As I research the strife in Sri Lanka, there is this information that I thought is interesting to note. The question of discrimination in this island nation is not projected as between Buddhist Singhalese and Hindu Tamils alone. Among Tamils, there is a discriminatory practice and well- off high caste Tamils working in the government were often killed and targets of assassination. Furthermore, the idea of a homeland for the Tamils was a figment of imagination of Tamils who felt discriminated especially those from the lower caste.
Some comments that I found in the article quoted in the Times online by
Meddy that I found interesting.
Quote:
Tamils have always been Indian imported loyal lackeys of the West, from indentured labour to a military force to crush the indigenous Sinhalese with.
Janaka Mendis, Gampha,
The raj is to blame. The British educated the Tamil minority and ruled over Srilankan majority on the Tamil back. So post independence the backlash began leading to the Tamil tigers.
Ashok Chatterjee, London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 207487.ece The Real Cry of Discrimination Quote:
No religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism - Swami Vivekananda
The Tamils as a race are masters of crying discrimination and garnering the support of anyone who will listen. They have been discriminated against for centuries and have become masters in sob stories of discrimination. What westerners don't know is that Tamils are most discriminated against by their own Tamil race. In India there are over 160 million outcast Dalit peoples known as "untouchables", not because they are a superior group of individuals, but because they are non-Brahmins who are unholy and never to be touched.
Imagine a race of people where there are high casts and several lower casts, leading right down to a class of people within your own race that you are not supposed to touch, talk to, or even hand over something to. Certain classes are only allowed to be farmers, others only allowed to be servants, and still others only fit to be toilet cleaners/coolies. This is the truth.
Still today so-called Tamil gentlemen refuse to carry their own bags at stations, airports, etc; getting a coolie to do the hard manual labour has always been a Tamil way of life.
The real problem for the Tamils is one of feeling discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese in post colonial Sri Lanka. During colonial times the Sinhalese in turn felt discriminated against, with the British colonial rulers preferring to give the Tamils upper hand over the Sinhalese. Using a classic divide and rule policy, which was widely used during colonial times - That said the Sinhalese initially made it easy for the Tamils by refusing to entertain British Christian schools in Sinhalese areas, while the Tamils accepted anything the British colonial rulers trust upon them.
Like in Burma, where the British brought in Indians and Chinese, who quickly displaced the Burmese in urban areas, causing huge resentment and uprising, here too the British favoured educating the Tamils for top positions in middle management and then went to the extent of bringing in cheap Tamil labour from South India to work the highly lucrative tea estates. The estate superintendent always a high cast Lankan Tamil working under the colonial master, it ended up causing huge animosity amongst the local majority Sinhalese population.
This resentment is natural, even in Britain recently the same happened when Italian workers were brought in for the Lindsey refinery project in Lincolnshire. The only difference here was that this sort of sectioning of the population over such a long period (133 years) made the animosity and resentment towards the Tamils grow amongst the majority Sinhalese. Therefore, during the post colonial years the Tamils were discriminated against by the Sinhalese, in turn not getting the benefits in jobs and education they once enjoyed. However that's mostly gone now, except for within the "new cast" Tamils in western diasporas.
The colonial rulers didn't understand the Tamil cast system too well, and while the high-cast Tamils were close to their colonial bosses and enjoyed good positions, education and grand lifestyles, they became elitist Brahmins oppressing the lesser Tamil classes. Most westerns even today would find it hard to understand that the Tamil cast system is actually so strong because it is preached in Hinduism, becoming embedded in religious belief and culture.
Swami Vivekananda, an ethnic Tamil sage writes, "No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Paramarthika and Vyavaharika." - Letters; - p.41.
Another ethnic Tamil Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan the president of the South Asia Research and Information Institute writes, "..Like any other human being, the average Tamil also functions at the intersection of many overlapping identities. In spite of the persistence of a linguistic identity over two millennia, and a self-conscious Tamil nationalist political movement of the 20th century which argued against caste differences among Tamils, for many Tamils of today, caste is a significant, if not the primary, identity still."
The Northern Tamils in western diasporas are mostly from these lower casts, and in western democracies having felt the relief of being able to get away from that horrible cast system that deprives them so much, they naturally will fight tooth and nail not to have to go back to that form of oppression.
There has always been southern/Colombo Tamils who are well integrated into the social fabric of the south and generally come from long established Tamil families. None of these Tamil families have at any point during the past 30 years vacated Sri Lanka, except when they send their children to university in western countries.
Look at Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's prize spin bowler and the world record holder for the highest number of wickets in international test cricket. He is ethnically Tamil and lives with his Tamil family amongst the majority Sinhalese in the south of the country, doesn't shout discrimination, and lives in peace. God bless him.
Neither have any of these southern Colombo Tamils been harmed, or are crying for, or supporting a mono-ethnic Tamil homeland called Tamil Eelam. The truth be told, the northern Tamils feel discriminated against most by their own southern brethren or higher casts, but as they can't point the finger at them, they point it at the majority Sinhalese.
http://www.squidoo.com/tamil_tiger_terrorists_SrilankaThe Lie about the Tamil Homeland Quote:
Not once in the extensively detailed history of the island is there any mention of a Tamil homeland.
The Tamils most horrendous lie is that a Tamil homeland existed in the North when the British arrived and colonialised Sri Lanka in 1815.
Sri Lanka is blessed with one of the world's best documented history's dating back over 2500 years, and not once in this extensively detailed history of the island is there any mention of a Tamil homeland.
Read more with this link:
http://www.squidoo.com/tamil_tiger_terrorists_Srilanka