Mr. Sebastian Rasalingam has declined our attempts to meet with him.
He has communicated with us by e-mail and sometimes sent us his articles
(that we had missed) by e-mail. He has stated that Prof. Hoole, and many
other distinguished Tamil academics have also communicated with him, and that
he is in no position to meet with anyone, especially because of his advanced
age.
It is believed that he lives with his
children who have immigrated to Ontario, Canada.
Based on his writings, we surmise that, unlike most Tamil-speaking
writers, he is an educated, vocal
"low-caste" Tamil. He seems to have grown up
in the Donoughmore era (1930s), lived in Jaffna, Mannar
and Hatton. We discern his wife to be an "Indian Tamil" from Hatton.
Their arrival in
Colombo is said to have opened him the possibility of further self-education
in night schools etc., unhindered by the caste
restrictions and threats that he had faced in previous locations.
So he presents a segment of
society that is rarely heard in print. What he writes about
the Sinhala-Tamil conflict
is naturally only a partial truth, seen from his perspective
(emphasizing the caste discrimination
that he suffered, and the hierarchic society of the Tamils). His emphasis on
discrimination within the community is very different from the usual
discourse emphasizing inter-communal discrimination where
the Sinhala-only legislation
is viewed as the beginnings of communal violence. Whatever it is, his views,
even if over-emphasized, must be taken into account to complement the other
partial truths that exist within today's political discourse.
Articles by Sebastian Rasalingam (not a complete list)
