Veddhas Say No to Colonization Plan
Cultural Survival Quarterly Spring 1992 pp. 11-12
By the Cultural Survival Trust of Sri Lanka
A millennia-old group will soon leave the colonies Sri Lanka moved it to years ago and return to its forest home.
When the following article came to
Cultural Survival from the Cultural Survival Trust of Sri Lanka, it was the first
contact between our organizations. The
Sri Lanka group is not aftiliated with
Cultural Survival, yet, as the excerpt
from their letter to us on the next page
shows, we have much in common.
The island-nation of Sri Lanka,
an ethnically plural society with
sizable Hindu, Muslim, and
Christian minorities dominated by a
Buddhist majority, may be witnessing
the disappearance of the Veddha. Subject to relentless proselytizing from successive govemments, only a few hundred Veddha families preserve their ancestral identity in the face of ambitious
plans to assimilate and integrate them
into the majority community.
Traditionally a culture of nomadic
hunters, Veddhas managed the island's
extensive forests with remarkable
economy and ingenuity for tens of thousands of years. They also gather wild
honey and other forest products to sell or
exchange for the few items they value
from outside their domain. Once the sole
human culture in ancient Lanka, the
Veddha have been steadily marginalized
over the centuries by the descendants of
Sinhalese immigrants from India and
today face final extinction as a distinct
culture.
In recent years, the Veddha have had
to deal with rude official demands to
hand over their last ancestral hunting
grounds in eastem Sri Lanka to govemment agencies claiming to be anxious to
protect their resource-rich forests. Several years ago, after being cajoled and
coopted by govemment promises of a
better life, many Veddha families accepted resettlement in two large colonies in the massive Mahaweli hydro-electric and irrigation development project.
Fed up with what they regard as
official exploitation and the corruption
of modem society, tribal leaders have
announced a decision to terminate their
experiment with colony life. After harvesting their chena crops in
May 1992, about 50 Veddha colonists plan to leave the colonies
and return to the forest, while some others are watching and
waiting.
The dissidents are determined
to return, despite uncertainties
about what action local officials
may decide to take. Moreover,
there are concems about starvation if they leave the govemment
colonies but are not allowed to
return to hunt and gather food in
their former domain.
Although an ancestral hunting
community, the Veddhas say they
are dedicated to non-violence.
However, they feel exposed and
vulnerable to what they perceive
as official hostility toward their
"backward" culture. Saying they
have no one else to turn to, the
dissident colonized Veddha --
numerically weak but substantial
in a community that is estimated and_
to numbrr only 2,000 -- has appealed to
Cultural Survival of Sri Lanka and others for help in their struggle.
Cheated Before
Tribal leaders allege that corrupt officials have forcefully barred Veddhas
from their own forests, brazenly profiting from lucrative illegal logging and
unlicensed commercial hunting and depriving the Veddhas of access to their
traditional livelihood, staple diet, and sacred dancing grounds. Much to the
chagrin of officials, elder tribal chieftain
Tissahamy and several stalwart families
refused to leave the forest and vowed
they would fight if necessary to preserve
their ancestral traditions. Previous governments had tried to cheat them many
times before, they noted.
For example, since 1974, Veddha
leaders have listened to official assurances that 1,500 acres within the Maduru-Oya National Park would be given to them as a sanctuary. In fact, mindful of
the great value of cultural diversity and
indigenous knowledge, high-level officials in mid-1990 recommended that
urgent steps be taken to expedite the proposal. But to this day the appointed board of trustees has not met, lending credence to Veeddha allegations of vested bureaucratic interest in the issue.
Today, Veddha colonists find themselves isolated and exposed to the mercies of a modern mercantile society, quite unlike their own in which crime, deceit, and avariciousness are virtually unheard of. The forest people, subject to
often not-so-subtle ridicule for speaking in the Veddha dialect and expressing
their distinctive point of view, feel they have traded the freedom and dignity of
the foltst for servitude to an alien market
economy that mercilessly compels them
to abandon the last vestiges of their
ancestral culture. Their marginal economic gains, they feel, do not justify the
sacrifice of an age-old collective identity as a forest-dwelling people.
"All the old people want to return, and our children also prefer our traditional way of life," says one tribal leader.
"We will protect our forests just as we
always have. These officials are not
forest people who love the jungle; they
are only businessmen getting rich by
selling our forests and game animals."
By selecting May 16, the Buddhist
high holiday of Wesak full moon, as the
day for their collective return, the
Veddhas have chosen to make on emphatic show of their will to affirm their
curtural independence. Govemment officials have not yet reacted to the
Veddhas' decision, although dissident
minority Tamils fighting for independence have expressed keen interest and
say it could represent a welcome precedent heralding a peaceful settlement (see sidebar). Some have even proposed that the Veddhas be encouraged to occupy the buffer zone
between Sinhakese and Tamil areas to
arrest the problems of colonization.
In late January 1992, Cultural Survival of
Sri Lanka urged the government to take
prompt steps to implement its stated
intention of saving the Veddha commurlity from cultural annillilation. Yet as of
late March, no action had been taken
upon a ministerial directive to convene
the first meeting of a board of concerned
governmental and non-governmental
agencies, including Cultural Survival.
Cultural Survival has urged the Sri
Lanka Government to give back the
Veddhas' bows and arrows publicly and
to hail the move to revive traditional
Veddha cultural values. The Government could use the opportunity to encourage the rejuvenation of other threatened communities and the preservation
of their local knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, contrary interests appear to
be preventing the Government from backing up its promises.
A Letter from Sri Lanka
"We seem to be active in identical
areas with little coordination. In 1992,
we should try and bridge this gap since
unity of purpose is strength.
Our work among indigenous cultures in Sri Lanka includes the Veddhas
and the Puranagama people, the latter
being traditional cultivators left behind
by the development process. We are the
only NGO in Sri Lanka concerned about
protecting these people within the framework of their own cultural ethos.
In spite of growing global recognition, in Sri Lanka the information order
precludes our decision makers from
seeing the urgent need to protect threatened cultures. The preoccupation seems
to be industrialization without recognizing the need to protect distinct cultural identities.
We are witnessing in Sri Lanka the
destruction of a way of life that has
sustained itself in harmony with nature
for several centuries. Although we are
ourselves consultants to the government, as well as to other public and
private bodies, the urban decision-making process requires reeducation in keeping with what modem science is confirming: that indigenous cultures be
urgently protected.
Although in Sri Lanka vast plans and
schemes are regularly announced by the Government, implementation
takes ages and when undertaken they
are mostly for the decision makers'
benefit and not for the indigenous
people themselves. For example, we
have recently been appointed by the
Government to a board to protect and
preserve Veddha culture, but the board
has yet to meet. Although the cabinet
decided 15 months ago that this board
was an urgent necessity in helping
preserve the "vanishing Veddha," not
a single Veddha is on the board.
We therefore require your help in
networking with like-minded organizations and individuals worldwide
who will assist in our work. We need
an internatiomal network that will
provide us with a global voice to be
heard locally. In Third World cultures what is imported is always given
credibility and political trends follow
intenational lobbies.
Initially, we have been documenting indigenous Vanni culture on film.
This material is the nucleus of an
image and sound bank from which six
30-minute programs are being produced. This in-depth series of our oral
traditions has been financed with our
own resources to educate others about
what is intact as indigenous culture in Sri Lanka.
We have also built and maintained a
model village dwelling in the heart of
the city of Colombo to demonstrate to
urban planners the efficacy of rural
housing models. Our work in education
has enabled us to arrange for those
interested in indigenous culture to learn
it by "living it."
Conflict resolution has been promoted through the use of traditional
institutions. You may be aware that
militarization and colonization have
created several problems in forest regions once occupied by traditional communities. This has led to a war with
traditional communities and their environments threatened through conflict.
If the Veddha community is granted
the disputed buffer zones to continue its
traditional lifestyle, we have been assured that the rebel groups will accept
their claims, protesting only against
outside infiltration of tribal areas. We
feel that this attitude will enable a peaceful solution to a 10-year war. However,
it will require international pressure to
force the decision makers, as well as the
growing militant mentality, to accept
these values.
- Cultural Survival Trust of Sri Lanka
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