From King Elara To Narendra Modi, Evolution Of A Geopolitical Impasse

By Vishwamithra –

“The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.” ~ Franz Kafka                     

India has been our ‘enemy’, as most of Sinhalese intelligentsia portrays her to be. Treatment and evaluation of India in the geopolitical context, whether it’s in the ancient times or the twenty first century, and India’s geographical proximity to Sri Lanka has created a sense of fear amongst Sri Lankans. That evaluation is firstly based on the deferential between the size of population of each country and secondly on the belligerence shown every now and then by the Tamil Nadu State government. Yet the closeness between the indigenous Sri Lankan Sinhalese people and those who claim their birthplace in the Southern States of India, namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh And Telangana State is remarkable, not only in their cultural observations but also in cult-like devotion to religious practices and consumption of food and sweets.

Our history books are saturated with exaggerated enunciations of the ancient kings and their military victories over Tamilian kings and chieftains. Invasions into the land, specifically Northern Ceylon including our ancient Capital Anuradhapura, by Chola and Pandyan armies and subjugation of ancient Ceylonese have influenced the psyche of Sinhalese people and it continues to the present time. Massive globalization of the modern economy has played no part in this geopolitical dynamic. 

The Great Chronicle, Mahāvaṃsa covers it very picturesquely: ‘Sinhabahu is a legendary king of ancient India, mentioned in Sri Lankan texts. He was father of Vijaya of Sri Lanka and king of Sinhapura. He was the son of Suppadevi, a Vanga Kingdom princess. According to the Mahāvaṃsa Legend (the chronicled history of Sri Lanka), Sinhabahu’s father was a lion and his mother a princess of Vanga, who was kidnapped by the lion. His hands and feet were like a lion’s paws.

When Sinhabahu was sixteen, he escaped his father, Lion’s prison with his mother and sister Sinhasivalee, and arrived in the capital of Vanga. He later killed his father for a reward and was offered the throne of Vanga.

He refused the throne, instead founding the city of Sinhapura, in the country of Láta. He lived there with his sister Sinhasivalee, whom he made his consort. They had thirty-two children, of whom Vijaya (founder of the Sinhalese race) was the eldest and Sumitta the second’.

These fairy tales of Mahāvaṃsa, somewhat akin to the Bible, the Old Testament’s rendering of Moses and Jesus Christ, have not only influenced the Sinhalese mindset, they have underwritten unwavering loyalty to the miraculous yet totally unscientific narratives of things not yet explained or proven. In such an unbelievable context, these religious and metaphysical phenomena remain not only mystic, but wholly irrelevant in the major warfare of life and living. 

But things have moved on and humanity, in its vast and curvy journey, has arrived at the twenty first century CE (Common Era). Elara and Dutugamunu are no more and the contextual variances are unrecognizable. Advent of the twentieth century and the ‘Free India’ movement initiated by patriotic Indian leaders at the time still lacked a charismatic leader to lead them to that goal of sovereignty. But Gandhi’s entry into the Indian soil changed everything in India and the Nehrus, Patels and other great men and women showed the world that there is a way a change in the sociocultural patterns and practices could be achieved without violence. Although there were some violent clashes in India prior to her being declared a free country, India’s message to the world was universal, appealing and fair. Making her sheer numbers in population as a strong and sturdy platform for socioeconomic development, India made many strides which now, in the twenty first century look relevant and legitimate.

On the other hand, Ceylon, just about twenty five miles south of the Indian soil, was in a different mindset; her leaders whose prestige and credentials were sourced to the upper middle class of foreign-educated and subservient to the British Raj, did not have to sacrifice blood, sweat or tears to gain Independence. Ceylon then comprised of three very distinct segments of people, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims, failed to reap the benefits of being close to India, a potentially emerging super power. D S Senanayake, our first Prime minister, instead of embracing the ‘good’ from India managed to create an unjust and unfair state in the introduction of the Citizenship Act whereby Hill-Country Tamils who were employed as estate labor were disqualified in voting and making Ceylon overwhelming a Sinhalese electorate.

The long term repercussions were being felt, especially in the fifties, sixties and seventies. This grave state policy was rectified only after Saumyamoorthi Thondaman, the leader of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) into the Jayewardene government in 1977 and assumed a Ministership. Yet the Indian influence, specifically that of Tamil Nadu in the southern tip of India, continued to play a decisive role in shaping and defining the sociocultural milieu of the Hill-Country Tamil people and a more prolific exercise of the franchise in the following elections. 

Nevertheless, the caste-conscious Northern Tamils who chose to look down upon their Hill-Country brothers and sisters deliberately opted to play a nasty identity politics. They never took part in the national level political agitation activities. When the majority of Ceylon’s population was subjected to poverty and other economic hardships as one single entity, Northern Tamils, led firstly by Chelvanayakam and then followed by Amirthalingam and Sampanthan, still disregarded the significance of identifying themselves with the majority’s agitations spread throughout the country. M G Ramachandra’s appeal to the Tamil Nadu voters was exploited to the hilt and played out on Ceylon’s political platform. MGR’s screen-appeal may have played a vital part in influencing the Hill-Country vote but the deep entrenchment of that population in the South Indian politics cannot be just ignored nor could it be used as a plus point for the greater Sinhalese majority.

The southern Sinhalese electorate was not second to the larger Tamilian voters in regard to being swayed by populist state policies and as well as sociocultural leanings. Sinhalese Buddhists led by Monks whose beginnings could be traced to University or Pirivena-educated men in yellow robes rendered leadership to a misguided concept of patriotism and ended up in the now infamous 1983 July riots. ’83 July riots were a major watershed moment in the evolution of the current ethnic conflict that Si Lanka is facing today. Northern Tamils led by Vellala caste intelligentsia who considered caste discrimination as an integral part of the Tamilian psyche chose to adopt Velupillai Prabhakaran, a Velvetithurai Kaurawa youth as their supreme leader. Power emanating through the ‘barrel of the gun’ overwhelmed all miscellaneous divisions amongst Tamils.          

Yet now, after the ignominious demise of the Tigers and Prabhakaran, Jaffna Tamils seem to have gone back to their traditional fashion of politics. Their exclusive preoccupation with a Tamil homeland and the full implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment with Land and Police powers continue to dis-impress the majority Sinhalese folks in that their absence from the national platform of economic issues is greatly felt. The Sinhalese majority continues to look at India, as a whole, our enemy. Their suspicions of possible incursions into our shores have not evaporated. Yet they must realize that India is not being led by Indira or Rajiv Gandhi (Nehru-kind). Indian National Congress is not in power. In its place is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Gujarati man credited with the rise of Gujarati State as a major economic power within Federal India. Modi has no intentions of engaging in a military flirtation with Sri Lanka. Yet he might be tempted towards a different kind of dominion over the Island Lanka- as an economic colony.      

Given the circumstance of near-selling of the country to China during the Rajapaksa era, solely motivated by ravenousness and avarice of the then first family of the Mahinda-Gotabaya clan, one simply cannot disregard India’s upgraded interest in Sri Lanka’s economy. India’s position amongst other economic giants in the global marketplace is enviable. Buttressed by nearly 1.5 billion men women and children, India is making use of her numbers to advance her economic, cultural and social inroads into the global stage without any competition in the Subcontinent. Her international stances in varying scenarios have impressed many a pundit and her independent postures either in the Russia-Ukraine or Israel-Hamas issues have cut out an exemplary character for herself.

India’s journey from ancient times from the great Mauryan Empire of Chandragupta to the current democratic nation encompassing all states in a federal government led by a business-oriented Narendra Modi is remarkable. From Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to Modi, India’s relentless advance has made each and every Indian proud of his or her country. Relative to such an overpowering context, where is Sri Lanka today? That is the question that has no answers. Lack of real patriotism, replacement of real patriotism by pseudo-patriotism displayed by saffron robed thugs has taken our land from one with stupendous Stupas and irrigation marvels to the begging bowl. 

While India traveled from Elara to Modi in giant strides, Ceylon has ambled from Dutugamunu to Ranil Wickremesinghe as a degenerating economy and a rotting culture pregnant with criminals of all sorts, from plain beastly ones to white-collar parliamentarians and avaricious businessmen. Elara used his military powers while Modi is well armed to use his economic measures to overwhelm us. We have arrived at a geopolitical impasse. Courage or bravado to break it or go beyond seems an abnormality. 

*The writer can contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com          

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