Teardrop island is still haunted by its past
It’s 70 years since Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, gained independence from the UK.
In the post-war era, Ceylon was prepared for change, and though it would retain the Ceylon name until 1972, it was in February, 1948, that it first shook off its ties with our country.
Ceylon, a teardrop-shaped island to the south of India, was suddenly an independent country within the Commonwealth of Nations that shared their monarch with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom.
No longer was it a British colony and, though the British Navy remained stationed there until 1956, it soon had its own leader.
Sadly, it also had political upheavals and violence to deal with, too.
DS Senanayake became Ceylon’s first Prime Minister, with important Tamil leaders being included in his original cabinet.
Demonstrations against the rationing of rice, five years later, saw him resign, and his successor was a controversial man.
SWRD Banadaranaike recognised only one official language, and this led to outrage among the Tamils.
It was the sort of story we see regularly on news channels today.
Seeing the rules as a threat to their culture and community, the Tamils were determined to do something about it.
A non-violent resistance movement was started, while Sinhalese and Tamil leaders resolved nothing.
The PM was assassinated by a Buddhist monk in 1959, and to many, those colonial days of British rule must have seemed much better.
This beautiful land in the Indian Ocean has seen more than its fair share of horror.
The early ’80s saw antiTamil riots, and India armed and encouraged the Tamils to fight back.
The Tamil Tigers would wreak havoc, blowing up holy sites and the like, while thousands of Tamil civilians are said to have been killed during the Civil War.
By the time they dropped their demands for a separate state, hundreds of thousands had been displaced.
Today, thankfully, there is cause for hope.
During Sri Lanka’s national independence day celebrations in 2016, the Tamil version of the national anthem, Sri Lanka Matha, was sung for the first time at an official event since 1949.
President Maithripala Sirisena had said he would unite the nation, and this was a major step forward.
Second only to the Maldives in that part of the world for the health of its economy, the big hope is that Sri Lanka, 70 years after independence, can finally blossom and grow in peace.