Kolonialismus - Nationalismus - Rassismus
Creators: name: Prinz, Thomas
Publisher: name: ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia
Year: 2022

description: The article starts criticizing the common theories about the origin of the Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. On television, in several newspapers and even in scientific publications the conflict is explained in monocausal and unhistoric ways. Gabriele VENSKY, correspondent of the "Frankfurter Rundschau" and the "Zeit", describes the conflict as consequence of wrong decisions within the present Srilancan government which came to act under the influence of group of Buddhist-Sinhalese chauvinists. Other writers see the origin of the conflict in the social disintegration and poverty of the people in Sri Lanka (J.DONNER), in the state-controlled economy of various SLFP-governments (Newton GUNASINGHE) or just in the process of becoming independent (Tessa HOFMANN). Some other explanations go far more back into history. They refer to the "Mahavamsa", the great chronicle of Sinhalese, dating back to the sixth century. The "Mahavamsa" is mythological glorification of the "Sinhalese race" who came first to the island and made it paradise before it was destroyed by the "tamil babarians". The history of the island is described as permanent fight between Tamils and Sinhalese. Those explanation often are expressed by the common people of Sri Lanka, but also by serious scientists as for instance Heinz BECHERT who presumes that the Sinhalese nationalism has started in the second century B.C. Against these theories the present paper holds that nationalism is a modern a concept. In Sri Lanka nationalism has started as an ideology of the Sinhalese elite who claimed that their struggle for self-determination would be the struggle of the whole people - the nation. Under the British administration different possibilities to reach elite status emerged: The control of commercial agriculture, arrack production or graphite mines. The number of the Ceylonese elite is estimated by Michael ROBERTS to be 5-6 percent of the adult population. Their economic success led them to claim political participation, too. But in the colonial environment they first had to fight the arrogance and snobbery of their British colonial masters who believed their own culture and religion being superior to the indigenous culture. The Ceylonese fought against their alleged inferiority by claiming their own culture and religion being equal or even better than the European culture and Christianity. Thus Buddhist, Hinduist and Muslim revivalism started. From its beginnings the movement against colonialism was devided into several communal groups. The first attempt to unite the various political organisations was made in 1919 with the foundation of the Ceylon National Congress. This attempt was deliberately and successfully destroyed by the British colonial authorities. Colonialism so far is not only responsible for creating political movements on an ethnic and religious base but also for destroying the main attempt for an all-island nationalism. From this religious/ethnic integration of the different groups mainly the Sinhalese and Tamils it was not far to racism which has become mass-phenomenon during the world economic crisis of the thirties. During the election campaign of 1931 the first election under universal franchise the leader of the Colombo working class A.E. GOOESINGHE used racism in his speeches against South Indian workers whom he accused of being the reason for the growing unemployment. Another example for the connection between colonialism, sectional nationalism and racism is discussed in this paper. This being the language struggle which started in the forties led to the election victory of the "Sinhala-only"-movement in 1956, and finally to communal violence in 1958. From then on an increasing seperate integration of Tamils and Sinhalese can be observed. The constitution of 1977, the first bomb attack of Tamil seperatists, the killing of civilians by Sinhalese soldiers, the riots of 1977, 1981 and 1983 and the civil war of the last years are steps in the process of conflict escalation. They are not the origin of the conflict. The origin is colonialism in a multi-ethnic society.
description: ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, Nr. 27 (1988): ASIEN (April)