Crusader of Interracial Unity
P.N. Haksar, 4/9, Shanti Niketan, New Delhi -110 021.
I have visited Sri Lanka only once in my life. That single visit generated within me conflicting emotions. I was enchanted by the beauty of the island and the grace of its people. At the same time I returned with a sense of tragedy brooding over the island that the exquisitely fair and beautiful island of Sri Lanka should be so unnecessarily full of ethnic conflict. I simply could not understand why the Sinhala and Tamil could not live together work together and share together the joys and sorrows of living. I was horrified to find that a totally false racial ideology was being built up to permanently divide “Aryan Sinhala from the Dravidian Tamils” and the division was sought to be reinforced by alleged divide between the Hindus and the Buddhists.
The brooding sense of tragedy to which I have referred takes on a sharper edge when I recall the face of 39 year old Shri K. Pathmanabha whose life has been so cruelly extinguished by bullet. On the few occasions that I met him in Delhi, I was deeply moved by Shri. Pathmanabha’s warmth and humanity. Despite all odds, he continued to believe that Sri Lankans and Tamils could work together and that each could live with a dignity in that island.
Pathmanabaha’s crucifixion would, I devoutly hope, make those in power in Sri Lanka think once again about the need of reconciliation rather than continue stoking of conflicts by inciting Sinhalese, who constitute the majority against small minority of Tamils who should be able to live in peace and tranquility without loss of their identity. I believe that Shri Pathmnanabha continued to have faith in that sort of a vision. I should like to pay my homage to his life and work.
