M. Thirunavukkarasu's book, published in June 2016, traces the history of Ilankai (formally known as Ceylon and now Sri Lanka) from the 1931 Donoughmore constitution to the one currently in the making by President Sirisena. It elucidates on a theme that all the unitary constitutions of the island were aimed at containing India. In the process the Eelam Tamils became scapegoats.

Long before World War II the British had recognised the importance of Trincomalee to the Allied powers. As a result the British had made sure that the relationship between India and Sri Lanka was never good and India does not have access to Trincomalee.

The British knew that the Tamils in SL looked upon India as Mother India. On the other hand the Sinhalese were always at war with the Tamil kingdoms in South India. Their enmity was so strong that they continued it even after independence in 1948. During all the wars India fought with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, SL supported India's enemies.

The Sinhalese leaders were scheming the eviction of Tamils in SL long before the date of its independence. The British brought in Indian Tamil labourers to SL from South India and exploited them in the malaria infested jungles to start their plantation industry for more than a century. When they left the shores of SL, the British did nothing to protect the Indian Tamils. They could have enshrined their rights in the constitution. They left them at the mercy of the rapacious Sinhalese leaders.

In the very first year of independence in 1948, Ceylon disfranchised and made the Indians stateless. The British didn't utter a world of protest against this Sinhalese move. If they had cared for the Indian Tamils, they could have put pressure on Sri Lanka and reversed the situation; they were just silent.

Having finished with the Indian Tamils, the Sinhalese leaders turned their attention on Eelam Tamils. The rest is history. Now it is left to be seen, whether the Western powers will be serious about war crimes. As it is the strategic importance of SL in the southern Indian Ocean sea lane and with China's competing interest in Sri Lanka, the prime concern to the West is wooing SL, rather than taking the crimes against the Tamils seriously. US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has publicly stated this.

India has also joined in this contention without realising what is in store for them, when the Tamils are driven out of SL. Subramaniam Swamy, the anti-Tamil, Tamil Brahmin, claims that the Sinhalese are Aryans, while the Tamils are Dravidians. The Tamils have to fight against all these criminals. Please read the speeches delivered during the book launch by Justice C.V Wigneswaran, V.Thavaraj and Ananthy Sasitharan in Tamil at the bottom of the article and also the sound cloud speeches by various speakers.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38442

http://www.ceylonews.com/2016/10/swiss-an-excellent-model-for-sri-lanka-sampanthan-video/

Visvanathan

By: Visvanathan
Source: TWG
Date: 15 October 2016