S. Thondaman’s Birth
Anniversary falls tomorrow:
Remembering Thondaman
A. Kandappah
August 30 is the day when the people of Indian origin who migrated to
Sri Lanka during the British colonial times and indeed many others
touched by his friendship and courtesies - will once again remember and
celebrate especially in the Plantation areas in Central Sri Lanka, the
birthday of their Perum-thalaivar late Saumyamurthy Thondaman. This year
remembering the late Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) supremo, trade union
leader and one of Sri Lanka’s most memorable politicians assumes
particular significance.
In the tumultuous mid 1970s, Tamil militancy was gathering momentum
and Tamils in the island showed deep anguish as their plight was not
being addressed objectively by successive governments. Sirimavo
Bandaranaike who had an overwhelming Sinhala mandate was the then Prime
Minister. Matters certainly were going out of control. India was going
through tremendous political upheaval in the post-Nehru period where
some Indian states were heading towards language-based politics.
Saumyamurthy Thondaman |
The Madras State was leading the way with DK and DMK breakaways
searching deep into history and bringing the glories of their past of
the Sangam period into focus, which was the literary zenith of Avvaiyar,
Thiruvalluvar and the Kural, the moving poetical magic of Subramaniya
Bharathiar with strong inclinations towards political freedom. Memories
of the martial-territorial gains of the Chera-Chola-Pandyan empires made
their mark. Even accepted leaders G.G. Ponnambalam and SJV Chelvanayakam
were unable to contain the nationalistic and language-based political
romanticsm of their own young flock deeply wounded by divisive Sinhala
Only legislation.
Further, salt was rubbed into the gaping opening of the already
simmering discontent through the Standardization Policy device which
Tamil youth saw as part of a calculated conspiracy to drastically reduce
their scholarly advance by the Government - using Bad-ud-din Mahmud as a
willing tool.
It was in these highly-charged times the Vaddukottai Conference was
convened (1976) under the leadership triumvirate of GG Ponnambalam (TC),
S.J.V. Chelvanayakam (FP) and Thondaman(CWC). That Thondaman was clubbed
into the leadership role with GGP and SJVC - in a way, in a totally
different planet as the other two successful lawyers was a clear
acceptance of the arrival of an altogether different form of political
reality in the troubled Island.
The caste-based Jaffna leadership invited Thondaman to sit with the
Jaffna duo as one of three Tamil leaders was yet another significant and
positive indication that the island. Tamil leadership was ready to
jettison age-old prejudices to confront the full weight of the State in
the language-based struggles ahead.
It was in these heated and complex times the seeds of the deeply
divisive Separate State Resolution became part of the Vaddukottai
Agenda. Assymetrically placed as he was against the two established and
successful Queen Counsel, Thondaman was equal or even streets ahead in
State craft from the urbane SJVC and GGP. More relevantly, he, was
shrewder in foreseeing the political horizon. His considered view was
the greater challenge for the Tamil political leadership to map out a
strategy to live even in an uneasy peace with the Sinhalese or risk
incalculable confusion and calamity irrespective of the legitimacy of
the campaign. He concluded the Separate State move was doomed to fail
and would bring hitherto unheard of disaster to all Tamils in the
country.
He let it be known the realities of his people and their priorities
were substantially different from their indigenous counterparts.
He also brought home the point that his people faced a further
disadvantage in being arbitrarily removed from the national electoral
register and remained stateless. It was well-known that the creative
geniuses of the legal instruments that was to eventually de-nationalize
his people some of the more prominent were seated in the Conference with
him ironically seeking his own and his party accomadation.
Thondaman argued that while the problems of the Tamils of the
North-East were largely based on language, his immediate concern was the
very right of his people legally remaining in the country; their status
as voters, the new Citizenship laws thrust down their throats - all in
clear contravention of Section 29C of the Constitution. He, therefore,
made it a point to insist while he went along with all the rest of the
grievances of the Tamil people. It was the considered resolve of his
colleagues in the CWC that they do not subscribe to the notion of a
Separate State for Tamils in this country - as matters stood then. There
was anger, bewilderment and the combined strength of legal and
persuasive coercion brought to prevail on Thondaman in the Conference.
There was also much pressure brought on him by leading political
leaders in Madras persuading him to fall in line. Madras was clearly
kept informed hour-to-hour of developments of the historic Conference.
But this man of steel and political savvy held off successfully
maintaining that his people would be subject to tremendous difficulties
if he was to be part of the Separatist demand.
And to the angst from the other Tamil leaders present as to what he
proposed to do about the plight of his people - now neither Indian nor
Lankan - his answer was that he will get this done through due
Parliamentary passage although other less than peaceful options were
available.
That Thondaman succeeded in this 40 years later is a tribute to his
political depth and extraordinary vision.
He was a keen watcher and student of inter-play between political
parties and strategies. He was of the firm view that one must be
extra-careful that the lives, immediate interests and future of the
people involved should be carefully considered. Though widely believed
to be adequately unschooled, he quoted Benjamin Disraeli “No political
cause is worth its name if even the limb of a child is hurt in its
quest” and he reminded Gandhi structuring his political philosophy
accordingly. The absence of years of learning in the scholarly ambience
of famed universities had in no way denied Thondaman from acquiring
empirical knowldge - an essential component in his wide repertoire of
political sagacity.
I am sure he saw this coming to reality before he left us because no
longer is the Indian plantation worker or his descendents the stereotype
emaciated labourer. Today the community produces doctors, surgeons,
engineers, architects, professors, ministers, provincial councillors,
teachers, administrators and successful entreprenauers by the score. If
you ask any of them the cause of the metamorphosis there will only be
one answer - Thondaman.
Thondaman was considered, like Ananda Coomaraswamy before him,
another illustrious son both of Sri Lanka and India the two countries
and two people he loved so dearly.
The writer is former Secretary General, Sri Lanka-India Council
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