{"id":107231,"date":"2013-09-24T01:36:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T20:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=107231"},"modified":"2013-09-29T10:51:15","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T05:21:15","slug":"sri-lankas-complex-background-correcting-amplifying-sheridan-and-gotabhaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-complex-background-correcting-amplifying-sheridan-and-gotabhaya\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Complex Background: Correcting & Amplifying Sheridan And Got\u0101bhaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Roberts<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

Invited to Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> by the government Greg Sheridan, a senior journalist of conservative leanings in The Australian<\/em> stable, brought together some of the themes pressed by the Defence Secretary<\/a><\/span> and KP Pathmanathan<\/a><\/span> of NERDO in illuminating way<\/a><\/span>s. The news item was\/is aimed at an Australian audience.[1]<\/a> This constituency is not well-informed about the settlement patterns and complexities of the Sri Lankan scenario. It will therefore be misled by some facets of the reportage because of the part-truths and oversimplifications incorporated therein.<\/p>\n

Such an exercise in empirical correction can be seen as pedantic nit-picking if pursued by itself; but each such corrective is pursued here with further elaborations in order to bring out the complexities of the Sri Lankan situation (and its recent history) for those not versed in the context. It also enables me to amplify some striking motifs within the Sheridan overview. As these issues are not always connected with each other my essay will be composed in point form with segments numbered A, B, C, et cetera.<\/p>\n

Aficianados<\/em> who have read Sheridan\u2019s article are likely to attribute the greatest weight to his summary of the reasons for the Tamil liberation struggle as conveyed in part through KP\u2019s commentary on the factors generating the conflict within Sri Lanka. This is a huge topic. Invariably readers would evaluate any bald summary in conflicting ways. For me to engage in such an exercise is futile.<\/p>\n

It is also unnecessary. I anticipated the heightening of the split and identified obstacles in the path of political accommodation as early as 1976\/78 (see Roberts 1978);[2]<\/a> <\/strong>while my most recent assessment<\/a><\/span> is embodied within \u201cThe Tamil Movement for Eelam,\u201d in the E-Bulletin of the International Sociological Association<\/em> No. 4, July 2006, pp. 12-24. Moreover, this type of survey has been preceded by a cluster of articles collected from several scholars in books which I edited under the auspices of the Marga Research Institute in 1979 and again in 1997 and 1998. There are numerous older studies by WH Wriggins, Urmila Phadnis, Robert Kearney, James Jupp, BH Farmer, KM de Silva, S Arasaratnam; and, more recently, essays or books by Nira Wickremasinghe, J. Spencer, Lakshmanan Sabaratnam, David Rampton and Neil De Votta besides others. Distilling this work on the factors that generated the Sinhala-Tamil confrontations over time in a few words is a tall order. It is not the arena that I wish to address here.<\/p>\n

I focus instead on distinct \u2018twigs\u2019 and \u2018branches\u2019 within the Sheridan product<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

A.<\/strong> \u201cThe Sinhalese-Tamil division is the central fault line of Sri Lankan history. They follow different religions \u2014 the Sinhalese are Buddhists, the Tamils are Hindus\u2026. <\/strong>(Sheridan). A2.<\/strong> This note could mislead Australians. The Sinhalese are mostly Buddhist; but way back in 1921 the census tabulated the proportion of Christian Sinhalese as 9.0 per cent and the proportion of Christian Tamils as 11.7 per cent. Recent enumerations avoid cross-tabulation, but my surmise is that the percentage of Christians among Sinhalese will be around 7 per cent while that among Tamils will be around 11 or 12 per cent. Within the Christian minority among both ethnic communities the Catholics constitute a substantial majority and have concentrations in some localities. In recent decades various Pentecostal churches have made inroads into the existing Christian collections and perhaps attracted a few more converts from the Buddhist and Hindu peoples. A3<\/strong>. The Christians constituted a significant section of the emerging Sri Lankan bourgeoisie and middle classes in the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries \u2013 with their disproportionate influence being most pronounced among the Tamils. A4.<\/strong> As critically, the SL Tamil Christians have been a powerful strand within both the parliamentary and militant strands of Tamil political action from the 1940s till today. Catholic clerics have been among the firebrand spokespersons for the LTTE from the outset. <\/strong>A significant number of the Tiger suicide attackers \u2013 m\u0101v\u012brar <\/em>now\u2014have been Catholic or Christians of other denominations.[3]<\/a> In brief, most of the churches in Sri Lanka have been divided on ethnic lines.<\/p>\n

B.<\/strong> \u201cThe situation is complicated by the presence of 50 million Tamils next door<\/strong> in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.\u201d The population of Tamilnadu is even larger: an estimated<\/a><\/span> 74,319,357 in 2013, rising from 73,221,042 in 2012. Here Sheridan makes a vital point which Australians and Tamils everywhere need to absorb. It has two dimensions. Firstly, read with attention to conditioning factors in a causal process, such a feature highlights a force that so many scholars (e. g. Robert Kearney 1967, 1973) have identified as a factor that informed the failure of Sinhalese political parties to share power in some measure with Tamil parties: namely, the fact that the Sinhalese are a majority in Lanka who have a sense of being an endangered minority in the immediate geo-political arena (also Roberts 1978). Secondly, this feature highlights an important issue for all those in Australia, from Kingsbury<\/a><\/span> to Haigh to Lynch to Brian Senewiratne<\/a><\/span> et cetera, who insist on the validity of the SL Tamil demand for a separate state.[4]<\/a> The problem is that such an independent state (or nearly state) would then set up an irredentist situation for the Republic of India. B2. <\/strong>The outcome is a certain one: the Republic of India will look askance at a neighbour, the state of Eelam, which could stimulate and then materially sustain a campaign for separate statehood for Tamilnadu (with all its domino implications for the unity of India for those inclined towards futuristic evaluations). B3.<\/strong> Before India faces such a threat, however, one would have a political scenario where the state of Eelam and the rump state of Sri Lankan would be smashing each other to smithereens in Wars Five, Six and Seven as friction heightens over border delimitations, water distribution and electricity allocation. This is a prediction directed by common sense not fancy. B4.<\/strong> Such prospects, both B2 and B3, would have been, in my surmise, future probabilities if the LTTE had secured a firm de jure status that consolidated the de facto statehood that Thamil\u012blam<\/em> under the LTTE enjoyed from 1990 to 2009. Be it noted that the state of Thamil\u012blam<\/em> that existed from 1990-2009 was, as Keerawella notes, an \u201covert mono-ethnic state\u201d directed by a \u201ctotalistic perception\u201d of its requirements<\/a><\/span> (2013: 7). The mass eviction of local Tamil-speaking Muslims from the Jaffna Peninsula, Mannar and everywhere in Tiger territory in late 1990 was just one manifestation of this dominant tendency.<\/p>\n

C.<\/strong> As his own evaluation Sheridan tells the Australian audience that \u201cthe Tamil Tigers were the most supremely deadly and effective terrorist group to emerge at any time in the second half of the 20th century. They pioneered<\/strong> two terrorist innovations \u2014 suicide bombings, later copied by al-Qa\u2019ida, and child soldiers and child terrorists.\u201d This is not far off course, but two adjustments can be inserted before moving towards a clarification of the LTTE\u2019s highly innovative military strategies and the development of sacrificial commitment among its fighters and citizenry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pirap\u0101haran pays homage to the Black Tigers on Black Tiger Day, 5 July<\/p><\/div>\n

C2.<\/strong> Sheridan is in error. The first suicide attacks of the contemporary period in world history actually occurred in Beirut<\/a><\/span> on 23 October 1983 when two explosive-laden trucks were driven into barracks occupied by American and French troops by mujahid<\/em> from a relatively obscure group called \u201cIslamic Jihad\u201d \u2013 assaults which left 299 servicemen dead. C3.<\/strong> The first Tiger suicide attack took place on 5 July 1987 when a Tiger soldier from the locality, one Valipuram Vasanthan, who bore the code name \u201cMiller,\u201d drove a truck bomb into an SL army camp set up in the precincts of a school at Nelliyady in the Jaffna Peninsula during the Army\u2019s Vadamarachchi Operation.[5]<\/a> C4.<\/strong> C2 and C3 pinpoint a\u00a0minor error of\u00a0 comparative fact. However, what is missed out by Sheridan is more vital. I devote a separate segment (D) for this aspect of LTTE operations and the misplaced worldwide denigration of their suicide attacks.<\/p>\n

D. <\/strong>The LTTE\u2019s enshrinement of sacrificial devotion to cause, as I have contended in numerous essays (Roberts, 2005a, b, 2006, 2007, 2010a, 2010c), commenced with an affirmation that each activist would commit suicide rather than be captured alive with the likelihood that the captive would then disclose vital information to the enemy under torture. The kuppi<\/em> or cyanide vial carried by most fighters\/activists was seen as \u201ca good friend\u201d (Schalk 1997: 74-75, 76). It was a defensive ploy adopted by Prabhakaran himself \u2013 as he explained to a BBC team in 1991 \u2013 from the very outset in the late 1970s or early 1980s (BBC 1991). The first official suicide hero was Selvam Pakin<\/a><\/span>, who bit his capsule on 18 May 1984. In my amendment, however, Seelan, aka Charles Anthony, then second-in-command of the LTTE, was the first to adhere to this motto: injured and unable to run when discovered by a SL Army patrol at Meesalai on 15 July 1983, he ordered a junior compatriot to shoot him (Roberts 2010a: 181). In the LTTE perception, therefore, suicidal acts of this kind were tar-kotai<\/em>, \u201ca gift of self\u201d and a rendering of uyirayutam<\/em> or deploying life as weapon (Roberts, \u201cSelf-Annihilation,\u201d in 2010a: 185).<\/p>\n

D2.<\/strong> The LTTE, therefore, adopted defensive suicide as their badge of honour from early on, a display of arpannippu<\/em> that also attracted the admiration of their Tamil people[6]<\/a> and gave the LTTE an edge over all the other militant associations in the competition for recruits in the post-83 period.<\/p>\n

D3.<\/strong> The LTTE did not adopt suicide attacks in its offensive armoury till 1987. This step was a logical one: explosive-laden suicidal operatives are a low-cost precision weapon. They are, typically, weapons of the weak or tools deployed by a weaker force in warring contexts: within the history of warfare, the suicide-bomber-is-to-drone as machete-is-to-machine-gun. The LTTE, certainly, as Sheridan notes, was innovative in this regard. I believe the suicide vests, belts, brassieres et cetera which they developed, were skilled \u2018engineering\u2019 masterpieces. More to the point, they have not only been the only insurgency to develop a naval arm, but the only navy to use fast attack craft or speedboats as suicide bombs on such an extensive scale.[7]<\/a> In association with their swarm tactics at sea<\/a><\/span>, the Sea Tigers proved to be a deadly asset<\/a><\/span> for the LTTE from 1990 till the very end. As the graphic map delineates, during the desperate LTTE defence of its remaining territory of some 1-2 sq. kilometres in mid-May 2009, one action involved a bomb-laden speedboat charging the water-line and skip-bouncing across the beach to hit a newly-established SL Army bunker (see detail in\u00a0map)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

D4.<\/strong> The focus on LTTE suicide attacks \u2013 complemented at times by attention to child recruitment \u2013 has been a typical tool in criticism of the LTTE from conservative quarters in the West. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was massaging this inclination during his chat with Sheridan. Typical of the accusative attitudes has been the work of the American political scientist, Robert Pape, who hit the headlines on this topic circa 2003 (Pape 2003, 2005). Pape adhered to a form of instrumental rationality that is so dominant in US academia. His survey of the LTTE in this realm concentrated solely on suicide attacks and was oblivious to their use of suicide as defensive tool<\/a><\/span> on the one hand and, on the other hand, as protest tool through fasts-unto-death in 1987 and 1989 (Roberts, \u201cBlunders in Tigerland,\u201d 2007b).[8]<\/a> Such yawning gaps in coverage are an injustice to both the LTTE and to scholarship.<\/p>\n

D5<\/strong>. It is not suicide attacks qua <\/em>suicidal action, but those occasions of suicide attack that went beyond legitimate military targets and enveloped a mass of civilians in flame or devastation that critics should focus on. In the case of the LTTE there is a vast array of such carnage<\/a><\/span> wrought on civilian elements in Sri Lankan society through bomb placements, commando raids in Colombo as well as gun \u2018n machete killing raids in border areas<\/a><\/span>. The inordinate emphasis on suicide bombers in the Western world today calls for self-reflective evaluations of the Western world\u2019s historical evolution and ideological baggage by those attentive to its deep processes<\/a><\/span> and aware of the enormous sacrifices and suicidal swarm attacks<\/a><\/span> launched as a matter of course during the trench warfare of World War One.<\/p>\n

E. <\/strong>Sheridan\u2019s excursion among elevated political circles in Sri Lanka yielded two nuggets of information on the methodologies, so to speak, of the war. When he asked KP about the inspiration behind the use of suicide bombers, the latter\u2019s response took one to the heart of LTTE thinking. KP:\u00a0 \u201cIt was Prabhakaran\u2019s own idea\u2026. We used it first in the 1980s. Actually, I remember early in the 80s some people sat with us and we talked of the Japanese in World War II and the kamikaze bombers\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The striking impact of kamikaze attacks by Japanese airmen in the Pacific theatre of war during World War Two is widely known (albeit also overestimated).[9]<\/a> <\/strong>Less well known is the fact that the Japanese also deployed kamikaze in midget-submarines or manned torpedoes on some occasions. Significantly, the LTTE were alive to this aspect and had begun experimenting with mini-submersibles themselves.[10]<\/a> E2.<\/strong> The Japanese went further. In the large island of Saipan in June 1944 they encouraged and coerced the Japanese civilian settler population to commit mass suicide by jumping off the cliff<\/a><\/span> as the American Army advanced and squeezed them into a small pocket of territory.[11]<\/a> In 1945 in Okinawa they distributed grenades among the civilians and promoted suicidal self-annihilation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Suicides at Marpi Point, or \u201cBanshee Cliff,\u201d at Saipan<\/p><\/div>\n

E3.<\/strong> The LTTE had this inclination themselves. They encouraged their citizenry \u2013 perhaps some 340,000 or so all told \u2014 to withdraw eastwards in 2008\/09 as the SL Army advanced<\/a><\/span> \u2014 mostly from the west. The resulting series of multiple displacement seems to have been willingly followed<\/a><\/span> at the start (Reddy 2009), but from January 2009, as conscription and other pressures got more severe, some elements of the Tamil citizenry began to rebel by seeking escape (in the face of Tiger threats and actual executions or shooting). In paraphrase the LTTE attitude was as stark as simple: \u201cwe have suffered on your behalf; so you must suffer alongside.\u201d Thus Rasamalar, a lady aged 48, remarked that \u201cthe organization said we were going to die anyway if we crossed to the army-controlled area and told us to die with them\u201d (de Silva-Ranasinghe 2010b: 4). Veerasingham Anandasangaree, a veteran Tamil politician, summed up their situation quite pithily: \u201cmore than a hundred thousand people \u2026 [have] been mercilessly driven like cattle into Kilinochchi by the LTTE from the areas under their control in the neighbouring districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitheevu. \u2026 they are [now] squeezed into small villages already overcrowded with the locally displaced persons from the Kilinochchi district itself. The LTTE holds these people to ransom for no fault of theirs, but only for the sole purpose of using them as human shield for their own protection\u201d (quoted in de Silva-Ranasinghe 2010b: 3).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Graphic Map of war zone and SL Army lines of advance \u2013 Daily Mirror, 20 March 2009<\/em><\/p>\n

E4.<\/strong> Thus, in early 2009, aware as I was of the total dedication to cause among the LTTE hierarchy and many of its fighting personnel, I was deeply afraid. I thought the LTTE would encourage and enforce a Saipan or Jonestown<\/a><\/span>. I wrote an interrelated series of essays in http:\/\/www.transcurrents (Roberts 2009c) raising the prospect of mass political suicide to match the act of self-immolation in protest outside UN headquarters in Geneva on 19 February 2009 by Murugath\u0101san Varnakulasingham, a young Tamil from London. E5. <\/strong>Thankfully I was in error. Unlike the Japanese at Saipan and Okinawa most of the Tamil citizens opted to live. As Keerawella puts it, they began to \u201cdesert\u201d the LTTE (2013: 9). In January 2009 roughly 5000 people are estimated to have got away on foot or by boat from their corralled hostage\/sandbag\/blackmail tool situation<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to SL government territory\u2013 usually under cover of darkness. During February 36,378 escaped, while in March 57,412 successfully moved to government territory.<\/span>[12]<\/a> On the flip side, however, as many as 246,000 people (inclusive of LTTE fighters) remained within what I call their \u201cLast Redoubt\u201d in mid-April 2009 \u2013 living, as before, in heavily congested and awful conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tent City in the Last Redoubt, circa Feb-March 2009\u2014from Ban Ki-Moon\u2019s Panel<\/p><\/div>\n

When the SL army penetrated the Last Redoubt on 19\/20th<\/sup> April, however, some 103-126,000 people streamed and struggled across to safer terrain.[13]<\/a> But even then another 90,000 to 100,000 thousand remained loyal to the LTTE and still believed that international intervention would save their bacon. Those who had been located in the north of the Last Redoubt moved south (see illustrations below taken from TamilNet) to the little \u2018stump\u2019 of land that stood for what was left of the state of Thamil\u012blam<\/em>. Citizen Silva estimates that in early May\u00a0 the number of people, inclusive of LTTE personnel, located in this remnant Thamil\u012blam<\/em> amounted to 135,00-146,000 \u2013 an appraisal which should rectify the Tamilnet claim of 165,000 people (email note, clarified also in IDAG 2013). In brief, the rump LTTE state still had considerable support and many true believers among the citizenry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Congestion at Pokkanai on main road in Last Redoubt, 16 April 2009 \u2013 Tamilnet<\/p><\/div>\n

F.<\/strong> In his clarification to Sheridan about the use of suicide attacks KP went further:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 we talked of the Japanese in World War II and the kamikaze bombers. Somehow that came from Prabhakaran\u2019s mind. Also, in Tamil Nadu there was the tradition that people sometimes set themselves on fire (in protest)<\/strong>.\u201d In other words, KP dwelt, albeit briefly, on the force of those cultural traditions in Tamil society in India which sustain stone epitaphs (nadukal)<\/em> for (a) those who for commit honour suicide or protest suicide and (b) for hero-figures who died in defence of community \u2013 stones which can become shrines that embody fierce local deities who respond to propitiation from devotees\/supplicants.[14]<\/a> F2<\/strong>. This has been my pitch since the early 2000s as conveyed in a series of articles (see bibliography). Without direct access to Tamil through facility in the language, my anthropological instincts were aroused by incidents of sympathetic suicide in grief in Tamilnadu when Indira Gandhi was killed in 1984 and later when MGR was near death from a heart attack (Roberts 1996). Since then, guided by information in works by Narayan Swamy, Peter Schalk, Christiani Natali and Dagmar Helmann-Rajanayagam, I have been elaborating upon the force of Tamil history and culture for some time: with material from such specialists as David Shulman, Mazakazu Tanaka, Rohan Bastin and Diane Mines giving me access to their socio-cultural world. Thus, for me, this note from KP is manna from heaven \u2013 confirmation from the central core of LTTE thought processes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Moving south \u2014 Pics from Tamilnet - early May 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

G.<\/strong> Again, in Sheridan\u2019s report there is the confirmation of a factor bearing heavily upon the final outcome of Eelam War IV, a factor that most people suspected, a confirmation coming from no less a person than the man overseeing the military exercise, Got\u0101bhaya\u00a0 Rajapaksa. \u201cBetween 2006 and 2008 we destroyed 12 of these floating armouries\u2026. <\/strong>The Americans were very, very helpful. Most of the locations of these ships were given to us by the Americans \u2026American satellite technology located the ships and enabled the Sri Lankans to hit them<\/strong>.\u201d See the illustrations below for one exercise in September 2007 that destroyed three rouge ships.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Moving south \u2014 Pics from Tamilnet - early May 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

G2.<\/strong> Inside information[15]<\/a> <\/strong>indicates that American cooperation was enabled by the general circumstances associated with the \u201cwar on terror\u201d after 9\/11; but a specific incident was also of critical import. A hardline Al Qaida \u201cterrorist\u201d was ferreted out in Sri Lanka at some point in the mid-2000s. Sri Lankan cooperation in arresting this man and allowing USA to create an US passport so that he could be flown out to their cells somewhere was secured at a price: the quid pro quo was access to USA\u2019s satellite information. G3. <\/strong>However there is perhaps some overstatement by Gotabhaya in marking the significance of this factor. Some caveats are called for. Luck had a hand. When the Maldivian government sequestered an LTTE trawler named \u201cSri Krishna\u201d in 2006 <\/strong>its crew and equipment gave the SL Navy access to the modus operandi of LTTE transhipments as well as GPS coordinates (Perera 2007; also Jane\u2019s Naval Intelligence 2009). G4<\/strong>. The Indian Ocean is a large space. The sea lanes are thick with traffic. There is room to contend that the innovative operational and tactical knowledge of the SLN commanders was of consequence in nailing down the pattern of dispersion and movement of the Tiger warehouse ships as well as their assembly points. As with the army, the presence of experienced officers in command positions was central to the considerable role of the SL Navy in handicapping the LTTE war effort.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Congested life \u2013 note red tiled houses in background , 1 May 2009 \u2013 Tamilnet<\/p><\/div>\n

H1.<\/strong> Standing in 2013 perhaps the most significant aspect of the Sheridan interviews was the theme of \u201creconciliation\u201d emphasised by both KP<\/a><\/span> and Got\u0101bhaya . However, Rajapaksa\u2019s interpretation\/spin calls for some caveats. To quote the Defence Secretary: \u201c[Reconciliation] is not an easy task, especially for the people of the north. More than 55 per cent of Tamils live outside the north and the east and have no issues of reconciliation. They mingle with other communities all the time<\/strong>.\u201d H2<\/strong>. Here Got\u0101bhaya\u00a0 was taking advantage of Sheridan\u2019s unfamiliarity with the local context to massage the picture in demographic terms. He ignores what has been standard sociological practice for Sri Lanka, namely the differentiation of the Tamil peoples of Sri Lanka into two categories, a practice enshrined in the census as \u201cSri Lanka Tamils\u201d and \u201cIndian Tamils.\u201d The Sri Lanka Tamils are widely regarded to have their roots in peoples who settled down in the island from the 13th<\/sup> century at the very least; whereas the Indian Tamils refer to the plantation labourers, port workers, other menials and traders who migrated to the island in the British period in order to service the plantations in the Central Highlands or to secure employment or set up enterprises in the growing urban metropolis of Colombo. The Indian Tamil plantation workers have always been at the bottom of the economic and status hierarchies in Sri Lanka, though a few families have climbed up and become wealthy landowners or traders during the 20th<\/sup> century; and the Indian Chettiyar and other merchant families within this category have been among the wealthiest people in the land. In 1921 the \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d even outnumbered the SL Tamils making up 13.4% of the total population in Ceylon as against 11.5% for the latter. But by 1971 their proportion was down to 9.3% as against 11.2 per cent for the SL Tamils because of political processes of \u2018induced\u2019 return. Now, in 2012 they have dwindled to 843,323 persons or 4.2 per cent of the total population.[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Exodus as people desert LTTE \u2013pro-govt sources<\/p><\/div>\n

H3.<\/strong> The Tamil dialect spoken by most Indian Tamils is said to immediately distinguish them from that of the SL Tamils who consider their own speech-form to be more refined. As vitally, caste and status considerations have tended to separate the Indian Tamils from the SL Tamils; so that the demeaning attitudes of the latter sometimes alienated Indian Tamil people. Again, the spatial location of Indian Tamils in the highlands and the south west accentuated this difference and their politics. For the most part, therefore, the demand for \u201cEelam\u201d seems to have had limited mileage in Indian Tamil circles, though I suspect that there was admiration for Pirap\u0101haran and the LTTE because of the capacities of sacrifice displayed and the success they achieved.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>H4. <\/strong>However, this set of caveats demands its own caveat. Some Indian Tamils resided in the north and east; and their numbers burgeoned because of the nationalization of plantations in the 1970s. Thus, in 1981 the census recorded 43,779 \u201cIndian Tamils\u2019 in the Districts of Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya as differentiated from 166,861 \u201cSL Tamils\u2019 in the same areas. Therefore, they constituted as much as 26.2% of the population in these regions, with many of them working as agricultural labourers or tenant farmers. The outbreak of war in the 1980s eventually resulted in many of them joining, or being conscripted into, the LTTE.[17]<\/a> Logically, their Tamilness would have been sharpened in the course of the war.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Seishin sunk 10 Sept 2007<\/p><\/div>\n

H5<\/strong>. A refined sociological study is now required to indicate whether this specific cluster has become \u201cSri Lankan Tamil\u201d (just as a sprinkling of \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d in Colombo and elsewhere in the south have become \u201cSinhalese\u201d via marriage and assimilation). The 2012 census revealed the following figures for Indian Tamils in the four districts Mannar, Kilinochchi,[18]<\/a> Mullaitivu and Vavuniya which embraced the same area in 1981: 5,550. Thus the figure of 43,779 in 1981 has reduced dramatically. Even if one allows for deaths in battle as Tiger recruits or migration to Tamilnadu[19]<\/a> in the period 1983-2006, the probability is that many of these individuals\/families presented themselves as \u201cSL Tamil\u201d when the Tamil-speaking census enumerators came round in 2012, or that the enumerators themselves took this decision.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Matsushima sunk 10 October 2007<\/p><\/div>\n

H5<\/strong>. Attending to this central distinction within the Tamil population, therefore, the census of 2012 reveals that out of the 2,270,924\u00a0 Sri Lanka Tamil people in the island, 673,648 lived outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces, adding up to 29.7 per cent of their total population. If one added the 824,228 persons registered as \u201cIndian Tamil\u201d who were enumerated outside the two provinces,[20]<\/a> and created the entity \u201cTamil\u201d as Got\u0101bhaya Rajapaksa did, the proportion becomes larger.<\/p>\n

H6.<\/strong> Though the demographic figures call for refined adjustment in this manner, Got\u0101bhaya Rajapaksa\u2019s contention still carries weight. A considerable proportion of the Sri Lanka Tamil people have lived in the southern regions for a long time and they have continued to migrate in that direction in the course of self-advancement. Their presence in the city of Colombo and what is easily the richest region in Sri Lanka in per capita terms, namely, Colombo District, underlines Got\u0101bhaya\u2019s message \u2013 though only up to a point that is subject to further caveats below.<\/p>\n

H7.<\/strong> Understanding Sri Lanka\u2019s political economy and growth history in spatial terms is central to this argument. From the early 19th<\/sup> century Colombo became the island\u2019s transport and administrative hub as well as controlling domain (Roberts 1989). Internal migration was Colombo-centric. The indigenous political and economic elites invariably had their residences and operational offices within its environs, though some of them had one foot in the metropolis and another in some regional locality (like the Rajapaksa family yesterday and today).<\/p>\n

H8.<\/strong> Framed thus, it is of political significance that, way back in 1921 for instance, the percentage of Burghers[21]<\/a> <\/strong>in the city of Colombo as then constituted was 6.0 per cent, while the percentage of \u201cSL Tamils\u201d was 5.0 per cent in comparison with the \u201cSinhalese\u201d who constituted 46.8 per cent.[22]<\/a> While the British elements in the island (administrators, agency houses and plantation owners) commanded the reigns of economic power, the indigenous component of professional classes in the early 20th<\/sup> century had a significant proportion of Burghers and Tamils.<\/p>\n

H9<\/strong>. In striking contrast, and as indicator of shifting demographic trends in more recent decades, the proportion of Sinhalese in the metropolis as it is defined today is only 24 per cent, with the Muslim population now making up 40% and the two Tamil communities together constituting 33% (the latter figure having grown from 24.5% in 1971).[23]<\/a> Such a narrow focus is partially misleading however. There is such a phenomenon as the \u201cgreater Colombo metropolitan arena\u201d where the Sinhalese are in a majority. Indeed, such fringe areas as Maharagama and Kolonnawa seem to be the regions spawning some of the most rabid Sinhala extremist elements today (such as BBS, Sinhala R\u0101vaya and JVP and Hela Urumaya).<\/p>\n

H10<\/strong>. Ethnic demographic distribution cannot be surveyed without fine-tuned attention to economic and political power. While political power is clearly commanded by parliamentarians chosen by Sinhala constituencies, the\u00a0 Sri Lanka Tamils continue to have a substantial stake among the professional classes of lawyers, doctors, accountants and mercantile functionaries located in Colombo; and both Indian Tamil and SL Tamil businessmen are among the richest entrepreneurs in the island. Businesses located in the Pettah were a controlling hub in the trade with India from the 19th<\/sup> century; and Chettiyar and other Indian Tamil businesses continue to dominate this lucrative arena today \u2013 with the gold and jewellery houses in Sea Street serving as one of the vital aspects of this financial power.<\/p>\n

H11<\/strong>. It is by complicating Gothabaya\u2019s message in this manner that one can gain a fuller appreciation of the arguments that emphasise demographic distribution. Recall that he utilised the population figures to claim that \u201c[Tamil people] mingle with other communities all the time.\u201d<\/strong> This suggestion has recently been reiterated by KP<\/a><\/span> as well: \u201cTamils live in other parts of the country with the Sinhalese, so why is it [hatred of the Sinhala] only an issue in Jaffna?\u201d<\/p>\n

H12<\/strong>. Both Got\u0101bhaya and KP, therefore, argue that comingling in the same space in the southern areas of Lanka are indications that the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim peoples get on reasonably well with each other. While such a message is pertinent as a corrective to those foreigners who have been misled into believing that these communities are at each other\u2019s throats most of the time, there is a misleading simplification attached to this line of emphasis. Does a demographic mosaic and evidence of strands of cross-fertilisation necessarily mean amity and fellowship? Recall that way back in the mid-twentieth century the scholar HS Furnivall spoke of Burma and parts of South East Asia as constituting a \u201cplural society.\u201d[24]<\/a> <\/strong>In this reading the plurality was confined to the market place. There was no in-depth integration of the different ethnic groups in a socio-political and\/or communitarian sense.<\/p>\n

H13.<\/strong> Thus we must use Furnivall\u2019s contention as well as more refined studies to test the waters of the Got\u0101bhaya argument in Sri Lanka. Yes, the deities of the Indian Saivite and Vaishnava world have entered Sri Lanka over the centuries and been incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon under the Buddha\u2019s varama<\/em> (authority).[25]<\/a> Hindu, Catholic and Buddhist processions vend their ways across urban streets without hindrance. Yes, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians co-mingle at powerful deity shrines (both Hindu and Catholic) in propitiation of these deities.[26]<\/a> But even when they visit Kataragama and Munnesvaram at the same moment for acts of propitiation, or the fulfilment of vows made earlier, are respective Buddhist and Hindu devotees working within the same body of thought and sentiment? My speculative answer to the latter question is \u201cno, that is too simple an equation. There is differential similarity. There is both overlap and fundamental difference.\u201d Again, while there may be some social exchanges across ethnic lines at office, club and even drawing rooms in certain class circles in Colombo, do we have adequate sociological data on the extent\/depth in the patterns of cross-ethnic visitation to each other\u2019s residences? The seeming amity witnessed today has also to be attentive to (a) the memories of older Tamil residents who lived through the July 1983 pogrom in the south and are aware of the previous mini-pogroms of 1958 and 1977; and (b) the fact that Muslim and Tamil householders in Sinhala-majority localities are fully alive to the extremist political agendas that are being voiced today by such forces as the BBS, S\u012bhala R\u0101vaya and J\u0101thika Hela Urumaya.<\/p>\n

H14.<\/strong> Thus, in brief, \u201cplurality\u201d is invariably a complex phenomenon. Simplified glosses can be misleading.<\/p>\n

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Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2004 Narrating Tamil Nationalism. Subjectivities & Issues<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications [a review essay reprinted from South Asia<\/em>, 2004.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2005a \u201cSaivite Symbolism, Sacrifice and Tamil Tiger Rites,\u201d Social Analysis<\/em> 49: 67-93.<\/p>\n

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Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2006a \u201cPragmatic Action & Enchanted Worlds: A Black Tiger Rite Of Commemoration,\u201d Social Analysis<\/em> 50: 73-102.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2006b \u201cThe Tamil Movement for Eelam,\u201d E-Bulletin of the International Sociological Association<\/em>, No. 4, July 2006, pp. 12-24.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2007a \u201cSuicide Missions as Witnessing: Expansions, Contrasts,\u201d Studies<\/em> in Conflict and Terrorism<\/em>, vol. 30 (10): October 2007, pp. 857-88.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2007b \u201cBlunders in Tigerland: Pape\u2019s Muddles on \u2018Suicide Bombers\u2019 in Sri Lanka,\u201d Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics<\/em> <\/strong>available at <\/strong>http:\/\/archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de\/volltextserver\/7868\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2009a Confrontations in Sri Lanka: Sinhalese, LTTE and Others<\/em>\u00b8 Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2009b \u201cRealities of War,\u201d Frontline<\/em>, 26\/10, 9-22 May 2009.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2009c \u201cSuicide for Political Cause,\u201d April 2009, http:\/\/transcurrents.com<\/a>, four serial articles, reprinted subsequently in Roberts, Fire and Storm<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2010, pp. 219-38.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2009d \u201cTamil Migration within and beyond Sri Lanka,\u201d 5 December 2009, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2009\/12\/05\/tamil-migration-within-\u00a0 and-beyond-sri-lanka\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2010a Fire and Storm. Essays in Sri Lankan Politics<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2010b \u201cHitler, Nationalism, Sacrifice: Koenigsberg and Beyond\u2026Towards the Tamil Tigers,\u201d http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2010\/03\/hitler-nationalism-sacrifice.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2010c \u201cSelf-Annihilation for Political Cause: Cultural Premises in Tamil Tiger Selflessness,\u201d in Roberts, Fire and Storm. Essays in Sri Lankan Politics<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 161-201.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2010 \u201cDilemmas at War\u2019s End: Thoughts on Hard Realities,\u201d 10 Feb. 2009, http:\/\/groundviews.org\/2009\/02\/10\/dilemmas-at-wars-end-thoughts-on-hard-realities\/<\/a>, rep. in Roberts, Fire and Storm, <\/em>Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 267-74.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2010 \u201cDilemma\u2019s at War\u2019s End: Clarifications and Counter-offensive,\u201d www. groundviews.org<\/a>, rep. in Roberts, Fire and Storm, <\/em>Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 275-87.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2010 \u201cKilling Rajiv Gandhi: Dhanu\u2019s Metamorphosis in Death?\u201d South Asian History and Culture, <\/em>1: 25-41.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2011 \u201cPeople of Righteousness march on Sri Lanka,\u201d The Island<\/em>, 22 June 2011 and http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/06\/27\/people-of-righteousness-target-sri-lanka\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2011 \u201cDeath and Eternal Life: Contrasting Sensibilities in the Face of\u00a0Corpses,\u201d 29 June 2011, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/06\/29\/death-and-eternal-life-contrasting-sensibilities-in-the-face-of-corpses\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 \u201cEncompassing Empowerment in Ritual, War & Assassination: Tantric Principles in Tamil Tiger Instrumentalities,\u201d in Social Analysis<\/em>, sp. issue on War Magic ed. by D. S. Farrer, in press.<\/p>\n

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Ross, Amanda<\/strong> 2010 \u201cSleeping with the Enemy, Tekwani lived with the Tigers,\u201d UPI Next<\/em>, 16 Nov. 2010, http:\/\/next.upi.com\/archive\/2010\/11\/16\/Sleeping-with-the-enemy-Tekwani-lived-with-the-Tigers\/1431289942817\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Sarvananthan, Muttukrishna <\/strong>2007 \u201cIn Pursuit of a Mythical State of Tamil Eelam: A Rejoinder to Kristian Stokke,\u201d Third World Quarterly <\/em>28\/6: 1185-1195.<\/p>\n

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Schalk,<\/strong> Peter <\/strong>1997 \u201cResistance and Martyrdom in the Process of State Formation of Thamililam,\u201d in Joyce Pettigrew (ed), Martyrdom and Political Resistance<\/em>, Amsterdam: VU University Press, pp. 61- 84.<\/p>\n

Schalk,<\/strong> Peter <\/strong>2003 \u201cBeyond Hindu Festivals: The Celebration of Great Heroes\u2019 Day by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Europe,\u201d in <\/em>Martin Baumann et al. (eds.) Tempel und Tamilien in Zweiter Heimat<\/em>. Wurzburg: Ergon Verlag, pp. 391-411. <\/em><\/p>\n

Settar, S. & <\/em>G. D. Sontheimer <\/strong>(eds.) 1982 Memorial Stones<\/em>, Dharwad: Institute of Indian Art History<\/span>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Sheridan, Greg <\/strong>2013a \u201c \u2018We lost the propaganda war\u2019 President Rajapaksa tells Sheridan,\u201d 6 September 2013, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/06\/we-lost-thepropaganda-war-president-rajapaksa-tells-sheridan\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheridan, Greg <\/strong>2013b \u201cKP and Gota talk to Greg Sheridan: On the Eelam Wars and the Need of the Hour TODAY,\u201d 14 September 2013, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/14\/kp-and-gota-talk-to-greg-sheridan-on-the-eelam-wars-and-the-need-fof-the-hour-today\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Shulman, David <\/strong>1980 Taml Ttemple Myths. Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition<\/em>, Princeton: Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n

Sriyananda, Shanika <\/strong>2009 \u201cAt long last they are free!\u201d Sunday Observer<\/em>, 17 May 2009.<\/p>\n

Subramanian, T. S. <\/strong>2002 \u201cPrabhakaran in First Person,\u201d Frontline<\/em>, 19\/9.<\/p>\n

SRHRL<\/strong> 2012 \u201cHigh-Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Conflict in Sri Lanka,\u201d http:\/\/srhrl.aaas.org\/ geotech\/srilanka\/srilanka.shtml<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tammita-Delgoda, S. <\/strong>2009 Sri Lanka. The Last Phase in Eelam War IV. From Chundikulam to Pudumattalan<\/em>, Manekshaw Paper No. 13. Also reprinted in http:\/\/www.island.lk\/ index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=10164<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tanaka, Masakazu<\/strong> 1991 Patrons, Devotees and Goddesses. Ritual and Power among the Tamil Fishermen in Sri Lanka<\/em>, Kyoto: Institute Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.<\/p>\n

Tekwani, Shyam<\/strong> 2009 \u2018The Man who destroyed Eelam,\u201d http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/home\u00a0 \/20090523\/default.asp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trawick, Margaret<\/strong> 2007 Enemy Lines. Warfare, Childhood, and Play in Batticaloa<\/em>, Berkeley: University of California Press..<\/p>\n

UNSG <\/strong>2011 Report of the UN Secretary General\u2019s (UNSG) Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka<\/em>, 31 March 2011, http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/dh\/infocus\/Sri_Lanka\/POE_Report_Full.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US Department of State <\/strong>2009 Report to Congress on Incidents during the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka<\/em>, http:\/\/www.state.gov\/documents\/organization\/131025.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0UTHR<\/strong> 2009 Let Them Speak: Truth about Sri Lanka\u2019s Victims of War<\/em>. Special Report No. 34, http:\/\/www.uthr.org\/SpecialReports\/Special%20rep34\/Uthr-sp.rp34.htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vamadeva, C.<\/strong> 1995 The Concept of <\/em>Vannanpu, \u201cViolent Love<\/em>\u201d in Tamil Saivism with Reference to the Periya Pur\u0101nam<\/em>, Uppsala: Uppsala University Religious Studies.<\/p>\n

Vidura <\/strong>2009 \u201cThe Great Escapes,\u201d Sunday Leader<\/em>, 17 May 2009.<\/p>\n

Wijayapala, Ranil <\/strong>2009 \u201cTroops advance into last Tiger Terrain on Three Fronts,\u201d Sunday Observer<\/em>, 10 May 2009, http:\/\/www.sundayobserver.lk\/2009\/05\/10\/sec03.asp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wijesinha, Rajiva<\/strong> 2011 The Road to Reconciliation and its Enemies<\/em>, Kandy: International Bookhouse.<\/p>\n

Wilson, A. J.<\/strong> 2000 Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism<\/em>. London: Hurst and Company.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yatawara, Dhaneshi <\/strong>2009 \u201cEntrapped Civilians seek Salvation in Force,\u201d Sunday Observer<\/em>, 17 May 2009, http:\/\/www.sundayobserver.lk\/2009\/05\/17\/fea05.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

[1]<\/a> Only a small segment of the Australian populace read newspapers. The Australian<\/em> itself had a readership of 412,000 in the month of June 2012. Of this number it is, in conjecture, probable that only o one-fourth bothered to read the item on Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> This article (1978) was drafted in Germany in 1976. Also see Roberts, \u201cNationalisms Today and Yesterday,\u201d1998.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Indeed, Malathi, the first female m\u0101v\u012brar<\/em>, <\/em>was a from a Catholic family within the Karaiyar caste (Pirap\u0101haran\u2019s caste)\u00a0This caste is\u00a0provided a significant proportion of the Tiger leadership and fighting cadre according to some Tamil informants.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Note Sarvananthan 2007 \u201cIn Pursuit of a Mythical State of Tamil Eelam: A Rejoinder to Kristian Stokke,\u201d Third World Quarterly <\/em>28\/6: 1185-1195.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Miller was the son of a bank clerk and educated at Hartley College, Point Pedro.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> See Roberts 2006a: 75 for instance.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> See Chandradasa n. d.; De Silva-Ranasinghe 2009f and 2009g; and Jane\u2019s Naval Intelligence 2009.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> A leading Tiger, Thileepan fasted unto death in September 1987 and a mother of ten, Annai Pupathi, did so in the Batticaloa area in April 1989 \u2013 their highly-publicized acts being directed against the Indian occupation of the north and east.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> See Ohnuki-Tierney 2002; Axell & Kase 2002 and Inoguchi et all 1958. The official Japanese phrase for the kamikaze was actually \u201ctokkotai special operations.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Tiger frogmen also used limpet mines to sink two naval gunboats in Trincomalee harbour on 19 April 1995 while peace talks were still in progress \u2013 in effect a mini Pearl Harbour in its\u00a0 duplicitous character.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u201cAt the end of June, Hirohito sent out an imperial order encouraging the civilians of Saipan to commit suicide. The order authorized the commander of Saipan to promise civilians who died there an equal spiritual status in the afterlife with those of soldiers perishing in combat. General Hideki T\u014dj\u014d<\/a> intercepted the order on 30\u00a0June 1944 and delayed its sending, but it went out anyway the next day. By the time the marines advanced on the north tip of the island, from 8\u201312\u00a0July 1944, most of the damage had been done. 1,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle to take the offered privileged place in the afterlife, some jumping from \u201cSuicide Cliff\u201d and \u201cBanzai<\/em> Cliff\u201d (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Battle_of_Saipan#Civilian_casualties<\/a>).<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Figures from UNOCHA \u2013 see IDAG 2013: section 3.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> For this process in late April and then in mid-May, see Reddy 2009a; Sriyananda 2009; Vidura 2009;\u00a0 Yatawara 2009 and especially DBS Jeyaraj, 2009c \u201cWretched of the Earth break Free of Bondage,\u201d Daily Mirror<\/em>, 25 April 2009, http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/380<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>The most detailed review is in IDAG 2013.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> See Rajam 2000;\u00a0 Settar\u00a0 &\u00a0\u00a0 Sontheimer\u00a0 1982; Mines 2005 and Roberts 2006a & 2014.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> I am not at liberty to name the source. I hve not been able to ascertain I which year this event occurred.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> This further reduction may be partly due to (a) assimilation or redefinition of self as Sinhalese or Sri Lanka Tamil in certain localities or (b) emigration to India during the war period by Indian Tamils who lived in the north earlier. While 4.2% in Sri Lanka the \u201cIndian Tamils\u201d are 53.2% of Nuwara Eliya District in the centre of the island.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> The guesthouse keeper at the guest house I stayed in at Kilinochchi on 25-27 November 2004 was an Indian Tamil from the Kandy area. Hiss one has died in battle and he had a little household shrine in the son\u2019s memory. He also told reporter Joe Ariyaratnam that he would readily join the LTTE and fight if he was required to do so.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Kilinochchi District was carved out in 1983.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Some unverified estimates suggest that as many as 250,000 people shifted to Tamilnadu in the period 1988 to 2005 in order to escape the furnace of war in the period 1990-2001.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> 118,260 persons were identified as \u201cIndian Tamil\u201d in the districts encompassed by these two provinces.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> Within Sri Lanka the Burghers then added up to only 0.7 percent of the population. But they were the blue-eyed boys of the British and fulfilled key administrative and professional roles in the colonial order.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> See Table 17 in Roberts et al, People Inbetween<\/em>, p. 198.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> See Pamunuwa 2012. \u201cThe Sinhala population<\/a> in the city now stands at 79,468, while Tamil and Muslim populations stand at 106,325 and 126,345 respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> \u201cDefined by J S Furnivall<\/a> as a medley of peoples<\/a> \u2013 European<\/a>, Chinese<\/a>, Indian<\/a> and native<\/a>, who do mix but do not combine. Each group holds by its own religion<\/a>, its own culture<\/a> and language<\/a>, its own ideas<\/a> and ways. As individuals they meet, but only in the marketplace<\/a> in buying<\/a> and selling<\/a>. There is a plural society, with different sections of the community<\/a> living side by side, within the same political<\/a> unit\u201d (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Plural_society<\/a>).<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> See Obeyesekere 1964 and Holt 2004.<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> Bastin 2003; Obeysekere1977 & 1978 and Pfaffenberger 1979.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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