The Subjugated Tamil Peoplein

Sri Lanka

A brief historical background

&

An appeal to Great Britain

Peoples Forum : North - East, Sri Lanka

Title : The Subjugated Tamil People In Sri LankaAuthor : Sabaratnam SelvendraCopyright : © 2019 Selvendra, SEdition : First Edition, 2019 JunePublication : Tholthamizh,Tellippalai, Jaffna. tholthamizh@gmail.comPrinters : Evergreen Printers, Jaffna.Pages : 74Price : 250.00 LK RsISBN : 978-624-5067-00-8

This book is published on-behalf

ofPeoples Forum : North - East, Sri Lanka.

45/4, Stanly College Lane,Ariyalai, Jaffna,

Sri Lanka.tamilsovereignty@gmail.com

www.tamilsovereignty.org

Contents Page

Appeal Letter to Great Britain 7

Foreword 13

Author’s Preface 15

Executive Summary 21

Chapter 1 : Introduction 25

1.1 Political Agitation 26

1.2 Rise of Militancy 27

1.3 Post Ethnic War 28

1.4 Sinhala Political Mindset 29

1.5 British Government Mediation 31

1.6 Obligation of the Members of the International Community 31 1.7 Durable Solution for the Ethnic Problem 31

Chapter 2 : A Brief Historical Background 33

2.1 The Jaffna Kingdom 33

2.2 Subjugation under Portuguese Rule 34

2.3 Dutch Rule 35

2.4 British Rule 36

2.4.1 Consolidation of Tamil & Sinhala Kingdoms into one Country 36

2.4.2 Unified System of Administration 37

2.4.3 Territorial Representation under Donoughmore Constitution 38

Chapter 3 : Transfer of Power from British to Sinhalese 40

3.1 Events leading to the Introduction of Soulbury Constitution 40

3.2 The Soulbury Commissioners in Ceylon 42

3.3 Soulbury Commission Recommendations 44 3.4 Failure of the Soulbury Commission 46

Chapter 4 : The Sinhalese Rule 49

4.1 Oppressive Measures Against the Tamils 50 4.1.1 State Aided Colonisation 51 4.1.2 Adoption of Lion Flag as National Flag 53 4.1.3 Dis-Enfranchisement of Plantation Tamils 54 4.1.4 Sinhala Only Act of 1956 56 4.1.5 Language-Wise Standardisation for University Admissions 58 4.1.6 Abolishing of Appeals to Privy Council 58

4.1.7 Doing away with Soulbury Constitution 58

4.1.8 Neglect of infrastructure of the Tamil homeland 60

4.2 Violence Orchestrated against Tamils 61 4.3 An Unjust War Imposed on the Tamils 66 4.4 Events since the War Ended 685. Conclusion 706. Reference 73

Appeal Letter to Great Britain

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45/4, Stanly College Lane,Ariyalai, Jaffna, Sri Lanka,

tamilsovereignty@gmail.com, 14th March 2019.

Prime Minister of United Kingdom,10, Downing Street, London Sw1A 2AA, England.

Honuorable Sir,

APPEAL TO GREAT BRITAIN ON BEHALF OF THE TAMIL PEOPLE IN SRI LANKA TO HELP LIBERATE US

FROM SUBJUGATION

The Sri Lankan Tamils, we had sovereignty over our lands in the Jaffna kingdom that encompassed the north, east and north-western regions of Sri Lanka until the year 1619 when we lost our kingdom to the Portuguese. After 329 years of foreign colonial rule when the last colonial ruler Britain granted independence to Ceylon (former name for Sri Lanka) on 4th February 1948, Tamils’ Sovereignty over our homeland was not restored to us. On the contrary, the governance of the entire integrated multiethnic country was handed over to the Sinhalese Nation, under a Unitary Constitution.

The Soulbury Commission who were responsible for the transfer of power arrangements stated in their report,

“that it was satisfied that the government of Ceylon was fully aware that the contentment of the minorities was essential not only to their own well-being but to the well-being of the Island as a whole. And to quote the commissions report “If it were otherwise, no safeguard that we could devise would in the long run be of much avail. Recent years have shown that this observation was only too true”. (Farmer, 1963)

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Events since independence clearly proved that the premise on which the Soulbury Commissioners based their recommendations was unfounded and out of context.They had done a grave injustice to the Tamils by subjugating us to be at the mercy of the racially oppressive Sinhalese Nation. It was rather unfortunate that the Soulbury Commissioners came to their decision while they were not unaware of the racially oppressive tendencies of the Sinhalese leaders and despite this impending danger having been pointed out to them by the Tamil representatives.

Tamils have been continuously subjected to cruel and degrading oppressive measures by the Sinhalese rulers affecting our ethnicity, integrity of our homeland, language, education, religion, culture, economic well-being and our very existence itself. This has resulted in immense suffering for the Tamils.

We are constrained to state that we find ourselves in this unacceptable situation due to the imposition of the unsuitable unitary ‘Soulbury Constitution’, for the adoption of which, the British Government was instrumental.

We have realized that no amount of pleading with the obdurate Sinhalese leaders is going to make them relent and restore our rights to us. It is only the involvement of a determined international community that can bring about a just settlement. It is our humble opinion that Britain should take the initiative and mediate a settlement because of historical obligation that Britain owes to this country and particularly to the aggrieved Tamils.

It is in this desperate and helpless background that there is a general feeling among vast sections of our people that we have come to the end of our tether and are left with no alternatives now but to appeal to the British Government, whose actions over the years under their rule and particularly from 1920 onwards until the granting of independence, have brought us into this pathetic situation, for redress and for the British People to show their renowned sense of fair play and justice and save us, though belatedly.

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It is only fair that this matter should be re-examined by British Government by appointing an inquiry Commission to look into the manner in which its officials handled the winding up of the Colonial rule in this country until the legal handing over of the Country on the basis of the ‘Soulbury Constitution’ and assessing the extent of damage and injustice done to the Tamils consequent to their actions.

The legitimacy of the subsequent two constitutions imposed by the Sri Lankan Government should also be examined as these were done in contravention of Section 29 of the then existing ‘Soulbury Constitution’; without the concurrence of the Tamils and against the very sprit and characteristic of the conditional polity that the British Government bequeathed to the Peoples of this country.

Britain could use its good offices to take up this matter with the Sri Lankan Government and if necessary at the United Nations Organization and initiate necessary measures to restore the political rights to the Tamils, as all other numerous attempts and avenues of conflict resolution have failed.

As a first step in this regard Britain could formally recognize the historical fact that the indigenous Tamils in Sri Lanka are a People who constitute a Nation and are therefore entitled to their inherent right to Self Determination. In this centenary year of Balfour Declaration of 2nd November, 1917 of which Britain feels proud, Britain could support the Tamil’s aspiration similar to Balfour Declaration and actively involve itself to help win the political rights of the Tamil People in Sri Lanka.

The plight of the long suffering Tamils in this country is so acute that the international community cannot be as insensitive as to show indifference to the suffering and humiliation of the Tamils. It is the obligation of the international community to exercise their right to protect (R2P) and we feel that Britain has a moral responsibility to take the initiative to mobilize the international community to help restore to the Tamil People their inalienable rights that remains unfairly usurped by the Sinhalese.

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We are conscious of all the generous financial assistance and diplomatic advice that Britain has been giving to this country over the years to resolve its problems. We are ever grateful to former British Prime Minister Hon. David Cameron for visiting Jaffna in 2015 and personally consoling the grieving people. He was the first Prime Minister of a country to ever pay a visit to beleaguered Jaffna and we are indeed indebted to him and to the people of Great Britain for this kind gesture.

In the following pages we are stating our case in some detail to enable you to appreciate the gravity of our plight and our justification for making this appeal to you, in a report form.

Once again, we humbly appeal to the British Government to help the Tamil People to free ourselves from subjugation and to enable us to live in peace with dignity.

Yours Sincerely

On behalf of the Subjugated Tamil People in Sri Lanka

Signed by

1. Dr. K. T. Ganeshalingam Ph.DHead, Department of Political Science, University of Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

2. Mr. S. Selvendra B.Sc.(Madras), FCA (Sri Lanka)Chartered Accountant, Member, Valvettiturai Urban Council. Customs Road, Valvettiturai, Sri Lanka.

3. Mr. M. Thillainathan B.Sc(Eng.), MIE(SL)Chartered Engineer, 375, Point Pedro Road, Nallur, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

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4. Mr. S. Divakalala B.A(Hons), CAS. SLASFormer SecretaryMinistry of Education, Cultural Affairs & Sports, North East Province.Chief Executive officer, Aruthal, 51, Wyman Road, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

5. Mr.T. KumaresanWeb Master & Publisher138, Bar Maniam Lane, Tellipalai East, Tellippalai, Sri Lanka.

6. Sri la Sri So. Thesiga Gnanasampantha Paramarchcharya SwamigalNallai Thirugnanasampanthar AatheenamNallur, Sri Lanka.

7. Rt.Rev Dr.S.JebanesanFormer Bishop Jaffna Diocese Church of South India.31, Shwantz Lane, Chundikuli, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

8. Dr. S. Rahuram Ph.DHead, Department of Media, University of Jaffna, Jaffna. Srilanka.

9. Mr. N. Anantharaj B.A(Hons), M.A, Dip-In Education, Dip-In Journalism, SLPS, SLEASPrivate Secretary, Ministry of Education,

Former Duputy Director of Education, Northern Province, Jaffna.Theniyambai, Valvettiturai, Sri Lanka.

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10. Mr. S. JothilingamFormer Teacher, Coordinator - Social Science Research CenterAttorney – At – Law, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

11. Professor Dr. Soosai Ananthan Ph.DDepartment of Geography, University of Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

12. Mr. K. SatkunabalanRetired Manager, Peoples Bank.Myliyathanai, Thondamannaru, Sri Lanka.

13. Mr. Paramanathan VigneswaranProvincial Director of Education (Retired), Northern Province,Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

14. Professor Dr. S.KrishnarajahDepartment of History & ArchaeologyUniversity of Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

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Forewordby

Dr. K. T. Ganeshsalingam Ph.D

“The subjugated Tamil People in Sri Lanka” written by Mr. S. Selvendra is a timely and unique perspective of the recent po-

litical history of this country. At a time when all attempts to regain

the political rights of the Tamil’s have reached a stalemate Mr. S.

Selvendra’s endeavor opens up a new hope to untangle the histori-

cal wrongs done to the Tamil’s, with the support of the international

community under the auspices of the British Government.

Mr. Selvendra had taken advantage of his enforced rest

and leisure and detachment as he calls it, to write on Sri Lankan

Tamil history. He has sufficiently substantiated his argument with

historical events in his attempt to convince the British Government

of its moral obligation to help redeem this country and particularly

the Tamils.

Mr. Selvendra has played an active role as a Community

leader and is well known and well respected in this region. His

involvement in representing his people at meetings with both civil

and military officials of Sri Lanka and India during the period from

1983 to 1996 had given him a greater understanding of the prob-

lems faced by the Tamils.

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The righteousness of his attempt to guide this country on

the path to peace and progress is so impressive that all those of us

including the University fraternity who are associated with him in

this endeavor are convinced that all right thinking citizens of this

country should support this endeavor until the desired results are

achieved for the good of the country as a whole and the Tamils in

particular.

Dr. K. T. Ganeshsalingam Ph.D Head, Department of Political Science, University of Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.saarusharon@gmail.com,March 2019.

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Author’s PrefaceBy

Sabaratnam Selvendra

Like every Tamil parent in Sri Lanka, my parents too gave priority to our education and ensured that their children were given a proper education.

After completing my school education at our village school, Chithambara College, Valvettiturai, I studied at Madras Christian College, Tamparam (Chennai) and obtained my B.Sc. degree in 1960. Thereafter, I studied in Colombo and qualified as a Chartered Accountant and started practicing my profession as a partner in a leading firm of Chartered Accountants in Colombo where I was articled. Both my brothers, Dr.S.Theivendra and Dr.S.Mahendra qualified as doctors in this country and obtained their post qualification degrees in the U.K. and are successfully practicing their profession.

The periodic mob violence against the Tamils in this country affected my two brothers and they both emigrated from this Country in the 1970s. Dr.S.Theivendra is serving in Coventry in the U.K. Dr.S.Mahendra, who was serving at the Dambulla Government Hospital in Sri Lanka in 1977, narrowly escaped death at hands of a violent mob. He is now domiciled in Canada and is living in Toronto.

It was during the 1983 pogrom in Colombo that I and my wife got caught to the mob violence. We lost everything - our car, our house and all our belongings were looted and burnt down. The shock and trauma were severe. Previously I have worked in Zambia for three years. My former employer, hearing of the troubles in Colombo invited me to rejoin them. However, my wife and I made a deliberate decision,

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that we shall live and die in the country of our birth. But I moved my practice to the provincial town of Jaffna, near our home town, with about a dozen staff in the latter part of 1983 soon after the riots.

The peaceful life we expected in Jaffna did not last long. Soon the entire area became a war zone and bombs were falling all around us and many people were getting killed and injured. These deaths were invariably violent deaths. In one instance I happened to see an artillery shell exploding in close proximity on a public road and how a man’s body was being blown to bits and his life ebbing and extinguishing from his spreadeagled body within minutes before any medical help could be given. Such gruesome experiences were regular occurrence in the war zone that was the Tamil homeland. The resilience and determination of the people were really remarkable. Everyone adjusted to living in a war zone. Trenches and bomb shelters came up in everyone’s compound and in public places.

In the absence of any political leadership, each and every town formed Citizens committees to look after the interests of the people. Public spirited leading citizens joined these committees. I became the chairman of the Valvettiturai Citizen Committee and we helped the people in many ways, paying particular attention to sustain the morale of the people which the aggressor armies were trying their worst to break.

There were a number of occasions when we had to flee from our town under intense bombing by the Sri Lankan forces. Although there was a sense of solidarity and togetherness among the people in the face of adversity which lessened the horror of the war to some extent, life continued to be stressful and at times terrifying. Apart from the frequent bombs & shells there were a few incidents when Sri Lankan soldiers as well as the Indian army soldiers at different times going berserk and killing many defenseless civilians at point blank range. With the Prevention of Terrorism Act in place and soldiers going on rampage and killing un armed civilians with impunity, these

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incidents were really terrifying. Somehow we managed to live through these dangerous situations and we survived unscathed but we suffered heavy property losses.

After the Vadamaradchchy military operations I found my house badly damaged and looted. When the Indian army was advancing against the LTTE positions in Jaffna, they were firing artillery shells and my entire office equipments and files got destroyed.

In 1995 the Sri Lankan security forces carried out a military operation and captured the entire Jaffna peninsula. They were setting up numerous mini camps. My house and another thirty houses down our lane were taken over by the Sri Lankan Army for a mini-camp. It became impossible for a self employed person to continue to live in Jaffna any longer. So I and my wife, we went to Botswana in 1996 and I worked in the Auditor General’s office as head of the Parastatal audit division. Botswana is a country like a heaven on earth; a very peaceful and prosperous country governed by very capable technocrats.

In 2005, we returned to Sri Lanka. As the situation was not yet conducive for continuing my practice in Jaffna I went into retirement and we were leading a quiet and contended lives in Colombo as our house in Valvettiturai was continued to be occupied by the Sri Lankan Armed forces. When the army finally returned our house in 2013 after occupying it for seventeen years, the house was not only emptied of all the movables in the house that we left behind but the occupying army when vacating had stripped many of the fittings like doors, windows and roofing thereby making the house uninhabitable. Despite my claims the Government of Sri Lanka has still not paid me rent for occupying my house nor did they pay any compensation for vandalizing my house.

I suffered the worst tragedy in my life when my beloved wife Saraswathy nee Saras suddenly died on the 8th of January 2017 after a brief illness and hospitalization for about 10 days. It was very painful to adjust my life without her. Somehow I got the feeling that

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God almighty, by isolating me, was expecting me to dedicate the rest of my life to do certain things to serve humanity, which I would not have done if my wife was with me.

One thing I did was to contest the Local Government election as an Independent candidate. As a member of Valvettithurai Urban Council I am able to use all the expertise I gained as a financial management consultant for the benefit of this region and its people.

But my main focus has been to endeavour to rescue this country and the Tamil community from the present precarious situation. After nearly 30 years of political efforts and 30 years of armed struggle, the struggle to regain the rights of the Tamils has entered its third phase when the help of the international community has to be obtained to put this country on the right track to achieve peace, prosperity and decent living conditions for all Sri Lankans.

It is with this view in mind that I started collecting historical facts and the result of my two years endeavour is this letter addressed to the British Prime Minister with the attachments. A number of my colleagues encouraged me and helped me with useful suggestions in this project.

Dr.K.T.Ganeshalingam, head of Department of Political Science, University of Jaffna, an eminent educationist of note, with his in-depth knowledge and understanding of the political history of the Tamils and international affairs, gave me very useful information to be incorporated in this write-up and guided me. His leadership to this project is a real boost to me and a bonanza to the Tamil Community. He is such an expert and authority in his field of study that he has authored more than twenty books and written numerous articles on topics ranging from ‘Current international politics’, ‘China and Indian ocean’, ‘Political History of Palestine’, ‘Political History of Israel’ and many more.

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My longtime friend engineer Mr.M.Thillainathan, an avid reader with an analytical mind and committed to appropriate technology has a huge collection of books in his Library at his home. He helped me in a big way to rearrange the facts in chronological order. I was able to collect many useful books from his library.

I have associated with Mr.Sundaram Divakalala from 1980s when he was the Assistant Commissioner of Local Government (ACLG) and I was the Chairman of the Valvettiturai Citizens Committee. Despite the troubled conditions and the life threatening danger in travelling to our region Mr.Sundaram Divakalala used to visit our town regularly in his capacity as ACLG and helped the local Government staff in their work and ensured that their services were provided to the people without any breakdown under war conditions. His commitment to serve the people is so deep rooted that even in his retirement he is very active serving the people particularly in the field of Education as the C.E.O. of Aaruthal Organization. He encouraged me in this project with his characteristic enthusiasm.

Mr.N.Anantharaj, former Deputy Director of Education and the private secretary of the Ministry of Education, Northern Province, an educationist and one who has been helping the public in many ways and particularly in the field of education closely associated with me during the Citizen Committee days as its Secretary. In this project, he encouraged me and helped me to obtain some rare books needed by me.

My nephew Mr T.Kumaresan with his exceptional knowledge with computer and Tamil literary history has been helping me with commitment in many ways. He has written many research articles on the historical background of Tamil Literature. He had been honoured by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for his Tamil lexicography works, by presenting him with a gold medal in 2015.

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I am grateful to all the above mentioned gentlemen and other signatories for encouraging me and for coming forward to provide intellectual leadership to the Tamil Community.

Many leading citizens have endorsed our views. However, to save time only a limited number of religious leaders and prominent citizens are signatories to this appeal letter.

In order to make our views known to everyone in this country and abroad we are publishing the letter addressed to the British Prime Minister and the attachments in a book form.

I hope and pray that our endeavour will bring about the desired result which will certainly be a win-win situation for the Tamil People, the Sinhalese People and all the religious minorities in this country.

S.Selvendra,Customs Road,Valvettiturai, Sri Lanka.selvendra_s@yahoo.com,March 2019.

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Executive Summary

The Sri Lankan Tamils, who are a numerical minority in Sri Lanka are historically a people who constitute a Nation. They ruled themselves and enjoyed sovereignty over their lands in the Jaff-na kingdom that encompassed the North, East and Northwestern regions of Ceylon (former name for Sri Lanka) until the year 1619 when they lost their kingdom to the Portuguese.

After 329 years of foreign colonial rule when the last colo-nial ruler Britain granted independence to Ceylon on 4th February 1948, Tamils’ sovereignty over their homeland was not restored to them. On the contrary, the governance of the entire integrated multi ethnic country was handed over to the Sinhalese Nation un-der a unitary constitution by the departing British colonial govern-ment, despite demands by the Tamils & other minority leaders for either a federal constitution or a balanced representation for the minorities.

This was a mistake that caused grave injustice to the Tamil people. By yoking the Tamil people along with the perpetual major-ity Sinhalese people under a unitary constitution, Tamils were left at the mercy of the Sinhalese in the name of “Democracy”.

The unitary constitution enabled the Sinhalese to control the legislative and executive machineries of the state. These have been overtly and covertly employed by successive Sinhalese gov-ernments to deprive the Tamils of their rights and status in this country and make them a defenseless and subservient people who could in course of time be assimilated into the Sinhalese race or made to flee from the country.

Tamils have been continuously subjected to cruel and de-grading oppressive measures by the Sinhalese rulers affecting

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their ethnicity, integrity of their homeland, language, education, religion, culture, economic well-being and their very existence it-self. Soon after independence, realizing that the Sinhalese are abusing their hold on the Government to oppress the Tamils and fearing the imminent danger to their existence, the Tamil Federal Party was inaugurated in December 1949. At its first National con-vention held in April 1951 at Trincomalee, the party had expressed its desire for federal union with the Sinhalese.

The Tamils have been relentlessly trying all possible polit-ical persuasions, negotiations and peaceful political agitations to their utmost to win their demands. However even on the few occa-sions when agreements were reached, these were abruptly abort-ed by the Sinhalese leaders.

The Tamils are being oppressed in numerous ways by suc-cessive governments controlled by the majority Sinhalese in this country.

The claim of the Tamils to one of the components of na-tionhood by reason of their territorial habitation of definite areas has been systematically eroded by large scale stae aided colonisa-tion of Sinhalese people in the Tamil home land. Similarly Buddhist temples are being built in Tamil areas where there no buddhist worshipers except the occupying army personnel.

In a rash move, Sinhalese, the language of the majori-ty community was made the only official language of the country causing severe hardship to the Tamils. Education of the Tamil stu-dents was hampered by the introduction of languagewise stand-ardization for university admissions whereby the Tamil students have to obtain higher marks to qualify for university admissions.

When Britain granted independence to this country on the basis of the constitution there were some safeguards for the Tamils

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& other minorities in it. However, the Sinhalese using their nu-merical superiority, scrapped this constitution in 1972 and intro-duced their own constitutions without the concurrence of the Tam-ils scrapping even these meagre safeguards for the Tamils & other minorities provided for in the Soulbury constitution.

Mob violence was orchestrated against the Tamils on a large scale killing many Tamils and destroying their properties on numerous occasions.

When the peaceful democratic attempts were spurned and rebuffed with violence, many Tamil youths resorted to armed strug-gle by forming different armed liberation groups. The predominant armed group operated under the name of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by Velupillai Prabaharan for nearly three decades to achieve a separate state for the Tamils.

The decades old repression of the Tamils culminated in an all-out war in the Tamil homeland against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Indiscriminate bombings and shelling caused exten-sive deaths and injuries to the Tamil civilians and damage to their properties.

At one stage under the Norwegian Government facilitation and participated by a number of countries including the USA and Japan, the LTTE started negotiations with the Sri Lankan govern-ment and both parties agreed to work towards a federal solution. However, this armed struggle was brought to an end militarily us-ing excessive force by the Sri Lankan government. Now with the LTTE not in the scene the Sinhalese leaders are saying that the unitary constitution will not be changed.

The war ended in May 2009 and now for more than ten years the Government has not shown any interest to restore the political rights of the Tamils.

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Now, after nearly 30 years of political efforts and 30 years of armed struggle, the struggle to regain the rights of the Tamils has entered its third phase when the help of the international com-munity has to be obtained to put this country on the right track to achieve peace, prosperity and decent living conditions for all Sri Lankans.

It is in this context that the help of the British Government is sought. Without any disrespect to the British Government and the British people a whole chapter – chapter 3: ‘Transfer of power from the British to the Sinhalese’ is devoted to produce historical evidence to show how the Sinhalese leaders misdirected the Soul-bury Commissioners to accept the constitution of their making. The sad irony was that the Soulbury Commission was appointed by the British Government to take into consideration the views of the mi-norities for the reform of the constitution. Tragically the Soulbury commision failed to comply with their mandate and accpted the constitution prepared by the Sinhalese leaders paving the way for the Sinhalease to subjugate the Tamils.

Sufficient evidence has been produced to justify the re-quest made to the British Government to mediate a settlement pointing out that the durable settlement has to be a confederal ar-rangement. It is the fervent hope of the Sri Lankan Tamils that the request will be accepted by the British Government taking into ac-count its long association with this country and its moral obligation to help the Tamil people to regain their inalienable political rights.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

The Sri Lankan Tamils, who are a numerical minority in this country, are historically a People who constitute a Nation. As a Nation,the Tamil People are entitled to every right inherent to a Nation including the Right to Self Determination. Unfortunately for the Tamils, when the British colonial rulers wound up their colonial rule in this country in February 1948, they committed a grave injustice to the Tamil People by granting independence on the basis of a constitution that yoked the Tamil People along with the perpetual majority Sinhalese People under a Unitary Constitution. As a numerical minority yoked under the Unitary Constitution and ruled by an oppressive and racially parochial Sinhalese political leaders, the Tamils, who once had our own kingdom and proudly ruled ourselves, felt subjugated and oppressed beyond endurance and had to strive hard to regain our political rights, but are yet to achieve our goal.

This is a case of Democracy being distorted and flagrantly abused by the numerically superior majority community using their superior numbers to keep the Tamils unjustly subjugated and indecently and inhumanly oppressed and harassed. Democracy is being surreptitiously flaunted as a cover to hoodwink the international community from realizing the ludicrous undemocratic actions of the Sinhalese Governments against the Tamils.

A grave calamity had thus befallen on the Tamils. The poignant truth is that no greater calamity can befall a People than to be subjugated and that too to a hostile one as in our case. Political freedom is the parent and the precursor of every other freedom known to man and that a People’s supreme efforts can be directed to no higher or worthier cause than the achievement and enjoyment of that freedom.

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1.1 Political Agitation

Tamils as a People were not prepared to meekly surrender our rights and remain subjugated. Until the early 1980s the Tamils, under the leadership of the late Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayagam, relentlessly tried all possible political persuasions, negotiations and peaceful people’s demonstrations to our utmost to win our democratic rights but our appeals were not heeded at all and we were frustrated in our attempts. Tamils demanded a Federal System of governance under a Federal Constitution to solve the ethnic problem in this country but failed abjectly due to the intransigence of the majority community.

“The Tamil Federal Party was formally inaugurated in December 1949. At its first National convention held in April 1951 at Trincomalee it was explicit in its demands, hardly three years after Ceylon had obtained independence. In its first resolution, the Convention drew attention to Canada, India, Switzerland and the Soviet Union as successful ‘multinational and multilinguistic states’ which had solved their ‘complex problems’ by the establishment of a Federal system of government; it therefore stressed the Tamil people’s unchallengeable title to nationhood and proclaimed their right to political autonomy and desire for federal union with the Sinhalese.” (Wilson, 1988, p.22)

However, even agreements reached with the Sinhalese leaders such as the Bandaranayeke - Chlvanayagam pact of July 1957 and Dudly - Chelva pact of March 1965 were abruptly and unilaterally aborted by the Sinhalese leaders. Peace attempts were made on numerous occasions but all of them failed due to lack of political will on the part of the Sinhalese. An international agreement with India reached on a later day in 1987; the Rajiv Gandhi – J. R. Jayawardene agreement remains only partly fulfilled. Even the truncated Northern Provincial Council reluctantly formed in terms of this agreement is being covertly and overtly undermined by the Sinhalese Central Government and their agents in the North.

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1.2 Rise of Militancy

When the peaceful democratic attempts were spurned and rebuffed with violence, many Tamil youths resorted to armed struggle by forming different armed liberation groups. The predominant armed group operated under the name of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by Veluppillai Prabaharan for nearly three decades to achieve a separate state for the Tamils. At one stage under the Norwegian Government’s facilitation and participated by a number of countries including the USA. and Japan, the LTTE started negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government and both parties agreed to work towards a Federal solution.

However, this armed struggle was brought to an end militarily using unduly excessive force by the Sri Lankan Government with the help of a number of powerful countries in May 2009, causing wanton death and destruction in the process, to a large number of Tamil civilians as well. Civilian deaths caused due to the inhuman shelling of areas demarcated as safe haven by the Sri Lankan security forces in the Vanni region alone has been estimated to be over one hundred thousand. A U N committee has estimated the civilian deaths to be around forty thousand men, women and children. The deaths and damages have still not been officially assessed. The deaths and destruction caused to the Tamils including the many instances of cold blooded murders by the state security forces over the period of the liberation struggle had been colossal.

The Sri Lankan Government apparently obtained military help from a number of foreign countries to vanquish the LTTE by branding it as a terrorist organization. In obtaining such help the Sri Lankan Government also seems to have assured these gullible helping Governments and the Secretary General of the UN that once this armed group is defeated they will politically settle the Tamil’s problem. For the last ten years after the LTTE was silenced no meaningful steps

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had been taken to address the problem of the Tamils. Instead the “Sinhalisation” of the Tamil region is being carried out at a hectic pace.

1.3 Post Etnic War

The Government has borrowed two more years’ time at the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva in 2017 to fulfill its obligations. It is clear from the track record of the Sri Lankan Government that its ulterior motive is to utilize the borrowed time to expedite its process of assimilating and annihilating the Tamils as a people. It is tragic to see these foreign Governments acquiesce with the Sri Lankan Government in its attempt to cheat the Tamils and the international community, rather than urging the Sri Lankan Government to cooperate with the international community and accede to Tamil’s legitimate aspiration.

With the LTTE not in the scene, the Sri Lankan Government has gone back on its undertaking to find a Federal solution. The President of the Country, the Prime Minister and other Ministers are now insisting that the unitary nature of the present Constitution will not be changed!

The Tamils are devastated. During the war many Tamils fearing the dangerous living conditions here have fled their homes to many countries as refugees undergoing severe hardships, to save their lives. Many families living here have lost their homes and properties due to the intense indiscriminate bombings during the war; many of the Tamils’ lands & properties are being occupied by the armed forces in their numerous camps occupied in the Tamil homeland in the North & East while the owners of these lands and properties are living in refugee camps under sordid conditions. Many families have lost their breadwinners and there are huge numbers of war widows and orphans struggling to survive under extremely difficult and heart-rending conditions.

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Families of those made to disappear are still grief-stricken, not knowing the fate of their loved ones who they say were taken into custody by the state security forces. There are a number of political prisoners languishing in remand jails for decades. There are hardly any employment or income generating opportunities in the region for the local people and a large number of unemployed graduates are staging public protests demanding jobs. Even for the meager infrastructural activities here, workmen were brought from the South of the Country rather than giving job opportunities to the local Tamil workmen. The rehabilitation programs of the Government are woefully inadequate. This situation explains why so many people are risking their lives and fleeing to a number of countries clandestinely, hoping for a decent life.

The situation is so unbearable that the affected people have started publicly agitating on their own initiative in groups, to pressurize the Government to look into their grievances and to attract the attention of the international community to their plight.

1.4 The Sinhalese Political Mindset

The Sinhalese have demonstrated in no uncertain manner that they would rather kill and destroy hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians with blatant impunity and sinister disregard to the rule of law and keep the Tamils subjugated militarily and intimidate and cow them down with repeated race riots but are not willing to let go their ill gotten political hold over the Tamils and their homeland. It is clear that oppressing the Tamils and keeping them subjugated has been made the main corner stone of the Sinhalese political ethos, aggressively from 1956 onwards although this trend had started to manifest from early 1920s. From the promising model of a multi-cultural democracy at independence the country has been turned into a land where anti - Tamil violence is interwoven into the social fabric and constant spewing of toxic anti - Tamil rhetoric by power hungry politicians has become the norm.

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Having created this Frankenstein’s monster, now it is obvious that for the sake of their selfish political expediency no Sinhala politician will dare to give even minor concessions to the Tamils without damaging their own political future. Judging from past experience it is evident that the Sinhalese are not capable of producing a statesman like

F. W. De Klerk of South Africa, to resolve the protracted ethnic dispute in this country on their own or produce a leader like Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore for exemplary management of a multi ethnic country like Sri Lanka. To our utter dismay we did not hear even a single voice from the Sinhala South to restrain or admonish their leaders for militarily massacring the Tamil civilians.

If the Sinhalese political leaders are sincerely eager to bring about a settlement with the Tamils the first and foremost thing that they should do is to stop spreading communal bias and denial of Tamil’s rights and start enlightening the Sinhalese people of the rights and entitlement of the Tamils. There are no such encouraging signs from either their political leaders or their intellectuals and they only seem to be interested in perpetuating the present status quo.

This is rather an unfortunate situation because the Sinhalese People and the Tamil People live with the utmost mutual goodwill and respect otherwise.When terrible brutality and suffering were inflicted on ordinary Tamil civilians by organized Government mobs during the numerous riots and the fleeing Tamils had no place to go except the refugee camps there were many instances when ordinary Sinhalese families displayed courage and compassion and gave shelter to some of these hapless Tamils.

It is a matter for regret that the Sinhalese people have failed to realize that the despicable communal politics adopted by their political leaders has not only ruined the lives of the Tamil People but in the process has dragged the entire country on a self destructive course to the very nadir of economic, social and political ruin.

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1.5 British Government Mediation

It is for the above mentioned reasons that we for our part are convinced that continuing to plead with the Sinhalese leaders any longer to regain our rights from them will certainly not yield any results. As we fritter away more time in this process we will get more and more debilitated and our identity as a People in this country will get destroyed forever. As a last resort it has become necessary to appeal to the British Government, whose bona fide act of handing over power, but exclusively to the Sinhalese mistakenly is evidently the root cause for our dire predicament.

1.6 Obligation of the Members of the International Community

The Portuguese, who defeated and destroyed the Jaffna kingdom and captured and killed our king Sangiliyan in the year 1619 and the Dutch who ruled us after the Portuguese until the British succeeded them also cannot disclaim responsibility to help us out. So too, all the countries that aided and abetted the Sri Lankan Government to quell the militant agitation without any arrangement or condition stipulated to the Sri Lankan Government for solving the cause for which they were fighting – the resolution of the ethnic dispute, have a particular moral obligation to help resolve the ethnic problem in this country in an equitable manner. The international community are obliged to exercise their right to protect (R 2 P), rescue and safeguard the Tamils from the systematic and persisting repression aganist them on a genocidal scale by very governments in power in this country.

1.7 Durable Solution for the Ethnic Problem

Taking into account the extreme degree to which oppression against the Tamils is being perpetrated by successive Sinhalese Governments, we are convinced that only a confederation of the Tamil

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Nation and the Sinhalese Nation to form the Sri Lankan polity, similar to the Yugoslavian model can be a durable solution. Federalism is no longer a solution to the Tamils problem with the Sinhalese. Federalism will be unbalanced as to be unworkable. It would be dominated by the overwhelming political importance, wealth and population of the Sinhalese. Any attempt to correct this imbalance by dividing the Country into more than two Federal Provinces is also not workable as all these provinces except the NorthEast province will be majority Sinhalese provinces. The concentration of power in one man, the President is so great and so risky to the entire country, that Federalism can only be one of Decentralized Unitary Government and will not lead to a stable government. Any solution other than a confederal arrangement, full as it is of points of dispute between the two communities, will be a recipe for instability rather than stability. It has to be emphasized that ours is a struggle for liberation of the Tamil People from subjugation and not for separation or divison of the country.

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Chapter 2

A Brief Historical Background

For more than 2500 years Ceylon has consisted of two Nations, the Sinhalese Nation and the Tamil Nation. Because of fundamental differences of language, religion, culture, social customs and traditional ways of life, these two races polarized into two distinct Peoples, each gravitating in its distinct territory, with the Tamils mainly in the North, East and North Western parts of the Island and the Sinhalese in the rest of the Island. These territories constituted the separate Tamil and Sinhala homelands in the Island with separate kingdoms of the Tamils and Sinhalese and peripheral chieftainships like those in the Tamil Vanni region.

2.1 The Jaffna Kingdom

“The Jaffna Kingdom appeared and developed from historical times. Originating as a chiefdom in historical times, it continued untill the thirteenth century when it attained the status of a fully-fledged kingdom “ (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 113)

“the north, east and north-western regins of Sri Lanka were under the Jaffna Kingdom” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 131)

“ there is no doubt that 77 year long Cola rule in Sri Lanka laid the foundations for an indepenent Tamil kingdom to arise in the north east regions of Sri Lanka. During its intial phase of growth when it matured into a kingdom, it was ruled by Kalinga Magha, followed by Chandrabhanu the javanese king and his son.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 113)

When the Potuguese arrived The Jaffna kingdom was in existnace as a fully fledged monarchy.

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“The sea routes of Mannar and the Palk Straits in the north were in active use and hence the northern parts of Sri Lanka were of strategic importance both for war and trade.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 131)

Trade flourished with brisk commerce in pearls and conch shells in the ports of Mannar and Chilaw. The Jaffna kingdom remained highly developed in various fields. The Portuguese with their intent on capturing the Pearl trade in Mannar and the sea routes began intimidating the Jaffna King who had to carry out a number of attacks against the intruding Portuguese troops and continued to fight fiercely against them.

“However, the Tamil troops although greater in number were armed only with swords and spears and could not successfully fight against the firearms of the Portuguese soldiers. (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 135)

“Cankili Kumaran’s revolt against the Portuguese ended with his death, and Oliveira established his office in the Saiva temple in Nallur. All opposition to the Portuguese from the Tamils came to an end in 1619 and the rule of the Jaffna Kingdom was totally annihilated by the Portuguese. Oiliveira publicly declared the Jaffna Kingdom to be part of the Portuguese Kingdom.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 142)

It is apparent that while the Portuguese took over the Sinhalese Kotte kingdom without any noticeable resistance it was only after considerable resistance from the Jaffna King and the people and prolonged fight with them that the Jaffna kingdom was captured by the Portuguese.

2.2 Subjugation under Portuguese Rule

At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese to this Island, there were in existence three kingdoms. These were the two maritime kingdoms of Jaffna and Kotte and the central hill country kingdom

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of Kandy. The Portuguese came to the Island in 1505 for purpose of trade and imposed their rule over the Sinhalese kingdom of Kotte by 1556. It was only in 1619 that they conquered the then powerful Tamil kingdom of Jaffna.

The Portuguese reign in the Tamil regions lasted until about 1658.

2.3 Dutch Rule

Then the Dutch intrusions started. Colombo fell to the Dutch in May 1656. Mannar fell to the Dutch in March 1658.

“A Dutch force of 1100 troups from Mannar marched through the Vanni mainland and reached Pooneryn. The Portuguse troups encountered them on 7 March 1658.... The Dutch solders captured Kayts Fort on 26 April 1658.... The Dutch laid siege to the Jaffna fort....The Portuguese solders surrenderd on 24 June 1658” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 178)

“The major colonial preoccupations of both, the Portuguse and the Dutch were trade and christian missionary work. (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 225)

While the Portuguese promoted the Catholic religion the Dutch promoted the Protestant faith.

The customary law of the Tamils - Thesavalamai, a legal administrative system that had been practiced for centuries in the Jaffna kingdom was codified by the Dutch. The Roman Dutch Law introduced by the Dutch in the maritime areas was continued to be adopted as the Common Law of the whole Island under the British rule. This is very instructive and undoubtedly a testimony to the fact that no system of Law that existed prior to the Roman Dutch Law could adequately cover the whole island, proving again that the Island of Ceylon had never been a single country but consisted of different Peoples and their kingdoms, each with its own legal traditions as well.

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2.4 British Rule

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the vicissitudes of the Napoleonic wars had led to the acquisition by the British of the Dutch interests in Ceylon under the Amiens Treaty. These territories were administered for the British Crown by the British East India Company, governing from Madras until Ceylon was declared a Crown Colony in 1802.

“PandaraVannian, the ruler of Vanni, was defeated by the British captain F. W. Von Drieberg in a direct confrontation in 1803” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 225)

and the Vanni region was brought under British rule. However, the Kandyan Kingdom was captured by the British only in 1815 and Britain’s supreme over lordship over the entire Island was rendered a fait accompli.

2.4.1 Consolidation of Tamil and Sinhalese Kingdoms into One Country

With the capture of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815, the British consolidated the Tamil and Sinhalese kingdoms and started ruling the entire Island geographically as one consolidated and unified country since 1815 for 133 years.

“These unified and centralised administrative measures greatly impacted on the prevailing social, economic and political life of Tamils, and most significantly upon the Tamil-speaking terrtories of northern and eastern Sri Lanka which the British divided into two separate provinces. These Northern and Eastern areas had for a long time existed as a single territory, even during the periods of the Portuguese and the Dutch rule. The introduction of democracy and a Westminister model of parliament and the accompanying constitutianal and political process later placed power in the hands of the majority Sinhaleese community. (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 226)

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The Tamils never regained the territories they lost to the Portuguese, nor did they ever again enjoy the social and political status that they had in the past.

2.4.2 Unified System of Administration for the Whole Island

“In the 1820s the British government decided to institute a commission to inquire into the administration of Ceylon and consequently proclaimed a Royal Commission on 18 January 1828, appointing Major Colebrooke as Commissioner. Colebrooke arrived in Ceylon on 11 April 1829. He was joined by Charles Hay Cameron, a judicial commissioner on 30 April 1830.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 226)

They found the Island divided into three distinct administrative units. In terms of their political and administrative reforms recommended in 1833 the entire Island came under a single unified system of administration called the Centralized Administration under the British Crown administered by a British Governor and a British civil service, responsible, through the Secretary of State for Colonies and the Colonial Office, to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The North & East region which had been the traditional homeland of the Tamils was stripped of its unique administrative structure for the first time in history and lost its distinctiveness.

“The Colebrooke Commission recommended the abolition of the Governor’s Council which had been introduced when the British first occupied Ceylon and the formation of executive and legislative councils. These two councils were formed on 10 March 1833.....His recommendation was accepted, taking effect in October 1833, from which time the country has been continuously administered as a single unit.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 227)

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2.4.3 Territorial Represention under Donoughmore Constitution(1931 - 1947)

“A commission headed by Lord Donoughmore arrived in Sri Lanka on 13th November 1927.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 429) their recomendations included the following, “ The limited system of suffrage, hitherto granted only to educated elite, was replaced with universal franchise, giving all above 21 years of age the right to vote. In addtion, the Legilative excutive councils which came into existence after the introduction of Colebrooke political reform were scrapped and a new system known as the State Council was introduced to carry out legislative and excutive affairs. Above all, the communal representation arrangement was revoked and territorial representation introduced in its place.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 429)

The Donoughmore Constitution was adopted by the Legislative Council in 1931 by a slim majority of 2 votes, the voting being 19 and 17. All Tamil representatives except one voted against it.

Because of the territorial representation recommended by the Donoughmore Commission, the pre 1931 ratio of 1 Ceylon Tamil to 2 Sinhalese changed to a ratio of nearly 1 to 5 in favour of the Sinhalese.

It was this State Council that paved the way for the setting up of the Pan Sinhala Board of Ministers in 1936. Thus began the ominous trend of subjugation of the Tamils by the Sinhalese with the blessings of the Englishmen.

The Tamil leader G. G. Ponambalam termed the Donoughmore Constitution “a windfall, an unexpected political windfall to the Sinhalese community” (Indra Kumar, 2001. p. 31) and went on to say that the Tamils and the other minorities were let down completely and that we have been relegated to a position of political subservience.

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Chapter 3

Transfer of Power from British to Sinhalese

Continuing pressure from Ceylonese leaders, both Sinhalese and Tamils, coupled with recognition of the loyal way in which D. S. Senanayake and Oliver Goonetillake co-operated with the British administrators under war conditions prompted the British Government to issue, in May 1943 a declaration of intention to transfer more powers to the Ceylonese.

3.1 Events Leading to the Introduction of Soulbury Constitution

“In this ‘1943 Declaration’ His Majesty’s Government stated that the postwar examination of the reform of the Constitution would be directed towards the grant to Ceylon of full responsible government in all matters of internal civil administration”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 69)

“The triumvirate – (Senanayake, Jennings and Goonetileke) proceeded without delay to devise a new constitution which came to be known as the Ministers Draft” (Jeffries, 1969, p. 69)

This draft was duly sent forward without consulting the Tamil & other minority leaders.

The Governor informed the secretary of state that the Tamil & other minorities were clamoring for a hearing before final decisions were taken.

“The British Government felt that, before submitting their proposals, the ministers ought to have taken the minorities into consultation and endeavored to produce an

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agreed draft for consideration. As this had not been done, the British government felt bound to give the minorities their say by sending out a constitutional commission. It went ahead with this plan and appointed a commission consisting of Lord Soulbury (as chairman), Sir Frederick Rees, and Frederick Burrows(later knighted). It began its work in Ceylon in December 1944.

“At this juncture, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke (who had been made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours list of 1944) visited London in his official capacity as Food Commissioner. He had been asked by D. S. Senanayake to do his best, at the same time, to smooth out the differences between the Ceylonese ministers and the British government. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke sought and obtained an interview with the Secretary of State, Oliver Stanley...” (Jeffries, 1969, p. 71 - 72)

The Secretary of State arranged for Sir Oliver Goonetilleke to meet Lord Soulbury at lunch the next day.

“Sir Oliver says that, when he met Lord Soulbury at the Ritz, he was as happy as when watching a horse he fancies thundering down the straight on the Colombo course to reach the winning post. The two men were on the best of terms from the start”.

“In the first moments of my meeting Lord Soulbury, (says Sir Oliver), I made a judgment of him which continuously guided my discussions with him and also the advice which I gave to D. S. Senanayake”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 72)

“And so the first meeting at luncheon was auspicious. “I have read the Hansard of Ceylon’s parliament for the last ten years, said Soulbury. “It seems to me that the speeches

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and debates are just the same as in our own parliament here. Tell me Sir Oliver, in confidence, what is wrong with the Ministers’ Draft?” “Nothing whatever is wrong with it” replied Goonetilleke with cheerful confidence”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 73 - 74)

Thus it is clear that even before arriving in Ceylon to carry out the assigned task Lord Soulbury seems to have made up his mind to support the Ministers Draft and had shown his bias against the Tamils & other minorities in this country. He could not conceal his lack of objectivity. His undue closeness with D. S. Senanayake and Sir Oliver Goonetilleke throughout his tenure as leader of the Soulbury Commission was very obvious. Worse still, after accepting almost in its entirety D. S. Senanayake’s Constitution Lord Soulbury accepted the position of Governor General in independent Ceylon! (It is said that justice should not only be done but should appear to be done.)

3.2 The Soulbury Commissioners in Ceylon

The events that took place when the Soulbury Commissioners arrived in Ceylon are discribed in the biography of Senanayake & we qoute,

“The Soulbury Commission arrived in Ceylon on December 22, 1944. On Christmas Day, Sir Oliver entertained them at his house, no other guests being invited. On New Year’s Eve, he took them to a gala dance at the Galle Face Hotel...”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 75)

“...Thereafter Goonetilleke made it his business to see that the commissioners were given the best possible time during their stay in Ceylon, which lasted until April 1945. He accompanied them on most of their visits to different parts of the country and used the civil-defense organization to arrange transport and other facilities for them. The ARP personnel were mobilized in order to ensure a welcoming

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crowed for the commission wherever it went. One of the commissioners, the late Sir Frederick Rees, wrote afterwards that “the rather subtle methods adopted by Sir Oliver Goonetilleke were much more obvious than he himself realized”. I suspect that he realized it well enough and could not care less. The point was that this was a campaign to win the hearts of the commissioners and the campaign succeeded”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 75-76)

“In their report, the commissioners paid warm “tribute to the services of their personal secretary, Miss Phyllis M. Miller, who was lent to them by the Air Ministry. She was responsible, among other things, for dealing with all the social side of the commission’s work, and so was in continuous contact with Sir Oliver. The foundations of a lasting friendship were laid. After his retirement from Ceylon in 1962, Miss Miller helped him in his business affairs in London and in February 1968 they were married”. (Jeffries, 1969, p. 76)

“When the Commissioners got down to work the Ministers held aloof but, unofficially, they spared no pains to create a good impression in the minds of the Commissioners....“Although the Ministers did not give formal evidence, Senanayake accompanied the Commissioners on their visits to agricultural colonies and irrigation schemes in the North Central Province and elsewhere and had many conversations with them. Lord Soulbury recalled in particular an all night discussion in the garden of the Weligama Rest house”. (Hulugalle, 2014, p. 176-177)

“The fact that the new constitution was called the Soulbury Constitution” stated Ivor Jennings, “had led those who have not read the documents to infer

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that it was produced by the Soulbury Commission. The fact is that it was produced by Mr. Senanayake. All the essential provisions of the Ministers draft were embodied in the Soulbury Constitution and the only addition made by the Soulbury Commission was the Senate”. (Hulugalle, 2014, p. 177)

3.3 Soulbury Commission Recommendations

“The British Government issued a White Paper on 30th October 1945 embodying its decisions on the Soulbury Commission’s Report, which was debated by the State Council on 8th November.“ (Hulugalle, 2014, p. 179)

This was what Mr. Senanayake stated referring to the Tamils & other minorities while proposing the motion in the Council:

“... We devised a scheme which gave heavy weightage to the minorities; we deliberately protected them against discriminatory legislation; we vested important powers in the Governor General because, we thought that the minorities would regard him as impartial; we decided upon an independent Public Service Commission so as to give an assurance that there should be no communalism in the public service. All these have been accepted by the Soulbury Commission and quoted by them as devices to protect the minorities”.

“The accusation of Sinhalese domination has thus been shown to be false. I hope that the verdict will be accepted by all sections of the community and that we can now go forward with the trust and mutual confidence upon which the welfare of this Island depends. I do not normally speak as a Sinhalese and I do not think that the Leader

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of the Council ought to think of himself as a Sinhalese representative: but for once I should like to speak as a Sinhalese and to assert with all the force at my command that the interests of one community are the interests of all. We are one of another, whatever our race or creed...“ (Hulugalle, 2014, p. 182)

These lofty words of D. S. Senanayake were very heartening for the Tamils & other minorities at that time. Unfortunately for them these words were observed only in the breach by D. S. Senanayake himself and his successors with increasing vehemence and vengeance in the years that followed independence.

A number of very good proposals were submitted to the Commission by the Tamil & other minority leaders. The Kandyans proposed a federal scheme where the up country region, the low country and the Northeast will be three federal states. This sound and immensely suitable proposal of the Kandyans for a multi-polar and fragmented polity like Sri Lanka was rejected by the Commissioners as they already seemed to have made up their minds from the outset to accept D. S. Senanayake’s proposal.

The balanced representation proposal otherwise described as the 50-50 distribution of council seats and ministriel posts between the Sinhalese and the other communities articulated by the Tamil leader, G. G. Ponnambalam also did not find favour with the Commissioners. This was an improvement on the Devonshire formula. The Tamil leaders have always been very idealistic and wanted to find accommodation within the Sri Lankan polity. Unlike the Kandyans, the Tamils did not ask for even federalism, leave alone separation, as Mohamed Ali Jinnah did in India. Even in delimiting constituencies’ adequate higher representation than the population warranted was not ensured for the Tamils & other minorities to give them sufficient weight.

The Commissioners showed some small mercy to the Tamils & other minorities by persuading the Sinhala leaders to accept the

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inclusion of a non-discrimination clause, Section 29, for safeguarding the rights of the other communities in the Soulbury Constitution. However, as subsequent actions of the Sinhalese leaders proved, this clause was utterly ineffective and insufficient to safeguard the interests of the Tamils and other minorities.

3.4 Failure of Soulbury Commission

Unfortunately for the country and particularly for the Tamils the Unitary Constitution secured by Mr. D. S. Senanayake looked after the interests of the Sinhalese People in a very parochial manner displaying rapacious Sinhala chauvinism and political depravity and empowered the Sinhalese to dominate and oppress the Tamils and other minorities and failed to safeguard the interests of the Tamils and thereby sowed the seeds of dissension and turmoil. He totally failed to comprehend and safeguard the long term well being of the Country as a whole with foresight and objectivity and failed to show propriety in grabbing the constitution of his liking.

In this regard we quote the candid views of a Sinhalese gentelman who was the Government Agent in Jaffna for three years up to 1966,

“The centrel affirmation of these memoirs is that over the decades, the ehinic conflict was driven by six power motors.

The primary motor, over a period of seven decades, has been the intransigence of the Sinhala leadership, its lack of a vision of a fully integrated Sri Lankan nation, and its inability to make the compromises required for achieving it. The Sinhala leadership not only lacked the vision and the political will, but equally, the managerial acumen to convert the country’s rich ethinic and cultural inheritance into a vibrant and united nation.

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Whether the Sinhala majority community likes it or not, history has constituted Sri Lanka as multi-ethnic, multi-religious society and short of genocide on an industrial scale, nothing can alter that fact. It is therefore up to the majority community, primarily as a matter of morality, but equally as a matter of expediency and of prudence, to find the formula for integrating Sri Lanka’s diversity into an organic unity.

...More than the power it drives from an overwhelming superiority in numbers, what exalts any majority community, and endows it with a true greatness and moral authority, is its willingness to accord to all those other communities who lack the advantage of numbers, a status and a dignity equal to its own, and never to let them feel marginalised or disadvantaged because they are fewer in number, or because they are different in colour or beliefs.

Unless and until Sri Lanka can produce leaders who can realise that truth, and are willing to act on it, it will continue to be mired in conflict.“ (Jayaweera, 2014, 37-38)

The Soulbury Commission completely failed in its entrusted duty to consider the views of the Tamils & other minorities objectively and by favoring D. S. Senanayake’s proposal they doomed the country to never ending strife and ruin. Undoubtely the other serious mistake made by the Soulbury commission was have treated the Tamil People who are a Nation as “minorities“.

Here, a comparison with what happened in India during this period is relevant. India was fortunate to have had extra ordinarily great statesmen of the caliber of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabai Patel and others. They devised schemes to look after the interests of all the numerous peoples in India and laid a firm constitutional foundation with foresight. The leaders were flexible enough to make necessary changes to the original constitution to cater to the needs of numerous languages speaking people in India as they went along.

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So they have been able to progress steadily surmounting so many huge problems they faced and to-day they are considered a regional super power and an advanced country in all respects after struggling as a poor country at independence with so many starvation deaths and diseases.

The Constitution in Ceylon was adopted without proper discussion as such in the State Council. There was no Constituent Assembly even to draft the constitution as in India. D. S. Senanayake mustered the number of votes over and above the stipulated 75% in the State Assembly and his distorted Constitution was virtually imposed on the peoples of the country.

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Chapter 4

The Sinhalese Rule

Although the Sinhalese became the official rulers of the country with the introduction of the Soulbury Constitution in 1948, their political ascendancy started with the introduction of the Donoughmore Constitution in 1931. Ever since then, the Legislative and executive machineries of the state have been overtly and covertly employed by successive Sinhala governments to deprive the Tamils of their rights and status in the Island of Ceylon and make them a defenseless and subservient people who could, in course of time, be assimilated into the Sinhala race or made to flee from the Country.

The misfortune of the Tamils of having to live under subjugation of the European Colonial rulers which started in the year 1619 did not end in 1948. It became worse. The Tamil leaders of the time, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Ponnambalam Arunachchalam, C. Suntharalingam, G. G. Ponnambalam and others steadfastly joined hands with the Sinhalese leaders to free the country from colonial rule. To their dismay, at the end of the British rule the Tamils found themselves trapped under the worst form of subjugation. The dreadful discrimination and brutality to which the Tamils have been subjected under the Sinhalese rule are something they never experienced in their 329 years of European subjugation. In addition, now they are being subjected to the ignominy of having to live under heavy Sinhala military occupation in their own homeland.

The Sinhalese rulers, after destroying many Hindu Temples during the war have started building Buddhist temples in a number of places in the North and East, the homeland of the Tamils, where there are no Buddhist worshippers except the occupying Army personnel.

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This is reminiscent of the Portugese rule in the Jaffna kingdom. It appears the ulterior motive of the Government is to colonize Sinhalese people around these Buddhist Temples in due course in the Tamil homeland.

While the Sinhala politicians are the main culprits in the repression of the subjugated Tamils some mainstream press and some rabid racialist Buddhist monks also indulged in propagating anti Tamil unrest. There were many instances of senior administrative Sinhala Government servants abusing their official position to repress the Tamils. For example, we quote from the book written by Neville Jayaweera, Government Agent of Jaffna from 1963 to 1966.

“One of those citadels of power was the person of N. Q. Dias, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs in the 1960s. Systematically, Jayaweera recounts the catalytic role played by N. Q. Dias in shaping the ethnic conflict and setting it in concrete.....Jayaweera also exposes Dias’s role as apocalyptic, and claims that more than any contemporary politician, it was Dias who, working behind the scenes and in the interstices, shaped the ethnic conflict in its early years.” (Jayaweera, 2014, preface)

“On my appointment as the new GA of Jaffna, in August 1963, at a preliminary briefing, Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike’s Permanent Secretary Mr. N. Q. Dias instructed me to force “confrontations” upon the Tamil parties at every turn possible and to establish the government’s “absolute ascendency”over them in every crisis.” (Jayaweera, 2014, p. 31)

4.1 Oppressive Measures Against the Tamils

The following are some of the oppressive measures adopted by successive Sinhalese Governments:

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4.1.1 State Aided Colonisation

Initially, under the pretext of Agricultural Development Sinhalese people from distant areas were brought and settled in predominantly Tamil areas, particularly in the Eastern Province and border areas of the Northern Province. The Gal-Oya, Allai, Kantalai, Padaviya and Mahaweli projects were examples of such colonization. The ulterior motive and main rationale for all these massive irrigation projects in the Tamil dominated Eastern province where hundreds of thousands of Sinhalese were brought in from outside and colonized with lavish state assistance was to change the demographic pattern of the Tamil homeland in favour of the Sinhalese and to render the Tamils a minority in their own homeland and also to devalue their homeland claim.

On the Accelerated Mahawali Project of J. R. Jayawardene’s Government of 1977 this is what is stated in the book by Ajit Kanagasundram:

“One underlying motive of the settlement pattern was to change the demographics of the Eastern province, and it was clearly UNP policy laid down by JR and energetically implemented by Gamini. In Systems H and C, 90% of the settlers were Sinhala and 10% Muslims – there were no Tamils although the land was in the Eastern Province, a majority Tamil province.

... the injustice towards the Tamils was that they were not even given 15% of the land, to reflect their proportion of population in the country. (Ajit, 2018, p. 90)

The Tamils did not benefit from the Mahaweli project and, in fact, many were even evicted from their ancestral lands in the name of development. (Ajit, 2018, p. 91)

The UK granted 140 million pounds and offered to build the Victoria Dam and Power Station, the largest dam in the project and the single largest foreign aid grant that the UK had ever given even to this day. (Ajit, 2018, p. 87)

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All they expected in return was for Sri Lanka to become a model of democracy, development and harmony as an example to other developing countries – these expectations were later shattered by JR’s communal policies culminating in the ethnic pogroms of 1983.”(Ajit, 2018, p. 87)

The eagerness of the Sinhalese leaders to destroy the integrity of the homeland of the Tamils became an obsession to them long before independence. In 1931 an Executive Committee of Agriculture and Lands was created in the State Council to recommend a scheme of ‘Aided Land Colonisation’. The Committee submitted its report in 1932 and it came up for discussion in 1939. In the Biography of D. S. Senanayake by H. A. J. Hulugalle it had been stated how D. S. Senanayake obtained the model of Jewish settlements planted in traditional Palestine territory in order to deprive the latter of their homeland.

It is clear for all to see how the state has been deliberately changing the ethnic composition of traditional habitations of the Tamils.

“Puttalam region in the north-west of Sri Lanka, which had been a traditional homeland of the Tamils, began to lose its identity as a Tamil traditional homeland from the seventeenth century due to the domination by western powers, commercial enterprises and the settlement of Sinhalese and Muslims in large numbers in this region. This trend intensified during British rule and due to the increased population in the south, the Sinhalese in their thousands came and settled in the Puttalam region. Thriving trade and large scale coconut plantations in this area drew the Muslims to join the Sinhalese settlers.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 372)

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“This situation unavoidably transformed the Puttalam region, which was a traditional home land of the Tamils, into a Singalese & Muslim area.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 373)

The Sinhalese colonization has lead to the carving out of two new parliamentary constituencies in the Eastern Province, viz, the Amparai and Seruwila constituencies in 1960 and 1977 respectively.

Even the contiguity of the Northern and Eastern provinces is being broken and bifurcated through such colonizations. Since the war started this process is being continued in the Northern Province as well through military means. Since the war ended the process seems to be carried out on an accelerated manner and on a planned basis.

4.1.2 Adoption of Lion Flag as National Flag

The Sinhala Lion Flag was made the National Flag despite opposition from the Tamils. The Tamil political leaders argued for the representation of the three important communities in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Muslims to be incorporated in the Sri Lanka National Flag.

“The Sinhalese political leaders have been adamant on the issue of the National Flag and established their wish and dominance. despite the many justifiable reasons pointed out by the minority representitives on the issue of national flag, the Sinhalese political leaders, especially D.S.Senanayakka and J.R.jeyawardana maintained and expressed their intense zeals for sinhala nationalism and the majority strength. This was a classic instance of the Sinhalese political Leaders’ unwillingness to step out of their narrow confines of Sinhala Nationalistic obsession to grant justifiable demands placed by the minorities.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 492-493)

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This can be seen as the first chapter in the long history of the Sinhalese politician’s intransigence in not allowing the Tamils to enjoy their democratic and legitimate rights.

Mr. C. Suntharalingam, who was a minister in the first Cabinet of Mr. D. S. Senanayake vacated his seat in Parliament in protest and forced a bye-election in his constituency of Vavuniya on this particular issue of the National Flag. He was re-elected uncontested in Vavuniya. Yet this victory failed to win the hearts and minds of the adamant Cabinet and Parliament.

The National Anthem also fails to recognize the plural nature of the society and applies only to the Sinhalese unlike the Indian national anthem which caters to all the peoples of India.

4.1.3 Dis-Enfranchisement of Plantantion Tamils

Tamil speaking workers were brought to Sri Lanka from South India in the 1830s by the British planters to work in their rubber, coffee & tea plantations. Tea cultivation required tending throughout the year and provided work continuously and therefore these workers have resided continuously in the hill country plantations. This led them to choose permanent residency in Sri Lanka and consequently they acquired Sri Lankan citizenship and voting rights. Plantation economy created a heavy demand for workers in the plantations and there were no restrictions on their free travel to Sri Lanka from South India. According to the 1946 census report the total Indian Tamil population was 780,589.

According to the 1947 general elections, 12 Sri Lankan Tamil representatives and 7 Indian Tamil representatives were elected under the Soulbury Constitution. These representatives were in the house when Ceylon was granted independence in 1948.

D. S. Senanayake tabled the ‘Indian Citizenship Bill’ in the second session of the Parliament on 4 August 1948 and by the Ceylon

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Citizenship Act of 1949 the plantation Tamils were deprived of their citizenship rights and as a result of an amendment to the Ceylon Parliamentary Elections Order-in-Council, they lost their voting rights.

The leftists in the House including Colvin. R. de Silva, Dr. N. M. Perera and other left-oriented representatives intensely opposed the denial of citizenship rights to the Indian workers. This was what Dr. N. M. Perera, in reply to a question during the debate on the issue in Parliament said:

“why should you not treat the Indians as your countrymen? Why do you treat only the Sinhalese as your countrymen? If the Indians are prepared to live here, work here and even die here, it is the barest justice that we give them citizenship rights. They should be treated as human beings and not as unwanted beings.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 494)

Given these political events, Section 29(2) special provisions in the new Constitution introduced by the Soulbury Commission with an expectation of safeguarding minority rights can be seen to have failed completely. The further expectation of the Soulbury Commission that territorial representation would produce just results for minorities, especially the Tamils, was also dealt a heavy blow, smashing all their professed hopes.

It is clear that the Soulbury Commission erred in blindly trusting D. S. Senanayake and his Board of Ministers and in failing to give due consideration to the proposals submitted by the minorities in an objective manner.

This shows the extent to which the British were misguided by D. S. Senanayake to get them to grant independence on the basis of the Constitutional draft submitted by him and the extent to which he was prepared to flout the provisions of the Constitution with impunity once independence was granted.

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4.1.4 The Sinhala Only Act of 1956

In 1943 Mr. J. R. Jayawardane brought a motion in the State Council that Sinhala should be made the Official language of the country. It was seconded by Mr. Dudly Senanayake. Mr.S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake sought to amend the motion by the inclusion of Tamil along with Sinhalese. The motion as amended was accepted by the State Council. However, no formal legislation was passed and English continued to be used as hitherto.

In 1956 however both the ruling U. N. P, reneging from its policy of parity of status to Sinhala and Tamil and its leading opposition the M. E. P. headed by Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaiyake opted for ‘Sinhala only’ and went to the voters seeking a mandate to make Sinhala the sole official language by way of an Act of Parliament. Understandably both these parties could not field any candidate in the North & East.

In June, 1956, Sinhala was made the only official language of the country by the new Government headed by Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake and with the UNP supporting the legislation.

With the sudden adoption of Sinhalese as the Official Language of the country Tamils aspiring to enter the Government Service became handicapped and Government jobs for the Tamils were virtually closed to them. The normal promotion prospects for those Tamils in Government service also declined considerably due to lack of proficiency in the official language. Consequently the number of Tamils in Government jobs declined considerably. The Tamil public was also severely inconvenienced in their official dealings with the Government.

The Job opportunities for the Tamils started declining drastically since independence. The Soulbury Commission’s sole reason in providing a Public Service Commission and Judicial Service Commission was to ensure fairness and impartiality in appointments made in the public service and judgments meted out by the legal organizations. But the

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intention of the Soulbury Commission did not materialize. For instance, there were 38 Tamils (24.7 percent) in the higher Civil Service out of 154 Civil Servants in 1948. But in 1981, the number of Sri Lankan Tamils in the Sri Lankan Administrative Service which replaced the Ceylon Civil Service was 203 out of 1545 administrators that is 13.1 percent, whereas the share of the Sinhalese rose from 53.9 percent in 1948 to 85.2 percent in 1981.

we quote the views of Neville Jayaweera on the Language issue,

“What made the colonial enterprises of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British immoral was not just that they were foreign or that they dispossessed the local people of their lands, and exploited them, but they also undervalued the cultures of their subjects and diminished their self-esteem. One of the important strategies they used for deflating their subjects’ self-esteem was to impose on them a foreign language and progressively to send the local language and culture into limbo, thereby condemning them to a second-class status within the land of their birth. More than by using redcoats and bayonets it was through the English language that the colonial power rasied a pliant comprador class to do their will throughout the country.

Therefore, I recoiled in pain and horror from the role that Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike and her permanent secrectary N.Q.Dias had mandated to me personally in 1963, which was to enforce “Sinhala Only“ on the unwilling Tamil populace of Jaffna, regardless of mass protests and demonstrations from them. I saw myself doing to the Tamil people what the colonial powers had done to my own Sinhala people thoroughout 400 years of their history, and I shrank from the prospect .“(Jayaweera, 2014, 58-59)

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4.1.5 Language-Wise Standardisation for University Admissions

A serious blow was delivered to the Tamil students in another racial discrimination by the Government in 1970.

“A new system called Standardisation was introduced in 1970 by the United Front government in relation to University admissions. A Tamil student, according to this new system had to secure a higher aggregate of marks in the entrance examination to qualify for admission.” (Gunasingam, 2008, p. 519)

This resulted in drastic reduction of Tamil students gaining admissions to universities and other institutions for higher studies. For example the qualifying marks for admission to the Medical Faculties were 250 out of 400 for Tamil students where as it was only 229 for the Sinhalese students. In short, students sitting for the examinations in English but belonging to two ethnic groups had different qualifying marks.

A district quota system was implemented in 1972 which amounted to added discrimination against the Ceylon Tamils.

4.1.6 Abolishing of Appeals to Privy Council

It is of intere