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Original land of Sinhale
By Lt. Colonel A. S. Amarasekera
The Buddha has pointed out that the root of all evil is ignorance and false view. This however is not an attempt at teaching Buddhism, but an effort to prevent ignorance and false view from destroying the Sinhala Buddhist civilization that is treasured and valued by the majority of citizens living in this country.

A few years back, I was watching a television programme on the Discovery channel that was featuring different races of the world. During this programme mention was made of races that were fast becoming extinct. Among the existing races of the world, Eskimos were identified as the first that would become extinct, followed by the Red Indians and then the Sinhalese.

To Sinhala people who comprise over 76% of the population of this country, it maybe hard to see and difficult to understand this, but it is happening nevertheless, thanks to their ignorance and false view.

Ignorance
Whenever I meet a congregation of Sinhala people on my visits to remote villages, I ask them a question: “What is the name of your country?” And they reply, “Sri Lanka”. When I tell them that they are wrong, they are perplexed. When I tell them that the name of their country is not Sri Lanka but Sinhale, I find that many of them have not even heard this name. Such ignorance and false view could bring about their very extinction.

Claim to ownership of land is established legally by executing a deed of possession. Changing the name of the owner in the land deed effects a transfer in ownership. Change in the name of a country will have similar results.

Misleading
The identity of the indigenous population is used to identify a country. Thus England is the land of the English people, Germany, the land of the German people, France, the land of the French people, Japan, the land of the Japanese people, China, the land of the Chinese people, Malaysia, the land of the Malay people etc.

The indigenous population in any such country will not agree to change the name of their country for the purpose of fostering a pluralistic or multi-ethnic society. If they do so, the rights of the indigenous population will be diluted and with time their civilization would become extinct.

However, a country once known as Sinhale of the indigenous Sinhala people is now known as Sri Lanka and this has brought in its wake the extinction of a civilization that has existed for two thousand five hundred years.

This country was conditionally ceded to the British Crown by the Sinhala chieftains, on March 2, 1815 through an international treaty known as the Kandyan Convention. The English and the Sinhala texts were written parallel to each other and throughout the text of the treaty the ceded territory is called Sinhala (‘Sinhale’ rhyming with ‘may’, means ‘of’ or ‘in’).

There is no reference to a country called Ceylon or Sri Lanka in the text, but the country is referred to in English as Sinhale, the name by which the island was known through the centuries.

The Englishmen found it difficult to pronounce Kanda Uda Pas Rata. So they shortened it to Kanda which with the passage of time became Kandy. Similarly with the passage of time, the country of Sinhale that was ceded to the British Crown was called Ceylon. Therefore it was to a country called Ceylon that the British granted independence on February 4, 1948 and not to Sinhale that was ceded to them on March 2, 1815.

The political leaders at the time of independence were either negligent or not wise enough to correct the wrong identification of the country. They were followed by others who made matters worse by changing the name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. Their action which created a country called Sri Lanka has eroded the rights of the indigenous Sinhala people of this country.

Looking at the past political leadership of this country, who were trying to be more British than the British themselves, I have little or no doubt that these political leaders were surreptitiously manipulated by various forces of vested interests to destroy a unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization and the rights of the indigenous Sinhala people.

Skeletal proof
The skeletal remains of a human found in the Balangoda caves were carbon dated and found to be over 28,000 years old. There is legendary belief of an advanced civilization in this country over 5,000 years ago in the Ravana era.

This belief extends further to a Maha Bali civilization 10,000 years ago, a Tharaka civilization 15,000 years ago and a Manu civilization 30,000 years ago.

However, written history in the Mahavamsa take us back 2,500 years to the advent of Vijaya. At that point of time the country was known as Sivhela as there were four clans living here. They were the Devas, the Yakkas, the Rakshas and the Nagas. Vijaya and his Sinha clan that migrated to this country integrated with the above mentioned four indigenous Hela clans and were together identified henceforth as Sinhala and their country was known as Sinhale.

It was later subdivided to Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya, which together were referred to as Thunsinhale. King Devanampiyatissa declared Buddhism the state religion of Sinhale in 246 BC. This paved the way for the evolution of a Sinhala Buddhist civilization that is not second to any other great civilization in the world.

Majority rules
The national rights enjoyed by the majority indigenous population of any country that are not given to minority immigrant populations or their descendants are:

1. The right to call their country their national motherland.
2. The right to the territory of that national motherland.
3. The right to have their language as the national language.
4. The right to have their religion as the national religion.
5. The right to have their culture as the national culture.
6. The right to have their flag as the national flag.

In this context the word Ilam (Eelam) comes into prominence. It is being used to connote the impression of "a land of the Tamils". Indeed, the Tamil word Ilam was never before used in that sense. This Tamil word ‘Ilam’ did not refer to a Tamil land but to the "Land of the Sinhala people".

None other establishes this than the Tamil lexicon published under the University of Madras. Page 328 has the following entry: Ilam, in Pali, Sinhala, 1. Ceylon.
What it says is that ‘Ilam’ means the land of the Sinhala people. The Tamil word given as the meaning of ‘Ilam’ reads ‘Sinhalum’.

The term ‘Ila’ in Tamil means ‘Sinhala’, having its origin in the word ‘Hela’, by which term the ancient people of ‘Lanka’ were known. Thus ‘Ilakkachu’ in Tamil means ‘Sinhala Coins’ - ‘Ila’ means Sinhala, ‘Kachchu’ means coins.

Similarly, since ‘Nadu’ means ‘Land’, ‘Ilandu’ means the Sinhala land. According to the said lexicon the word ‘Ilandu’ was derived from ‘Ilam’. The foregoing establishes the fact that the word ‘Ilam’ (Eelam) never eferred to any Tamil land but always signified the Sinhala land.

Therefore, if one were to ask for ‘Ilam’ (Eelam), what is being asked for is the traditional homeland of the Sinhala people.

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