the masses but supported british rule.

7) In SL they talked of respect for minorities.In TN,they promoted hatred and enimity against brahmanas and vedic religion.I am not for a minute denying the uniqueness of tamil language or the need for reform in hinduism but how do you justify the crude hatred promoted by the dravidian movement?

8)What is the record of tamils regarding treatment of dalits in both TN and Jaffna?

9)The tamil elite were lackeys of british in the Ulsoor(halasuru) and Bangalore Cantonment.LTTE terrorists and veerappan type chauvinists find refuge in bengaluru.Do you expect kannadigas to love them.

10) You think that British have given you eternal rights on the Periyar river originating in Kerala which has been DIVERTED to TN.

11)Siruvani,Bhavani,Amaravathi all originate in the western ghats in kerala.The Parambikulam project is IN KERALA and supplies water to udumlapet.By God,the sense of entitlement you guys have!

12) At the time of independence,badugas were a majority in Nilgiris.TN cleverly retained ooty.

13) What is your record of treating badugas in education ,representation and jobs.They have been reduced to a minority there.What is your record of treating telugus and kannadigas in hosur.You call hosur as osur.
Hogenakal is ogenaKKal.(ik in tamil).

14)The later cholas (i am making a clear distinction with ancient cholas like karikala) were one of the seamiest dynasties in indian history.They were singularly repellant for using rape as a part of war strategy. Perhaps something to do with the fact that many tamil saivite saints idolised Ravana.Yet a tanjore brahmin like kalki had no compunction in claiming that chalukyas perpetrated rape on tamils.Such hatred was churned out during the early years of independence.Brahmins like kamal Haasan and Sujatha have sought such cheap popularity with tamil masses.

15) The later cholas were filled with hatred.79 kms from madras is the town of madurantakam( madura + antakan(m)),important in ramanuja sampradayam.The town commemorates the desrtuction of madurai by Parantaka I.It makes me sick.The cholas prided themselves in the destruction of korkai,the ancient pandyan port.

16) It is this tradition that karu,TR Baalu,Vaasan are continuing.Why does karu love Silapathikaram because kannagi the chola pathni-pathivrata burned madurai for the unpardanoble lapse by the pandyan king.

17) I celebrate the glory of tamil literary tradition but do not forget that kannada and malayalam are also dravidian languages .Kannada ,tulu and kodava language have also emerged from a common SPOKEN proto dravidian language .

18) I can only pray to Iswara that he give Prerana and good thoughts to tamil fanatics and also to the speakers of other dravidian languages so that we can share the fruits of civilised co-existence in Bharata Varsha and paricularly in the Dravida Naadu.

V S Subramaniam

How long has it been that the government has been saying next month the LTTE will cease to be reckonable force? You can fall for the governments lies, they are not going anywhere.

You can call them terrorists or guerillas, what ever you want. They aren’t fighting out of the hatred of the government or the Singhalese. Its out of the love for their land and their people. You know how one knows… every fallen Tiger gets their own grave. If you think the Sri Lankan Military forces get this you are gravely mistaken.

I know ill get a lot of criticism, but hey, im just shooting out my opinion. And trust me, the ridiculous comments and facts you shoot back at me will not hurt me.

The war has been going on for 20+ years. The Sri Lankan government and military should be ashamed, they are ten times the size in infantry and resources. Not to mention the support of neighboring countries. Just imagine if it was a fair fight.

LTTE rules Tamil Eelam – its borders expanding and shrinking from time to time. The LTTE had a proper form of government with all administrative functions including even traffic police. Till now Srilanka has not been able to project its force outside Srilanka due to the existence of a de-facto enemy nation within its territory. When the tigers are finished and Tamils massacred to a great extent, they will surely project their force towards India because this has happened time and again in history.

We should not mistake the potential threat to India from Srilanka. They have a historical aversion towards India due to the fact that Buddhism has vanished from India. We do not have any leverage as the birthplace of Buddhism because they have effectively delinked India from their Buddhist beliefs by creating myths like the transfer of the Bodhi tree to Srilanka. They consider themselves as the Mecca of Buddhism, and the Buddhist monks have had a very important role in politics from the time of King Mahinda to the time of Mahinda Rajapakse. They have created a European modernist type of society which emphasizes the role of Sinhalese Buddhism. After the Saivite Hindu Tamils are made to accept the preeminence of Sinhalese Buddhism, they will project their brand of Buddhism towards the nations of South East Asia, effectively curtailing India’s attempt to increase its influence there. Also they will keep India in check with Chinese nuclear umbrella. This may all sound like conspiracy theory to you, but it is in this direction that they have been moving since independence.

Any solution to Srilanka with India’s interests in mind must ensure that Srilanka remains a real secular nation with the role of Buddhist monks in government removed. But this is not possible in the near future given the importance to them in Sinhalese society. So the ideal solution would be a Tamil Eelam nation much like Taiwan.

Most opponents to Tamil Eelam say that a seperate Eelam run by Tamils would give rise to demands for Tamilnadu’s separation from India and integration with Eelam. I have a question for them. Did the creation of Bangladesh on the basis of language give rise to demands for West Bengal’s separation from India and integration with Bangladesh? Even though the Tamils on both sides of the Palk Straits speak the same language they have different perceptions in terms of identity. Indian Tamils consider themselves as the children of Tamilnadu while Eelam Tamils consider themselves as children of Eelam. Nevertheless they don’t forget that Tamilnadu is the land of their ancestors on which they can depend in times of crises.

India’s approach must recognize the fact that the tigers are the only military defence of Srilankan Tamils. While Prabhakaran may be an accused, we should consider the fact that he does not control the LTTE on his own. He depends extensively on a second line of leaders. Even during the press conference he gave a few years back, he was seen discussing with Anton Balasingham to answer most of the tricky questions.

If Tamil Eelam becomes a poweful entity like Taiwan, being able to defend itself to some extent, India would have an ally in Tamil Eelam much like Britain that has allies in the English speaking world. India must support Eelam like the US that supports Taiwan.

When people say the LTTE is evil because it killed Rajiv Gandhi, they forget the killing of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse. Even though it is said the RSS was not directly involved in the killing of Mahatma, we cannot refute the fact that Godse was influenced by RSS ideologies. The RSS was banned but the ban was lifted after certain time. And in spite of their ideologies, we find that certain right wing organizations are indispensable to the cause of a powerful India.

Nitin,
And the alternative now is different?

My own argument, and I suspect Dr Gopi Rethinaraj’s as well, is to do with sequencing.

How do we know that a post-victory Sri Lankan government will not offer itself to China, much like India’s other neighbours? How can we make sure it wont? Is supporting the immediate liquidation of the LTTE worth the risks of Sri Lanka becoming a base for China & Pakistan in the South of India?

Apart from the Srilankan Tamils there are Indian Tamils too, who went there as labour during the British rule. After Srilankan independence, under an agreement between India and Srilanka half of the Indian Tamils were repatriated back to India. The Srilankan Tamils who went there even before the Sinhalese were not covered under the agreement because they were the original inhabitants of the island.

Even though Tamils did conquer Malaysia in ancient times, they did not migrate there in substantial numbers. However they exported the Hindu religion and culture to all South East Asian countries including Malaysia. Malaysia was a Hindu kingdom till 15th Century ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia ). Then Hinduism was wiped out after the arrival of Islam. The present Malaysian Hindus agitating against the Malaysian government are Tamils who went there during the British rule as labour. They call their organization as Hindu Rights Action Force because they have rightly understood that if they call themselves as Tamils they will be bracketed with the LTTE and will not receive any support from non-Tamil Hindus in India. You must bear in mind that even though Pranab Mukherjee had nothing to say about this issue, Karunanidhi (who is atheist) gave his voice in support of the Hindraaf (because though they call themselves as Hindraaf they are actually Tamils and a small proportion of non-tamils).

When even people like Karunanidhi, support the Tamils of Srilanka and Malaysia even though they are Hindus, the rest of India asks why we should support Tamils in other countries. Historically Tamil Kingdoms have sent navies throughout South East Asia whenever there was a threat to Tamil interests. But in present day India when Tamils in Srilanka are massacred, even Hindus of non-Tamil regions ask why we should support Tamils who live in another country, forgetting the fact that they are essentially Hindus. However other countries like Japan though they call themselves as secular, help Srilanka because it is Buddhist. Till now Japan was the greatest donor to Srilanka but now China is the greatest donor, as China builds ports and infrastructure in Srilanka in line with its policy of encircling India.

People who talk in length about the persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh don’t even think for a second about the persecution of Hindus in Srilanka. Now we understand that like pseudo-secularism there is a brand of pseudo-Hindutva too.

Thanks very much for your thoughtful post

Could I ask you a simple question? How is the perspective you’ve outlined different from a subtle variant of the “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” argument. That’s an argument India has long rejected for sensible national security reasons

By shackling the legitimate aspirations of any people with the fate of terrorist groups fighting in their name, the former are unfortunately delegitimized

One cannot possibly condemn terrorist actions of a group while simultaneously arguing that its survival is essential to negotiate an “honorable peace”. That’s almost too clever by half and, frankly, no longer generates any enthusiasm other than among exploiters with vested interests

Certainly India should aggressively discourage bigotry in Sri Lanka. In order to do this effectively, however, we need that nation’s Tamil population to make a clean and unambiguous break with LTTE

Is this hard? Of course it is. But that’s what statesmanship is all about. Clutching to false hopes anchored on losers who send children to war and blow up innocent human beings is not a winning strategy but a lost cause

Why should India become party to a war that’s already been lost?

Best regards