Rajaji and Eelam

From: Swarajya, April 1961
THE CEYLON STRUGGLE, By C. RAJAGOPALACHARI
The Ceylon Tamils (who are old Ceylonese and are as attached to their mother island as any other citizens of Ceylon) are asking for a federal form of government in which the Tamil speaking population of North and East Ceylon may have autonomy subject to the Federal Government of all Ceylon. This will enable them to take pride in Ceylon nationality, without any bar-sinister of inferiority.
The language issue is merely an outer symbol of the competition between the two nationalities. It is a battle between communities, not at a battle of cultures or languages. Neither culture nor language is in danger. Either can stand on its own strength and is not capable of being extinguished or even hurt in a substantial degree. The question is whether the Tamil-speaking people are to be treated as equals or not. Equality will be ensured under a federal regime. The unitary Government is necessarily leading up to place them on an inferior level. This is the more unjust because the progress so far achieved and the present status of Ceylon as a whole depended not a little on the patriotic services of the eminent Tamilians of Ceylon. The refusal to grant equal status on a federal basis to the Tamil population amounts to ingratitude.
Let not the Tamil Northern and Eastern Ceylon population be confounded by superficial readers of news in India with the people of South Indian origin who have migrated to Ceylon when the plantations needed hard labour and who have settled down in and around the plantations as permanent but yet unrecognised citizens of Ceylon. They are an entirely different group. Their quarrel is a different one.
Any sympathy from South India extended to the original Tamil speaking people of Ceylon, who are fighting a tremendous battle for autonomy within a federal regime, can be easily mistaken for a Tamil conspiracy to bring Ceylon sovereignty and its integrity into jeopardy. That is the reason why South Indian leaders have been patient and have not given too swift expression to their feelings of sympathy with those who fight a just battle in Ceylon on the language and federalist issues. The present Ceylon Government party has been for sometime past pretending to see a great conspiracy between South Indian Tamils and Ceylon Tamils, which of course is mere myth born of an inferiority complex.
The question of direct action and the advisability of continuing it is quite a different question and should be judged entirely by the leaders of the movement. One who is at a distance and who is a votary of peace may be inclined to advise compromise if it could be had on honourable terms. It is hard to believe that reason will not ultimately prevail. We all hope in India, who have seen the lady-Premier of Ceylon, that she will bring her best emotions into play and succeed in controlling the extreme elements on the Sinhalese or Buddhist side (what ever name we may give it) and bring the protest movement to a suspension on honourable terms.