By Rajan Hoole –

Rajan Hoole

Sri Lanka: A Haunted Nation – The Social Underpinnings Of Communal Violence– Part 3

There was also then considerable pressure on the other minorities to stay with the Government’s line and not show any sym- pathy for the Tamil victims. Dr. M.C.M. Kaleel, a prominent UNPer and president of the All Ceylon Muslim League wrote a public letter to the Indian Union Muslim League protesting at the latter’s concern for Tamil victims in Sri Lanka (CDN 23.8.83):

“We the Moors of Sri Lanka who are all Muslims by religion were shocked to hear that the MP belonging to your party walked out from parliament in New Delhi in protest because there was no discussion on what they have called ‘the atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka’.”

Dr. Kaleel then tried to explain, as it were, to his Indian counterparts, the crime of the Tamils deserving punishment: “They are demanding a separate state called Eelam consisting of the North- ern and Eastern Provinces of the island.”

Muslims affiliated to the UNP and SLFP of- ten found themselves in an unenviable position. When there were communal attacks on Muslims in the North Western and Southern Provinces in the late 70s, it was left to the TULF leader Mr. Amirthalingam as Leader of the Opposition to raise the public outcry. Mr. A.C.S. Hameed was however, a leading Muslim member of the UNP whose influence in minority questions has been arguably benign. In the cabinet meeting of 27th July, Hameed argued unsuccessfully against the 6th Amendment, which effectively proscribed the TULF. He said that it would completely estrange the Tamils, and predicted that it would give In- dia a role by bringing her in as an intermediary

between the Government and the Tamils. (T. Sabaratnam, p.304). No one else, whether in the UNP or the SLFP, saw the practical consequences arising from this.

Ten years earlier (5th December 1973), Hameed, then in the opposition, criticised both standardization and the district quota system be- ing introduced as retrograde steps. He made a plea that “Education in this country should never contribute to the growth of communalism”. There was no protest from a single Sinhalese MP. In time the state of affairs among Muslim MPs in the SLFP and UNP led in 1986 to the birth of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress with its base in the south of the Eastern Province.

The Anglican Church’s response to the July 1983 violence seemed to involve its minority sta- tus as well as class. Although Tamils form about half of its membership, leading members of the Church have been part of the establishment since colonial times. The Church’s schools in Colombo command enormous prestige, and St. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia, has always been influen- tial in Government and the Security Services. The Finance Minister, the next Army Chief-of- Staff, the Clerk to the House of Representatives, Presidential Advisor Bradman Weerakoon and the Secretary to the Justice Ministry, to name a few, were old boys of the school or at least An- glicans. The Police Chief was an old boy of Trin- ity College.

The Anglican Church could have made an impact and shown its protest by declaring some of its institutions refugee camps and demand- ing that the Government should give them protection. However, the Church’s actions were timorous, while its leadership remained very deferential to the Government and oblivious to its criminality. The leadership tended to view the care of the refugees as the concern of the Government and the figures below at refugee camps suggest that few Tamils felt encouraged to shelter at Anglican institutions. The Hindu leader- ship in Colombo though with limited influence, has several times organised huge refugee camps at Saraswathy Hall from 1956.