The Rise of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka

From Communalism to Secession

Gnanapala Welhengama, Nirmala Pillay

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781135119782
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Among the examples of civil wars, armed secessionist movements and minority uprisings in the world today, many involve conflict between a minority group's aim for political self-determination, and the nation state's resistance to any diminution of sovereignty. With the expansion of the international regime of human rights, minority groups have reconceptualised their struggle with the understanding that a minority which is linguistically, religiously or ethnically distinctive is entitled to self-determination if their aspirations cannot be met.

This book explores the relationship between minority rights, self-determination and secession within international law, by contextualising these issues in a detailed case study of the rise of Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. Welhengama and Pillay show how Tamil communalism hardened into secession and assess whether the Sri Lankan government has met its obligations with respect to the right to self-determination short of secession. Focusing on the legal and human rights arguments for secession by the Tamil community of the North and East of Sri Lanka, the book demonstrates how the language of international law and international human rights played a major role in the development of the arguments for secession. Through a close examination of the case of the Tamil's secessionist movement the book presents valuable insights into why modern nation states find themselves threatened by separatist claims and bids for independence based on ethnicity.

1 Introduction

Sir Ivor Jennings was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ceylon and the chief architect of the Soulbury Constitution (1947–1972). Commenting on the nationalism prevalent in his time in Ceylon (since 1972, Sri Lanka) he stated in 1950:

What historical students in Ceylon ought now to do is to remove recent history from its emotional context. Neither the view that ‘British imperialism’ was always nefarious and iniquitous nor the opposite view that British policy was invariably enlightened and beneficial will stand the test of history. British rule had many advantages and many disadvantages. How the historian reads the balance will depend in some degree upon his own prejudices, for all history involves a selection of materials, and subjective influences cannot be entirely avoided either in the selection or in the emphasis. In writing about the seventeenth century conflicts in England, as I have been doing lately, I find that I have to guard against the bias due to my Nonconformist background … It is all the more necessary to take precautions against interpreting in such a manner as to feed one’s own emotions.¹

Considering the severity of ethnic prejudices that currently obtain in every community and in the political discourse in the island we are aware that our task cannot be an easy one in the presentation of facts without arousing anger in one or other ethnic camp. Those who dare to tread a path strewn with lies and misinterpretation of historical facts must indeed shed their own prejudices before even trying to enter the debate on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Misunderstanding of how political ‘communalism’ evolved from a non-violent bipartisan approach into a more destructive violent force often leads to superficial and erroneous conclusions.² Moreover, it has become difficult for any independent observer to assess the situation due to the strength of feeling and prevalence of distorted facts and figures.³

What factors have induced us to write this book?

What motivated me, G. Welhengama, to tackle a book on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka? The apparent reason, perhaps, was Professor Dominic McGoldrick’s insistence that I should write a separate chapter in my PhD thesis on Sri Lanka’s ethno-tribal conflict. My thesis concerned ethnic conflicts in general and how demands by ethno-tribal groups for greater political power in the form of autonomy and secession contributed to the escalation of ethnic violence in multi-ethnic polities in the contemporary nation state system. However, I resisted his request for fear that I might not be able to rise above my own prejudices and present an objective analysis as an impartial observer. I am also myself indirectly a party to the present conflict, for the simple reason that I had lived for 40 years in Sri Lanka until I was forced, in 1990, to flee my country owing to political reasons. When I was writing Chapter 11 of my PhD thesis, I finally made up my mind and entitled it: ‘A Case Study: Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka’.

Writing a book on Sri Lanka while in exile was no easy task since most primary and secondary data on Sri Lanka are not available in the UK. Most significantly, some primary data and resource materials relating to the period 1900 to 1946 are still available in Sri Lanka alone. In particular, parliamentary Hansards are still difficult to obtain even through the inter-library loan scheme. Nonetheless, we managed to secure most materials, both primary and secondary, which helped us complete the project.

Surprisingly, there exists hardly any serious and impartial discussion about what part Tamil politicians played in the escalation of violence that prevailed in Sri Lanka. Of course these events have taken place over a century in which both major communities, Sinhalese and Tamils, have been interlocked in each other’s downfall. Political leaders from both sides made fateful decisions before and after independence, perhaps, without realising the dire consequence for future generations, which set the scene for the rise of one of the most dangerous secessionist movement in the world and a prolonged civil war.

Why do we focus only on Tamil ‘communalism’?

Our analysis of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict is not meant to form the basis of yet another historical textbook. This work attempts to show that of the ethnic struggle in Sri Lanka mirrored changing global attitudes to minorities in nation states in the developing regime of international law on minority rights and on the changing attitude of nation states to devolution and grants of autonomy.

Our primary objective is to examine the self-understanding of Tamils as a separate nation and their determination to ‘share power’ in the constitutional settlements in Sri Lanka before and after independence. The book examines how separatist ideology progressed, first of all, from ‘communalism’ then to federalism and finally to a secessionist armed struggle. Most of the literature about the Sinhalese involvement in this adventure recorded both by indigenous scholars and by western observers, published especially after 1966, present only one side of this tragic saga. Even though many of these writers are scholars of international repute their failure to present an impartial analysis of what has happened on the island is due mainly to the fact that almost all of them, in one way or another, have been deeply affected by the conflicts. The frustration and anger felt by distinguished Tamil scholars such as Professor A.J. Wilson, Professor Arasaratnam and Professor S.J. Tambiah is sometimes visible in their writings. The sheer quantity of competing narratives in Sri Lanka has made it⁴ difficult to tell the difference between history and propaganda. The creation of nations is also the creation of an historical narrative that seamlessly links together territory with language and ethnicity. Likewise, liberation struggles also try to recapture the past so that historical facts, embellished by myths and legends create for the fledgling nation a clear identity, on the basis of which political and legal claims for territory can be founded. For example, Sachi Ponnambalam’s National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle⁵ published in the aftermath of the riots of July 1983 is a partisan account of someone who has been part of the Tamil struggle for some time.

Professor Tambiah, an eminent Tamil scholar and an internationally reputed anthropologist left the country due to the ethnic riots that took place in the late 1950s, to take up the Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Harvard. Some of his post-1970 articles and monographs on the crisis in Sri Lanka are aimed at the Sinhalese, in general, and Sinhalese Buddhists, in particular. His later works are replete with exaggerations⁶ such as the clear parallel he drew between the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and massacres in Tamil-inhabited areas of Sri Lanka. The late Professor A.J. Wilson, the chief ideologist in Tamil federal politics until the LTTE began to dominate politics in the north and east has also succumbed to this trend from the early 1980s. He strenuously supported demands for federal status for the north and east in his writings from the late 1960s onward. Sinhalese domination in post-independence Sri Lanka has frustrated him and most of his contemporaries. In his Break-up of Sri Lanka,⁷ he reports on events that he was personally acquainted with between the years 1947 to 1987 such as his association with the upper echelons of the traditional Tamil leadership and his close acquaintanceship with J.R. Jayawardene, former President of Sri Lanka. In this book, he discusses broken promises, the betrayal of Tamils by Sinhalese politicians, the colonisation of traditional homeland by Sinhalese peasants, and so forth. Most of his post-1970 work reflects his deep feelings about the Tamil cause and appear one-sided and lacking the scholarly approach he had quite remarkably demonstrated in his earlier works. This is equally true of Arasaratnam, Sabaratnam and many other contemporary writers, almost all of them self-exiled Tamil scholars. These scholars are of the view that Sinhalese chauvinism alone generated the ethnic crisis. The main thesis seems to be that Tamil ‘communalism’ emerged as a result of the defensive politics adopted by the Sinhalese. The role Sinhalese politicians and Sinhalese nationalists played in escalating and exacerbating ethnic tensions is well documented both in the works of Sinhalese and Tamil scholars (including the ones mentioned), and in the official records and personal journals of the main political actors. But the issue is not so simple.

Sri Lankan Tamils feared becoming an ethnic minority in post-independence Sri Lanka. Like other ethnic minorities in nation states elsewhere in the world they had difficulty fitting into a democratic unitary state in which, on account of their numerical inferiority, they became a minority in perpetuity subject to the political will of the Sinhalese majority. What is missing, in published accounts of the Sri Lankan crisis, is a clear narrative about the way the Tamils as an ethnic minority resisted since the beginning of the twentieth century to address their loss of status and minority position in an emerging nation state.

Amidst the vast amount of excellent work produced by western scholars who have attempted to write about the tragic tale of post-independence Sri Lanka, such as W. Howard Wriggins,⁸ Robert Kearney⁹ Paul Sieghart¹⁰ and Virginia Leary,¹¹ there are also several who have failed to grasp the complexity of the political situation on the island. Their problem has been an over-reliance on western news reports and hurriedly executed ‘fact-finding missions’. Edgar O’Ballance’s Cyanide War, Tamil Insurrection of Sri Lanka 1973–88,¹² is an example. Other problems have been a lack of context or accuracy in the reporting. For example, UN Special Rapporteur Professor Palley’s allegation that Tamil students were not allowed to study medicine in the medical faculties in Sri Lanka. There were certainly policies aimed at restricting the admission of Tamil students at Sri Lankan universities, which generated a major political problem, but it was well known that there has been a medical faculty attached to the University of Jaffna for nearly two decades, of which almost all the entrants are Tamil students. In other medical faculties at the University of Colombo, the University of Peradeniya, the University of Kelaniya and the University of Matara (Galle campus) Tamil students have been studying without experiencing any trouble. Although there is a medical faculty in the University of Jaffna, some Tamil medical students preferred to go to Peradeniya and other faculties even though they are located in the areas predominantly inhabited by the Sinhalese.

It is very rare that an author can escape what Jennings has described as subjective influences. Emotions and prejudices will creep imperceptibly into one’s thinking and play a huge role as one starts recording what he or she has learnt and heard. I left my country for political reasons in 1990 with my family. However, this had nothing to do with the Sinhalese – Tamil conflict. We have both presented the facts and came to our own conclusions based on our first-hand experiences of the countries in which we were born and through relying on both primary and secondary sources of eminent scholars. Fortunately, Bandaranaike’s Handbook, Michael Roberts’ documents, works by Sir Ivor Jennings, Dr I.D.S. Weerawardana, Dr G.C. Mendis, B.H. Farmer and Jane Russell provided invaluable materials not otherwise available.

From a different perspective?: Gnanapala Welhengama

I was born in the southern part of Sri Lanka. I had my university education during the early 1970s in the capital of the island, Colombo, although I never really enjoyed its cosmopolitan surroundings and all the hustle and bustle typically associated with an Asian metropolis. Neither was I able to savour the essence of city life. So, after one year in the wilderness among strangers, both the Sinhalese and the Tamils, I left Colombo and returned to my village to take up a teaching position at a very junior level. It was another ten years before I returned to Colombo, this time to qualify as a lawyer, after being disappointed with the degree of political interference in the teaching profession by politicians. On this occasion I spent exactly a decade in Colombo even after qualifying as an attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. My time at the Sri Lanka Law College proved to be a very useful one, during which I had the opportunity for the first time to interact with the main minority groups, the Ceylon Tamils and Muslims.

Although I never experienced any difficulties mixing with my Tamil colleagues, at times language barriers became an obstacle for us both, Tamil and Sinhalese students alike. Yet, in our social intercourse, we somehow managed to cooperate with each other in very friendly and congenial surroundings. We were invited to Tamil student union meetings and they, in turn, had always willingly accepted our invitations. After completion of my legal studies I worked at a chamber, in which Tamil lawyers also practised, as junior counsel.

Above all, I have a strong blood relationship with the Tamil community, although it came about in a rather unexpected way. One pleasant evening I was informed that one of my brothers had married a Tamil lady, which did not accord well with my parents. Now they have been happily married for 30 years. Neither my family members nor I had found any difficulty in coming to terms with it, because the Tamils, just like my forefathers from whom the Sinhala race originated, came ultimately from the Indian subcontinent. They established settlements in this beautiful country, known very appropriately, as the pearl of the Indian ocean for centuries, even though early migrants of Tamil origin had journeyed much later than the Sinhalese. A great chunk of Tamil conurbation outside the northern and eastern provinces is located in the Western Province, which is principally inhabited by the Sinhalese. It became customary that whenever there was an attack against Tamils, by extremists of both camps or when faced with the wrath of the LTTE, Tamil civilians sought refuge in and around Colombo.

Dr Nirmala Pillay

I was born in Durban, South Africa, at the height of apartheid. In that country, the ethnic problem was the reverse of Sri Lanka. The minority ethnic Afrikaaners and English, numbering only about four million people were firmly in political control of a government that ruled a country of some 35 million Africans, 800, 000 Indians and two million people who were classified as ‘coloured’. It was ostensibly a democratic government since it was elected into power by the white minority. In 1992 Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC), the banned African liberation movement, was released from jail after 27 years and the country embarked on the process of writing a new constitution in terms of which the 1994 election would be held. Although it was clear that the constitution would apply to a unitary state, there were threats of secession from both the Inkatha Freedom Party, the party dominating Natal and representing ten million Zulus, and the conservative Afrikaaners. Neither threat materialised. Behind the scenes negotiations by Prime Minister F.W. De Klerk with the King of the Zulus, isolated Chief Gatsha Buthelezi and neutralised the threat. As it turned out the ANC garnered most of the Zulu vote. The plans of the separatist Afrikaaners never really garnered enough support to make good their threat either.

The South Africans avoided a disaster in spite of years of abject deprivation, poverty and oppre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Conceptual setting: separatism, secession and irredentism rights
• 3 Nation building and minority rights
• 4 The island: the people and colonial policy
• 5 The evolution of ‘communalism’
• 6 The Ponnambalam brothers
• 7 Tamil ‘communalism’ rises with G.G. Ponnambalam as its impresario
• 8 The passing of the baton: the rise of new leadership in the Jaffna Peninsula
• 9 The winter of discontent in Tamil communalism
• 10 Thamil Arasu and S.J.V. Chelvanayakam
• 11 Awakening the political consciousness of the Tamils: the Federal Party’s modus operandi
• 12 The role of Sinhalese nationalism
• 13 The government considers devolution of power as a solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka
• Bibliography
• Index