Four major internment camps meant for the civilians of Vanni and envisaged as long-term detention-villages as a part of Colombo’s structural genocide of Tamils, have been named after Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnampalam Arunachalam, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Lakshman Kadirgamar. All four of them belonged to two aristocratic families of Jaffna that had settled in Colombo. They served more to Colombo than to Tamil homeland. Two of them never spoke Tamil, but all of them in some way served Sinhala interests. The message is subtle: Look upon the supremacy of the Colombo-centric system and be subservient, never think of your own system, writes TamilNet’s regular political commentator in Colombo.
The commentator continues:
Colombo that opted for Sinhala names for its so-called rehabilitation-development programmes in the East has thought of deploying different set of symbols, names of some Tamils, in the case of the north. Symbols reveal the mindset. The camps and their names will soon find limelight through international aid groups that are going to abet Colombo’s agenda of converting Tamil homeland as a prison colony. It is important for all to grasp the deep thoughts behind Colombo’s agenda reflected in the symbols.
The first three of them, Ramanathan, Arunachalam and Ananda Coomaraswamy belonged to a single family from Maanippaay in Jaffna that had migrated to Colombo in their grandparent’s time (Raasavaasal Mahaa Muthaliyaar Aa’rumukaththaapi'l'lai Coomaraswamy) in 1833 for the feudal-political representation of Tamils, when the territories of the Tamil and Sinhala kingdoms were unified for the first time to suit the British vision of ‘administrative convenience’.
Ramanathan, started representing Tamils through electoral politics in 1879, and held that capacity in some way until to his death in 1930. He took upon himself the challenge of fighting the case and getting the release of the Sinhala leaders who were arrested and imprisoned by the British for perpetrating ethnic riots against the Tamil speaking Muslims of Puththa’lam in 1917. Some of the Sinhala leaders were facing capital punishment from the British for their ethnic crimes.
Ramanathan’s efforts in persuading the British Colonial Secretary succeeded in getting the release of the chauvinistic Sinhala leaders, but it sowed the seeds of alienation in the Muslims, psychologically making them to de-link themselves from Tamil identity.
Even though almost all Muslims are Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, they started feeling that language was not uniting them with the other Tamils, as aristocratic alliances of Jaffna Tamils and Sinhalese were busy in evolving a Colombo-centric system.
Ramanathan also contributed for the de-linking of Eezham Tamil politics from the socio-political developments of Tamil Nadu and in forging bondage for the Eezham Tamils with the Colombo-centric polity.
When Ramanathan, who risked a sea voyage to London at the height of the First World War to save the lives of the Sinhala leaders landed back victoriously in Colombo in 1918, the prominent Sinhala leaders of that time hand-pulled his carriage and paraded him in the streets of Colombo.
But the same Sinhala leaders two years later sabotaged the case for a Tamil constituency in Colombo in the proposed constitutional reforms of 1920, and personally sabotaged the political chances of Arunachalam, Ramanathan’s younger brother, an efficient civil servant whose greatest contribution was the first ever systematic census of Ceylon.
The frustration of Jaffna’s ‘Colombo Tamils’ was the beginnings of Tamil separatist politics. But, Ramanathan could not influence the British against the making of the Donoughmore constitution that since 1931 paved way for the Sinhala only state formation and permanent ethnic majority rule.
Ananda Kent Coomaraswamy, son of Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy of the same Maanippaay family was born in Colombo to British mother from Kent. Brought up in London and later worked in Colombo, the internationally famous great art historian and Orientalist, never knew to speak Tamil.
The Sinhalese never gave him the due recognition for his great contributions to Buddhism and for introducing the aesthetic perspectives of Sinhala-Budhhism to the outside world, because for them he was a Tamil. Ironically, Rajapaksa government thought of rendering his great name to a ‘barbed-wire’ camp.
Even though the symbols of feudal leaders and Orientalists who contributed to the present nature of the Sri Lankan state doesn’t serve the aspirations of the Tamils for whom the state has to be deconstructed, the first three are always viewed by Tamils as illustrious personalities and Tamils are sure to sense desecration of the personalities, in the act of giving their names to internment camps that are ultimately meant for Tamil subjugation.
But the last one, Lakshman Kathirgamar, was nobody to Tamils.
Born in another influential Jaffna family of American Mission connections settled in Colombo, Lakshman Kathirgamar never represented Tamils in any way, and it is doubtful whether Kathirgamar ever considered himself a Tamil at all, unless reminded of it by others. His greatest contribution to Sinhala state was the diplomatic deployment of his lawyer’s skills and his Tamil name in duping the international community.
Finding his name in an internment camp, even though may be appropriate, is sure nauseating to Tamils.
Chronology:
The commentator continues:
Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan
Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam
The first three of them, Ramanathan, Arunachalam and Ananda Coomaraswamy belonged to a single family from Maanippaay in Jaffna that had migrated to Colombo in their grandparent’s time (Raasavaasal Mahaa Muthaliyaar Aa’rumukaththaapi'l'lai Coomaraswamy) in 1833 for the feudal-political representation of Tamils, when the territories of the Tamil and Sinhala kingdoms were unified for the first time to suit the British vision of ‘administrative convenience’.
Ramanathan, started representing Tamils through electoral politics in 1879, and held that capacity in some way until to his death in 1930. He took upon himself the challenge of fighting the case and getting the release of the Sinhala leaders who were arrested and imprisoned by the British for perpetrating ethnic riots against the Tamil speaking Muslims of Puththa’lam in 1917. Some of the Sinhala leaders were facing capital punishment from the British for their ethnic crimes.
Ramanathan’s efforts in persuading the British Colonial Secretary succeeded in getting the release of the chauvinistic Sinhala leaders, but it sowed the seeds of alienation in the Muslims, psychologically making them to de-link themselves from Tamil identity.
Even though almost all Muslims are Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, they started feeling that language was not uniting them with the other Tamils, as aristocratic alliances of Jaffna Tamils and Sinhalese were busy in evolving a Colombo-centric system.
Ramanathan also contributed for the de-linking of Eezham Tamil politics from the socio-political developments of Tamil Nadu and in forging bondage for the Eezham Tamils with the Colombo-centric polity.
When Ramanathan, who risked a sea voyage to London at the height of the First World War to save the lives of the Sinhala leaders landed back victoriously in Colombo in 1918, the prominent Sinhala leaders of that time hand-pulled his carriage and paraded him in the streets of Colombo.
But the same Sinhala leaders two years later sabotaged the case for a Tamil constituency in Colombo in the proposed constitutional reforms of 1920, and personally sabotaged the political chances of Arunachalam, Ramanathan’s younger brother, an efficient civil servant whose greatest contribution was the first ever systematic census of Ceylon.
The frustration of Jaffna’s ‘Colombo Tamils’ was the beginnings of Tamil separatist politics. But, Ramanathan could not influence the British against the making of the Donoughmore constitution that since 1931 paved way for the Sinhala only state formation and permanent ethnic majority rule.
Ananda Coomaraswamy
The Sinhalese never gave him the due recognition for his great contributions to Buddhism and for introducing the aesthetic perspectives of Sinhala-Budhhism to the outside world, because for them he was a Tamil. Ironically, Rajapaksa government thought of rendering his great name to a ‘barbed-wire’ camp.
Even though the symbols of feudal leaders and Orientalists who contributed to the present nature of the Sri Lankan state doesn’t serve the aspirations of the Tamils for whom the state has to be deconstructed, the first three are always viewed by Tamils as illustrious personalities and Tamils are sure to sense desecration of the personalities, in the act of giving their names to internment camps that are ultimately meant for Tamil subjugation.
But the last one, Lakshman Kathirgamar, was nobody to Tamils.
Born in another influential Jaffna family of American Mission connections settled in Colombo, Lakshman Kathirgamar never represented Tamils in any way, and it is doubtful whether Kathirgamar ever considered himself a Tamil at all, unless reminded of it by others. His greatest contribution to Sinhala state was the diplomatic deployment of his lawyer’s skills and his Tamil name in duping the international community.
Finding his name in an internment camp, even though may be appropriate, is sure nauseating to Tamils.
Chronology: