20 November 2022

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

TAMILS LOSE; SINHALESE WIN

 

I needed some reading material for my student from Hambantota in Southern Sri Lanka which is also the home area of the Rajapaksa family. I opened ‘Sri Lanka News’ and the first item was ‘The Jungle and the Sea, follow-up to Counting and Cracking, uses theatre as a safe space to discuss Sri Lankan civil war’

Just last week a friend of mine gave a glowing review of  ‘Counting and Cracking’ and mentioned that she intended going to the follow up also. My friend mentioned that it was by Anandavalli’s son. I shared that I had served articles at Anandavalli’s father’s firm Satchi’s. (Satchithananda, Schokman, Wijeratne & Co).

When I saw the ABC report at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-19/the-jungle-and-the-sea-counting-and-cracking-sri-lanka/101635476    I was eager. But when I started reading, my heart fell. As per ABC report:

[Then in 2010, against his mother's wishes, Shakthi visited family in Sri Lanka and learnt that his great-grandfather had been the only Tamil politician in the country's post-independence government. (Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, was part of the British Empire until 1948).

If Shakthi had consulted with elders in his Australian family, starting with the Pasupati’s he would have learnt that Mr GG Ponnambalam and Mr M Thiruchelvam were also members of the Government.

Most important to me is the following account by Wikipedia, under Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple, about Shakthi’s great grandfather:

[Only "high" caste Hindus had been allowed to worship in the temple. In 1968 several hundred "low" caste Hindus, mainly Pallar and Nalavar, staged a non-violent protest outside the temple gates but were met with violence from a group of "high" caste Hindus. In June 1968 "low" caste Hindus stormed the temple. They were given access to the temple following the intervention of Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK, Federal Party). C. Suntharalingam, who had led the "high" caste resistance to opening the temple up to the "low" castes, was prosecuted under the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act and fined Rs. 50 by the Supreme Court. This act, which had been brought in as a private member's bill by ITAK in 1957, made the denial of entry into a place of worship on grounds of caste an offence. ]

 

It is important to me because my primary contribution in Sri Lanka’s North is to balance the negative karma of caste-based discrimination which mutated into race-based karma. All sins mutate due to sins being absolute powers, with minds of their own. In Northern Sri Lanka, we live in Thunaivi – a toddy tapper (Nalavar) village . Today also we participated in the poojah / mass through online facilities. After the mass , English classes would be conducted, for which I send the material from here. Not many attend, but every bit of that contribution is pure offsetting Energy. None of our relatives from North visit us there. Government officials have refused to move there despite persuading us to donate land on the promise that the government offices would relocate once the building built for that purpose, out of Public funds had been completed. 16 years later, the government officers are yet to relocate. Reason – fear of Nalavar caste culture. Those like Shakthi, are celebrated by the ‘educated’ class and they are overwhelmingly supported by Australian media

As per ABC:

‘The epic family drama won 14 major awards, including seven Helpmanns and the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature (Australia's richest literary prize).

In August this year, Counting and Cracking opened to rave reviews at the Edinburgh International Festival and Birmingham Festival.

Reward for lies! How ignorant can the global media be!

 

Interestingly, soon after reading the ABC review, I was drawn to the article ‘Discrimination against low-caste monks in Sri Lanka’ at https://www.themorning.lk/discrimination-against-low-caste-monks-in-sri-lanka/

As per my own Research about karma:

[Positive Karma / Heritage, comes with its own balance and resides in the mind of the developer as intuitive intelligence. It is invoked  through respect by the heirs of the developer. The negative side of positive karma is seated more deeply than positive side.   In a ‘free environment, it is invoked on her/himself by one with negative karma.

That is how we learn about others’ truth through our own truth.

Negative karma also comes with its own balance and is invoked through disrespect for the ancestor. The positive side of Negative karma resides deeper than the negative side.  In a ‘free environment, it is invoked on her/himself by one with positive karma. ] Different Logics