{"id":48975,"date":"2016-10-15T01:10:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T05:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=48975"},"modified":"2016-10-15T09:45:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T13:45:12","slug":"formation-of-hindu-political-group-siva-senai-seen-as-a-regressive-step-in-sri-lankan-tamil-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=48975","title":{"rendered":"Formation of Hindu Political Group “Siva Senai” seen as a Regressive step in Sri Lankan Tamil Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PK Balachandran <\/strong><\/p>\n

The formation of a Hindu political group \u201cSiva Senai\u201d (Siva\u2019s Army), with the vowed purpose of defending Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus from \u201cother religious groups\u201d and securing for the Hindus their rightful place in Tamil political parties commensurate with their dominant status in Tamil society, is seen by observers as a regressive development in Sri Lankan Tamil politics.<\/p>\n

Veteran columnist D.B.S.Jeyaraj sees it as an attempt to bring back an inter-religious division in Tamil politics which was there in the first three decades of post-independence Sri Lanka. Jeyaraj remembered that in the 1970 parliamentary election in Kakesanthurai, C.Suntharalingam, an orthodox Hindu, had challenged Samuel. J.V.Chelvanayakam, the Christian leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), by asking voters to choose between the \u201cSiluvai\u201d and the \u201cSoolam\u201d \u2013 the Cross and Trishul. But the largely secular Tamils chose neither and voted for Chelvanayakam. the Christian leader of the secular Federal Party.<\/p>\n

Tamils generally ignored communal appeals and sent many Christians like Alfred Duraiappah, C.X.Martyn and Joseph Pararajasingham to parliament, Jeyaraj said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the era of militancy, from 1983 to 2009, the secular Tamil Tigers did not allow religious affiliations to split the Tamils. In fact, the Catholics played a key role under in the LTTE as they did in the democratic phase of the Tamil movement earlier.<\/p>\n

But the moment the over-arching control of the Tamil Tigers ceased, following their military defeat in May 2009, religious divisions began to appear as one of the instruments of political mobilization. Just as the re-eminence of Chelvanayakam was resented in the early days, the present day pre-eminence of M.Abraham Sumanthiran in the ITAK, is resented by a section of Hindu Tamils. Not surprisingly, the Siva Senai is targeting Sumanthiran.<\/p>\n

Parading a Hindu identity, which was not a part of Sri Lankan Tamil politics earlier, is no longer taboo. The Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran wears all the hallmarks of an orthodox Hindu and makes it a point to start his speeches with a Sanskrit sloka. He is also close to Hindu institutions in Sri Lanka and India. Interestingly, he has a running battle going on with Sumanthiran, whose pre-eminence in the ITAK he resents.<\/p>\n

Former MP, Murugesu Chandrakumar, who wants Tamil leaders to look into caste inequalities and social injustices in Sri Lankan Tamil society, feels that the Siva Senai\u2019s decision to ignore the \u201cinternal problems\u201d of Hindu society and to focus on the \u201cexternal threats\u201d, will only perpetuate age old injustices in Sri Lankan Hindu society.<\/p>\n

Economist and social activist Ahilan Kadirgamar says that a Seva Senai modeled after the militant Shiv Sena of Maharashtra \u201ccan become uncontrollable.\u201d But Rajan Hoole ,who has chronicled human rights violations, believes that Siva Senai will fail just as previous attempts to infuse communalism failed. A comment on Facebook asked if the leaders of the Siva Senai know that the Indian Shiv Sena had opened its political innings by bashing up Tamils in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

Some like Thirnavukkarasu Gopahan of the Green Trincomalee Movement, see India\u2019 hand in the formation of Siva Senai.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is again trying to shape the politics of Tamil politics in North Sri Lanka\u201d Gopahan said in a Facebook posting. The Siva Senai has made no secret of its intention to get funds from India primarily. One of the Senai\u2019s founders, S.Yogeswaran MP, is close to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:New Indian Express<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By PK Balachandran The formation of a Hindu political group \u201cSiva Senai\u201d (Siva\u2019s Army), with the vowed purpose of defending Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus from \u201cother religious groups\u201d and securing for the Hindus their rightful place in Tamil political parties commensurate with their dominant status in Tamil society, is seen by observers as a regressive …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Formation of Hindu Political Group “Siva Senai” seen as a Regressive step in Sri Lankan Tamil Politics’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48980,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48975\/revisions\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}