“Finally the British are gone and there is bliss of hope for the new country Sri Lanka!” exclaimed Geethan’s father patiently reading Ceylon times newspaper with joy and laughter.
“You must remember this day on 22nd May 1972 sons and daughter, this is the day that the whites have gone back to where they are supposed to be.” added Insith ’s mother happily resting on the crouch making dolls.
Nuveena, Geethan and Insith were only 5, 7, 10 years old respectively by then and know nothing about politics. The whole family was Indian Tamils. They own a Ceylon tea plantation which was passes down from their ancestors to the head of the family which is their father. They had contributed a lot to the new Sri Lanka’s economic growth by producing tea leaves and boosting the economy through trading. Eventually, they thought that everything will go well and smooth but they where wrong.
Things happened to change not long after independent. The Sri Lanka government had made some decision that made some conflicts between the Tamil and the Sinhalese. They said that only those who are born in Sri Lanka or those whose ancestors were born in Sri Lanka have the rites to get citizen rights.
As the results, the Indian Tamils who worked in the tea plantations became stateless. Which means that the Geethan’s family would not have a country of their own? Not only his family was affected by it, their relatives and those with same race where also overwhelmed by the decision the government had made. There are still other policies that they think that it is unfair to them.
One of it was the change of university admission criteria. Before 1970, admission to university was based on merit but after 1970, the admission to university was not based on merit. Tamil students had to score higher than shinhalese students. The number of places for Tamil students was also limited.
Nuveena, Geethan and Insith were 15, 17 and 20 years old respectively by then. They had a hard time studying just to get to university. Insith started to feel very unjust and he knew that he needs to do something for his race for a better life. Being the elders in the family, it is his responsibility to protect his family for whatever that happens.
One ordinary day with unexpected things that happen that changed the life of their family. As usual, Insith brought Nuveena and Geethan to their school and when to his own university to study. During his recess, as usual, he brought his lunchbox and sat with his clique of friends. One of his friends, Muthu, told him that there will be a Liberation Tiqers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) being form by the a bunch of young Tamils to oppose the government to fight for the better future.
Without any hesitation, He immediately went to their headquaters and sign up for joining Liberation Tiqers of Tamil Eelam. Not long after his harsh training in the camp his family members started to feel something amiss happened to him. There were bruises all over Insith’s body and when his parents asked him what happened he claim that he is fine.
“ Father! Mother! I am off to school!” exclaimed Insith while wearing his shoes and ran off. Insith‘s dad noticed that his bag was getting bulkier and bulkier each day. So on a particular day, Insith‘s dad finally took a step of faith and spied on him secretly. Shockingly, he saw his own son walking in to a public toilet and changed to his army suit. He was very disheartened and disappointed when he saw his own filial son in the suit. Then he saw him went off in a truck with a group of fellow comrades. Insith‘s dad went home hurriedly went home and then discussed about it with his wife and then decided to tell everyone in the family about it. Nuveena and Geethan were utterly shock upon hearing the news and had the same reaction as his their father.
Soon after that, the rioting started between the government and Liberation Tiqers of Tamil Eelam started.
No comments:
Post a Comment