"The impetus for violent conflict between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority began when the British Colonialists favored the Tamils for administrative, educational, and economic control of Sri Lanka due to their policy of divide and conquer. With the 1956 Sinhala Only Act which initially restricted the fair use of Tamil and English languages. Protests against this policy by the Tamils was met with mob violence that eventually snowballed into the 1958 riots."
This seems pretty similar to how Britishers gave jobs to Brahmins only and as a result created everlasting hatred among Hindus. Guess India is lucky to have Gandhi else there would have been genocide of many tribes,clans,ethnic people in India.
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by Rationalist on Sep 24, 2007 11:09 PM Permalink
Good to know that at least you are trying to approach the issue objectively . Before your views on this issue were totally subjective.
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:14 PM Permalink
I feel sorry for Sri Lankan Tamils that they have chosen a organization like LTTE to initially represent them and which now refuses to let go of their power.LTTE uses all kinds of evil tactics like recruiting child soldiers. But all are human beings how come you are not so emotional about so many Africans being killed. What is the glue that binds you to SL issue is it languag, ethnicity etc? There are far bigger genocides and one is going on right now in Darfur. Doing anything to stop it ?
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:21 PM Permalink
if you just open the page on wikipedia on genocide, you find 100s of them, some people even speculate that neandertal species were wiped out in a genocide by human being(sapiens). Guess you know about Holocaust etc when Jews were killed in millions in deliberate targetted killings. Germans ran out of gas chambers to kill them. That is why I am a cynic, I dont believe humans are essentially good, humans are essentially competitive and they want their idea to suceed, they want victory at all costs, and you typify such a guy.
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by Rationalist on Sep 24, 2007 11:23 PM Permalink
I don't deny ,of course ethnicity . I don't know about darfur. I haven't heard or read about it. But I felt sorry when I came to know about the genocide killings in Africa especially Rwanda and also when Kurds were discriminated during Sadam regime . Again I am no supporter of LTTE. LTTE and Srilankan Tamils' cause they are totally different. You can't club them together
RE:RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:42 PM Permalink
And muslims are discriminated in India. Remember Bombay riots, Babri Masjid, Gujarat riots. The number of muslims killed in Gujarat riots is more than the number of people killed in black July, so they have some justification for fighting back don't they. Is there any justification at all for post Godhra riots.
RE:RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:39 PM Permalink
how diffrent is ethnic concern to religious concern. Both are just concepts or memes
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 25, 2007 12:11 AM Permalink
this is the exact definition for ethnicity.
"An ethnic group or ethnicity is a population of human beings whose members identify with each other, either on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry[1] or recognition by others as a distinct group,[2] or by common cultural, linguistic, religious, or physical traits.[1] Processes that result in the emergence of such identification are summarized as ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and anthropologists have documented that many of the cultural practices on which various ethnic groups are based are of relatively recent invention"
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:37 PM Permalink
Yeah well Sri Lankan Tamils are suffering agreed and some solution is required. But DMK and other parties prevent finding some sort of solution because they support LTTE. DMK,PMK is putting India Govt in catch 22 situation. Indian govt knows Sri Lankan Tamilians are suffering but they also know LTTE is not the right organization to bring about the solution. So India which could have played a vital role is forced to keep quiet when it could have offered diplomacy. You think breaking up a country is easy is it, why don't you agree to breaking up of India and gifting Kashmir independence. For those sorts of things you need a fully function matured democracy where people are educated and think rationally. They cannot happen soon as it will take some time. Today Scotland wants freedom from UK, but is anybody fighting?, it is being fought through democratic means, even Quebec wants freedom from Canada. US recently gave the control of Panama Canal to Panama. Sri Lanka is a young democracy just like India and there are bound to be problems, you know that in America they fought a full fledged civil war once. A young democracy is unfinished product. You need to wait for some time for it to mature. You cannot ask for full fledged freedom straight-away.
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by cynic on Sep 24, 2007 11:48 PM Permalink
you look at Sri Lankan history from 1956 and see all wrongs committed by SInhalese. Similarly I see issues in India only from 1956 and see only muslims suffering discriminations and I see all wrongs committed by Hindus. So obviously it is not enought to look at an issue from recent times, you gotta go back in time, you gotta know that Aurangzeb tortured Hindus you got to know the entire context and entire history befor blabbering to carve out a country. You need to be a scholar at history which I am not but atleast I know I am not.
RE:Small excerpt from wikipedia
by on Sep 25, 2007 01:45 AM Permalink
The Tamil people of the island of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) constitute a distinct nation. They form a social entity, with their own history, traditions, culture, language and traditional homeland. The Tamil people call their nation Tamil Eelam. LTTE is the freedom fighter for TAMIL EELAM Check this http://eelam.com/2006/
