Srilanka as Ceylon

Sri Lanka is small pear shaped, tropical island barely twenty five miles to the southeast of the tip of India where the waters of the Bay of Bengal meet the Arabian Sea. For centuries, her position at the juncture of important sea routes has made Ceylon a prize for whatever sea powers held or sought control of the Indian Ocean.1 Ceylon’s proximity to India has been of fundamental import. Her principal racial stocks and her Hindu and Buddhist religion are of Indian origin. However much a distinctive quality developed within ceylon’s civilization. Indian influence has been profound. Particularly up to the fifteenth century, perhaps no important change in Indian civilization has failed to leave its impress on the island.

Sri Lanka culture in the broadest sense has much in common with that of India. Ceylonese art clearly shows Indian sources although peculiarly Ceylonese qualities are also manifest. In the ruins of great cities such as Anuradhapura, where Ceylon’s early kings ruled until the eighth century A.O and at Plounaruma the capital until the thirteenth century.

Comments

Operation Poomalai : The Jaffna mission

Indian intervention in Sri Lanka was more than political rustling of South India or the helping hand Indian forces were giving to their neighbours to bring back normalcy to the northern region which was badly being affected by the riots caused by ethnic polarities which was increasingly widened by two factors. Majorly that are regional politics and the Indian decision to step in supporting an extreme group that was Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Here discussing operation Poonamalai is important. While Srilankan Govt. was expecting moderate approach from Indian counterpart but the intensity of riots in which casualities were mainly Tamil civilians. It was June 3rd of 1984, Jaffna was under total blockade by army men from Colombo who were going hard and fast at the Tamil seperatist groups. Fighter planes standing at Gwalior Air Force station received an unusual request. The Mahrajpur Air Force station was not ending the day that early as the evening schedule since the orde...

In search of normalcy: The reconstruction of north.

India played a crucial role in reconstruction of north of Sri Lanka through foreign monetary aids . After the war victory, the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksha visited India in June 2009. During bilateral talks between two premiers, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an announcement that India would support to reconstruct the war affected areas and rehabilitate programmes. India concerned to assist the GOSL in her post war reconstruction rehabilitation process in several ways. India involved to assist the internally displaced persons in North and East providing financial assistance for several projects in the war affected areas. At the beginning, India government provided emergency supplies of medicine, temporary housing and cement and undertaken demining programmes in war zones with an investment of $ 110 million. Later, India further extended her cooperation to assist for the post war reconstruction process in Sri Lanka invol...

Sri Lanka's strategic role for India

Being a geographically proximate state of India, Sri Lanka assumes great importance to India. Both India and Sri Lanka are situated in the outer rim areas of the Indian Ocean and, thus, have tremendous potential to develop maritime trade with the Afro-Asian countries and the various other countries of the world. In the context of 116 Indo-Sri Lanka relations, the geo-strategic dimension continues to be as one of the independent variables. Since colonial days, naval strategists have emphasised the importance of Sri Lanka in the defence calculations of India. For the British colonialists, Sri Lanka had been an integral part to the defence of the Indian subcontinent as it served as a vital link in their sea communications eastwards. India after independence, continued to adhere to the principles of strategic importance of Sri Lanka on the lines of the British theory in the sub-continent. This is evident from the fact that in the early years, just after independence and even the years i...

Srilankan Diaries

Search This Blog