🧵At the Federal Party/ITAK’s 1st convention in 1951, 70 years ago this year, 7 resolutions were passed on the Tamil issue, underpinned by the demand for an autonomous Tamil linguistic state in a federal union. 25 years later the FP moved to demand a separate state #அறிவோம்ஈழம்
Res 1: On the Tamil-speaking people’s unchallengeable title to nationhood, right to political autonomy and desire for a federal union with the Sinhalese
Res 2: Condemnation of the colonially imposed, unitary Soulbury Constitution which is conducive to the subjection of the Tamil-speaking people and makes them “perpetually dependent on the goodwill and good grace” of the majority Sinhalese.
Res 3: on the “political degradation of the Tamil-speaking people under the present constitution and their humiliation under the Citizenship Acts” [the disenfranchisement of Up-Country Tamils]
Res 4: On the “grave danger” facing the Tamil language [This was a few years before the Sinhala Only Act was passed]
Res 5: Condemning the gov’s land development and colonisation policy as an existential threat to the Tamil-speaking people
Res 6: the rejection of the Sri Lankan flag 🇱🇰 as an insult to the Tamil-speaking people and correctly symbolising their current humiliating status
Res 7: Pledging the principle of “non-domination” in any such autonomous Tamil state [designed to alleviate concerns by Tamils in the East, Muslims and non-Vellalar about regional/caste/religious domination] /fin
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