Trilingual inscription from Sri Lanka

[nanda chandran]

>    It is also the case that Sinhalese had legitimate grievances as
>regards the Tamils in the late colonial period, such as the >import of
>large    numbers of foreign workers and the privileging    of the more
>highly educated Tamils in government service. As so >often    happens, this
>led to excesses in the opposite direction after >independence.

I've a Sri Lankan Tamil friend. He's a Christian. His views on the subject
are pretty interesting.

The main reason for the conflict in Sri Lanka, as per him, are actually on
religious lines - Buddhist Vs Hindu.

He says the Sinhalese lose no opportunity in propogating Buddhism in Tamil
areas - like building Buddhist temples in Hindu areas and offering more
incentives for Buddhists etc, which ofcourse didn't go well with the Tamil
Hindus, who're Saivites (their attachment to their faith need not be
elaborated). Plus it is said that statues of the Buddha would miraculously
appear in some Hindu area and be converted to a temple by the Sinhalese.

He also points out that it is the industry displayed by the Tamils which
turned the Sinhalese against them. At one point in time, he says the Tamils
held all the key positions in the Government and in the discrimination by
the Sinhalese which followed, Tamils were banned from learning English and
going to college etc

But there seems to be more in the Tamil imbroglio itself, than meets the
eye. It's said that Tamil population out there are of two kinds : 1. One
which came in even before the Brits did and 2. Which were brought in by the
Brits as cheap labour (I don't think the Sinhalese had any problem with more
Tamils coming in and didn't view them as competition).

The ones who came before claim to be of higher castes and look down upon the
later arrivals. When the sectarian trouble erupted, it was the later
arrivals who first got hit since they worked in predominantly Sinhalese
areas and didn't receive much help from the higher castes.

It's said that it was Prabhakaran who's supposed to come from a fishing
community, the LTTE supremo, who actually united both.

But the EPRLF formed by the Dalit Tamils in Srilanka - called contemptuously
by higher caste Tamils as EElathu Paraiyargal (Srilanka's Untouchables) -
tried to work out a seperate deal with both the Govts of Srilanka and India.
For which the whole leadership was assasinated by the LTTE.

Plus the Muslim Tamils in Srilanka seem to have had different ideas. They
decided to stay nuetral, for which they seem to have earned the wrath of the
LTTE.

It seems to me that the primary causes may have been : 1. Historical
hostility between Srilankan Buddhists and Tamil Hindus (Tamil Kings are have
invaded Lanka and caused havoc many a time). 2. Political power struggle
between higher caste Tamils and Sinhalese for which the poor lower caste
Tamils were dragged in for no fault of their own (which is exactly what
happened in Tamil Nadu in the guise of the Dravidian movement).


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