CHAPTER IV OFFICIAL LANGUAGE QUESTION the Portuguese
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CHAPTER IV OFFICIAL LANGUAGE QUESTION The Portuguese conquest and occupation of the Sinhalese littoral and Tamil areas was followed by the Dutch in 1656 and' the British in 1796. After initial control by the British East India Company from Madras, 1 these areas became a British Crown Colony in 1802. The , I Kandyan Sinhalese kingdom, which stood the Portuguese and early British attempts of conquest was ceded to the 2 British by the Kandyan convention of 1815. The four and a half centuries of European rule effected great changes in the political, econor.ic, religious and social structure, in the ethnic collective identities! and in the out look and life of both the Sinhalese and Tamil people. The colonial impact brought many changes. Despite of European awareness of the ethnic and cultural identity of the Tami1sadministrative unification tended to integrate the Tamil areas into a united Sri Lanka. The development of road and rail transport had the same effect. On the other hand local government institutions were slow to develop. Thus, at independence Sri Lanka's new rulers had a workable machinery for governing the country, while the majority Tamil had no institutional framework within which 85 to organize themselves even in the north, where they 3 formed a distinct majority. However, the effects of colonial rule were not all unfavorable to the Tamils. For instance, "the success of the Sinhalese of the high lands in maintaining their independence up to 1815 created a distincti^on between the Kandyans (up-country) Sinhalese and the low-country Sinhalese. The latter being a more westernized group due to their long tutelage under the Europeans were better placed to seize the economic opportunities available in the highlands after plantations were developed in those areas in the nineteenth century. They moved to the highlands as traders, contractors and entrepreneurs and often encountered the hostility of the more traditional Kandyan Sinhalese who found themselves I ' outstripped in the changing environment. This enabled the Tamil community of the north to have some pretensions of being one of the three major ethnic groups of the 4 country." Such pretensions were fostered by the influx of Tamil laborer from South India to work in the plantations and to undertake some of the ill-paid and unpleasant work in the urban sector. By 1931 this group of Indian Tamil immigrants outnumbered the descendants of the original Tamil settlers and together the two groups made up 25% of the population of t^e, country. However, the fact that 86 the new immigrants were settled far from the areas where the original Tamil settlers predominated and the caste composition of the immigrant group precluded close links 5 between the two groups. Meanwhile, the settlement of a large number of Ta mi i s in the highlands roused 1 considerable anti-Tamil feeling among the conservative Kandyan Sinhalese. By the early twentieth century education in English had become a key factor in access to the higher posts in government service and to the professions. The establishment of a jiumber of Christian missionary schools in the north enabled the Ceylon Tamils to gain an early lead in this respect. The presence of Tamils in the civil service of Sri Lanka is a big percentage than the population aggregate has been of the big irritant in Sinhala-Tami1 relationship even after the independence. Together with the development occurred the sharpening of a sense of identity among both Sinhalese and Tamils. Religious movements which emerged in the late nineteenth century among both groups were partly responsible for this development while the growth of newspapers and of literature in both Sinhala and Tamil 6 languages also re-enforced the trend. (These are discussed in detail in chapter 5) The political and administrative developments which took place during the British rule in a broad way helped 87 to shape up the later events. The legislative council, which lasted with various changes from 1833 to 1931, never really reflected the numerical propositions of the various ethnic groups in the population. The minority groups generally obtained more than their proportionate share of representation in the legislative council. This position ^ was radically changed with the introduction of universal franchise in 1931. Of the fifty elected seats in the , I legislature, thirty eight were won by the Sinhalese. This resulted in fears of Sinhalese domination and the minorities drew up a scheme where by the Sinhalese would be restricted to half the seats in the legislature - a scheme bitterly opposed by the Sinhalese leaders. T'^'us even at the attainment of independence in 1948 some of the ingredients of a possible Sinhalese-Tamil conflict were 7 present. There was a majority community which had access to political power and which felt that it was not obtaining its fair share of economic opportunities. In contrast there was a minority community with a strong sense of identity which feared that the economic advantages it had gained by the efforts of its members would be eroded by the use of political power on the part 8 of the majority Sinhalese. Freedom came to Sri Lanka on February 4, 1948 after 'four and half centuries of subjugation to foreign rule. 88 9 without a shot being fired or a life being lost, the transfer of power by the British to a local ruling class without a concrete, negotiated agreement between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority or without even creating the constitutional mechanism to promote co-^ ' . ■ i operation and compromise between the, two races is ; 1 described by sociologist Marshal Singer as follows: "When the British made the decision to grant final complete political independence in 1948, they granted that power to those who most closely approximated themselves. In terms of social back ground this meant the group to whom the British first began to transfer political power were broadly Ceylonese, largely Christian, mostly high- caste, highly urbanized, highly western eclucated, largely engaged in western-type occupations and of the highest economic and social class. More important for the operation of the political process in Ceylon, in terms of self-image and worId-outlook, those individuals possessed a strong sense of identification with the British values, 10 attitudes and perspectives." However, unlike in the neighboring subcontinent of India, independence in Sri Lanka was not accompanied by > internecine struggles and armed conflict. This was largely due to a political 'compromise' among the elite i leaders both Sinhalese and Tamil. It sllould be noted that 89 there was no mass movement of freedom in Sri Lanka and as such the general populace was not much involved in the change of power. The 'compromise' was based on the concept of a secular state in which all religious groups enjoyed equal rights----The English language was to be gradually replaced by both Sinhalese and Tamil as official languages, thus providing equal opportunities for both 11 communities. Moreover, the independent constitution laid down that "no disability or advantage should be conferred on persons any community or religion which were not conferred on person of other communities or religions."^ Then there was retreat from the 'equal electorates' I formula which had prevailed from 1931-1947. Since 1947 twenty five seats in Parliament were distributed according to area. This was intended to benefit the minority groups who lived in more sparsely populated areas. Thus for instance the northern and eastern provinces largely populated by Tamils and Moors and having some 13% of the population obtained 8 seats out of the 25 seats distributed for area thus giving some weightage in representation to the minority communities living there. Provision was also made in the constitution for the I representation of 'unrepresented intierests' in parliament by the nomination of six additional members. These arrangements satisfied most of the Tamil leadership at 90 independence and the leader of the largest Tamil political organization, Mr. G G Ponnambal ani joined the first government of independent Sri Lanka led by Mr D S 13 Senanayake. Though it looked everything was amicably settled for the satisfaction of all concerned, thee were snags from ! the beginning. "Firstly, this compromise was a considerable deviation from the idea prevalent among the , I Sinhalese that Sri Lanka was essentially the land of the Sinhalese and of Buddhism. The efforts of the leadership of the day to promote a Ceylonese or Sri Lankan nationalism as against Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism did I not succeed. The unwritten settlement thus dio not have 14 grass-rojots support among the Sinhalese. Differences arose when the Sinhalese leadership refused to include the Indians in Sri Lanka in the 'Political Compromise'. The Indian group included some moors and other groups from all parts of India who had come to Sri Lanka as traders and money lenders. They also included names of Tamil urban laborers. The bulk of I them, however, were workers in the plantation sector. Sananayake and the party he founded. The United National Party (UNP) were determined to regard the bulk of the Indians merely as temporary residents .^^his was partly because sfenanayake understood the fears of the Kandyan 91 Sinhalese who were apprehensive of becoming a minority in parts ofthe highlands. He was also alienated by f political opposition of the Indian Leadership first to the Independence constitution and to his party at the General elections of 1947. Thus by a series of laws in 1948/49 ' - i . • the bulk ofi the Indians were removed from the electoral register. The disfranchisement of the Indians led to 16 three important results. In the first place it upset one aspect of the political compromise on which ethnic harmony was built in Sri Lanka.