Support for Tamil Ellam
Channel: LazarMartin D
Date: 2013-05-10

Prehistory
The island of Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon until the promulga­tion of the new Republican Constitution in 1972) is the historical homeland of two ancient civilizations, of two distinct ethno-nation­al formations with different languages, traditions, cultures, territo­ries and histories. The history of the Tamils in the island dates back to pre-historical times. When the ancestors of the Sinhala people arrived in the island with their legendary Prince Vijaya from the `city of Sinhapura in Bengal' in the 6th century BC they encoun­tered ancient Dravidian (Tamil) settlements. Even the Sinhala his­torical chronicles - Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa - document the existence of Dravidian kingdoms of Nagas and Yakkas before the advent of Sinhala settlers in the island. In an attempt to distort the authentic history of the original settlers, the Buddhist monks, who wrote the historical chronicles, depict the ancient Tamils as 'non­humans' as `demons possessing super-human powers'. Though the question of original settlement is obscured by legends and mytholo­gies, modem scholars hold the view that the Tamils were indis­putably the earliest settlers. Because of the geographical proximity of southern India to the island, it is highly probable that the Dravidian Tamils were the original inhabitants before the sea land­ing of Prince Vijaya and his crew from northern India.

When the Portuguese first landed on the island in the beginning of the 16th century, they found two ancient kingdoms, the Tamils in the north-eastern region and the Sinhalese in the south, two dis­tinct communities of people with different cultures constituting themselves as separate nations ruled by their own kings with sov­ereign state structures. The Portuguese entered into treaties and then fought battles and finally in the battle of 1619 they conquered the Tamil kingdom and hanged the Tamil king Sankili Kumaran. Yet the Portuguese and the Dutch, who came after them, governed the Tamil nation as a separate kingdom, recognising the integrity of the Tamil homeland and the ethnic identity of the Tamil people. In 1796 the British colonial empire took control of the island from the Dutch and in 1833 imposed a unified state structure amalgama­ting the two national formations irrespective of the ethnic differ­ences. Thus foreign colonialism laid the foundation for the present national conflict. Though the British, for administrative purposes, created a unitary state, they recognised that the island had been the homeland of two separate nations. In 1799 Sir Hugh Cleghorn, the first Colonial Secretary observed in the well known 'Cleghorn Minute', `two different nations, from very ancient period have divided between them the possessions of the island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its southern and western parts from the river Wallouve to that of Chillow, and the Malabars (the Tamils) who possess the northern and eastern districts. These two nations, differ entirely in their religion, language and manners.'
Though the Sinhalese and the Tamils have an ancient past with deep historical roots buried beyond the Christian era and possess elements of distinct nations, the island of Sri Lanka, in the course of history, developed a heterogeneous culture. There are other eth­nic groups living in the island, of which the Muslims and the plan­tation Tamils constitute themselves as significant communities of people with distinct cultural identities.