While mostly in agreement with the sharp critiques levelled at Shenail Waduge’s recent post,** my RESPONSE to Shenali Waduge’s strident claims is from a geo-political position in the clouds above.
A: Reading Sri Lanka’s geographical location at the tip of the Indian subcontinent and in a strategic spot in the Indian Ocean and its highways, it strikes me that any splitting of the island into separate nations would be seen as a danger and a disaster in the Indian Republic’s capital because it would encourage separatist moves in southern India.
B: The violent SL Tamil attempts to set up a separate state not only fostered severe internal conflicts within the Tamil populace, but also led to vicious assaults and actions (including mass evictions) against the Tamil-speaking Muslim Moor peoples resident in the north and east. These memories remain and constitute an unresolved problem.
As a reflective insight into the issues associated with separatist struggles, one should note Eustace Rulach’s comment on the topic via a satiricial cartoon demanding the creation of a Burgher state named “Lanseelam” in Bambalapitiya within the city of Colombo [now tacked within this TPS item]. Eustace, let me tell new generations, was a Burgher journalist. That the insights within his cartoon were misread THENby leading Sri Lankan intellectuals such as Reggie Siriwardena indicates that the subject of movements for separate states is a complex and devilish issue.
