Shivshankar Menon on India-Sri Lanka, Indo China and Indo Pak relations

[Nilgiri]

I agree completely with your point of view, But it was also a two way street in post independence Sri Lankan politics that led to what it did.. Both the Sinhala and Tamil ruling class were equally responsible for it.. Specifically the Jaffna Vellaya English speaking ruling class

Sinhalese elite wanted to regain the power, Tamil elites didnt want to loose the power they had under the British

They wanted that apartheid system to remain for thier own benefit not for the Tamil people in general

Add to that the political base in Tamil Nadu saw the opening for thier own agenda.. The result collateral damage of the general population especially a whole generation of Sri Lankan Tamils

Yup I am not saying Tamil class did not play their role in it. They were quite stuck up in preservation of power and status like you said....rather than trying to start something genuinely new as a new country that wants a new situation to be formulated.

Basically no one gave the other a chance, a benefit of the doubt and some time to smooth things over. Everyone was fickle and over-sensitive...and it deteriorated into stonewalling on both sides, forced siege and direct assault of these walls and eventually India (through TN politics and Indira Gandhi's own emboldened hegemonic attitude) involving itself as well. All of this was totally unnecessary in hindsight....bad was responded with bad and followed up with more bad and it perpetuated. It made otherwise good decent people on all sides act like monsters or not stand up to monsters on their "side".

In a way it was SL's version of India's own partition in 1947...but more drawn out (when scaled to SL) because enough Lankans rightfully wanted and fought to keep their country together and there was enough support from India and later just TN and Tamil diaspora worldwide for the LTTE who were radicalised enough to give everything they had to their vision....as deeply flawed and unsustainable as it was.

I'm just glad its finally over now, SL stayed united (preventing a dangerous precedent being set and emboldening some truly disgusting characters in TN and potentially other parts of India) and has made a representative constitution and govt structure and sobering lessons seem to have been learned where it is most important. But I mourn the terrible suffering that was wrought with winner takes all stonewalling instead of pragmatic sensible compromise at the many opportunities afforded for decades till the black july pogrom that set off all the major chain of events that really pushed SL to the brink.

 

[Saradiel]

The most important thing this fellow wrote in his book is , that United States and Norway WANTED to stop government offensive and save Prabhakran. So any attempt by US to target SL for alleged war crimes should be looked at remembering this