Dr.DAYAN JAYATILLEKA, Jan 18
    
Douglas Devananda once likened Tamil nationalism to cholesterol, saying just as there is good and bad cholesterol, there is good and bad Tamil nationalism, and just as you need good cholesterol, you need the good Tamil nationalism. Certainly the history of Tamil nationalism shows plenty of examples of “bad cholesterol”. Elite Tamil nationalism opposed the abolition of communal suffrage and the introduction of the far more progressive territorial representation, demanding instead a Tamil seat in the Western Province.  This was well before the founding of the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1927, and the formation of the Pan Sinhala Board of Ministers a decade later, let alone any oppressive legislation or actions against Tamils. It resulted in a fissure in the multiethnic Ceylon National Congress.

 

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