29 October 2021
One Hindu Law?
[State Minister of Estate Housing and Community
Infrastructure Jeevan Thondaman says he is disappointed with the One Country
One Law Presidential Task Force as there is a lack of Tamil representation.
“Disappointed with the Presidential Task
Force on ‘One country, One law’ concept as there is not one individual chosen
for the Committee who would represent the interests of the vast Tamil
population in Sri Lanka,” he expressed via a tweet.] The Morning article headed ‘Thondaman points out lack
of Tamil representation in One Country One Law Task Force’
Given that the taskforce is headed by anti-Muslim activist one
is entitled to conclude that the recommendations would tend to be Buddhist law.
Mr Thondaman represents Hill country Tamils who by visible culture are more connected
to India’s Tamil Nadu than any other sections of the Sri Lankan Tamil
community. Would this therefore lead to formation of Equal Opposition on
religious basis – led by Hindus who are officially Tamils?
As per the Fundamental Rights section of the current
Constitution:
[10. Every person is entitled to
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or
to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
14. (1) Every citizen is entitled to – (e) the
freedom, either by himself or in association with others, and either in public
or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance,
practice and teaching;]
Article 9 places the
Responsibility to the State, of assuring the practice of their
own religions as guaranteed by the above
articles:
[9.
The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and
accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the
Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by
Articles 10 and 14(1)(e)]
As
per the laws of Sovereignty, the above article divides the nation into two
equal parts. Romans depicted this through the two faces of Janus – one facing
the past and the other the future – both bound together at the back; ‘Janus
presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace.’
Wikipedia
If
a Muslim practice closely linked to the religion is abolished, this would be in
breach of the fundamental rights of Muslims. Likewise, if Hindu or Christian practices
are abolished by the changes. Easter Bombings happened due to failure of the
Government to protect the rights of Non-Buddhists. The new government, by
failing to find the truth and sharing it
– has already contributed to negligence of its duty in assuring us of the ‘freedom’
to practice our religious beliefs.
In
an ethnically divided society, visible separations are essential – so we would
not become each other’s opposition at the lower levels. These are the levels
that interpret as per their likes and dislikes if there is no rule to state
otherwise. That is how the JVP uprising in South followed by the LTTE uprising
in North happened. As per feedback
regarding the recent problems in North on the basis of caste was the influence of Marxism that the LTTE promoted,
which resulted in dilution of religion based beliefs inherited from our
ancestors. I have highlighted in my response below, this problem as follows
‘But the problem there was lack of belief in local ancestors
who were largely local.’ The full text is as follows:
[Thank you Chandran for this
wonderful sharing. As highlighted by you, the varna system, as the system
of caste was known then – had its separations. To my mind, this facilitated
learning from humans within a sovereign structure. The basic component of that
system is belief. When we have belief, we inherit the structure as Energy.
Hence the Hindu philosophy that we take only the Punniyam and Paavam / Virtue
and Sin into our future. Belief helps us to inherit this from our ancestors. With
such Energy – we would comfortably function and demonstrate exemplary conduct
and outcomes that confirm expansion on time basis – as if our ancestors are
supervising and supporting us. Any weakness is ‘confidentially’ rectified. This
is the Subjective system.
We switched to democracy due to
gradual loss of faith in our elders and the need for multiculturalism. This
required us to be Transparent and ‘what happened’ became everybody’s business /
responsibility. Hence Swami who validated the Varna system as it then existed,
said there is only One Caste – the Caste of Humanity. As per Democracy we are
common to all and that which we produce is also owned in common in every
sovereign unit. Hence we are ‘free’ to separate when we are independent.
As per my intelligence, junior
castes in Vaddukoddai area separated and in many such villages they occupied
lands owned by temples. In Thunaivi, a large part was Adaikalam Thottam
Kanthaswami Temple property. Eventually due to our example – the tenants were
facilitated to own their plots through due processes.
The problem happens when they
go into each others’ areas. In senior castes it is the women who continue to
expressly ‘show’ caste based separation. The reason is that most of them
receive dowry through which they elevated their status after marriage. This is
based on Thesawalamai Customary structure – to ensure that the woman did not
think she was less than her husband . The men who went out and worked gradually
lost consciousness of caste. Marxism also facilitated this. But the problem
there was lack of belief in local ancestors who were largely local. You may
have heard of Mr Karthigesan who was known as Communist Karthigesan who taught
English at Jaffna Hindu College and who contested at Nallur. He is of
Vaddukoddai origin and is related to my husband. He genuinely contributed
strongly to elimination of caste. He is highly respected in Vaddukoddai –
including by my husband’s family.
The parallel in the Junior
caste are the youth who due to separation enjoy more ‘freedom’ than their
fathers. Hence the recent surge of caste based conflict. This, like the Covid
has exponential powers due to it being resurrected from the grave by the
current generation. Like the Covid, we need to learn to live with the remains
of the caste system.]
If we switch to Buddhist law only –
then no member of the government has the moral authority to pray visibly at Hindu
shrines – including at Kathirgamam, Nallur and all Sai Baba centres. I leant in
Vavuniya in 2009 that Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa paid his respects to Swami Sai Baba
before proceeding to the camps.
When majority try to ‘possess’ separation
happens naturally. This is likely to invoke another war – as indicated by the
Jaffna problems.
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