"My God ! What an Ignoble End...!"

These were the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, when he was informed of the death of Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, back in April 1945. Done to death by Italian partisans, Mussolini was the very epitome of what becomes of a revolutionary leader who turns authoritarian. Prabhakaran is no doubt a revolutionary, but had he succeeded in seeing the culmination of his aims of an independent Tamil Eelam, it is very likely that Tamil Eelam would have become a totalitarian state, of which he would have become the dictator – much like Mussolini. The end for Prabhakaran was not as ghastly or repugnant as it was for Mussolini – but it was more or less on similar, expected lines.

The LTTE has been, for all practical purposes, neutralized almost completely. This is no doubt a sound military victory for the Sri Lankan Army. But is this a victory for a moral, principle-centred end? This may well be a military victory fraught with political uncertainty over the future of the displaced Tamilians, what with the single potent force which was able to stand up to the chauvinistic Sinhalese policies, the LTTE, all but exterminated.

I, as an individual, will never be considered a true-blood Tamilian/Dravidian by the so-called Dravidian parties, because of my Brahminical roots. In fact, for each and every Dravidian political party in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere, the Brahmin community will be the most despised and convenient scapegoat, blamed for all their problems. But I still consider myself a Tamilian at heart – I was born into a Tamil household, multiple generations of which had Tamil as their mother tongue, I have adopted Tamil customs, and my children speak Tamil. And these, I believe, are reasons enough for me to consider myself a part of the larger Tamil community and sympathize with the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Leafing back through the history of Sri Lanka, it is very evident that the Sinhalese policies were more often than not, centred on ethnic and cultural chauvinism, which was derived from their being a majority population in the island nation (Sinhalese formed more than 75 % of the population). It is also very certain that the post-independence oppressive and vindictive policies of the Sinhalese government were a catalyst for long-drawn civil war that the island nation was drawn into. Here are some facts :

• Sri Lanka has two major ethnic groups – Sinhalese – 76 %, Tamil – 24 %
• Being different in almost every aspect – cultural, linguistic, religious and otherwise, the Sinhalese and Tamilians were always historically feuding ethnic groups
• Being a majority, the Sinhalese political machinery, soon after independence from the British in 1948, declared more than 1 Million ethnic Tamilians as non-citizens, removing all constitutional rights bestowed upon them.
• Leveraging on their majority, Sinhalese policies encouraged the colonization of traditional Tamil homelands in the northern, and eastern fringes of the island nation.
• Sinhalese policy of ethnic standardization made entry for Tamil youth into higher education in universities much more difficult when compared to Sinhalese youth – it was sufficient for Sinhalese youth to score even up to 30 % or lesser marks than their Tamil counterparts, and yet be assured of a berth in the university !
• The constitution of Sri Lanka was amended to:
• Make it a centralized unitary government – with absolute Sinhalese control, absolute Sinhalese power !
• Keep the Tamil minority out of its ambit
• Make Sinhala the only official language of the country
• Make Buddhism the state religion - this is the religion of the Sinhalese (I am not sure if the country changed from being a secular state to a Buddhist state, but the move in its entirety still smacks of religious bigotry).
  

All the events above are not mentioned in chronological order, but are those which were most notable during the period between 1948 and 1978.

Cut to 1975 – Prabhakaran was a young student, indoctrinated and riding high on Tamil Nationalist sentiment. Frustrated by the repeated transgressions of the Sinhalese government, he drew the gun to assassinate the mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraippah, by shooting him at point blank range in 1978. This incident, seminal in its significance, would mark the onset of one of the longest civil wars in the history of the modern world. Prabhakaran was frustrated by the almost entirely peaceful and non-violent response of the Tamil community up to the late seventies, for all the oppression of the Sinhalese government, and had ostensibly decided that the only way to end the oppression was armed rebellion – an armed rebellion which was to turn out to be one of the most ruthless, ferocious, feared, and most important of all, very costly to the Sri Lankan Army.

The Prabhakaran saga comes now to a predictable end - while he put a bullet into a political enemy to kick-start his secessionist campaign, it was finally another bullet which put a veritable full-stop to his own campaign. In my personal opinion, he was a courageous fighter, who had the guts to stand up and fight. While it takes courage to stand up and fight, it is also courage which is needed in greater measure to sit down and talk – he never seemed to have an ear for discussions, and almost all attempts by the international community to broker peace culminated in an abrupt end to the talks. Every time, the talks came to an end with the LTTE claiming that their demands were not given reasonable hearing by the concerned. Several of his ideologies were questionable at the very least – I will write more about them shortly, but I would like to wind up this blog with just one thought.

Prabhakaran had every possibility of becoming a true revolutionary, deserving of respect. But by prolonging his romance with a violent campaign, marred by political assassinations, vengeance killings, his locus standi as a true representative of the Tamils was absolved long back. From being a hunter, he became a hunted fugitive, and today, he is no more. He deserves a decent burial, just like any other leader, but not a burial with full military honours.

One battle in the Sri Lankan Tamils’ right to self-determination has been lost with the obliteration of the LTTE. But if the Sinhalese policies continue, the war should be continued, but more on political and much less violent terms....