“Reducing a group to a slur or stereotype reduces us all.”
- DaShanne Stokes
The so-called Sudu Juliya (White July) campaign initiated by the UNF government, could not have been named worse. Not only is the tag so insulting to the sensitivities of the Tamils who lost their loved ones, property , homes and in some cases their motherland forever, due to that infamous Black July of 1983, but it automatically and ironically brings to mind the fact that the bloody Black July was under UNP watch back in 1983. Had this type of tag been used in Europe or the US, one could imagine the backlash it would have created. As to what goes through the minds of those advertising and public image ‘experts’ hired by the government, when they chose titles as this one is hard to fathom.
In any event the scope of this article lies elsewhere. It is July. Within the Sri Lankan political context the most common reference it is in relation to Black July. Much had been written on this 
topic, time and again yet there is always the feeling that not enough has been done to confront this dark patch in our history, mainly from the majority Sinhalese, by way of an apology to their Tamil brothers and sisters who became victims of the 1983 pogrom. Of course the Sinhala ultra right will undoubtedly scream hoarse referring to many massacres carried out by the LTTE of many Sinhala as well as Muslim citizens such as the Kent Farm and Dollar Farm massacres, Kattankudy Mosquemassacre and the Kebithigollewa bus bomb.
Yet there is a marked difference between those acts of mass murder by the one time most ruthless terror outfit in the world and the July 83 pogrom that took place in main cities including Colombo under the watch of the state and the security forces. It was not merely the element of omission , i.e. failing to take swift and resolute steps to thwart the pogrom from spreading island wide, but by commission where the rhetoric of some ministers as well as the non-apologetic tone of the the first Executive President JR Jayewardena would, suggest.
Revisiting the episode
For those busybodies, such as I, who have been harping every July that the majority community should revisit those gruesome episodes, and understand them in their true context with a view to healing the wounds that have left deep scars in the Tamil psyche, the last few months were startling that so many references were made to the possibility of a Black July occurring , this time against the Muslims and of the shrill repercussions if no prompt action taken to nip a mini pogrom in the bud. There was ample allusion, warnings, (as much as threats ) about Black July after the April 21 Easter Sunday bombings;yet it was not in the nature of revisiting the Black July or yielding the expected result of an apologetic nature. Rather they were eye opening urging from the moderates among the Sinhala majority that we were treading a very treacherous and destructive path.
For many such a bold, magnanimous and reconciliatory gesture would have been asking too much from the Rajapaksa Regime, after the conclusion of the civil war; yet more in line with the policies seemingly , initially engendered by the President and the Prime Minister of the present government. Yet with the Easter Sunday bombings they too, are now in a break neck race to appear to be the saviours of the Sinhala race, obviously with the Presidential and Parliament Elections in the corner. No Sinhalese leader at this point is going to apologize for the Black July or many atrocities committed against the minorities, we can understand. They are not apologetic towards the recent attacks on ordinary Muslims in Minuwangoda, Kuliyapitiya or Kurunegala. The Islamophobia and the paralysis caused by the perceived imminence of more attacks, created the perfect backdrop for the shift of allegiance for the yahapalanaya regime.
- Titles as “White July” is hard to fathom
- “Black July” was an irrevomovable dark spot in the country’s history
Hegemony
As things stand at present, the entire socio-political landscape is dominated by the Sinhala Buddhist hegemony; that is why the blessings of the Mahanayakes seem to have become the most crucial spark for a presidential candidacy for those vying for that coveted seat from whichever side. They are willing to engage in the dangerous game, the one played by SWRD Bandaranaike in 1956 or the one played by JR and the UNP in 1983 ,oblivious to the looming danger such flirting could cause to the future of this country.
As we go through the week starting with July 23, the day in 1983 when the pogrom started right underneath the watchful eyes of the security apparatus and the apathy of the officialdom, we are far from being immune to repetition of incidents of such nature in the future. The face of the enemy has changed from the Tamil separatist to the Islamic fundamentalist. Their objectives may have changed. During the Black July it was mainly the lumpen segments of the society, with the aegis of the JR regime that went after Tamil blood. There was no intellectual or conceptual justification of the act. Yet today, the call for anti Muslim action is well entrenched among the Sinhala society including its social and intellectual elite. The call to boycott Muslim businesses is slowly strangling many enterprises in main cities. A general sentiment of resentful intolerance of anything to do with the Muslims has permeated broad sections of society. Ironically the very Tamil polity who tasted the bitterness of such projects in July 83 too, are banding with the Sinhala ultra right in ostracizing Muslims from the citizenry of this country.
The racial slur
When a government which came to power with the overwhelming majority support of the minorities, name their economic and enterprise initiative White July or Sudu Juliya, with the undeniable racial slur, it says a lot. It says that they either do not know or give a damn about the racial sensitivities of the minority Tamils who bore the brunt of Black July. Behind such naïve but callous tags is the much more serious misconception that any injustice done, specially in the context of a community based on their ethnicity, could be washed away by economic development alone. That is the lesson the Rajapaksas learnt when they held the North PC election in 2013, after a massive, aggressive and much publicized economic and infrastructure development in the North. It was on the misguided conception that the entire issue of a disgruntled race could be solved by material and subsistence providence. It is far from that.
Every community with a separate ethnic identity has this thing called ethnic or religious aspirations and their pride based on them. What the pogrom of July robbed the Tamils was this dignity , their aspirations as a race. No amount of bridges, highways or factories would satisfy that urge.
We do indeed, need a white July to ease the deep and sordid scars of July 83, surely. Yet it is by introspective soul searching on the part of the majority. Blunders such as tags like ‘Sudu Juliya’ do not help at all.
