"But generally speaking there is no question that one of the most important
ingredients of nationality is Language, because it is through the vehicle of
language that the aspirations, the yearnings and triumphs of a people through the
centuries are enshrined and preserved. Therefore all that it means to a nation from
the psychological, from the sentimental, from the cultural points of view, the value
of nationality from all those points of view are expressed through the medium of
language. That is why language is such an important ingredient of nationality...
What then is the object of having Sinhalese alone as the official language? If the
objection is that it is rather awkward to have more than one official language, I
should like to point out that other countries are putting up with more than two
official languages and are carrying on reasonably satisfactorily... I do not see that
there would be any harm at all in recognizing the Tamil language also as an
official language. It is necessary to bring about that amity, that confidence among
the various communities which we are all striving to achieve within reasonable
limits. Therefore, on the second point, I have no personal objection to both these
languages being considered official languages; nor do I see any particular harm or
danger or difficulty arising from it."
(Official Report State Council, 25h May 1944: Vol. I c809)
The Official Language Act No. 33 Of 1956, however, provided that Sinhala shall be
the one Official Language in Ceylon. The Tamils considered this act a great betrayal
and have not ceased to agitate for equality of status for the Tamil Language.
In 1961 for 57 days the Tamil speaking people performed Satyagraha outside of the
Chief Government Offices in the Principal cities of the Tamil territory -- Batticaloa,
Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna -- thus bringing the administration in these
areas to a stand-still.
The Government imposed a state of emergency and used the Armed Forces to unleash
a reign of terror in these areas. The Tamil M.P.s and leading Tamils like Kanthiah
Vaithianathan were placed under detention. When some legislative provision has been
made for the use of the Tamil language in the Northern and Eastern Provinces,
Sinhala continued to be largely used as the sole language of public business causing
inconvenience, embarrassment, and humiliation to the Tamils.
4. EDUCATION.
We list herein specific areas in education where there is severe discrimination:
(a) Education amending Acts Nos. 5 of 1960 and 8 of 1961 took over Schools run by
Tamils and Christian denominations but Buddhist Privena Schools were allowed to
continue as voluntary schools with state aid.
(b) Estate schools for children of Tamil plantation workers were not taken over and
continue to remain the extremely poor standard in which they have been all the time.
(c) Tamil medium schools in Tamil areas were converted into Sinhala medium
schools, thus forcing them to study in Sinhala medium.
(d) After the take-over of the schools, some schools in South Ceylon where there were
predominantly Tamil children were converted to Sinhala schools without alternate
provisions for the Tamil children.
32