SOD – Sinhala Only Act Pt.2
There is so much information and experiences that our families and the generations prior hold, it’s almost impossible to put it all down on paper.
This is part two of my conversation with my grandfather.
“With the introduction of the “Sinhala only” act and the peaceful satyagraha and civil disobedience of the Tamil politicians of that time, a sudden turn of events of violence was created by the Sri Lankan state and the buddhist clergy. Countless Tamil lives were lost in Sinhala areas, in addition to Tamil people’s homes and shops being burnt to the ground. In the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, even under the surveillance of the government, there was a horrible disaster brewing. I too was a victim and managed to take refuge in the temple. Not everyone though, was that lucky. This was in the late 50’s.
Then again in 83, similar incidents were triggered by rumours of a Sinhala soldier’s death. These rumours and exaggerations exacerbated an already tense situation and several Tamil lives and property were lost.
Just imagine these atrocities were happening in the capital, where all foreign embassies existed, so you can imagine what kind of atrocities occurred in secluded Tamil areas. A peace loving and religious community was forced to take up arms as a last resort to combat all these attacks and atrocities they were encountering at every turn in their lives.
Our children who too experienced and were victims of these atrocities from a very young age, your parents’ generation, had no other alternatives than to take up arms to save their families and their people.
During the Indian army’s occupation of our land, we were yet again dealing with an all too familiar situation. Our homes were ransacked, our women raped, our people arrested, tortured and murdered. Our youth were going missing.
Earlier I had mentioned some of the things that we had done to help our boys [LTTE], whether it was collecting food rations, collecting aluminum pots and pans to make ammunition and shells, the people supported it and contributed in the ways they knew how. The people are the Tigers and the Tigers are the people.
Although this was the case, there were a few for many reasons, that had felt that there had to be a distinction. Some leaked information about those helping the Tigers. Anyone who had helped the boys or voiced any dissent towards the government was tortured, arrested, or killed. Around 1987, after the death of Thileepan, the Indian army went house to house, looking for people who were part of the LTTE or sympathizers of the LTTE.
I can’t confirm if this was true, but I had heard the Indian army was looking for five singhams (lions) in my village (singham was a common part of people’s name at that time and was the latter part of my grandfather’s name). Fearing for my life, I remained in hiding for about 2 months in a neighboring village with my family before escaping to Colombo. Soon after, I left to come to Canada. During that time so many of our people were killed without mercy by both the Sri Lankan and Indian army in Kondavil that I remember.
Many of those including myself who worked in government services were deprived of promotions and salary increases without first being fluent in Sinhala. This was made possible with the passage of the “Sinhala Only Act”, a retrograde step to the entire community.
Standardization was introduced for admission into universities and other obstacles put in place to deprive the Tamil race of employment. The teachers that were appointed to schools were mainly buddhist priests, teaching Sinhala and propagating Buddhism. Immense obstacles and barriers had to be endured.
Now today under army rule, with camps all over, we are living in an open prison. Restrictions on freedom of speech, movement and harassment at every turn. We are relegated to such positions so as to deprive us from even remembering our heroes, who blessed us as a vanguard of the people.”
Leave a Reply