Special Report

Guilty!

The Sinhala Commission traces the injustices caused to the Sinhalese.

We publish a summary of the report in two parts

When the Sinhala Commission is-sued its Interim Report in September 1997 it caused a furore especially in Government and pro-government circles. The Government was so disturbed by it in view of its devastating criticism of the devolution "package" that one important Minister wanted it consigned to the dustbin of history. We will not be surprised if the Sinhala Commission's present Report results in almost as much an uproar and this time not only in Sri Lanka but abroad, especially in Britain.

As far as the Sinhala people are concerned, this Report is likely to be a historic one. It has made the Sinhala people fully aware for the first time of the enormity of the injustices caused to them by the white men who forcibly intruded into their country and brought destruction on a peaceful people who only wanted to be left alone to conduct their lives according to their ancient customs and religion. While much of the information given in the Commission's Report is available elsewhere in various books and documents, the Report has, for the first time brought it all together in one place - and the impact is devastating.

The subjects dealt with in the Report can be subsumed under six main topics, namely the history of the country, the intrusion of the white colonialists on the life of the people and on the country, the perfidy of the British in breaking a solemn agreement under which the country was handed over to them, the terrorist tactics adopted by the British in suppressing the Kandyan people's attempts to regain their freedom and their forcible grabbing of the traditional homelands of the Kandyan people, the racist policies adopted by Tamil politicians and the revelations in regard to the Indo-Lanka Accord. We will deal briefly with each of these topics.

History

The Commission com- mences its Report with a brief look at the history of the country. A knowledge of history is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the deep commitment of the present day Sinhala people and all those who have accepted Sinhala Buddhist values to the land of their ancestors and why they are fiercely determined to preserve the independence and the unity and territorial integrity of their country. The strong objection of the Sinhala people to outside interference in their internal affairs in any form stems from this long history of fending of external aggression.

Foreign Incursions

From historic times, the incursion of foreigners into our country has resulted in nothing but suffering for our people. The South Indian invaders, the Portuguese and the Dutch were guilty of grave atrocities. They destroyed our temples and the latter two even went further in attempting the forcible conversion of our people to their faith. Report describes in vivid detail, often from the accounts of British officials themselves, how the British set about the task of subjugating the Kandyan people by an officially approved policy that included genocide as well as destruction of their means of livelihood. The Commission also gives details of the unjust taxes heaped on the people, the forced sale of the only bits of land they depended on for their subsistence and their eviction from their lands leading to starvation and death. It shows how the forced labour of the people was utilised for building the roads required by the plantations they established. It also shows how the ancestral lands of the Kandyan people were expropriated by means of unjust laws and then sold for a pittance to foreigners. The most revolting feature of this sorry story is the manner in which high government officials, from the Governor downwards participate in the robbery of the Kandyan people's inheritance.

The Convention

The Report highlights the manner in which the British colonial authorities systematically undermined important provisions of the Convention until it ceased to have any effect. In this connection it has to be emphasized that the British never conquered the Kandyan Kingdom. Their only attempt to do so in 1803 ended in disaster. The Kingdom was handed over to them peacefully by the Kandyan Chiefs representing the people in terms of a solemn agreement, namely the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

Two of the important terms of this agreement were that the British Crown as the successor to the Kandyan King would protect Buddhism (Article 5) and that the rights and privileges of the Chiefs and the people would continue to be maintained in accordance with the laws and customs then in force amongst them (Article 4). The Report shows how the British, having once obtained firm control of the country, proceeded to breach both these conditions. The British broke Article 5 of the Convention at the instance of the Christian missionaries, who found this an impediment to their plans to convert the people to Christianity and the Report gives details of the missionaries' attempts which commenced as early as the 1830s.

Genocidal Tactics and Scorched Earth Policy of the British

The Commission's Report gives a detailed account of the tactics adopted by the colonial government to crush the freedom struggles of the Kandyan people. It was a policy that comprised genocide together with destruction of the means of livelihood of the people.

Dr. Colvin R. de Silva in his book "Ceylon under British Occupation" sets out the manner in which they acted in suppressing the freedom struggle of 1818. "Wherever they went they carried away or destroyed cattle and stores of grain and provisions that they found, villages were wiped out, houses burnt down, crops devastated, field permanently ruined by damaging the irrigation system, fruit trees cut down and livestock killed so as to starve and terrorize the inhabitants into submission. When reinforcements arrived from India the system was expanded. Numerous posts were created and small detachments scoured the country covering every portion of it and authorised to burn, ravage and destroy and put to death all who may be in possession of arms till the last embers of rebellion were stampted out... No attempt was made to distinguish the property and person of the innocent from those of the guilty. Even mere suspects received short shrift from the troops".

It is necessary to read the Report to realise the enormity of the horrors visited on the Kandyan people during the two freedom struggles of 1818 and 1848.

The devastation caused by the terrorist tactics adopted by the British did not see the end of the tribulations of the Kandyan people. Having cowed down the people, the British proceeded to rob them of their lands. Even though, by Article 4 of the Kandyan Convention the British promised to adhere to the laws and customs of the Kandyan people it did not take them long to break this solemn promise, just as they had done in the case of Article 5.

The Commission shows how, by enactments such as the Crown Lands Encroachment Ordinance of 1840 and the Waste Lands Ordinance of 1897, the British took over almost all the ancestral lands of the Kandyan people. This was nothing less than legalised robbery.

This does not end the litany of the woes of the Kandyan people. For the new owners of these lands proceeded to ruthlessly fell the extensive forests that had clothed the hillsides for ages, forests which the Sinhala Kings had carefully preserved. This extensive felling of the forests to establish plantations, even against the advice of British officials such as the Director of the Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya led to massive environmental degradation. Reports of British officials themselves showed how the paddy fields of the people lover down in the valleys got silted, how the streams on which they depended for their water supply dried up and how the livelihood of the people was seriously affected. All this is recorded in detail in the Commission's Report.

In this connection it is necessary to point out that the establishment of the plantations did not benefit the Kandyan people in any way. They were not even given employment on the estates for which an alien people were introduced. But what is worse is that not only did the British expropriate the Kandyan people's land and destroy their livelihood, but they made use of their forced labour to construct the roads required for access to the plantations.

Racist policies

The Commission makes a detailed examination of the racist policies of the Tamil politicians which have resulted in so much bloodshed and suffering for members of all communities, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim, not to speak of the massive destruction of the wealth of the country which it can ill-afford. The Report shows how these policies are based on a myth of "traditional homelands" manufactured through a gross distortion of history. Among the thousands of historical records which give the history of this country, Tamil politicians have been able to find just one document, the Cleghorn Minute, which they say supports their claim that the Northern and Eastern Provinces, as presently constituted comprise the "traditional homeland" of the Tamils. As the Commission's Report shows, this document has been subjected to critical examination by scholars and experts such as Professor K. M. de Silva and Mr. Gamini Iriyagolla, who have exposed the hollowness of this claim. Nor is there any archeological evidence in the Northern and Eastern Provinces to bear out the claim that they formed the so called "traditional homelands" of the Tamils.

However, notwithstanding the total falsity of this claim it has been repeated so often for almost fifty years that the validity of the Gobblesian dictum that if you repeat a lie often enough it will eventually come to be believed as the truth, has clearly been proved because many Tamils now believe the "traditional homelands" claim, especially the Tamil youth who having been fed with this lie and, not knowing any better, have come really to believe that these areas are indeed their own homelands that the Sinhala people are attempting to grab, and to preserve which they are therefore prepared to sacrifice their lives.

The power of this myth created by the Tamil politicians becomes evident when one sees that both the UNP Government as well as the PA Government are prepared to introduce legislation providing for the merger of the Eastern Province or of the Trincomalee and Batticaloa Districts of the Eastern Province with the Northern Province. For the only rationale for these proposals is an acceptance of the "traditional homelands" claim since, if this claim is rejected, there is no reason whatsoever for such proposals.

According to the Commission, the person mainly responsible for manufacturing these fictitious clams is S. J. V Chelvanayakam to whom the Commission has devoted considerable space in its Report. For it was Chelvanayakam who first introduced the ideas of the Tamils as a separate "nation" with an identified "homeland" and with the "right of self-determination". Before Che-lvanayakam, none of the Tamil leaders, not even G.G.Ponnambalam had advocated such fantastic claims. Moreover, no such claims were made before either the Donoughmore Commission or the Soulbury Commission.

The Sinhala Commision sets out in detail the part played by Chelvanayagam in creating a rift between the Sinhala and Tamil people who had, up to the advent of Chelvanaykam and his separatist ideology, largely lived in harmony with each other.

Taking their cue from Chelvanayakam, Tamil politicians and propagandists have so distorted the history of this country in order to bolster their claims that all those interested in the truth - especially those foreign governments and NGO's who sponsor the Tamil claims having swallowed them hook, line and sinker - should read the relevant chapters of the Commission's Report, so that they will cease to be hoodwinked by the fictitious claims of Tamil propagandists.

The Accord

One of the important recommendations of the Commission is that the Sinhala peole should demand that the Indo-Lanka Accord be abrogated. The reason being that, according to a statement made by the TULF,

Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, one of the signatories to the Accord, had assured them that one of its most important terms, namely that providing for a referendum to be held in the Eastern Province to determine whether that Province should be merged with the Northern Province, would never be acted upon and that term was introduced merely to appease "Sinhala extremists".

The Commission's view is that this deception practised on the Sinhala people in regard to one of its most important provisions, vitiates the entire Accord, which should accordingly be abrogated. It follows that all legislative measures introduced to implement the Indo-Lanka Accord, namely the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the Provincial Councils Act and the temporary merger of the Eastern Province with the Northern Province should also be repealed.

Recommendations of the Commission

The Commission ends its Report by making the following recommendations:-

We recommend that the National Joint Committee should take the following actions:-

1) (a) call upon the government to set up an Independent Development Authority with wide powers to develop the areas comprising the former Kandyan Kingdom and rehabilitate the Sinhala people living there, the most disadvantaged people in the country today.

(b) see that the Temples and Devalas in these areas have their lands and appurtances and amenities restored to them and they be quitted in possession thereof, and that special Judicial Officers of the status of a District or High Court Judge be appointed to inquire into and summarily determine all claims to such lands made by Temples and Devales or individuals. Appeals made against orders made by such Special Judicial Officers to be disposed of within a year of such appeals.

2) see that funds be made available by the Government to the Independent Development Authority without delay, to enable it to carry out the task of development and rehabilitation expeditiously.

- To be continued

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