War and Rationality

Thaikkanavudan Saavinaiththazhuviya, Santhanappezhaigale... Ingu
Koovidum Yengalin Kural Mozhi Ketkutha?

the opening line of the Maaveerar Paadal, sung by Nathan of 4th year undergrad on the occasion of Maaveerar Thinam or 'Hero's Day' last month here in Carleton. Nathan is the best singer in CUTSA and he does give the songs he sings an emotional twist. As he was singing, the hundred odd people gathered in the Azreili Theatre in Carleton University from various parts of Ottawa climbed up to the stage one by one and paid their respects to the potraits of some famous LTTE men killed in battle.

He was followed by some other singers, few of whom did an ode to V. Prabhakaran. And then was a skit, performed by 4 students, where they played the roles of various deceased LTTE soldiers justifying their actions to Chitragupta in Hell. All along, I could see passions and nationalism running high. After the performances, the Chief Guest of the day (yes! there was one!) came on to give a speech. His name was Ganesh- a middle aged guy, educated in appearance. Ganesh is among the growing number of active Tamil politicians in Canada whose role is increasing in policy-making here. He started off by thanking the students to have called him and soon plunged into a tirade against the incumbent Conservative government. His outrage is understandable- only in 2006 did the Canadian government ban LTTE as a terrorist organization.

He described how the Tamil diaspora in Australia and Europe was actively working- and succeeding- in changing the popular opinions toward LTTE in these countries and urged the students to use their skills to do the same in Canada. The Canadian government is to be acquainted with the idea of how 'virtuous' the Tigers are and how 'cruel' the Sri Lankan state is, he said. He and his co workers are campaigning for the Liberal party in the coming provincial and eventually the parliamentary elections 3 years from now. He also spoke about how, the Tamil students can enter in Canada's industrial work force and work toward 'destroying' Sri Lankan economy, resulting in a lesser defense expenditure by the government there and in turn, giving LTTE an upper hand in the ethnic conflict.

All this while, I was taking some pictures around, and trying to make some sense of his heavy Ceylonese accent. Even the little of what I understood of his speech raised the hair on the back of my neck. And from the reactions of my friends, here, I was baffled that they actually believe each and every word of his. I look back to see many middle aged and even old folk sitting there with sober expressions. Most of those definitely have seen the horrors of '83 riots. No wonder they want some revenge. But what about these students sitting with me? They have grown up knowing very well that LTTE has done equally great damage to the people of Sri Lanka. Then why do they choose to take sides(notwithstanding the fact that LTTE seems to be the only real voice of the Tamils) and give themselves to nationalist irrationality? Why can't they see something which is so obvious to me? Anybody in my shoes would have got the same thought initially. But it starts getting clearer as I go deeper into their childhood and my own.

Development of rationality depends a lot, not only on the kind of teachers and schools we go to, but also on the kind of environment we are subjected to outside classrooms. We learn the most from our friends. Imagine studying in a school not knowing when the building across the road is blasted into pieces. And the violent reactions to those incidents needs no mention. For children of different ethnic groups, in constant conflict, studying in the same school must truly be an uncomfortable experience. Then the only place where they can learn their past and present without any guilty conscious would be their homes, where their parents would feed them with narrowminded nationalism. Lack of peer to peer interaction all but kills individual and competitive thinking. The same can be said about Muslim kids in communally volatile regions in India like Gujarat.

We, on the other hand, had the good fortune of being born in a politically stable nation yearning for economic development. More so is the good fortune of being raised in an intellectually well evolved environment(if not due to the teachers, at least due to peers) of the south- especially Chennai. This 350 year old city- far from the conflicts of the borders- has the legacy of being the forerunner of scientific rationale since the introduction of modern education. Of course, Bengal started the awakening, but it was Madras which has been carrying the torch of enlightenment since then. Chennai is probably the only city in the nation where one can find a bulk of middle class intelligentsia who seek more than mere material pleasures from life and strive for intellectual development. Not Hyderabad, not Bangalore, but Chennai. And all that is quite apparent looking at the unrivalled contribution from her children to science, cinema, music, journalism, economy, politics and what not. By growing up here, well, developing a broadminded world view is but the most likely outcome.