My post in Lead India, Times of India : The Satisfaction of Voting

Today

My first blog in I Lead

We, as citizens of this free nation, which provides us the rights to live as we choose, choose to live in denial of its problems for the majority of five years. We take our freedom for granted, we were born free, we did not earn it. And since we do not know its price, we don't care to fight for it. Each small crime committed, each small crime tolerated, slowly takes away the freedom we have, putting us on a leash, making us tolerant of the suppression we suffer from. We take a beating from the local Goonda for granted, vote corrupt people to power record number of times, and take long queues at government workplaces for granted.


Tolerance is supposed to be an Indian virtue, but there is a thin line between tolerance and outright indifference. That is when it becomes our biggest weakness. We did not evolve into a democracy, it was imposed onto us by some farsighted lawmakers we had. The mass still doesn't know what to do with democracy. In my opinion, it wouldn't matter for them if they had a good dictator or a good prime minister. They don't care who has the power as long as they benefit from those with it. Such people (All of us, I mean) do not care or realise that in a democracy, the power is vested in them, and as part of it, have the right and duty to safeguard it. Americans would realise that fundamental religious activism by the Shiv Sena would set a bad precedent and would embolden those who use fear as an agent of power. Indians (Again, including you and me) tut-tut the whole incident and go on with their routine.


That is the difference between somebody who values democracy and somebody who just harps about it, but doesn't know what to do with it.

We spend 57 months thinking we live in Utopia and 3 months scrutinizing every politician, spreading every gossip, sensationalising every word they say, and vote with the utmost pride and sense of acheivement, smiling to ourself " I love democracy". The best actor - politician in the preceding months of an election is happy for the next five years and the great Indian political Tamasha starts all over again. We celebrate elections as if it were Diwali or Kumbh Mela, a jolly sideshow, a part of our culture of festivals. The front page of this website has a link wondering whether it will be a " boring, lacklustre Election 2009 ? ". That is what we expect from our elections, entertainment.


Then comes the terrorist from Afghanistan/Pakistan, blowing up the last place you had coffee, your childhood school, or something worse.... Then we spring into action, demanding answers, rolling a few heads, agitated for a few weeks. We expect the guys we elected for entertainment to stand up to such enemies. Is there any logic in what we do? We are satisfied with voting, many don't even do that, and we expect the world in return. Boy, we are an optimistic lot.


Few people plan to take up politics as a full time job, most see it equal to sweeping the streets(I don't mean to degrade the street sweepers or look down on them, I'm just trying to bring out the public mindset). We don't realise that we keep ourselves safe by keeping our neighbours safe, we can't see that a happy neighbour is one less trouble for us to worry about. We still want ' selfless Gandhians' to take up the mantle, we can't see the bonuses for us in taking up the job ourselves.


Voting is a very important job as a citizen, but it is not the only one. To maintain our standard of life, we have to do more in this fragile democracy we are living in. Let us vote, and at the same time be aware and proactive about our democracy and our responsibilities. Let us not stop at talking and voting. Let us take it one step further.

Cause of Tamil Suppression in Sri Lanka & Citizenship Act, 1948

Today

To understand anything that we experience, we need to get to the cause of those events. Tamils in Sri Lanka have made it their home for eons. There has been no ethnic conflict before Sri Lanka attained independence in 1948.
So what was different now?

Britain conquered Sri Lanka in 1815, Christian Missionaries settled on the Northern and Eastern Parts of the Island, which had a predominantly Tamil Population. These missionaries brought with them European education and Political ideas, influencing Tamil mindset. The predominantly Hindu Tamils countered by developing their own culture and community, schools, temples, universities, libraries, etc. , resulting in high levels of political and economic awareness.. By 1948 60% of Government posts had been occupied by Tamils, who constituted 15% of the overall population.

After Independence an urgent need to uplift the Sinhalese was felt by the majority government. Here is where the problem starts. The first wrong move was made by the Lankan Government, The Ceylon citizenship act of 1948.

This act, while defining the criteria for citizenship of Sri Lanka, included certain clauses that made citizenship impossible for Indian-Lankan Tamils. For the uninformed, the Lankan Tamils are the Tamils residing in lanka before the arrival of the colonists, when Tamil Kingdoms had economic and political ties with Ceylon. Indian-Lankan Tamils are the ones brought in from present day Tamil Nadu in India to work in the tea plantations of the Hills in Central Sri Lanka. They are also known as ''Hill Country Tamils" . To view the Citizenship act, visit http://www.sangam.org/FB_SL_LAWS/citizenship.htm.

Now, the Lankan Government wanted this act because it would reduce the number of votes for Tamil Parties, but he perplexing thing was that there were Tamil Leaders supporting the act. Needless to say, they were Lankan Tamils, the big fish being G.G.Ponnambalam of the erstwhile Tamil Congress. Other Tamils, including a majority of Lankan Tamils branded him a traitor, but this act of support itself gives room for some nagging thoughts...

Many Lankans had supported the cause of Indian Tamils, but the fact that a few did not shows that maybe they saw each other as different, maybe they saw an opportunity in an united section, it would certainly make them a bigger votebank in a system where they were outnumbered 1:6 already. And for G.G.Ponnambalam, the maybe does not apply at all. Added, he did not want the 'aliens' on Lankan soil, he wanted them out, even if it meant the loss of thousands of votes.

This act was the start of tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamils.

My first one

The Day

A few days ago, there were 3-4 outsiders in my hostel. Barging in without official permission, they were ranting about 'Genocide' of Tamils (தமிழ் இன அழிவு). How our blood should boil and so on. A little more emotion, and they would consider swimming to Lanka to save their ' brothers ' . Or so it seemed. Great emotional talk.

The problem with us Indians, especially Tamils is that we are people 'with a heart'. We give top priority to matters that whip up emotion. You can all see that in a Rajni or M.G.R movie. On the screen and on the floor. The Hero always puts the lives of the poor above everything else, even himself. Snap back to reality.

These people were from a political party, staging a fast in front of our college campus, which unfortunately had no audience or support (Bad planning, our students are mostly Hindi). So these guys had come in to drag some of the Tamil Hostellers to their 'fast'. They were really BIG, so had to get the help of the warden to get them out. Good work,..

Or was it? Our juniors started following these guys to the shamiana. Hello?? 'Do you know what you are doing?' by me is met by 'Are you a Tamil?' by them. Had to say something authoritative to them to get them back in. Like the fact that these guys want just political gains, and if one cared enough, he should send aid through proper channels.

I should have told them more. I had little time then, couldn't elaborate. I choose to do so now in my next few blogs.