LTTE, Lanka and the Legitimacy of their wars

At last Government of India walked through the uncharted territory, it enthused against own policy of non-interference in country specific referendums and voted in favor of US backed resolution against the Ceylonese Government for its ‘genocide of Tamils’ at UNHRC in Geneva. A half hearted measure though; king Singh was quick enough to write a letter and explain the balance of his stand, even when he no such compulsions to so. The only real compulsion India really had was from the eighteen DMK MPs, a mere eighteen vote favored the Indian stand for the US resolution, which again won by a single vote. Democracy had its sweet victory.

Democracy is a game of numbers. One of the first persons to feel the pinch of this game in the Indian sub-continent was Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He clearly envisioned the disadvantages of a minority, which would be at the mercy of hostile majority. Had India remained a single Entity after 1947, the word secularism would have had a different interpretation and probably by this time we would have seen many a civil wars in this country. What we call as Indo-Pak wars would have been called as Hindu-Muslim wars; this scenario is analogous to what ails Ceylon now. A minority Hindu-Tamil population, at the mercy of hostile chauvinist-Sinhala majority; the Sinhalese follow a form of Buddhism which is void of philosophy of Dharma.

Imperialism and colonialism of the west created many an independent countries, which never existed in the past. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon, never existed as a single unit as it exists today. India of the present day is more a creation of a Lord Dalhousie or of a Queen Victoria than of a Sardar Patel or a Pandit Nehru. Ceylon which was traditionally ruled by native Tamil and Sinhalese kings for centuries was transformed into a single country by the British; the British tea plantation brought a new horde of Tamil speaking Indian laborers to the island country. Ceylon is a Bi-Linguist country, but religiously there are four groups; a majority Sinhalese many of them pseudo-Buddhist, a small minority Tamil/Sinhala Christians, Muslim Tamils, and Hindu Tamils. The Hindu Tamils are of two origins; natives and Indians. As a race though all them look like dark skinned Dravidians, the Sinhalese consider themselves as Aryans of Indians origin and the Tamils, Dravidians of Indian origin; neither of them are original settlers of the island. The Tamils are religiously guided by the ancient Hindu constitution the Manushastra, and the Sinhalese by their own Buddhist Mahavamsa. Mahavamsa represents the Sinhalese-Buddhist agenda for Ceylon.

Years of subjugation to a foreign crown made the Ceylonese, citizens of a vast empire; newfound freedom suddenly shriveled their world. The search for a new national identity and exclusivity rattled the minds of the ruling class of many nations, some like the Singaporeans, Malaysians, and Indians decided to cohabitate and some like the Chinese, Pakistanis and Ceylonese decided to dominate. The numbers always did the trick, the largest faction always benefited from the game. The Sinhalese majority also ensured reservation for itself in state universities and Governmental Jobs. Democracy and positive affirmation further alienated the downtrodden minority Tamils.

The Sinhalese atrocities started with the disenfranchising of Indian Tamils most of whom were the backbone the Ceylonese Plantation Economy. However unlike Uganda or Burma these Indians were never deported, it took a forty years struggle for the settlers to earn their citizenship. The state of Ceylon often indulged in terrorism against the Tamils, colonization and ethnic cleansing. Prominent among the various atrocities include-the 1974 World Tamil Conference attack in Jaffna, burning down of Jaffna public Library in 1981 , the 1983 anti-Tamil riots called as Black July and the recent 2009 genocide of Tamils by the Sinhalese army.

As far as the 1974 attack is concerned, comparisons could be made to Jalianwala Bag massacre, the similarities being police firing on unarmed and peaceful gathering and seven innocent deaths by a native police force being the difference. The incident gave a fertile ground for the formation a separatist armed struggle against the state of Ceylon and resulted in the formation of LTTE by V.Prabakaran; a terrorist under Indian Law, but as the saying goes ‘one man’s terrorists in another man’s freedom fighter’. The conference attack was avenged by the Murder of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah by Prabakaran in 1975(Opposition to Simon Commission lead to the death of Punjab kesari Lala Lajpat Rai, whose death was avenged by a freedom fighter Chandrasekhar Azad, recognized as a terrorist by the British).

The Jaffna Public Library was the pride of Tamil Diaspora, it consisted a repository of ancient Tamil Palm leaf manuscripts and nearly 97 thousand books. The Library was considered as one of the richest collection of Tamil Knowledge and learning, it had no equals in the entire world. On the night of May 31 of 1981, the Sinhalese authorities burned the Library and muddled up centuries of Tamil Knowledge in Jaffna’s fertile loam.

An ambush of 13 army soldiers formed the backdrop of 1983 riots; nearly 3000 Tamils were killed as 25,000 Tamils were injured (Similar to Direct action of Calcutta 1946). The last and most gruesome of all the other atrocities, the reader is referred to the channel-4 documentary on YouTube titles ‘Lanka’s Killing Field’.

The cause of LTTE was a noble one and had the blessings of Indira Gandhi and India in the initial stages of its formation. The LTTE cadres were trained by Indians in India, Armed by Indian weapons and Financed by Indian Tax payer’s money. India trained LTTE on the lines of Mukthi Vahini of Bangladesh. Indira Gandhi had a clear pro-Tamil foreign policy for Ceylon.

The Sinhala only policy of the Government made the life of Tamil youths a living hell, who found it difficult either to enter Universities or Government Jobs. The opposition to official policies did start with a lot of peaceful protests, but Gandhigiri failed to cut any ice with a hostile Sinhalese Ethnic group. Tamil leaders considered M K Gandhi and J N Nehru as their role models; their demands were pressed through sathyagraha, even the sathyagrahis were violently attacked by organized Sinhalese mobs, which finally lead to riots in 1958. A demand for separate state resolution was passed by Tamil parties in 1976 in a small town of vadukkodai (Purna Swaraj Resolution of Congress at Lahore session in 1929). The in same year the LTTE was formed (Indian National Army by Gen.Mohan Singh 1942) with an objective of creating a Tamil Homeland called as ‘Tamil Ealem’.

The LTTE though had the support of Indian Government and sympathy of the Indian Tamils failed to capitalize any political mileage of it. It failed to portray itself as a Mukti-Vahini, or an IRA or as PLO; rather it projected itself more of a ruthless terrorist organization than as a Liberation Army. The going was well for LTTE until the ‘the twentieth century fox’ J Jayewardene convinced Rajeev Gandhi on IPKF mission. The IPKF ventured to disarm the LTTE of its weapons supplied to it by Government of India. This policy marked a conflicting shift in Indian Foreign affairs from Pro-Tamil to an Anti-Tamil stand. In the later phases the LTTE and the Ceylonese forces joint their hands against IPKF.

Much has been written against the IPKF, but the cruel fact was India blood was shed for the thankless Sinhalese, by weapons manufactured by Indian Ordnance Factory Board and paid by Indian taxpayers Rupees. A total of 1200 soldiers (Kargil war 527 Martyrs) lost their lives defending a foreign and a racist country. The wounded faced severe hardships; for the war injured ones in Jaffna the nearest Military base hospital was situated in Chennai. The entire operation cost the Indian Exchequer over 10000 crores in 1989.

The LTTE on its part Killed many Tamil leaders and failed to convince the world for its action. The Lankans were always projected as victims and not as a racist nation. The country was oblivious of its own official racial policies. Even after the IPKF war the LTTE had enormous sympathy even among the ruling class of Tamil Nadu, the IPKF was unpopular among Tamils and even in Tamil Nadu. The LTTE signed its own death warrant when it waged war against India by assassinating Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi. The assignation was carried allegedly by an Indian trained Lankan terrorist Dhanu; the cruelty of the assassination wiped all the sympathy India had for LTTE. The second opinion of Indian Tamil changed the personification of LTTE within the Tamil World. The LTTE was a terrorist organization and was not expected to follow any International rules or treaties.

The civil war with LTTE ended in 2009, with the Lankan Army accused of violating various UN and other international treaties. As a national force the Lankan Defense Force was bound by International rules and regulations, which it failed to honor. It evidently imitated the LTTE tactics while executing combatants but crossed all the limits of decency while dealing with women, children and unarmed civilians. The accusation was not about plundering, cross firing or sporadic rapes but about colonization, ethnic cleansing, Genocide and Government organized mass rape and murders. The Lankan forces known for its notorious indiscipline (The Naval Guard of Honor given to PM Rajeev Gandhi) should be punished for its atrocities by the UNHRC.

As a long term vision India must have a hawks’ eye on that cursed Island, which has tons of Buddhists statues, literature and legends but still annulled of Peace and Prosperity. Inspirations must be drawn from Lord Dalhousie’s doctrine of Lapse; India must annex the whole of Island. The Tamil territories of Ealem must be attached to the State of Tamil Nadu and remaining portion Sinhala Pradesh or SinhlaLand must be acceded to Indian Union. Imposition of Indian constitution would provide a lasting solution to the ethnic problem of Ceylon.