A new Tamil Eelam - why and why not.

Do Tamils have a legitimate right to a separate Tamil eelam?

This is the question being asked on www.judgeandjury.com which is
where tamil.co.uk will take you.

Apparently, a lot of Tamil people are still protesting in Westminster
in the UK, and a few other places, no doubt. What exactly can the UK
government do about the Sri Lankan government and its actions? And
what exactly does the UK governmeent have to do about securing a
separate "Tamil eelam", whatever that means to someone who isn't
directly in the line of fire?

First of all, who are Tamils? Most of them are Tamil speaking
migrants from the Indian land mass, many of them having left several
generations ago to many different countries. Today Tamilnadu is the
state in India that has the most number of Tamil people, but they are
Indians first, and have absolutely no political cause to subscribe to
any notion of a separate country for Tamil people, in Sri Lanka or
anywhere.

If there are any, it is our business to ask them if they are Indians
first or Tamils? If they are Indian, then they are already well
represented by Indian leadership in asking for a proper settlement
plan for all the displaced Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and should take
heart in the Rs. 500 crores that India has given the Sri Lankan
government to deal with the crisis on their hands.

It isn't as if Sri Lanka created this crisis. If the LTTE had worked
towards bringing prosperity to Tamil people instead of holding them in
impoverished and helpless conditions for so long, we wouldn't have
refugees today. We'd have people with assets simply going back home
to their sweet, secure lives.

The biggest Tamil population in the world, in India, the original home
of the language and the people speaking it, have no grouse big enough
to ask for a separate country. They are enjoying the prosperity of a
big, unified, diverse, vibrantly democratic India, and are playing
their industrious part in making India even more economically
competitive. They are highly unlikely to be swayed towards anything
revolutionary.

Tamil people living in far off countries like the UK, British Guyana,
Cyprus, the USA, and so on have, unless they're preparing to move to
Sri Lanka to live in a separate Tamil Eelam, no reason to demand
anything from anyone, leave alone their country of legal residence.
If all migrants in all countries started demanding their own country,
we can imagine the chaos. That is simply not on.

Are these protesting Tamil people ready to move en masse to this new
country they suppose they will be gifted by the government of Sri
Lanka? Very unlikely. There are Tamil people all over the world, but
the notable generations of settlers range from Malaysia to South
Africa and some former British colonies. Do they all want to move to
this new Tamil Eelam, or do they all want little Tamil Eelams in their
own countries? There is no evidence of either scenario evolving.

So, who the heck are these fools trying to raise a hue and a cry for
"Tamils", as if they're a whole different species? Logically, whoever
is kicking up this new mayhem in the media is a remnant supporter of
the LTTE. It is rather strange of them to not mention "Sri Lanka" in
their demand for a Tamil Eelam. For it isn't as if India is willing
to carve up a piece of its territory to create this new country, if
indeed, that is what they are asking for. By not mentioning Sri
Lanka, they are hoping to somehow sneak into public consciousness that
all Tamil people all over the world want a separate country. Very
cunning, but it isn't going to work.

The Sri Lankan Tamils have a predicament. For a long time, they have
either supported the LTTE or lived under its threat. If they have
supported the LTTE, they have no bloody right to demand anything,
because the LTTE is a terrorist organization. If they had lived under
threat of the LTTE, then that clearly shows the LTTE was not a
pro-Tamil welfare organization, and now that the Sri Lankans have
rescued the Tamil population from the LTTE, deserve to have their
chance of rehabilitating the victims. After all, it is their country,
and they routed the LTTE, not Tamil people fighting for their own
freedom from the oppression of the LTTE and its fat, overrated dead
leader and his dictatorial ambitions.

People of the world, beware. Let Sri Lankan Tamils not lead you into
believing that the whole Tamil speaking population of the world is
interested in a separate Tamil Eelam, whatever that means. We are
not. But if you insist on our opinion, we think the Sri Lankan
Tamils, in their lousy ability to pick a leader, and in their
economically weak condition, are in no state to run their own country.
They should get some fair rehabilitation in Sri Lanka, and be
properly assimilated into the population as Sri Lankans, not Tamils or
Sinhalese or Buddhists or Christians or Muslims. If they want an
example of how this works, all they have to do is look at India.

But for now, all you protestors, especially in wealthy countries,
please shut up and go home. It isn't as if you'd risk your butt for
anything Tamil. If you really cared, you'd sell everything you have,
leave right now, and start living in Sri Lanka, not hide in another
country.

India no laughing matter!

India in the eyes of many is a complex, organic, chaotic place, full of promise and yet brimming with so many qualities that make it confusing, and hard to define. We even take pride in this chaos, and consider it part of our lives in this romantic mess called India. It is almost as if some country in the world had to stand up to play the part of the chaotic idiot, and we chose it out of love for the depth of character it promised.

In the chaos, a lot of us see an order that is hard to recreate elsewhere, for this order is something that just comes to be, not one designed to be that way. The traffic on our roads is the prime example for this order within chaos. I have heard a friend define it as a "lyrical dance" of vehicles! Well the dance isn't that lyrical considering how many Indians die in road accidents every day, unless we are now willing to venture into being part of the cosmic whole and that those people were destined to die anyway.

I wonder how we would take it if the Indian Air Force refused to react to Pakistan invading India and just allowed an organic chaos to take over, of course completely convinced that we are part of a cosmic whole and that nothing is really real. I wonder how it would be if we stopped manufacturing medicines and our doctors went on permanent leave, since people were going to die at designated times anyway.

Truth is, we Indians love chaos until it becomes life threatening. Not just any life threatening, but OUR life threatening. We are that selfish. We are that callous about public behaviour. We are heartless, but love to live in our cocoon of suspended disbelief that we are a compassionate people, that really care about other people's lives. We do not. Perhaps we do not wish ill upon others, but we don't really care what happens to others, even though we are perfectly happy to subscribe to a system that causes needless chaos.

We are not torn between a rational today and a culture of very dense superstitions. We are torn between our laziness and a need to do our duty in a democratic set up. We are torn between the demands of civic responsibility and our dearly held and protected indifference to all things that do not immediately affect our well being.

Oh, we do take up moral policing quite regularly. Especially when policemen confront couples on bikes late at night, for example. There is nothing in the constitution that makes it illegal for a man and a woman to be taking a motorcycle ride late at night, and yet, all the questions from the police will usually be aimed at establishing the intent of the ride, not the legality of it. We love moral policing and we are particularly good at doing it when we have the safety of not being bitten by the person being questioned.

Is this a call for us to seek legal help to maintain our freedoms? Most certainly it is. It is time we became a litigious society where we fought for our rights to lead peaceful lives, where the chaos loving maniacs cannot threaten our lives with lousy driving habits, or the moral policing habits of mob-minded Indians drive us to lead invisible lives.

We are not a great country when we have to make adjustments for imperfections we do not subscribe to. We will never be a great country until EVERY single constitutional right and freedom of EVERY single citizen can be absolutely taken for granted, without question, without ambiguity and without exception.

There is nothing to be proud of this chaotic country we currently call our own. There is definitely nothing beautiful about a lack of a certain order that can prevent casualties, and there certainly is nothing to appreciate about traditions that are thousands of years old when we behave like we did a million years ago.