Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

15 September   2021

Imaginary Unity vs Polarisation

Being polarised is better than imaginary unitary state to ‘show’ others.

‘Sri Lanka sticks to domestic mechanism; says UN probe will polarise country’ reports Economy Next, on the basis of the response by foreign minister G.L. Peiris.

To many in Sri Lanka, being Sri Lankan is a final goal. When we live exclusively in a particular area – the whole is a projection on that basis. Hence who names the whole acceptable to us is our leader. The war confirmed that Sri Lanka was already polarised. Separately celebrating victory in war – further confirmed polarisation. Politicians who desired votes accumulated emotional victory – which is not real. Only votes earned would lead to good governance of the whole. How it is earned is regulated through Administrative structures. Executive power exercised outside structured pathways leads to divisions in various forms.

When politicians go back to claim current benefits out of past achievements they surface exponentially – the cost that went into that particular outcome. Recently, I was directed to the following news report:

[In a significant archaeological development, carbon dating of excavations from the banks of River Tamiraparani in Tamil Nadu have been proven to be 3200 years old. This would make  Porunai civilisation the oldest in south India and bring Tamil civilisation closer to the Indus Valley civilisation. Chief Minister M K Stalin who announced this in the assembly has called for rewriting of the history of the sub continent's civilisation from the landscape of Tamil Nadu.]

It is similar to ‘Sinhala only’ policy by the then Sri Lankan government. Like language, History is only the skin of a civilisation. As per the system of karma – we need to transcend the physical to convert it to Energy. If we dig up graves and give them political life – we suffer the effects of plagiarism which begins with mental disorder. Those who resort to the past – confirm lack of skills to operate the current system.

When Sinhala only was announced – it wiped out the value of English/global culture  that was common to all cultural leaders. It tempted voters with greater benefits. Hence we went back to pre-colonial structure.

In a discussions regarding the Tamil Nadu discovery, Mr G Balachandran – a retired IAS officer stated that India did not always exist in the form that it does currently. Given the evidence of the spread of Hinduism – including to Indonesia, this is acceptable. If however, one tries to claim priority status on the basis of the past – then we would have awaken destructive forces exponentially. We know the fear of such exponential forces through natural calamities which now include the Corona virus. This virus is a natural force and hence is beyond our immediate control. The Sri Lankan war was similar due to the leaders invoking the past as Sinhala country and Tamil country. Desire with fear diffuses itself. Likewise polarisation in the consciousness of the other diffuses itself.

In Sri Lanka we did live as polarised groups even after the British left. We had our own cultural laws. When new policies such as Buddhism Foremost are part of the constitution, we disturb the memorials in our efforts to ‘show’ unitary structure.

If therefore the UN probe confirms polarisation – we would become more active so long as we do not enforce ourselves on each other. We would not enforce if we are conscious of the other half about which we know very little and hence attribute Equal status.

Being polarised is better than imaginary unitary state to ‘show’ others.