The view accepted by most is that the greatest problem facing Sri Lanka and should be solved urgently is the ethnic problem. Is it true? I think it is half the truth and not the entire one. If the seriousness of this crisis is to be caged in terms of the numbers killed, 75,000 people have been killed in the last thirty two years, since the ethnic crisis turned into violent conflict. A similar number of people are thought to have been killed during the three year insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) from 1986-89.
In 1971 too, the JVP rose up violently to capture power, although that uprising was not as massive or as violent as their second uprising. If Prabhakaran’s armed uprising symbolises an ethnic crisis, what does Wijeweera’s armed uprising symbolise? Does it symbolise a class struggle? A caste struggle or both?
The Presidential Commission on youth unrest appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the causes of the second JVP uprising concluded that caste divisions were a main factor that had led to that insurrection. Even after two violent insurrections in the South, we do not say anything about caste divisions. We only talk about race. Although caste too has become a reason for bloodshed, we do not see it as a problem that should be solved without allowing it to fester further. We are not prepared to recognise that there is such a serious problem amongst us that has to be solved.What I am trying to say is not that the problem of caste is more important than the problem of race, but that it is incorrect to define the problem facing Sri Lanka as one of ethnicity only. Race is only one of the aspects of the crisis. Caste is another. Religion and language are two other aspects. Any of these can gain prominence at some moment and function as a factor for bloodshed.
A Repetition
The destruction caused by the Sinhala-Muslim riots of 1915 was not a minor one. Previous to that (in 1833), if the Buddhist-Christian clash that started at Kotahena was not controlled before it could assume greater proportions, the destruction that might have ensued would have been very great. As Brice Ryan mentions in his Caste in Modern Ceylon (considered a bible on the Sinhala caste system) until 1925 the main factor that generated social conflicts was not race but caste. Although the significance of caste submerged and that of race emerged, caste did not disappear. It rose again in the context of the ethnic crisis and led to two major instances of bloodshed. The significance of religion as a factor that leads to violent conflict did not disappear after the Buddhist-Christian clashes at Kotahena in 1833. If the emotional environment that arose in connection with Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thero’s demise led to a religious conflict, the resultant destruction would have been very great.
Understanding the Ailment
What I want to point out here is that it is incorrect to consider the crisis in Sri Lanka purely as an ethnic crisis. It is a crisis based on the factors of race, caste, religion and language. The patient is suffering from not one ailment .but a number of inter-connected ailments. He may be considered a kidney patient, a heart patient and a diabetic patient at the same time. If he is considered a kidney patient alone and is treated for a kidney ailment only, it might lead to his death. If he is treated as a diabetic or as heart patient only, that too might lead to his death.
I do not say that treatments that give relief to the patient should not be adopted until it is possible to take the three ailments as a whole and a proper treatment can be given. However, even in giving relief, it must be done after careful examination. Food given on the assumption that a person is suffering from a kidney disease may have an adverse effect on a heart disease or diabetes. On the other hand, food given on the assumption that a person is a heart patient or a diabetic can have an adverse effect on other ailments. When it is obvious that there is more than one problem related to each other and affecting this crisis, why do we not take all those problems, and why do we follow a policy of giving weightiness to a single problem? Do we do so due to some shortcoming in our thinking? Or do we do so due to some other indefinable shortcoming?
Due to the ethnic problem, people die slowly but continuously. Due to the problem of caste, people do not die slowly but die on a large scale from time to time. These two problems affect each other. As I see it, even the ethnic problem cannot be defined purely as an ethnic problem. In fact, even the problem of caste has had an effect on it. The Tamil armed struggle in the north cannot be considered as a struggle against Sinhala domination alone. There is within it a struggle against Vellala dominance too.
Insurrection of 1971
It was during the long period in custody which I spent due to the 1971 JVP uprising that I realised that the problem of caste had contributed to that insurrection as a main factor. When I found that caste had played a significant role in the ganging up among political prisoners, I inquired into it eagerly. Most people knew me as ‘Podi Athula’ or as ‘Podi Athula’ alias Victor Ivan, and therefore it was not easy to identify my caste.
Consequently, I had the opportunity of discussing the question of caste with groups which had formed on that basis. Some of them discussed quite openly and honestly the problems they were facing. Although there might have been various factors that contributed to the growth of the JVP, it especially attracted young people who belonged to castes which represented a marginal stratum in the caste structure of the Sinhala society. The caste composition of JVP leaders of the first rank or the second rank was different from the main caste composition of the UNP or the SLFP. In these two parties the top leadership and a majority of the leaders of the second rank belong to the Govigama caste. In the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, however, it may be said that the top leadership was Karawa while a majority of the second rank leaders were a peculiar mixture representing the marginalised castes.
This inherent feature of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is discernible in the LTTE too. Wijeweera belonged to the Karawa caste and Prabhakaran belongs to the Karayer caste. A majority of Wijeweera’s second line leaders belonged to marginalised castes and a majority of Prabhakaran’s second line cadres also belong to such castes. It may not be a deliberately fashioned conglomeration, but the difference between them and the traditional political parties of the Sinhala society and the Tamil society may be considered a clearly discernible and obvious difference.
The Bhikkhus in the insurrection
Before I was sentenced to prison I had been detained in the Magazine Prison. Ward C in which we were detained had been a building put up for storing ammunition during the Second World War. In five cells of it, five persons supposed to have been leaders of the JVP were detained, and the bhikkhus who had been arrested were detained in the hall in front of the five cells.
In those few years the persons I had the opportunity to associate with most were the venerable bhikkhus. Two of them became my best friends. It was they who copied in good handwriting what I wrote. Why Buddhist bhikkhus joined the violent rebellion of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was a question that puzzled me. In order to have an understanding of that question, I spoke with many of those venerable bhikkhus. The observation that I arrived at thereby was that casteism prevailing in the order of bhikkhus had contributed to it. The fact that all the bhikkhus were not equal in the Sasana had contributed to their rebelliousness to a greater or lesser degree.
While in prison I wrote a book based on information I had collected on the history of the JVP. As my knowledge of grammar was weak, I gave the manuscript to a gentleman who had a sound knowledge of language to see that it was grammatically correct. After editing the grammar he gave me the manuscript with the advice that, as the book might raise questions about my physical security, it might be advisable to refrain from publishing the book. As I had written the truth as I saw it, I told him that I would publish the book disregarding any danger it might bring to me. The book was published exactly in the way I had expected. My friend who corrected the grammar of the book wrote a long review of it to the ‘Lanka Guardian’ magazine. He had written that it was a book which gave unnecessary weightiness to caste and to Wijeweera’s personal life. Twenty years later I happened to read a sociological thesis written by the very same person. His theme was caste. There he had given a fine commentary on the terrible role which caste was playing while being confined to secret discussion. He had been used to looking at things from a strict class point of view and at first had not seen the caste. He had seen only the class. Perhaps when the class point of view loosened, class submerged and caste emerged.
The ‘Sama Samaja’ Movement
After I was released from prison I delivered a lecture on the insurrection at the LSSP headquarters in Colombo. A group of LSSP leaders including Colvin R. de Silva, Hector Abeywardena and Bernard Soysa had come to listen. In my lecture I tried to analyse the connection between the JVP and caste. At the end of the lecture Bernard Soysa said that he wanted to talk to me. He took me to the Hotel Galadari which was nearby. He told me that not only the JVP but even the LSSP had used the question of caste as a weapon. He said that when candidates were named for various seats the caste of the candidate was taken into consideration. He mentioned a number of instances. He said that when Ambalangoda and Balapitiya formed one constituency, the LSSP fielded a Karawa candidate as the majority in that constituency belonged to the Karawa caste, and when the constituency was divided into two constituencies as Ambalangoda and Balapitiya, a Karawa candidate was fielded for the Ambalangoda constituency and a Salagama candidate was fielded for the Balapitiya constituency. He said he himself chose the Colombo South constituency taking into consideration the strong base of the Durawa caste there. Bernard loved his caste as much as he loved Marxism. When N. U. Jayawardhena was the business leader of that caste the political leader of the caste was Bernard. He said that when N. M. Perera was selected as the party leader, the prominence of the Govigama caste at national level was taken into consideration.
An important observation he made about N.M. was that although N.M. belonged to the Govigama castes, those who contributed decisively to his triumph at Ruwanwella or Yatiyantota were not the people of high caste but those of oppressed castes. Due to the struggles waged there against aristocratic dominance, the people belonging to oppressed castes there had made N.M. their political leader.
The Second Insurrection
Subsequent to the rebellion of the youth in 1971 and 16 years later, the caste problem which had been rotting arose again as a more violent and more virulent rebellion. I observed with interest what was happening. The JVP’s base was extremely strong in the villages confined to oppressed castes. It had considerable influence in villages where the population was mixed. The JVP’s support in villages confined to the Govigama was marginal. An incident that caught my attention in an area which I observed surprised me. It happened in Akuressa which was once Dr. S.A. Wickramasinghe’s power base. A respected school principal who was very old and confined to a wheel chair was shot dead by an armed group of the JVP in his home. He was Saddhathissa by name. He was a close supporter and a cordial friend of Dr. Wickramasinghe. He might have been the only surviving friend of Dr. Wickramasinghe among his contemporaries. The puzzle I had to solve was why such an innocent person who was not capable of doing any harm to the JVP had to be killed in that manner.
Killing of Saddathissa
It was a symbolic killing. It may be said that in the course of the second insurrection, not one or two, but a large number of such killings had occurred. The symbolic political meaning of that killing may be defined as follows:
Dr. Wickramasinghe’s father was a feudal chief of the Akuressa area. He stood for the rights of low caste people attacked by the feudalist system. He got them the right to cover the upper part of their bodies. In response to his getting them the right to cover the upper part of their bodies, the oppressed people voted for Dr. Wickramasinghe for 40 years continuously. Apart from getting them the right to cover the upper part of their bodies, Dr. Wickramasinghe failed to get them anything else. The younger generation was moving towards a position in which they thought of things differently from how their elders thought. They saw Dr. Wickramasinghe as a person who had changed deceptively for the purpose of continuing the dominance of his kinsmen, as a traitor who obtained a very great tribute from their parents for the minor change he brought about. In 1970 that generation of youth had their revenge by voting for the UNP. Although Dr. Wickramasinghe lost, the person elected was also a Wickramasinghe. Thereafter the JVP appointed a member of the barber caste as their leader. It was an appointment of symbolic significance. In their rebellion that came later, there was no Wickramasinghe on whom to vent their revenge. So they had their revenge on Saddhathissa who had been close to Dr. Wickramasinghe and who though a paralytic was alive. The killing of Saddathissa caused a great shock among the people of the area, but it was said that the youth of some villages lighted firecrackers in celebration.
Whither bound?
The second insurrection was also defeated. Did it mean that it ended the crisis? No. If the seriousness of the problem is not realised and the necessary solutions are not found, it might re-emerge in one way or another, and cause destructive results. Look at the struggle in the North. Is it only the Sinhalese who are killed by the LTTE? The number of Tamils killed by LTTE is greater than that of the Sinhalese. Why do they who struggle against Sinhala domination want to kill Tamils? They struggle against the Vellala domination in their midst in addition to the Sinhala domination.We must look at this crisis not as a purely ethnic crisis but as an ethnic, caste, religious and linguistic crisis. Although a modern national state has crises, we have not been able to build a Sri Lankan nation required for the survival of such a state. While there are inequalities that lead to conflicts among ethnic groups there are also inequalities that lead to conflicts within ethnic groups. All Sinhalese are not equal to each other and no Tamils are equal to each other either. It will be possible to build a common nationality only by erasing the inequalities within the ethnic groups as well as those between ethnic groups.
There was a Mahatma Gandhi in India to build a common Indian nationality required for the survival of the nation state that had emerged in India. He built a powerful foundation required for doing away with inequalities within ethnic groups as well as those between ethnic groups. India was able to build a common nationhood on that foundation and a political system suited to it. We as a country, however, are in a situation in which neither of those aims can be fulfilled and are going astray. That is what has caused, in one way or another, the endless bloodshed that is taking place. We might be able to overcome this situation only by evolving a system where problems of inequalities within ethnic groups as well as inequalities between ethnic groups are solved, without confining ourselves to the question of inequalities between ethnic groups.