ISLAND ON THE RUN SIR,-1 It'ave read with considerable interest
your excellent editorial ccmment on Ceylon, 'Island on the Run' (May 3). There are, however, some aspects of the country's political life which, of necessity, you have not been able to refer to.
The British Government granted complete inde- pendence to Ceylon fifteen years ago in the hope that everyone inhabiting that green and pleasant land with about the highest living standards in South Asia would enjoy equally the fruits of inde- pendence. The Ceylon Citizenship Act which fol- lowed effectively Disfranchised one-eighth of the population, the Tamils of recent Indian origin. They were chiefly the tea and rubber estate population brought over from South India by British planters from about 1850 till 1937. The so-called Indian Tamils of Ceylon had, prior to 1948, enjoyed the right to vote and had exercised it in elections held in 1931 and 1936. After the 1948 Act there has not been one single elected representative of this com- munity in the House of Representatives of Ceylon.
The •deprivation of the vote is not the only dis- ability from which the Indian Tamils suffer. They cannot aspire to any posts under government or even in the mercantile sector; even their traditional avenue of employment in the estates has been blocked by recent legislation Their education is restricted to primary schooling only, and that, too, of a very shoddy nature. Their living quarters are of the tenement type, their medical facilities are in no way comparable with those available for the indigenous people of Ceylon.
The next blow fell on the Ceylon Tamils in two ways. Sinhalese Governments (there has not been a single Tamil Cabinet Minister since 1956) have made inroads not only on the language rights of the Tamil people but also on their very territory. The traditional homelands of the Tamils have in the past two decades been colonised by the Sinhalese people so as to break up the homogeneity of this area. Today the composition of the Eastern Province of Ceylon particularly has been drastically changed by State-aided deliberate planting of large Sinhalese colonies in the midst of the Tamil people.
Very soon, the limited representation the" Tamil- speaking people enjoy in Parliament will be further curtailed. In 1936 the Tamil-speaking people held 20 per cent of the elected seats in the State Council. Now they have only 11 per cent. The Sinhalese, who are 68 per cent of the total population of the country, have 77 per cent of the seats.
The second line of attack on the Tamils has been to deprive them of their language rights. In 1956 the late Mr. Bandaranaike introduced the Sinhala Only Act, thereby making the Sinhala the sole official language of Ceylon. The Act was to take full effect at the end of 1960, but over-zealous ad- ministrators began enforcing its provisions from the moment it was passed. The race and language riots of 1956 and of 1958 were a direct outcome.
Recent legislation passed by the government of Mrs. Bandara.naike has imposed even more hardships on the Tamils than were envisaged in 1956. Admission to the University of Ceylon and institu- tions of higher learning, the selection for the public services and for foreign scholarships—including those awarded by the British Council. the Associa- tion of Commonwealth Universities and by various foreign governments—the expenditure of public funds, etc., are all now on a strictly racial Or religious basis, irrespective of considerations of merit or qualifications. Only thirty months ago all the denominational schools (owned chiefly by the Christian missions) were forcibly taken over by the State and no compensation whatever was paid.
Ceylon has been under continuous emergency rule, except for short periods, ever since 1956. She claims to be the leading Buddhist country in the world. but the incidence of murder in Ceylon and of grave crimes is about the highest per capita of the whole world. In 1958. when innocent Tamil people were being butchered by the score all over the island, not one outstanding Buddhist leader condemned the holocaust that had been let loose. In fact, it is well known that Buddhist monks took the lead in the campaign 'to teach the Tamils a lesson.' Up to this day neither a judicial inquiry into the causes of the. riots and the apprehension of the culprits who were responsible for it has taken place, nor has any compensation whatsoever been paid to the victims of the riots. Can such a country be called in any sense a democracy?
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