Sri Lanka Should Seize The Opportunity

Sri Lanka Should Seize The Opportunity

We welcome heartily what our External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukerjee has significantly said at Thoothukudi on 28th February on the civil war between the majority Sinhala Nationality and the minority Tamil Eelam Nationality in Sri Lanka:

“The Indian government views with great concern the humanitarian crisis that is building up with every passing day in Sri Lanka. There are reports that over 70,000 civilians are trapped in the conflict zone and there is acute shortage of food, water and medicines.”

He further pointed out, “ it is reported that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has offered a cease-fire. While this may fall short of a declaration of willing ness to lay down arms, it is our view that the Government of Sri Lanka should seize the opportunity presented by the opponent to bring about a pause in hostilities. The Government of India would, therefore, appeal to the Sri Lankan Government to immediately work out safe passage for trapped civilians to secure locations and this would require the cooperation of the LTTE too.”

The minister has also indicated that the pause in hostilities “must be utilised to facilitate the movement of the Tamil population out of the war-affected areas to secure location where proper rehabilitation is possible and international aid organisations as also the ICRC have free access and scope to provide medical and other form of humanitarian aid.”

He added that India was making arrangements to send an emergency medical unit and medicines to render assistance to internally displaced persons in north Lanka.

The cease-fire and shifting of civilians to safety should be followed by “effecting a proper devolution of powers to the provinces, with assurances of equality and equal rights to all citizens, particularly the Tamil people, within the constitutional framework of Sri Lanka maintaining its territorial integrity.”

Mr. Mukherjee has expressed the hope that the Government of Sri Lanka and all others will respond to his sincere appeal made in the interest of all sections of the people in Sri Lanka.

Hon’ble Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi’s untiring efforts - even during his hospitalisation for a surgery - have begun to bear fruits. He formed Sri Lanka Tamils Welfare and Protection Forum and a Sub-committee of legal experts . He constanly appealed to the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister to undertake all possible steps to stop the genocide and bring peace permanently to Tamils.

It is very unfortunate that politics was inducted even in this important common humanitarian ethnic issue of protection of Tamils. Inspite of it we see the twilight! Let there be a dawn.

Vested interests present the civil war in Lanka as the government’s fight against terrorism; it is a gross misrepresentation of the real issue. The Eelam Tamils have their own rich language with classical tradition dating back to more than two thousand years. Their traditional Home Land comprises the contiguous region in the north-eastern part of the island of Sri Lanka.

After Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) got freedom from the British rule, the majoritarian regimes of that country are systematically taking discriminatory and harmful measures against the Tamils there. Sinhala alone is made the national language, and Buddhism the national religion. The Tamil language and the multi-religious tradition of the Tamils are relegated to a secondary or subordinate position. Their traditional homeland in the north-eastern part of the island is colonised in a planned manner with active government support with the sinistar motive of making Tamils minorities in their own land.

It is against these unjust and exploitative measures, the Federal Party of S.J..V. Selvanayagam, his colleagues and followers agitated in a peaceful manner. But their protests were met with brutal suppression by the successive Sinhala majoritarian regimes. The solemn agreements the government entered into to ameliorate the hardships and the miseries of the Tamils were repeatedly violated, and they were forced to live in insecurity. There was absolutely no scope to redress their conditions by democratic methods. It was under these circumstances the Sri Lankan Tamils, after more than twenty years of fruitless constitutional struggle for a federal polity, voted overwhelmingly for a liberated Tamil Eelam. Subsequently, the hard-hearted, unbending and inhumanly cruel attitude of the Sri Lankan rulers forced the youth to take up arms to protect their lives, honour, property, culture and homeland.

The truce effected in 2002 by the Norwegian initiative and the subsequent peace talks came to an end because of the obduracy, adamant stand the deliberate decision of the Mahinda Rajapaksha’s government. Army, navy and airforce were used to suppress the country’s own citizens. Cluster bombs are mercilessly dropped. Civilians, young and old including children are killed in thousands. Eelam Tamils are put to genocide. Major powers like the U.S.A., the European Union, Japan , the U.N. and Canada have asked to stop the war and find a just negotiated settlement. The Government of India has repeatedly made its stand clear on the same lines on more than one occasion.

The people of Tamil Nadu in India are pained beyond measure to see their kith and kin put to untold misery and genocide. With solidarity they have shown their anguish and anger in various ways. Though we totally disapprove of the tragic method, more than half a dozen persons of Tamil Nadu have killed themselves to draw attention of the international community to the untold sufferings of the Eelam Tamils and to urge the regimes to take effective steps to stop the genocide.

We earnestly hope that the announcement of our external affairs minister and the measured steps of our Chief Minister Kalaignar in cooperation with Union government will lead to a satisfactory peaceful solution to the decades long Sri Lankan problem.

"Buddhist Principles and Periyar"

K.Veeramani

Gautama Siddhartha (B.C. 566-486) became the Buddha, the Enlightened One after which he led a life of selfless and dedicated service, spreading the message of compassion and reason. His conception of religion was purely ethical. He put all his emphasis on conduct. In his view saintliness and contentment were to be found not in worship or rituals, but in selfless and virtuous labour. He did not accept the authority of the Vedas, and opposed the Varna-Jaathi (caste) system. In Buddha's philosophy, there was no place for heaven, purgatory or hell. Matter has force and all substance motion. The soul is a myth. He never pretended that God was speaking through him. He taught in Pali, the language of the common people who found emancipation from fear and superstition in his noble teachings.

Buddha's simple and open-minded approach, his adherence to rational outlook, his abhorrence of obscurantist speculation about elusive (non) entities, and his opposition to hierarchical birth-based graded inequality appealed to Periyar E.V.Ramasamy (17.9.1789 - 24.12.1973) who ceaselessly and wholeheartedly strived hard for restructuring the ignorant, superstitious, divided and discriminatory Indian society on the basis of liberty, equality, enlightenment and self-respect. Though he rarely cited the ideas and opinions of others to prove his point or to add weight to his judgement, he used to speak in praise of Buddha and Thiru Valluvar for their stress on the spirit of inquiry, and on the virtues of love, wisdom and fraternal social relations.

Periyar formulated the Indian social issues in relation to religion in this way : How to wean people from their belief in the Vedic and Puranic gods around whom the orthodoxy, to promote their own vested interests, have spun despicable and degrading stories? How to make them give up their wasteful and harmful worship of the idols, participating in meaningless, mechanical and extravagant rites, rituals, ceremonies and festivities? How to make people imbibe noble principles and values and to adopt a cultured rational way of life? Periyar resorted to two kinds of solutions to these issues : First, he demonstrated to the masses the powerlessness of 'gods' by breaking the idols and burning their pictures. In this way, he also encouraged them to hate the injurious and baneful beliefs and practices. Secondly, he propagated the virtuous, truthful and beneficial ideas, values and ways of living by organising functions in the name of the Buddha and Thiru Valluvar.

In pursuit of this policy, Periyar asked his followers to celebrate on 27th May 1953 the festival of Buddha and to break the idols of the elephant-headed god, Ganesha, who is also variously called as Pillaiyar, Vigneswara, Ganapathi, Gajapathi, Vinayaka etc. His appeal was carried out through out Tamil Nadu. Periyar and his companions celebrated the Buddha day in Tiruchirappalli and broke the idols in the open ground (maidan) before the Town Hall. This daring unheard of activity stirred the minds of the people. They began to question the authenticity of the 'puranic' stories and doubt the efficacy of gods. The Hindu orthodoxy perceived this trend to be a dangerous one as it threatened the psychological basis of their traditional privileged status. So the Hindu Sanathanists formed an association to 'eradicate' Atheism, and through its secretary filed a case, under section 295 of I.P.C. against Periyar and two of his companions, T.P.Vedhachalam, a senior advocate, and M.R.Radha, a popular rationalist actor, stating that they had hurt the religious sentiments by their iconoclastic activity. First, the Divisional First Class Magistrate and then the District Sessions Judge declared the case unsustainable. Consequently, the complainants appealed to the Madras High Court. Justice N. Somasundaram dismissed the appeal petition on 13th October, 1954, stating that though the intentions of the respondents might have been to hurt the religious sentiments of a large numbers of people, their action was not an offence because they broke only the images they had themselves made or bought, and not those worshipped in a temple.

To propagate the principles of Buddha, Periyar E.V.R convened a conference at his native town of Erode on 23rd anuary, 1954. presiding over the conference, Dr.G.P.Mallalasekhara, Professor of Buddhist Culture in the University of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), observed that the teachings of Buddha, when properly followed, would contribute to international understanding and world peace. He complimented Periyar for endeavouring to reform the society, amidst concerted and sustained opposition, in accordance with the path shown by Buddha.

Raj Boj, General Secretary of All India Depressed Classes Federatifon and Member of Parliament inaugurated the conference. He said the depressed classes and a vast majority of others in India were subjected to various kinds of cruelties and deprivations under Brahminical social order. Buddhism treated all equally, and in ancient times it overthrew the authority of Brahminism. But Brahminical revival took place through the spread of Saiva and Vaishnava sects and social inequalities got entrenched. The people in the south of India stood unitedly behind Periyar E.V.Ramasamy for the purpose of putting an end to Brahminism. The various struggles they launched under his leadrshlip in this regard had inspired those in other parts also, told Raj Boj.

Periyar unveiled the portrait of Buddha and spoke on the occasion. He told that the conference convened to propagate the principles of Buddha might also be termed as one opposed to Brahmins who were responsible for driving out Buddhism from the land of its origin. Buddha advised that no one should follow him blindly nor accept unquestionably whatever he uttered. The Self-respect movement stressed the same view for about 30 years from its very inception in 1925. Periyar welcomed the revival of Buddhism in India.

One of the resolutions passed in the Erode conference for the propagation of Buddha's principles said this :

"As the Hindu scriptures (Sastras), mythologies (Puranas) and epics (Ithihasas) are concocted and used by the Aryans for their domination and progress and to enslave, degrade and keep in ignorance the Dravidians, they should be eradicated."

Another resolution stated : "As Buddha's life and teachings expose the falsity of the concepts of god, soul, heaven, hell, fate, rites, rituals and ceremonies and stress non-discriminatory, egalitarian social order based on love and mutual help, all sections of people in Tamil Nadu, all organisations and institutions should take steps for the spread of his principles and their application in the actual life of the human race."

While speaking in a public meeting in Madras (now Chennai) on January 31, 1954, Periyar said: "Buddha's philosophy, teachings and principles are very useful for the activities of upholding our principles (stated in Self-respect movement) and of eradicating harmful things."

Periyar went to Rangoon, capital of Burma (now Yangoon and Myanmar respectively) to attend the world Buddhists conference, and spoke in it on 3rd December 1954. He met there Dr. Mallalasekhara, President of the World Buddhists Association and Baba Saheb Dr. B.R.Ambedkar. Periyar and Ambedkar had a long discussion for more than an hour on 5th December. Perhaps this was their last extensive exchange of ideas in person before the latter passed away two years later on 6th December 1956. Baba Saheb had by that time decided to get converted to Buddhism, and asked Periyar to follow suit. But the latter told that he preferred to expose the cruelties of Hinduism by remaining within its fold as otherwise his adversaries would divert the minds of the people and mislead them saying a non-Hindu had no right to criticise the Hindu way. He also requested Ambedkar to take along with him a very large number of people in case he embraced Buddhism.

In his rationalist Tamil daily 'Viduthalai' dated 4th April, 1956, Periyar wrote thus : " I request members of Dravidar Kazhagam and all others to celebrate in a grand manner the 2500th birth anniversary of Buddha in Chennai and in all parts of Tamil Nadu and to take all efforts to propagate his precepts in such a way as to make all people to imbibe them in their hearts. To my knowledge the following are the important among his precepts.

1. Subject everything (you come across) to thorough inquiry using your intellect.

2. Accept only those that you reason finds as proper.

3. Do not accept the incomprehensible and merely imaginary words like god, sou 0.l, devas, heaven, hell, Brahmin, Sudra and Panchama.

Of all the creatures in the world, humans are supreme being endowed with the faculty of reason that is capable of comprehending a thing after proper inquiry and analysis (rational thinking.)

4. Do not believe any thing just because it is claimed to be god's revelation, it is mentioned in the scriptures (Vedas), it is the opinion of a great person, it is followed by a very large number of people or it is practised for quite a long time. Believe only that which appeals to your well informed mind and reason.

Periyar undertook a north Indian tour in February 1959. He addressed very large gatherings in Kanpur and Lucknow. What he spoke about Buddha in those meetings was reported briefly in 'Viduthalai' dated 21st February, 1959 : "To eradicate the degradation of Sudras and Panchamas who are nowadays known as backward people, we have to eradicate religion, scriptures (Shastras) and gods created by the Aryans. So long as these entities remain, we cannot abolish caste. It is for this reason Ambedkar became a Buddhist. He also made many others to join Buddhism. So all should come forward to get red of Hindu religion, god and caste, by means of adopting the Buddhist path.

Buddha's philosophy of compassion and reason, mutual understanding and peace appealed to Periyar. What we have given here is only a glimpse of what he did through out his life to emphasise the Buddhist concern to uphold human dignity and establish an egalitarian social order.

The modern rationalist online. -- URL:

http://files.periyar.org.in/TheModernRationalist/

Thanthai Periyar

Periyar the Prophet of the new Age

The socrates of South East Asia
Father of the social reform movement
and arch enemy of ignorance;
Superstitons; meaningless customs and base manners.

- Unesco

Thanthai Periyar E.V.Ramasamy

(17.9.1879-24.12.1973)

No God

No God, No God;

There is No God at all;

He who found the god is Fool;

He who propagates the god is Scoundrel;

He who worships the god is Barbarian.

-Thanthai Periyar.