From: mohan@tnds09.newshost (Lavanya-Mohan)
Subject: Re: parallels - TN reservation and Sri Lankan Situation
Organization: /user1/u1/mohan/.organization
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 08:51:38 GMT

In article <lakp2kINNmrl@bathtub.cs.utexas.edu> raman@cs.utexas.edu (Raman Rajagopalan) writes:

   > [some parts deleted...]
  
   > Think Sri Lanka.  The Tamils were in good shape.  They were better
   > educated and held better jobs.  The MAJORITY sinhalese looked at
   > this and said to themselves, why are we letting the minority have
   > a better standard of living?  They did not care about the fact
   > the tamils worked hard to achieve what they did.

   > The sinhalese imposed laws to take opportunity away from the Tamils.
   > The tamils objected, to the point of demanding a separate homeland.
   > They formed a liberation army (several at one point), and have
   > been fighting a civil war for years.

   > WHAT, may I ask, if the difference in the sinhalese treatment
   > of sri lankan tamils and the current treatment of the Tamil
   > Nadu upper castes?  We upper caste worked hard to achieve what
   > we did.  No one has forcably kept other tamils from studying for
   > years and years.  Why are you advocating a form of treatment for
   > upper caste tamilians when you *violently* are opposed the same
   > treatment from the hands of the sinhalese?

   > - raman rajagopalan


There may be some similarities between the reservation scheme in TN and
the situation of SL Tamils, but it is certainly not a complete comparison.
The sufferings of SL Tamils are far beyond any comparison.

I point out some of the sufferings of SL Tamils that are not experienced
by any particular cast in TN:

- SL Tamils are discriminated because of their language, whereas in TN all
  speak the same language. Please note, that Tamil was accepted to be an
  official language in the constitution only in 1987, only after Indo-SL
  accord. They were even denied of any promotion if they didn't pass some
  examination on Sinhala language even if they worked in a Tamil area. At
  the same time, local Tamils had problems in communicating with Sinhalese
  employees (eg. policemen) in their own majority areas, as these employees
  were not at all required to learn Tamil to work in a Tamil area. I am
  not sure about the current sitation after the 1987 amendment, but I would
  not be surprised, if there is no change practically.

- SL Tamils suffered periodical riots against them, while the government
  machinery was just watching, or even being behind it. The worst was in
  July 1983 (so far).

- SL Tamils suffer planned settlements of Sinhalese people by the government
  directly and indirectly in their majority areas (sinhala clonization),
  with the intention of gradually making them a minority in any part of SL.
  This is going on and on for a long time... For example, check the ethnic-
  wise population statistics of places of the North and East of SL over the
  decades, particularly in the East.


I have list only the major aspects....


// Mohan

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Organization: Senior, Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA