Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

04 July 2021

 

TODAY’S TRUTH IS TOMORROW’S LAW

 

They say that Truth is Universal. Hence Universal Franchise. What does that mean to me in my current work?

To my mind the passage of my book ‘Naan Australian’ to the National library of Australia, is the one such example of this Universal Power. Another was the Daily News publishing my article on Gandhi 01 November 2004 – on the day the Prince of Wales medical expert registered me as following int eh footsteps of Gandhi – recorded as follows in chapter 25 of my book ‘Naan Australian’:

[Months later when searching through Google – I came across my response (Appendix 16) to Justice C. G. Weeramantry, former Vice President of the International Court of Justice, published by the Daily News (Sri Lanka) on 01 November 2004 – the day Dr. Peter Vaux above stated that I was like Gandhi.  I wrote the response in October when I went to Sri Lanka at the invitation of Airlanka and was accommodated at Galadari Hotel. Their vehicle was sent to pick me up and I included my conversations with the driver (a Buddhist) also in my response.  To me that is the way to share Gandhi’s values.  I was able to, through my interpretations of the message of a Judge of International standards, take Non-Violence message to the ordinary folks.  To me this is also what I was doing in terms of workplace and laws to the common Australian.  Sri Lanka honored me  and Australia punished me on the same day. How can Australian Government therefore lead Sri Lanka in anyway to eliminate Racial Inequality?  Without actual practice of it – whatever knowledge and / or money that is paid by Australia is a handout. Ultimately the law is for the people to bring their minds together.  To the extent it does not reach society – these are for merely for employment and business purposes.  ]

 

Gandhi to my mind – is for truth in Politics. In Democracy Truth will travel from bottom to top to confirm Sovereignty of the People. Hence to my mind, Gandhi is the best example of Democracy known to me.

Recently, an American Tamil who was disciplined by me for publishing sexually inappropriate material within a Tamil group referred me to OSHO: Mahatma Gandhi's Poverty Is Very Costly - YouTube . He claimed he was a follower of  Osho Rajneesh. That explained to me his experiment in publishing sexually explicit image as if that was appropriate. This happens in groups driven by newly found freedom.

This American Tamil referred me also to The Gandhi Myth Exposed by Arundhati Roy at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddKzcrwC9os . Aizad Sayid introduces the author as follows:

[Arundhati Roy, one of the most prominent voices of late 20th and the current century, was featured in the 2014 list of Time 100, the 100 most influential people in the world. She was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel "The God of Small Things". She donated the prize money she received, as well as royalties from her book, to human rights causes. In this rather controversial interview, Roy rewrites the history of one of the most revered personalities worldwide with her startling and revealing analysis of the man, universally known as Mahatma (revered person). She goes on to praise B.R. Ambedkar (1891 – 1956), an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Untouchables (Dalits) This video is not my own work. It is being posted for students of history of the Indian subcontinent.]

 

It is important to Sri Lankans who are polarised – as Buddhists on one side and Tamils on the other. To my mind, the confusion about Gandhi and his approach to caste holds the key to the altar of the solution.  To my mind Gandhi renounced his higher caste position to become part of the ordinary folks and Ambedkar fought against caste based discrimination and proved that in a ‘free’ world one is able to become an equal to a governor by inheritance.

The JVP and the LTTE leaders became like Ambedkar while I became like Gandhi here in Australia. Former  acquired on merit basis and the latter renounced towards belief basis. In the Sri Lankan issue - Arundhati Roy has taken the following stand and has promoted the Genocide agenda:

[Criticism of Sri Lankan government

In an opinion piece in The Guardian, Roy pled for international attention to what she called a possible government-sponsored genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. She cited reports of camps into which Tamils were being herded as part of what she described as "a brazen, openly racist war".She also said that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide" and described the Sri Lankan IDP camps where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps. Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticised her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE". Roy has said of such accusations: "I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody. However I do believe that the LTTE and its fetish for violence was cultured in the crucible of monstrous, racist, injustice that the Sri Lankan government and to a great extent Sinhala society visited on the Tamil people for decades". ]

Had Ms Roy had the experience with the combatant communities -  that Gandhi had with the untouchables – she would have known that the LTTE violence was caste based. It would have died within if not for India’s training. At the political level, the Universal power of Truth confirmed the success of Tamil Politicians in 1977, when Tamils became the leading Opposition in National Parliament.

By living in the Toddy Tapper village of Thunaivi in Northern Sri Lanka and working in senior caste area  in Vaddukoddai I learnt about the inner workings based on the caste system and why the two are irreconcilable but could coexist through a federal structure. I use Truth with former and Thesawalamai law with latter.

Ms Roy is critical of Gandhi on the basis that he had promoted the caste system. Ms Roy acknowledges that Gandhi was actively opposed to untouchability. Gandhi was promoting the very self-determination that Eelam Tamils are now asking for. Had we retained the caste system until majority  in junior castes had moved on to the secular system. Even here in Australia, Tamils & Sinhalese segregate themselves on the basis of Race not only from each other but also from White Australians for social purposes. To achieve independence from the British Gandhi needed the exponential power of Belief that came with the caste system. If Gandhi had focused on eliminating the caste structure – by using common secular system – Indian independence is not likely to have happened when it did.

Sri Lankan Tamil rebels also used the caste based hierarchy in which Velupillai Prabhakaran’s Karayar caste is senior to all other castes except Farmer caste in Jaffna. Hence the exponential power sharing – until LTTE interfered with the education system through which merit based allocation was happening. Their defeat, like the Corona virus happened exponentially due to disturbing that ‘gene order’.

The Rajapaksa government would have been defeated through partnership between educated Tamils and Sinhalese. It did happen in 2015. But by upsetting the caste based heritage by killing intellectuals – the LTTE brought upon the curse of the architects of Thesawalamai system.

Relatively speaking – Ambedkar was able to  contribute actively to the Constitution of India because he mind-merged with the British. As per Wikipedia:

[He was British India's Minister of Labour in Viceroy's Executive Council, Chairman of the Constituent Drafting committee, independent India's first Minister of Law and Justice, and considered the chief architect of the Constitution of India.]

Ambedkar’s Tamil parallel in terms of Constitution structuring was the Hon Neelan Thiruchelvam who is reported to have been killed by the LTTE.

By living in Thunaivi I learnt to use their measure as a separated community using de facto relationships including in family partnerships. If I had tried to educate them in the use of secular system – I would have been physically attacked if I disciplined them. Had I lived with them as Gandhi did – I would have become a foreigner to my own family. Hence I consciously limit my time in Thunaivi to maintenance of the temple system on my terms. I spend more time in Vaddukoddai and Jaffna towards development of the secular system of global standards.

Without Thunaivi’s Truth I would be separated from the intellectual community in Sri Lanka that has inherited the Justice system including from the British. When laws are based on truth – politics naturally matures as good governance.  Many can write the law but only a few would find the Truth of their apparent home group.