The root cause of ethnic war

Sri Lanka’s Ethnic War is caused by the existence of the Dry Zone. Although the above statement sounds ridiculous, it is quite true. Darwin’s law states that all living things have to adapt to their environment in order to survive - the survival of the fittest theory.

The Dry Zone of Sri Lanka did not sustain the Tamils who lived there. When the British made the island into a Unitary State, they did not have the technology in the 16th century to develop it. The Tamils were therefore faced with starvation unless they went down South for employment to feed their families in the North and East. They were therefore forced to study English in order to survive.

It was either education or starvation. When my Great Grandfather, who was teaching at Central College, Jaffna left, the boys followed him and begged to be taught under the street lamps. Such was the demand for education among the Tamils to survive the Dry Zone environment.

Foreign masters

The Sinhalese living in the lush South did not have such a problem. They even resisted the learning of English because it belonged to the foreign masters. Matters changed with the arrival of a British Army Officer - Col. Henry Steele Olcott, who was an ardent Buddhist. He was able to convince the Buddhist Sangha to open up schools for Buddhist children for the teaching of English, which was even then becoming an international language. The Sinhalese did not have the strong motivation of the Tamils, so through the years the Tamils became a better educated community, taking all the jobs from the Sinhala majority - from the banana seller to the Chief Justice! This imbalance had to be urgently redressed to avoid destabilisation and unrest.

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was ambitious to be Prime Minister at any cost, promised the Sinhala people that if he was voted as Prime Minister he would ban Tamil and English and introduce “Sinhala Only” in twenty four hours. So the Sinhalese gleefully voted him in. This naturally upset the Tamils and other minorities. The Tamils were denied even federation and were eventually forced to take up arms and demand separation and the 28 year old ethnic war was the result.

Reconciliation process

Had there been no Dry Zone in the island the British would have planted tea, rubber and coconut like in the South and there would have been parity between the two communities and peace in the island. Also Bandaranaike would not have been assassinated by a Buddhist monk, because he tried to appease the Tamils.

I recently met a retired Professor of Demography in London and mentioned to him about the Dry Zone. He said this “Environmental Factor” never occurred to him and complemented me on my lateral thinking! He also said, appreciating the importance of factor this by the Sinhala majority, will go a long way in the reconciliation process.