Why do Tamils hate Sinhala ?

 Part III

Some may say that the Sinhala do not follow the teachings of the Buddha, but each one of them to a lesser or a greater degree has assimilated the essence of the Dhamma through generations of Buddhist culture in which they were nurtured. That is why we could safely say that the Sinhala have a balanced character not going towards emotionally  positive or negative extremes  not denying of course the exceptions. 

That is why there was a willingness on the part of the Sinhala Majority to live with the other communities amicably accepting them as their compatriots, until recently when the Tamil politicians ambitious for political power, refused to accept their immigrant status and asked for equal rights with the Sinhala the majority community.

The Tamils of the diaspora are immigrants of the respective countries to which they have emigrated,   like the Tamils of Chola and Pandiya beginnings in Sri Lanka who came here as invaders, plunderers and settled down while others had been allowed to live by the Sinhala Kings some who even married Indian Princesses.

It may be this immigrant background that gives the Tamils an inferiority complex. The Tamil politicians, Chelvanayakam a Christian born in Malaysia, Naganathan also a Christian born in Madras, Sundaralingam, Ponnambalam  and so forth as educated high caste Tamils wanted to be the rulers over a people and as it was not possible being with the Sinhala as a minority community,  they aspired to have a country of their own to rule over it and demanded 50-50 or a separate Eelam.

Undoubtedly they also had an inferiority complex, “ a persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation,” being high caste Tamils  having to work in a Sinhala majority government. They opposed the lion flag  or a government with an exclusive Sinhala Board of Ministers.

Coming to recent times , lets take the case of the Tamils of the diaspora (the Tamil emigrants settled down in foreign countries), they made an excuse of the 1983 riots to claim political emigrant status to accept their entry into foreign countries. And living meagrely , depending on subsidies offered  by the receiving countries, eventually  became a well to do  population in those countries and as years passed by became a substantially important vote bank in those countries to be sought by one political party or the other for political purposes.

But they remained  dark skinned strangers amoung the white population in the countries. These Western countries are forced to accept strangers into their counties, however they are  hostile to them. The Westerners are a biased people. They do not accept strangers amoung them sincerely as theirs. They have the colour bar, religious prejudice towards the Jewish people, and the Muslims.

To  Sri Lanka the Western whites come to help the “ poor Tamil people” discriminated by the “bad ”  Sinhala majority, not through any genuine  love for the Tamils, but they have their own personal reasons sometimes political, spreading of Christianity or other religious Sects, or  simply for the chance to live comfortably as generous white altruist humanitarians-white angels amoung the poor wretches of the earth(we had lot of them working in the areas occupied by the  terrorists) or as highly paid NGOs looking after the  human rights of the poor Tamils.

Hence the  Tamils of the diaspora live with this inferiority complex in those countries and yearn to  be back in their motherland with their own people without being assailed by the white and black difference . It may be the reason why they looked to the Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka, and contribute freely for their success as terrorists  to prepare a Tamil Eelam State for them, where they can live without any inferiority  complex.

They do not want to be with the Sinhala either  as they know  what it had been living with the Whites who never accepted them as theirs. But strangely the Tamils accept the insults from the whites and continue to live there, but refuse to accept the hands of genuine affection of the Sinhala,  requesting them to accept the Sinhala  as their own  people and come to live together.

The terrorist Prabhakaran knew that in creating a separate Tamil Eelam he would be the King looked up to by all these miserable Tamils the world over. We see how the State Minister Vijayakala Maheshvaran regrets the loss of Prabhakaran, and still pines for him.

Then the religion-the Tamil religion too has much to be desired vis-à-vis Buddhism. Some of the Tamils are Christians even Abraham Sumanthiran the TNA MP a Christian wants to remove special protection for Buddhism provided in the Constitution and make Sri Lanka a secular State.

The Tamils are all against Buddhism which is the cradle of our Civilisation, the culture of which had made the Tamils and Muslims accepted by the Sinhala as their compatriots and equals.  The difference was  created by the Tamils and not by the Sinhala.

Recently when the funeral rights for the NagaVihara Chief Incumbent and the Northern Province Chief Sangha Nayake the late Most Venerable Meegahajandure Gnanarathana Thera were proposed to be held at the Mutraveli Ground in Jaffna , the Tamils objected to holding the funeral rights at the  Muttraveli Grounds as they claimed there was a Hindu Kovil precisely, where the ceremony was to be held. 

Can one imagine to what extent the inferiority complex-, “ a persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation.”  could go ?

A Buddhist temple and its surrounding- the Bo tree, the white Dagaba clean large space, beautiful guard-stones  , moonstones , the silence  and walking in side,  the sublime Buddha statues, incense and  flowers laid before the serene statues all inspire peace and tranquillity  of mind.

The Nagavihara in Jaffna where the late Venerable Thera was the incumbent too  had this peaceful  sacred  atmosphere, compared to the Kovil that you first see as you get out of the boat to go to the Nagavihara which  in contrast is  frightening with a Gopuram with demon like statues,  big bellied human monsters, all  painted in garish colours.

Hence the  Tamils who find in side these Kovils  the sacred Lingam which they bathe with milk, and pour oil over it, and animal headed Gods, and gods with many heads and hands sitting on rats and birds, or  a statue of a blood thirsty Kali before  which the bare bodied priests make animal sacrifices find no peace and tranquillity but fear and hatred.

Naturally the Tamils would like to have Buddhist temples far away from their Kovils as a comparison of theirs against that of the Sinhala Buddhists make them feel down hearted and inferior despite the divine power their Kovils are supposed to emanate.

They become aware if they think deeply and intelligently that after all the culture that nurtured them had inculcated in their minds not love and willingness to live with  other in peace and brother hood , but hatred  and animosity to take revenge to satisfy their innermost desires.

In order to make up for this lack of an appropriate birthright to shape their lives without craving for what others possess and what they have not,  the Tamils continue  with their “ persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation,”

The NP Chief Minister Visualingam Wigneswaran a high caste Tamil,  despite having been born and grown up with the Sinhala in the south is not an exception to other Tamils. He has same weaknesses but having been a Judge he perhaps aspires to be worshipped and treated as a Thalaivar by other Tamils like Vijayakala Maheshvaran holding the terrorist Prabhakaran in high esteem, and still pines for him.

He may also be regretting that his sons had married  Women from the Sinhala Community, as when he has to visit those now related Sinhala families ite may be despite his education and professional prestige have feelings of inferiority for which he cannot take corrective measures from them, which he therefore does by condemning the Sinhala, as people who had committed genocide  against the Tamils.

Where did he learn that from ? He was born in Hultsdorp in 1939 and lives in Colombo. Where did he learn about genocide against Tamils ? Isn’t he making up all that to get pardoned by the Tamils for allowing his sons to marry Sinhala ?

The Sinhala people have done nothing to make the Tamils feel inferior. The Sinhala are ready to forget all the damage the Tamils have done  to the Sinhala from immemorable times and live together with fraternal love with the Tamils.

The Sinhala only ask the Tamils to  come down to earth and understand that it is not a separate Tamil territory that they should have, but to forget  their Tamilness and be one with all Communities in Sri Lanka and build the country together as it now belongs to each one of us no matter from where we have come what language we speak and what religion we profess. Let us all be a one nation in this great country Sri Lanka like no other in the world.

Concluded.