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| Friday, 11 October 2002 |
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The Indo-Ceylon Problem Reviewed by K. M. de Silva
The Politics of Immigrant Labour published in June 2002 is thus a most welcome addition to the meagre volume of material we have on this theme. This monograph is a senior civil servant's scholarly contribution to the study of this controversial issue. Over 500 pages in length, solidly based on hitherto unexamined documentary material and the memories of a man who was involved in drafting position papers on the subject over a long period of time, it easily establishes itself as an outstanding contribution to the study of this complex problem. Among the strengths of this volume is that it provides a very welcome introduction to the "considerations and reservations that guided each side (i.e., Sri Lanka and India) and the roadblocks that occurred in the course of the negotiations that took place over several decades, (material) hidden away in the minutes of discussions and records maintained by the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs and the Department of Immigration and Emigration". Previous studies of this subject have identified these "considerations and reservations" but the authors of those books and articles have not had access to these "minutes and records". Migration of Indians to other parts of the British Empire in the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries has created problems in many former British colonies. Host societies ranging from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, to Myanmar in South East Asia, and Fiji in the South West Pacific and Uganda in East Africa have had great difficulties with the demographic changes that followed the entry of large numbers of Indians that British planters and officials introduced. Sri Lanka's experience with recent migrants from India is the South Asian version of this. Moreover, the close proximity to India made the resolution of the problems posed by the immigrant Indian population much more different because of political pressure from that country; other parts of the former British Empire to which these Indians went or were sent had similar or more different problems but the distance from India made pressures on them less compelling. Indian political pressure on behalf of migrant Indians first became a serious problem in late 19th century and the early part of the 20th century in South Africa. The Indian problem in Sri Lanka first emerged in the wake of the landmark recommendation of the Donoughmore Commission in 1928 on the introduction of universal suffrage to the island. Universal suffrage was introduced in 1931, sixteen years before Sri Lanka's independence. In the late 1920s and thereafter, once universal suffrage was a challenging reality the vast majority of Sri Lankan politicians refused to accept the position that all migrant Indians in the island were entitled to votes on the same terms set out in the Donoughmore report for the indigenous population. D. S. Senanayake gained national prominence for the role he played in the successful exercise of pressure on this occasion, pressure from Sri Lankan politicians in the Legislative Council in 1928. The Colonial Office was compelled to lay down special terms for the Indians resident in the island before they could be regarded as citizens entitled to the vote. Controversies over this issue persisted for two decades before independence, largely because of the manner in which these restrictions were implemented by British civil servants. When senior Sri Lankan politicians protested at the distortions this led to in the late 1930s, the Colonial Office mandarinate supported them against the interpretations of these rules by British civil servants. Throughout this period this question of numbers how many Indians would qualify as citizens of Sri Lanka-was a matter of acute controversy between Sri Lankan politicians and Indian officials prior to independence, and thereafter between Sri Lankan politicians and the political leadership in India. Between 1939 and 1942 two attempts were made to resolve these issues through discussions between representatives of the two governments, India and Sri Lanka. The most prominent Sri Lankan politicians of the day including D. S. Senanayake and S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike-more particularly D. S. Senanayake - were participants at these discussions. After much haggling an agreement was reached in September 1941. However, the opportunity to reach a settlement was missed because the Indian government, under pressure from the leadership of the Indians resident in Sri Lanka refused, or failed, to ratify the agreement which representatives of the Indian government had already initialled in Colombo. The details on how an agreement was reached in 1964, and then consolidated in 1974 form the core of W. T. Jayasinghe's magisterial volume. Every strand in the complex negotiations that took place under Mrs Bandaranaike in the early 1960s, and early 1970s is identified, and analysed with great skill. In doing so he has made full use of the material gathered together in departments and ministries in which he worked, and used them with a thoroughness that an academic would admire. The chapters of this book are essential reading for anyone, in any part of the world, studying how Sri Lanka handled the problem of absorbing a large portion of a massive migrant population and did so peacefully and without the sort of problems one saw in Guyana, Fiji and to a lesser extent in Trinidad and Tobago. This is not to mention Myanmar and Uganda. ************************ "Sri Lanka's Ethnic Crisis - (Anguish III)" C. Suriyakumaran
The publication is a compilation of some of the many pieces of writing that Professor Suriyakumaran has published over the five year period 1996 to 2002 - covering the wide range of issues as indicated in the preceding paragraph. Though many of them are relatively short, they do not lack in substance for this reason. The writer has succeeded in conveying his views and arguments clearly through each piece. The underlying question that Professor Siriyakumaran, in his anguish, continuously poses through the different pieces of writing is how a country - and its society, polity and the economy - could, over a period of six decades decline to the degree and in the manner as Sri Lanka has done. The reviewer shares Professor Suriyakumaran's anguish as would many in the generations that spanned the divide of these decades. It is this question to which our attention is drawn - through the many individual pieces of writing - with the question that is always implied of how as a nation we should arrest and reverse this process. Professor Suriyakumaran has, in all his writings, been a strong advocate of the adoption of the system of Executive Committees - drawing on the experience of the State Council. It is interesting that this idea has once again become part of the political discourse and the reviewer, for one, looks forward to the day when a system of Executive Committees - reformed and strengthened - would be an integral constituent of the institutional structure of the elected bodies - not only at the Centre but also at the regional and local levels. This is an issue that requires detailed study in the current process of seeking solutions to the impasse that Sri Lanka faces in regard to the future of its political structures and processes. It is, however, to be hoped that the analysis and study of this issue would not be a superficial and hurried one - ending up in patchwork solutions or a nostalgic reversion to the Thirties. What is required is to seek to articulate and Executive Committee system - or a series of such systems for each tier of the polity - that would optimally serve the imperatives of good governance in Sri Lanka in the twenty-first century. The several contributions on this issue in the book deal with the inappropriateness of the system of proportional system of voting as well as the need for adequate independence and authority to those who are responsible for the conduct of elections. The book also suggests alternative systems and approaches based on comparative international experience. It is, indeed, a matter for regret that there have been no commensurate responses to these suggestions and the electoral systems and processes continue to remain dysfunctional with resultant adverse outcomes as concerning the country's political institutions. Professor Suriyakumaran deals with issues of development, of environment, of religion and of philosophy through a series of appendices. Several of these appendices as they deal with development issues contain advocacy for urgent action. In retrospect, they remind the reader of the many warnings that have gone unheard and many opportunities that were missed - leading us Sri Lankans to the situation in which we find ourselves today and which we could have avoided. One is grateful to Professor Suriyakumaran for having brought these pieces of writing together in a single volume. By themselves, individually, we might, over time, have lost their message. But, having them together for reference should serve to constantly draw our attention to the central theme - that acting in good faith we can achieve the peace that we sorely need and exploit our potential to attain the levels of economic, social and political development that we have so far missed. - Shelton Wanasinghe |
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For 60 years or more, i.e., from 1928 to 1988, the status of resident
Indians in Sri Lanka was one of the most controversial issues in the
island's politics; controversial within the island, and controversial
outside it. Yet there have been surprisingly few books and monographs on
the problem by Sri Lankan authors; monographs on the problem by Indian
authors have been fewer still. W. T. Jayasinghe's The Indo-Ceylon Problem.
Anguish III is the third publication by Professor Suriyakumaran on Sri
Lanka's ethnic crisis. As he did in the previous two publications, he has
dealt with a wide range of issues that, in their singular ways, have
converged to keep the ethnic crisis alive. These include, amongst others,
the issues of devolution and of governance, of the facets of ethnicity, of
development, of the environment, and of religion and philosophy. Given the
wide spectrum of issues that are covered by the writer, a review poses a
considerable challenge. On reflection, I felt that, even though the
several issues are interlinked, my task as a reviewer would be easier if I
were to separately reflect on each of the issues.
