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Towards a Culture of Peace in Sri Lanka

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Towards a Culture of Peace in Sri Lanka This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Towards a culture of peace in Sri Lanka Disanayaka, J. B. 2000 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/93553 Downloaded on 06 Oct 2021 06:57:56 SGT ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Paper No. 13 ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library TOWARDS A CULTURE OF PEACE IN SRI LANKA J.B. Disanayaka Professor of Sinhala, Coordinator of Journalism University of Colombo, Sri Lanka A. THE BACKGROUND The culture of Sri Lanka may be best described as an 'Island Culture', a culture that is open to all directions, not only geographically but also culturally. Winds from all directions have blown into the Island to produce a unique culture spanning over two and a half millennia. Ethnicity, religion, language and other variables have made this culture a blend of several subcultures, each with its unique identity. a. Ethnicity On the basis of ethnicity, Sri Lankans fall into four major groups: the Sinhalese, who constitute the majority (74%), the Tamils, who form the largest minority, (18%), the Muslims who constitute a religio-ethnic group (7%) and the rest the Burghers, who are the descendants of the Portuguese and the Dutch who ruled the Western maritime provinces in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The term 'Sri Lankan Tamil' needs some comment because not all Tamils living in Sri Lanka are called 'Sri Lankan Tamils'. Comments Sivathamby, in his Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Politics ... in all the government records and even at the level of group consciousness there is a distinction between the 'Indian Tamils' (IT) of the tea and rubber plantation areas , and the 'Sri Lankan Tamils' (SLT) who are the traditional inhabitants of Sri Lanka largely confined to the northern and eastern parts of the island (p.l). / ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library 2 The 'Sri Lankan Tamils' who form the majority of Tamils living in the island have also been called 'Ceylon Tamils' or 'Jaffna Tamils' after the city of Jaffna, the capital of the Northern Province. Indian Tamils have also been referred to as 'Tamils of recent Indian origin' (in Sri Lanka: Serendipity under Siege). Sri Lankan Tamils constitute 12.5 % and the Indian Tamils 5.6% of the island's population. Muslim identity is unique in that they form a religio-ethnic group, in which all Muslims are followers of Islam. "In Sri Lanka" writes Sivathamby, "the term Tamil will not include the Muslims even though their mother tongue, except in the case of the few Malays of Sri Lanka, is Tamil. The Muslims of Sri Lanka consider themselves as belonging to an independent ethnic group" (p. 1). The Burghers are becoming today a dwindling minority. Owing to the escalating violence in Sri Lanka most of the Burghers have migrated to other countries, such as Australia and Canada. Their numbers have become so small that some writers tend to disregard them as a distinct minority, along with other smaller groups, such as the Veddhas (the aboriginals) and the Ahikuntakayas (the gypsies). b. Religion In Sri Lanka are found all the major religions of the world: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. On the basis of religion, the Sinhalese get divided into two as Sinhalese Buddhists and Sinhalese Christians and the Tamils get divided into two as Tamil Hindus and Tamil Christians. Buddhists constitute 69.3%, Hindus 25.5%, Christians 7.5% of the population. Almost all Muslims (7.5%) are followers of Islam, and almost all Burghers are Christian. The school of Buddhism that is prevalent in Sri Lanka is that known as the Theravada school, the School of the Elders. It is also called the Hinayana school (the Small Vehicle) in contrast to the Mahayana school (the Great Vehicle) as found in Buddhist countries such as Japan and Korea. Buddhists in Sri Lanka claim that their school is the closest to the original teachings of the Buddha. ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library 3 Hinduism in Sri Lanka is based on Saivaism in contrast to Vaisnavaism. Sivathamby commenting on the supremacy of the Saiva ideology says that It is important to state unambiguously the fact that this ideology considers Saivaism as the characteristic religion of the Tamils and that neither Vaisnavaism nor the innumerable rituals of the Little Tradition, which are part of the socio-religious life of the various caste groups, as constituting the foundations of Tamil social and religious life (p.64). c. Language Sri Lanka is a multi-linguistic nation, using three languages in daily communication: Sinhala, Tamil and English. Sinhala, a language of the Indo-Aryan sub-family of the larger Indo-European family, is spoken by the Sinhalese; Tamil, a language of the Dravidian family, is spoken by the Tamils and the Muslims. In addition to these two national languages, English is also spoken in Sri Lanka as a second language. In the new Constitution, all three languages have official status. There are Muslims, living among the Sinhalese, who use Sinhala for their daily communication and Tamil for their religious discourse. Muslims of Malay origin use the Malay language to communicate among themselves. There are three classical languages used in daily religious ritual: Pali, Sanskrit and Arabic. Pali, the vehicle of Buddhist literature, is used by Sinhalese Buddhists, Sanskrit, the vehicle of Vedic literature, is used by the Hindus, and Arabic, the language of the sacred 'Koran', by the Muslims. d. Caste Among the other factors that divide the Sri Lankans into groups is caste, a social phenomenon that affects both the Sinhalese and the Tamils. It is a system that is different from its Indian model. Caste among the Sri Lankan Tamils, particularly in Jaffna, seems to be more rigid than its counterpart in Sinhalese / ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library 4 society. "The dominant caste among SLT is the Vellalas, and except in rare cases they have the social control" (Sivathamby, p.4). e. Political History The island culture that is Sri Lanka has a history that goes as far back as the seventh century before Christ. It was essentially a culture of a kingdom, which lasted until 1815, when the British took over the whole island, thus converting the kingdom, first into a British crown colony and then into a dominion. In 1948, Sri Lanka gained independence and it is now a republic in the Commonwealth. Today, Sri Lanka is facing one of the gravest crises in her history, marked by two main features: communal violence, described by critics as "one of the world's nastier and more intractable ethnic conflicts" (William McGowan, Only Man is Vile, p.4) and the erosion of democracy and the rule of the law. Efforts are being taken by the government, religious and other non-governmental organizations to create a culture of peace in Sri Lanka where all, irrespective of their race, religion, language, caste, and so on, can live in peace, harmony and dignity. In the process of creating a new culture of peace, the media have an important role to play. This paper attempts to study the role of Sri Lankan media in promoting knowledge and practice of the culture of peace and also determine perceptions of people regarding this role. B. A CULTURE OF PEACE The ideal culture of any nation is what may be described as 'a culture of peace'. A culture of peace may be defined, in the broadest terms, as one in which an individual enjoys peace at three distinct but interrelated levels: a) at the primary level, one is at peace with oneself, where one enjoys 'peace of mind' b) at the secondary level, one is at peace with nature / ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library 5 c) at the final level, one is at peace with one's fellow beings, bringing about 'peaceful coexistence'. The ideal role of the media, then, is to create the necessary background to bring about peace at these three levels of interaction. Peace can be brought about only by those advocates of peace, media personnel, and opinion leaders who really understand the nature of the grievances perceived by the different communities in relation to each other. a. Peace of Mind The foundation of a culture of peace is the individual who has peace of mind. This is considered a sine qua non because an individual who is disturbed within is unable to extend peace to the external world: nature and fellow beings. Peace within oneself implies, at least, two things: that there is no divergence between one's words and deeds, and that there are no emotionally discordant notes. There are several factors that obstruct or disturb an individual's peace of mind. Some of these factors relate to external forces over which one has little or no control and some of them are the results of one's own creation. Factors over which an individual has little or no control relate to national problems such as poverty, economic inflation, chronic underdevelopment, political instability, violence and military aggression. On the other hand, the tensions that stem from the discordance between words and deeds of an individual are the result of one's own patterns of behavior, over which one does have control. The wider the discordance between one's words and deeds, the bigger the emotional crisis that disturbs one's peace of mind.
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