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TKD die Vorgeschichte

PDF Mapping of Srilankan Diaspora 2001

Open Letter to Tamil Community, to all,

1. Problem 2. Background 3. Consequences 4. Democratic Solution 5. Indian Success 6. Learn? 7. The Present 8. Culture 9. All the Best! Esteemed community abroad and in Germany, 1. The Problem: Never again injustice! What is this really about? An entire community like the Tamil one, which sticks together well at its core, has a much deeper insight and knows the answer from the history of Sri Lanka! Moreover, it belongs to the oldest Indian cultures. While the North was mixed with many others, conquered and changed, the vast majority of Tamils in NRW have a very special historical situation that can teach us democrats something. 2. The Background In the 1820s, with the cultivation of coffee, many hardworking Tamil migrant workers came to Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka, primarily from India. Especially in the 1870s and 1880s, this happened for tea cultivation. Three, four, or even five generations of these families had already lived and worked in Ceylon! And suddenly, an estimated 300,000 of these Tamils lost their citizenship through the Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948! The situation worsened a year later when the Tamil parliamentarian G. G. Ponnambalam, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), who mainly represented Jaffna Tamils (mostly members of the higher castes in the North and East of the island), joined the national government party and became a minister. Because he represented the interests of his voting group more and neglected minority interests, especially those of the plantation workers, this was perceived as a betrayal. The way this problem was handled vividly shows the vulnerability of a (young) democracy to the disregard of minority interests, which is part of sustainability and the preservation of social peace. This responsibility is necessary to prevent, for example, wars and war crimes. Sinti For example, in Nazi Germany, almost half of the Sinti, a formerly Indian nomadic people, were murdered; they were considered "subhumans." Even after the war in West Germany (FRG), the official stance of the authorities and courts for a long time was that the measures taken by the National Socialists against Sinti were allegedly for "crime prevention" reasons and not racial ones. At the beginning of the 15th century, labor was needed in niche occupations (such as tinkers, scissor grinders, basket weavers, small smiths...), which was very convenient for the settled (later) German population. Sinti musicians were even appreciated for their virtuosity, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Nevertheless, true integration was never possible for them because they were consistently stigmatized and criminalized, among other things, by early accusations of being spies for the Turks. These prejudices eventually culminated in racial persecution and murder. 3. Consequences of Irresponsibility Losing (Sri Lankan) nationality at that time meant the loss of livelihood through the ban on land ownership. It also meant that one's own children had no legal claim to a place in state schools or universities. No hope for a better future, no right to vote, no possibility for change! Later, there were over 800,000 refugees and 100,000 deaths in the war – the indirect consequences. This was a systematic, state-organized destruction of livelihoods and existential security, causing extreme and long-lasting mental suffering. Could nothing have been learned from history in 1948? In the neighboring country of India, there had been experience with systematic discrimination for centuries, even millennia: the caste system. 4. The Democratic Solution The Indian caste system had disadvantaged people for millennia to such an extent that many tried not to carry a surname. That is why many Indians, including Tamils from the lower castes, have two first names and no surname. Due to significant discrimination, it was also a solution to convert to Christianity just to escape the caste system associated with the Hindu faith. That is why many "European Christian" first names are found in Sri Lanka (and India). The first Indian Minister of Justice, Dr. Ambedkar, was not allowed to walk on the carpet in his own ministry because he came from a lower caste. It was this very minister who introduced a quota system that still ensures that the disadvantaged are supported today! Gandhi was not just concerned with laws, but with how people really treat each other. He supported the lowest caste by calling them "children of God." It was not just his wife who complained that everyone now had to carry the filth out of the latrine themselves, instead of having (lower) servants do it as was customary. 5. The Indian Success Today, someone from the originally disadvantaged caste is even Prime Minister: Narendra Modi! And from his cabinet, the former Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said in 2016 that Sinti and Roma are children of India. And she came from the highest Indian caste of the Brahmins. Seen in this light, it was irresponsible of the Sri Lankan parliamentarians who voted for the Act of 1948. They had a responsibility to prevent the foreseeable suffering by ending statelessness and to learn from the overwhelming millennia-old Indian history. This responsibility was failed by the ruling, predominantly Sinhalese majority, joined a year later by a Tamil parliamentarian who himself came from the established, rather higher castes. Instead of learning from each other, the negative concepts of the past were adopted and reused as a "proven" means of abuse of power. To imagine this today in Germany: it would be as if one forgot the suffering of the GDR and, despite better knowledge of the consequences and failures, applied the old means of power. Interestingly, even distant Nazi Germany had learned from Indian power tools. The abuse of power and repression can best be shown through the Indian "freedom fighter" Subhas Chandra Bose and the Reichsführer-SS and simultaneously Chief of the German Police, Heinrich Himmler. The Indian Bhagavad Gita was even very popular among the Nazis back then, although it was actually created by "subhumans." But Heinrich Himmler was a fan, though that was purely in the interest of power. It was a template for the German warrior myth for their own inhumane Nazi war propaganda, because here too, the responsibility of the warrior for his actions and his later remorse were faded out. Radicalism in connection with the fading out of the context, the suffering, and the consequences is dangerous. Today, the world can observe this more clearly in such politics in all its details, including the systematic consequences that nobody wants in the end – not even right- conservative or left-wing voters, because only a small group at the top profits. In this field of tension, the contradiction becomes clear: Bose was fascinated by the German police structure (according to the WDR documentary "Pact with the Devil," 2008, approx. minute 33) and sought support from Himmler and Hitler, although these very power apparatuses threatened his own relationship with his "Aryan" partner in Vienna. Emilie was pregnant by him and could have been in actual mortal danger due to the presence of the Gestapo in Vienna. Both kept their relationship a secret. The fact that Bose was under special observation by the Nazi regime and at the same time there was a political interest in his support might explain why his regular travels between Berlin and Vienna did not become a disaster for the two. Nevertheless, the paradox lies in the fact that he sought a model for India's order exactly where he personally experienced the most danger – while such a mortal danger would never have existed in a British colony. Mixed marriages between Indians and white Britons were officially possible and legally recognized at his time, even if they were not always socially accepted. National Socialism led to the destruction of around 6 million Jews and about half of all Sinti and Roma – murdered solely based on "non-Aryan blood" – because Hitler saw Bose and Indian culture within the framework of his ideology as "subhumans." Accordingly, Hitler refused Bose a binding commitment to India's independence from Great Britain in the event of a victory of the Axis powers, if Germany "liberated" India after the conquest of Russia. Besides the personal mortal danger for Bose and Emilie (and his daughter): What would a signed guarantee from Hitler for India's independence have been worth? Hitler had agreed to the non-aggression pact with Russia in 1939 (Hitler-Stalin Pact) but did not stick to it, ultimately because of his view of the "Slavic subhumans." In June 1941, the Second World War began with the attack on Russia. Hitler wrote in "Mein Kampf" that he saw the Slavic peoples as weak; the Indians, in his view, were so weak that they would not be able to govern their country themselves. So, what would have happened if Hitler had "liberated" India through the conquest of Russia remains a rhetorical question. Gandhi, on the other hand, openly criticized Hitler's inhumanity and Bose's methods. 6. What can we learn? I state: The first Indian Minister of Justice had learned and acted. The FRG had learned, especially with Helmut Schmidt regarding the Sinti. It cannot be that one systematically disadvantages others in order to have a better life oneself. Even if it were legal in a democracy. In the end, nobody wants that, and it is a shame that nobody wants to confess to, as in the past of Indian and German history! 7. The Present! So dear migrants, refugees, Germans, and EVERYONE: Would it be okay today to systematically disadvantage people by distributing the task among different groups and then prolonging the suffering over a long period? For "crime prevention" reasons? Should one even engage children for a glorious idea by using them for the militarization of social sciences with "soft" methods? Just as there should be no child soldiers!? Basically, it is about the fundamental question: to systematically disadvantage others? I don't ask all Tamils, but all people: It is time, in view of the heavy, possibly massive consequences also for the ignorant, to exchange ideas. I think it is in the interest of all democrats, regardless of their group, to inform each other now! Please practice whistleblowing before someone else does and then reproaches you for NOT having done it, for not having known, so that you have to be ashamed that others talk badly about your culture! But shame is only the smaller problem if disadvantages, repression, or even punishments or consequences in different forms return! Remember the past! 8. Culture: Save your culture! Help yourselves and other people. Wouldn't it be nice to stand on a higher moral level? This is how India was able to free itself from the British, simply put, or rather the British agreed to India's independence because their identity with their culture was important to them; for they fought against Nazi Germany, although Hitler sought the pact. 9. All the Best! Stand up for what most people really want. As I have summarized it under the term "True Emergence": A result of the technical alignment of all knowledge and the tendency of mankind. Soon I will present TE and TEC (True Emergence Concepts) from other independent developers with Social Responsibility. So, less theory! So long: Help with whistleblowing! Feel free to ask your priests, gurus, lawyers. It is about uncovering the corrupt structures, NOT abolishing the democratic structures! For Germany, the best of all cultures, for a better world for all, a functioning democracy. I wish you all the best!