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Indian and Pakistan N-tests and
Sri Lanka India joined the nuclear club on 11/13 May and Pakistan followed not surprisingly on 28th May. Despite promises of unprecedented levels of economic support from the west, she has chosen to follow India and in the process dropped an economic bomb on herself. It does appear that Pakistan was left with little option but to respond and level the playing field. The BJP had pledged in their manifesto to transform India into a nuclear state, but the thaw in the regional cold war was such that the international community did not expect the Indian Government to create a new situation and up the stakes on the sub-continent. The BJP Government nevertheless decided to surprise everyone and test its nuclear bomb. Pakistan's response was perhaps conditioned by the following factors, First there were the threatening statements made by the BJP, before they came into office, citing the situation in Kashmir and the need for India to become a nuclear weapon state, next came the chilling statement of the Indian Home Minister, Advani (of Rath Yatra and Babri Masjid fame) who stated after the tests, "Islamabad should realise the change in the geo-strategic situation in the region and the world... India's bold and decisive step to become a nuclear weapons state has brought about a qualitative new stage in Indo-Pakistan relations". The third factor would have been that India did not suffer any immediate 'punishment' of significance (the G 8 and the international community confined them selves to words---The Indian test was accepted as fait accompli). The attitude of the international community would have emboldened Pakistan to test her own weapons, to send a message to India. As for the strategic rationale for the Indian tests Pakistan considered the tests as being directed only at their country and not anyone else, despite the statements of that misguided missile, George Fernandes. Sri Lanka's reaction to the tests came in three statements. Reaction "Sri Lanka notes with deep concern the missile and nuclear testing which have occurred in the South Asian Region. Sri Lanka continues to reiterate the position it has maintained on previous occasions on such testing. Sri Lanka believes that the entire international community should continue its efforts to achieve global nuclear disarmament leading to the total elimination of Nuclear weapons without which peace and international security will continue to be in constant jeopardy." This statement was a balanced one. We sought to hold the scales evenly between India and Pakistan. We made only an implicit reference to the two countries. It covered both the missile test and the nuclear test but did not however draw attention to the qualitative difference between the two. Sri Lanka has been in a sense a traditional proponent of a nuclear free zone in South Asia. Sri Lanka's primary concern is the impact on South Asia of a possible nuclear arms race in South Asia. After the nuclear weapons and the missiles, the Anti Ballistic Missile systems would follow – and thereafter would come the refining of the weapons systems – the endless race and a colossal waste of resources would have begun. The next statement on the nuclear test was at a press conference where the Foreign Minister stated, "We are certainly not opposed to India becoming a nuclear state". He went on to say " We are not opposed to anyone becoming a nuclear power". He further stated, "I don't think the nuclear club should be closed to only five members". The minister appears not to have shared the view articulated perhaps by Foreign Secretary Wouters, on the need for worldwide nuclear disarmament, "that the possession of nuclear weapons by some imperils the security of all" Whilst no one expected Sri Lanka to condemn India and the testing, by the same measure no one expected Sri Lanka to condone the tests. This statement seemed to contradict the position that Sri Lanka was for a nuclear free world. The minister does not seem to have thought through the implication of his words. Whilst there is no question of the world accepting that only certain countries have a right to possess nuclear weapons, any proliferation should not be supported encouraged or condoned either, in terms of our obligations under the NPT. Dangerous A particularly pernicious remark was "It may be that your foreign ministry received a call from the South Block after the first statement"! The minister's remarks have made us no friends outside of India. Pakistan and China, countries that have helped us in times of trouble, have been unhappy and newspapers in Bangladesh have expressed surprise. Perhaps because of the confusion he created, the minister appears to have confined himself to the need for global disarmament, when he spoke at the Ministerial Meeting of Non Aligned countries at Cartegena, Colombia on 20 May. In the third statement made by Sri Lanka, the minister stated "The security of South Asia cannot be considered in isolation . The present situation in our region reinforces the necessity a for serious and sustained effort to be made by the entire international community to achieve global nuclear disarmament leading to a total elimination of nuclear weapons without which peace and security will continue to be in constant jeopardy everywhere." Global nuclear disarmament is the dream and this has been our position, that global security can be enhanced only by global nuclear disarmament, and this is what we should have stuck to, instead of allowing ourselves to be drawn to endorse even in a remote way India becoming a nuclear weapon state. By his statement the minister has violated the letter and spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Non Proliferation Treaty. Treaties we have entered into. Taking all this into consideration, the minister's statement that we had no objection to India or anyone else becoming a nuclear state was, to say the least a serious faux pas. Visit to China The fact that nuclear testing is not welcome in the world today became obvious when the French and the Chinese last tested their bombs. India and Pakistan conducted their tests in flagrant violation of world opinion and they have brought upon themselves almost universal condemnation. India perhaps realised that the nuclear option would not remain open for all time. If India had not exercised the option now it may not have been precluded from doing so before long. India claims that her motive was her security. That perception is not a matter for us to contest, however it should be stated that Prime Minister Vajpayee introduced unnecessary tension into the region and complicated the security situation, when he cited China and Pakistan as being the reason for India going nuclear. The recent demonising of China did not carry conviction. It was a diversionary tactic and mere rhetoric. Meanwhile China's statement was unduly harsh when one takes into account the fact that it was not so long ago that she too engaged in tests, though in their own country, unlike the French, despite fierce opposition from the rest of the world. India also took advantage of the fact that the so-called nuclear powers had not fulfilled their obligations under the NPT. It would be recalled that when the nuclear powers wanted the rest of the world to agree to the unconditional extension of the NPT, they gave the world an undertaking (article 6 of the Treaty) that they would indulge in meaningful and verifiable disarmament. After the Treaty was concluded and they obtained their unconditional extension, they forgot all about meaningful disarmament. Had there been meaningful nuclear disarmament then India would not have been able to go against the tide and test nuclear weapons. Furthermore the Nuclear states have arrogated for themselves 'super power' status, not on the basis of economic strength but merely because they possess these weapons of mass destruction. Is it a surprise therefore that India too aspires to this same macho status? This was brought home rather starkly by Bal Thakaray of the RSS who said that India was no longer a political eunuch! Last chance Once again, as this nuclear issue has shown,it is the India factor that dominates our foreign policy. Our reaction was supine. The question that keeps recurring is, "what should be the nature of our relationship with India"? Today, no one seems to know the status of the Indo Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the annexes and the letters that were exchanged between President Jayewardene and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Both sides have not performed under them and it could be said that they have lost their validity and are now defunct. There has yet been no statement from either party to the Agreement or from both to that effect. That was indeed an unequal agreement, which circumscribed our sovereignty. It was an agreement designed to secure India's interest. We need to put that behind us and build a new relationship based on mutual trust and mutual interests. Recent years have seen Sri Lanka behaving as it were a vassal state. It was indeed painful and pathetic to see our officials making statements calculated to please India. Ministers rushing across in indecent haste, to pay puja to the new Government in Delhi. They were perhaps naively labouring under the delusion that if they got there before the others they would enjoy a special relationship with India. Even physically closer neighbors such as Butan and Nepal, did not rush across as we did. The leaders of Sri Lanka, and Mrs. Bandaranaike's Government were extremely close to the Government and people of India, but she maintained the country's dignity. What is the signal we send them by appearing to be lackeys. It is, indeed that we are a client state of India. Conceding On another occasion he stated that "India has a grave responsibility for maintaining stability and good order in the region" India is no doubt the preponderant power in the region but as to whether the bigger south Asian states such as Pakistan and Bangladesh would concede to India the role of policeman to maintain, what India perceives to be "good order", is another matter. In actual fact these statements are of no help to the sophisticated Indian establishment. They can manage very well without such friends for they are an embarrassment. This is not to say that there are no Indians with hegemonistic imperial visions, for example there are intellectuals and even diplomatic practitioners in India who have taken the words of Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan seriously. He stated in another era, "whoever controls the Indian ocean dominates Asia.". India is a volatile Democracy, but despite her extremely professional public service, important decisions have been taken by politicians for reasons of pure political expediency. Whilst we have indeed been victims of the system, we have also benefited from it. It is a far open society than ours and we must be thankful for that. It is a lack of understanding about the decision making structure in India and India's polity, that has often led to various analysts and advisors to Government, who have a major input into the formulation of Foreign Policy, to entertain an unreasonable phobia about India. They are obsessed about "India being the preponderant power in the region". They cringe and ingratiate themselves, and have a servile and menial attitude, out of a fear of India. One of the prominent and predominant members of the brigade, suffering a hang-up about India being the preponderant power in the region, has recently propounded a strange theory on regional cooperation based on the centrality and pre eminence of India. Even the South block could not have done better. No wonder the man is referred to in certain circles as the representative of the South Block in the PA administration. His theory of promoting Regional Cooperation based on the dominance of the preponderant and pre eminent power in a region would be considered offensive even by ASEAN and other regional groupings, where asymmetrical situations in various forms also prevail. By strange coincidence the man's recent article carries not only concepts but also whole passages from Minister Kadirgamar's 1996 Krishna Menon oration referred to earlier. Either he has plagiarized or... Our hero has also stated that in the 80s when Jayewardene seriously mismanaged our relations with India, the UK and the US conferred on India the "responsibility for regional stability". The man must be hallucinating. They refused to involve themselves because we had nationalized British and US interests in this country and they had no reasons to come to our assistance. If only the British continued to own the tea plantations and the Americans retained their interests, Mrs. Gandhi's India would not have dared. In any event the major powers have not abdicated and abandoned their interest in the region in favour of India. This is a figment of the imagination of a man who, enjoying brief authority makes a mockery of our foreign policy. This Government has in seeking to repair the damage done by the UNP over the years, has gone to the other extreme and is endangering our security and compromising our sovereignty and independence. It is today a caricature of what it used to be under Mrs. Bandaranaike.Those were the days when we walked with dignity.None of our leaders including the present one, were as close as Mrs. Bandaranaike to India. She was nevertheless able to conclude a Maritime Agreement with China (this was after the Indo-China war). She had the stature to intervene to reduce tensions immediately after the Indo-China war. She permitted Pakistani planes to refuel in Colombo, during the Indo-Pakistan conflict, out of which Bangladesh emerged as an independent state, she obtained Kachchativu for Sri Lanka, and last but not least Mrs. Bandaranaike had India agree to take back no less than 600000 Indian nationals from Sri Lanka. She did not rush to pay pooja or ingratiate herself; she maintained the dignity of our country at all times. Can those who are ingratiating themselves to prove that they are Indophiles, match Mrs Bandaranaike's record? Do hope those transient beings in high office at present realise the possible consequences of taking sides in the Cold War in the Sub Continent and making unnecessary enemies iof friends in the region. States in the region understand the reasons for for our swimming close to the shark and have never faulted us for it. These Advisors and 'practioners' should take account not only of our external vulnerability but also of our internal vulnerability and should not compound an already bad situation. Sri Lanka's apprehensions (and fears) of India have perhaps been caused by – a) The asymmetry in size and power.
These have been the fundamental considerations in the formulation and prosecution of our Foreign and Security policy, in the past. It is indeed time we structured our relationship with India and not depended on Non Alignment or the good will of India or on the Gujral Principles or on bootlicking, for our security and the furtherance of the relationship with India. Let us in the words of President Kumaratunge seek to "forge and sustain a mutually trusting and supportive friendship with India". What are the options available to us? I believe that there are two options, the first being a Framework Agreement or a Treaty of Peace Friendship and Co-operation, somewhat similar to the Treaty which India concluded with the former Soviet Union. The second option could be that we impose upon ourselves certain restrictions with regard to our Foreign Policy through the Constitution, as the Japanese have done. Since there is a general consensus with regard to Foreign Affairs all political parties could be consulted on the Constitutional amendment or better still a new chapter titled Foreign Policy incorporating the commitments underlying the creed of Non Alignment, could be included in the Constitution. A new Agreement or Treaty with India should enshrine the Panchseela principles and commit both countries to respecting each others sovereignty and to consolidating and strengthening the relationship by agreeing to weave a new pattern of co-operative relationships covering Defence, Trade, Investment, Economic Relations, Development Co-operation, Science and Technology, Education, Social and Cultural relations, with a view to, as the President herself has so eloquently stated, "having the broadest and deepest interaction between our two countries". The Agreement would need to address the following areas of concern or rather there would need to be a commitment: – 1) not to interfere either directly or indirectly in each others internal affairs. 2) not to permit the use of each others territory for terrorist activities directed at either party. 3) to co-operate fully on cross border terrorism which should include not granting sanctuary to terrorists wanted in each other's countries. 4) not to permit the use of each others territories for military purposes inimical to the other party's interests 5) not to enter into military alliances what would be construed as being hostile to the other party. 6) not to have any foreign military bases in each other's territory 7) not to permit the use of ports and other facilities in ports in each others territory for military purposes by a third country. 8) not to permit the use of each other's territory for intelligence gathering by any third country 9) to co-operate fully in the area of Intelligence both within our countries and abroad. 10) for our Missions abroad to co-operate fully on matters of mutual interest Both sides should, in the event of any threat perception by either side agree to co-operate fully and without reservation, to take necessary counter measures. Both sides should agree to the setting up of a Joint Consultative mechanism that would meet as frequently as possible. Sri Lanka should never need to feel insecure because of India's strength. An Agreement on the above lines would not only be in full accord with Principles earlier enunciated for good relations with India's neighbours, but would also serve to enshrine the names of Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Kumaratunga for posterity as being the statesmen who laid the foundation for a lasting friendship between outr two countries. If the choice be the 'Constitutional route', the disadvantage would be that the defence establishment would not be addressed therein, but this could be covered by a separate aggreement. Alongside an Agreement with India, or along with a Constitutional arrangement, we as an independent State, must establish other Economic and Political linkages to offset our geopolitical handicap and pursue the twin goals of national integration (through a policy of multi lingual education to enable our people to possess cross cultural skills) and Development as vigorously as possible, for in the final analysis our real security can only come through them, not by servile bootlicking. Religion "Adhigato Kho Myayam Dhammo Gambhiro Duddaso Duranubodho Atakkavacaro Pandita Vedaniyo". The dhamma realized by me is profound, it is neither easily accessible nor easily understood and is beyond the logic. Therefore the dhamma is realized by Pandita those who have developed well their spiritual insight. (Ariyapariyesana sutta). In views of the above proclamation delivered by the Lord Buddha, his dharma, the doctrine requires proper practice by faithful devotees, rational followers and energetic disciples in the understanding and realizing the teachings. With a view to achieving the realization of the Master's teachings, converting the previous Dharma Pithaya the Buddhasrawake Bhiksu University is now established amidst the historical monuments of the ancient holy city of Anuradhapura. Its inaugural meeting was held on May 31 with the direction of Ven. Dr. Varagoda Pemaratana Thera, the Vice-Chancellor (Mahopaddyaya) of the University, within the University premises with the participation of both national and international Buddhist communities. A brief account of the objective of the University is given below. According to the Government Act issued on Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University, this place of higher Buddhist studies is confined only to the Buddhist monks. Those who complete the prescribed study courses will become eligible to obtain the degrees of B.A/B.A. (Hons.) and others. Study courses are mainly divided into four sections. i.e. — Buddhist studies, Buddhist Scrip-tual Languages, Modern Languages and Social Science. Eventually the students of this university get a sound knowledge of Buddhism and the relevant languages. We look forward to achieving the desired objectives in several respects. We have already shown that this place of higher education is directed to the pursuits of Buddhist studies by Bhikkhus. In the congested, busy nature of society, it is religiously quite reasonable in the sense that the teachings of the Lord ought to be studied and p ractised more ardently, deliberately and more accurately in a particular environment that suits for getting proper results of Dharma. Under the Buddhist system of education the inculcation of good qualities and virtuous conduct is essential. Some of the aims and objectives of this education are: i. To put the Buddha's teachings into practice in daily routings of the students and the academic staff: ii. Practice of Buddhist meditations; iii. to commit into memory the holy scriptures of Tripitaka and, iv. Critical and practical knowledge of Buddhist philosophy. Our university with all its intents and purposes is retrospective by re-calling and reminding us of the heritage that prevalied in the past. Either in East or in the West the very beginning almost of every nation had different religious beliefs and philosophies of its own. In respect of Buddhism our biggest neighbour India was proud of having its prominent scholars, renowned Philosophers, Saints and Spiritual masters for many centuries. Leisurely and more conveniently they experienced their noble lives enjoying the ecstasy gained through spiritual pleasure. Their aim was not to become selfish recluses as found at the present day, but to apply themselves to a lofty course. Many matured people renounced their worldly life and exiled into forests seeking which so sever attainable essence of a life. This particular method of renunciation is still effective in the Indian society. However the Sri Lankan Buddhist clergy appears different from their Indian counterpart. The difference between the two clergies is that Sri Lankan clergy people were more social than those of the Indian society. With consideration of the spiritual quality of our predecessors the present attempt to set up a higher education centre is to inculcate certain potential virtues within ourselves and that will be ethically beneficial for a well-balanced society. From a pragmatic point of view it is obviously known that when one learns and practises the noble way of life taught by the Master one is bound to become decent and well-balanced by nature. However, it has become a style of many to argue and question every thing by whatever possible manner leaving aside even the very essence of the teachings such an attitude will serve no purpose and they will never realize the Dharma. People who learn, argue, question and ultimately practice Dhamma are rare. This is an advice given by the Buddha to a young monk. For a Buddhist university in any country, the ancient Buddhist universities of India namely Nalanda and Valabhi should serve as models. It is more so with Sri Lanka. These Universities in India attracted numerous advanced students from India itself and abroad. In the introductory explanation of Nalanda University (Classical age) Dr. U. N. Ghoshal points out "Among the Buddhist monasteries of the late Gupta period none become so famous as that of Nalanda in Magadha... the resident monks were esteemed not only for their learning but also for their high character, so that they were, according to Hiuen Tsang, looked upto as models all over India". Mahavihara, the first Theravadian monastic university was founded in Anuradhapura in the third century B. C. Tripitaka the canon, relevant commenteries and chronicles were compiled and well preserved by the Theravadi traditional monks of Maha Vihara. They were also known as the monks of their Nikaya. The monks of ancient Maha Vihara hole their residences in the holy places of Srimaha Bodhi, Svarnamali Chaitya, Thuparama, Vessagiri, Lohapasada, Marici-vatti, Issarasamana, and Mihintale. Moreover, the Mahavansa presents accounts of historical events that took place in Mahavihara, Abhaya-giri and Jetavana. The new university also intends to keep in touch with the glorious history of the ancient Buddhist monastic education. The arrival of Christianity in Japan Next year, 1999, on the eve of the third millennium, Japan's Christians will be celebrating the 450th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Japan. The coming of Christianity to Japan is an interesting story. A significant fact of that story is that, although Christianity came to Japan in the colonial period, it came there without any direct colonial involvement in it, unlike what happened at this time in so many other countries in the East, including Lanka, where the introduction of Christianity was at least partly the work of colonial rulers. Nor did the arrival of Christianity affect Japan politically as it did in some other countries in the East. Francis Xavier was the first Christian missionary to set foot in Japan. He is in fact the greatest Christian missionary Asia has known after apostolic times. A Spaniard, he was a student of the university of Paris where after obtaining his M. A. he gained a lecturer's post and was at the same time working for his doctorate when, with five other university men, under the leadership of the graduand Ignatius Loyola, he became a founder-member of the religious order known to the world as the Society of Jesus or Jesuits. It was at the request of King John III of Portugal that two priests of this newly-formed religious order were chosen to be sent to the East, Xavier being one of them. But actually only Xavier was able to leave for the East. He sailed from Lisbon for India on April 7 1541, his thirty-fifth birthday, with two others, one of them an Italian priest who was not a Jesuit, and the other a Portuguese Jesuit student, Francisco Mansilhas. Thus Xavier was the first Jesuit priest to come to the East. The Pope at the time, Paul III, named him also Papal Nuncio to the East. Xavier reached India (Goa) on 6 May 1542. He worked at Goa, ministering to both the Portuguese and the native inhabitants there, and in October went down to the Fishery Coast, on the eastern seaboard of South India, close to Mannar and the Lankan mainland, to serve the nearly 20,000 Paravas in 20 villages along the Indian coast, who had been brought into the Catholic faith when the layman, Miguel Vaz Coutinho, was the head of the newly-established (1534) diocese of Goa, the first diocese (ecclesiastical territory) in Portuguese Asia. While working among the Paravas, he also received into the Church people of another caste on the Indian coast, the Karaiyas or Kadeyyas. In Mannar too there were people of the latter caste and when they heard about the saintly white svamiyar among their people on the Indian coast, they invited him to Mannar too. That was in 1544. But Xavier was not in a position to come since the Parava villages were being raided by the marauding Badaga troops of Vijayanagar. He therefore sent to Mannar one of his assistants, the Spanish priest Juan de Lizano, who brought into Catholicism about a thousand of the island's inhabitants. This angered the king of Jaffna, Cheka-rasa Sekaran, not because of the people's change of religion, but because of his fear that this would be a stepping-stone to Portuguese political domination of his kingdom. He sent his troops to deal with the matter and the result was that some six to seven hundred of the Mannar Christians were put to death, while the rest fled to the Lankan mainland. Kavier speaks in his letters of the massacre of the new Christians of Mannar. What happened in Mannar brought about a change in Xavier's missionary programme as well. From the Fishery Coast he went to Goa, met the Portuguese Governor, Martin Affonso de Sousa, and asked him to punish the king of Jaffna for what he had done to Mannar's Christians, not to take revenge from him, but to teach him a lesson, namely, that he should give religious freedom to his subjects. But the governor was involved in other occupations so that Xavier, disappointed, decided to leave India and go further eastwards. It was this decision, connected with Lanka (Mannar) that eventually took Xavier to Japan. At the end of August 1545 Xavier set out eastwards from India and after a month of sailing reached the Portuguese settlement of Malacca. He worked there for three months and on January 1, 1546, he sailed from Malacca to the Moluccas (Spice Islands) in present Indonesia, a journey of over a thousand five hundred miles. He remained there for a year and a half engaged in missionary work in the islands of the region. Japan had so far not known Christianity. No Christian missionary had ever been there. Portuguese ships had visited the country from time to time for trade, after the ‘discovery’ of the country by the Portuguese in 1542, a country of whose existence Europe had heard for the first time, two centuries before, from the accounts of Marco Polo, who however had not been there himself. When Xavier was in the East, there was a 35-year-old Japanese of Kagoshima, by the name of Anjiro or Yagiro, a deeply religious man, who had made his acquaintance with a Portuguese merchant named Jorge Alvares and heard from him of Christianity and of the great Christian missionary, Francis Xavier, who had come from Europe to India. Anjiro decided to go to India and meet Xavier for the purpose of learning from him the teachings of the Christian faith. In spite of the grave inconveniences and risks of travel those days, he sailed the three thousand miles across the seas and reached Malacca towards the end of 1546 where he was sorely disappointed to learn that Xavier was still somewhere in the Moluccas and nobody knew when he would return. Anjiro sadly turned back and sailed homewards, but when his ship came close to Japan, it was driven by a gale to the Chinese coast where he met some Portuguese traders from whom he learnt that Xavier had left the Moluccas to return to Malacca. Anjiro turned back and again sailed westwards. When he reached Malacca in December 1547, he was delighted to meet Xavier there. Xavier, for his part, was pleasantly surprised to see that Anjiro was educated and refined and of an inquiring mind. Moreover, he was happy to learn from him that his countrymen too were generally literate and eager to learn. From all the information Xavier got from Anjiro, he thought that the people of his country should be notably different from those he had already known in the East, the poor and generally illiterate Paravas, Karaiyas and Macuas of India and the inhabitants of the Moluccas, and he began to think of the prospect of a visit to Japan. From Malacca Xavier proceeded to Goa and later Anjiro and the two retainers he had with him also followed him there, where they were given instruction in Christianity. Then, on 20 May 1548 the Bishop of Goa solemnly baptized the three Japanese in his cathedral. By now there were other Jesuits working in the East and Xavier was their superior. Having attended to his various duties in this capacity, he got ready to leave for Japan. On 15 April 1549 he left Indian with Anjiro and his retainers. Accompanying him were two other Spanish Jesuits, Cosma de Torres and Brother Juan Fernan-dez. The captain of Malacca at the time was Dom Pedro da Silva da Gama, the fifth son of Vasco da Gama. He welcomed Xavier and gave him every assistance. On June 24, 1549 Xavier and his companions left Malacca for Japan aboard a Chinese junk. After a long and perilous journey, exposed as usual to gales and typhoons and danger from pirates, Xavier and the others reached Japan on 15 August 1549 and landed at Kagoshima, Anjiro's home town. It is the 450th anniversary of this event, the arrival of the first Christian missionary in Japan, that Japan's Christians will celebrate in 1999. Xavier saw that he had come into a strange new land the like of which he had not seen elsewhere in the East, a land of numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes, of marked seasons as in Europe, of a cultured and refined people, of samurai and daimyos, of bonzes and monasteries, of sake and chopsticks, of graceful kimonos, of a curious language and still more curious writing, of strange manners and customs. On November 5 Xavier addressed from Kagoshima a mammoth letter to Jesuits at Goa to be forwarded to Rome, giving his impressions of the new country. It was the first document to come to the West from Japan with factual information about the country and its people (Schur-hammer-Wicki, II, 179-212). After about two years, Xavier left Japan to return to India, leaving it to other missionaries to carry on the work he had begun. At the time he left, there were sizeable Christian communities in several towns in Japan: Kagoshima, Ijuin, Hirada, Yama-guchi and Oito (For details of Xavier's work in Japan, see my book Francis Xavier, Tea-cher of Nations, Lake House Bookshop). To complete the picture, let me add that after his return to India, Xavier planned another missionary journey, this time to China, about which he had heard much when he was in Japan, but he died on the way, on the island of Sancian on December 3, 1552. "Lying on the ground on a mat, in a hut, on a barren island, and unattended, Xavier, the Papal Nuncio, died as he had lived, poor, humble, completely selfless, and concerned only for the good of his fellowmen". (Ibid., p.44). Xavier was in the East for only ten years (1542-1552), nearly half of which was spent on travel. It is remarkable that he accomplished so much in so short a time. Imam Khomeini a rare mystic leader When one conjures on the world mystic, one is drawn to an image of renunciation, retreat and a life of ascetic selusion. It seems paradoxical to imagine that a mystic should lead a revolution and change the course of history of a nation seeped in corruption, moral turpitude and degradation. Imam Khomeini through his mystical approach to Islam rose from an obscure cleric to an international celebrity. Very few persons are aware that Imam Khomeini’s early training was in ethics and mysticism (irfan). He was to remain an ascetic all his life. This is one reason that the West made the mistake of underestimating him. Since the Western politicians are materialistic by definition who get where they are by promising material benefits to gullible electorates, they failed to comprehend the motivation and mind process of a man whose inspiration was spiritual. The scenario eight years ago after the day of June 4th that followed the death of the Imam was that of mass grief and public adulation which highlighted the spontaneous reassertion of the love of the masses to their beloved leader. The Imam’s funeral was for all political purposes a re-run of the Islamic Revolution 10 years prior. If 3 million people lined the streets and roof tops of Teheran on 1st February to welcome the Imam to rule over his new dominion, a record 10 milliion people converged on Teheran from all parts of Iran and some from many other parts of the world, to bury the body of Roohullah-al-Musavi-al-Khomeini, in fact to make him immortal. Imam Khomeini elaborated the theory of Islam in such a coherent way that his views concerning juriprudential issues (Fiqh), theological doctrines, political conceptions and interpretation of shariah were consistent. One can see how the theory of Vilayet-e-Faqih (the guardianship of the Muslim jurist) stems from the mystical notion of Vilayat and how the two are direct corollaries of a mystical interpretation of the Quran and traditions. The gnostics and mystics while referring to man’s progress towards perfection, say that he embarks on four journeys. • Man’s journey towards God from the material fleeting life. • Man’s journey with God in God, meaning knowing Him. • His journey with God towards God’s creatures and • His journey with God among creatures for their salvation. As long as man is separated from God, everything is wrong. After communion with God and knowing and approaching him and feeling him within himself, he returns to his creatures in the company of God to help and salvage them and bring them near God. If we say that a man journeys from people towards God he does not attain anything. And if we say he moves towards human beings without moving towards God, he will be like a materialist in many of the human-schools of thought of today, unable to do anything properly because of false human ideas. Only those who have delivered themselves first can deliver others from beig enslaved by nature and other human beings. It means freedom from one’s carnal desires in the first place and from the domination of external nature and other human beings in the second place. The four part journey mentioned above is covered by the mystics and the prophets alike although the types of unitary experiences in these steps differ in depth and comprehensiveness for each individual. Only the prophets go through the last phase and complete the circle. Iqbal wrote "The Prophet’s return is creative. He returns to insert himself into the sweep of time with a view to control the forces of history, thereby creating a fresh world of ideals." A prophet may be defined as a type of mystic consciousness in which unitary experience tends to overflow its boundaries and seeks opportunities of redirecting or refashioning the force of collective life’. In his reconstruction of religious Thought in Islam. Iqbal refers to an important difference between the consciousness of Muslim mystics and that of the Prophet . Iqbal quotes the great Muslims saint Abdul Quddus of Gangoh "Mohammed of Arabia ascended the highest heaven and returned, I swear by God that if I had reached that point, I should never have returned". Iqbal goes on to explain that the mystics do not wish to return from the repose of ‘unity experience’ even when they do return, as they must their return does not mean much for mankind at large. Imam Khomeini’s irfan or mystical practise was in line with the unique experience of completing all four parts of the spiritual journey, entering to an active socio-political life which reverberated world-wide. The Muslim world to this day is stirring with dramatic developments since the Islamic Revolution of Iran led by Imam Khomeini triumphed in 1979. Even the most severe critics of the Imam in the West have admitted that his legacy has created everlasting impressions in the Muslim world. In fact his death marked the beginning of a legend whose influence is bound to continue into the next millennium. Health In the second decade of the present century, although there were more Sinhalese than Tamil members in the Ceylon Legislative Council, it was a Tamil, K. Balasingam, who conceived of the idea of resuscitating the traditional medical system of the country with state aid. When he ventilated his idea in the Legislative Council, the Britishers snubbed him, "Your so called native medicine is nothing but quackery." None of the Sinhala stalwarts in the Legislative Council rose to his feet either in support of K. Balasingam’s suggestion or in protest against the White Master’s offensive remark. Their silence, probably was an indication that their White Master’s remark was not incorrect. Two thousand years ago i.e. during the days of the bullock-cart, native medicine was talisman for all ailments. We are today in the age of rockets, missiles, test tube babies, transplantations of organs etc. During the 20th century, medical science has made wonderful discoveries and advances in the fields of medicine and surgery, so much so, that diseases which were incurable in the past, are now being cured. If one compares the pathology of diseases like diabetes mellitus (mathu meha), hemiplegia (paksha gatha), general oedema (shotha), polio mylitis (balaka paksha gatha), described in modern medicine with the samprapti (pathology) of the above diseases described in the ayurveda texts, one would see, the clear picture modern pathology gives of the morbid state of the tissues, in contrast to the samprapti according to ayurveda, which is nothing but a jugglery of the three doshes (humours) vaatha, pitta and kapha. The causative factors of disease too, are likewise attributed to the deranged state of the three dosses, making confusion more confounded. According to ayurveda, excessive indulgence in sex, disturbs the equilibrium of the three doshes and causes disease. Chinese medicine is based on two humours — Yin and Yang. Indian medicine (ayurveda) is based on three humours vaatha, pitta and kapha. Greek medicine (unani) which the Arabs borrowed from the Greeks and now practised by the Muslims of the Middle East, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, is based on four humours — Sauda (black bile) safra (bile), balgham (mucus) and khoon (blood). To which tissue in the body, sauda (black bile) corresponds, no unani physician or unani text book, defines. How then, that system is being taught to students and applied in practical medicine, is enigma to many. It is my well considered and candid opinion that the dosha dhatu mala vignana; the principles of rasa, guna, veeriya, vipaka and prapaka; the concept of agni and the naadi (pulse) sastra, are antique and untenable; they are in theory only and of no significance to students and physicians. All ola manuscripts and texts on the above subjects, should be withdrawn from the libraries and sent to the national archives for eternal rest in peace. Though none in India and Sri Lanka will agree with me, I feel that the time has come (at my 85th year) to play the part, the little boy played in the story of the emperor and his new clothes. During the days of the bullock-carts, people believed that god had the sole monopoly for giving babies to couples he wished. Today, scientists have taken over the functions of god in many fields. Those were also the days when diagnosis of diseases were done with the help of slokas, physicians had memorised, with the stupid belief that signs and symptoms of diseases were stereotyped. Just as people believed that God was monitoring all the phenomena in the universe and all the activities of all living beings, practitioners of indigenous medicine believed that the humours in the body controlled all the physiological functions in the shreera and manas. I venture to state in unambiguous terms that god and humours exist in kalpana only and as far as practical medicine is concerned, the humuoral theory is fraud, perpetuated by lecturers on students and by physicians on sick patients — a case of, blind leading the blind. Sixty five years ago Kaviraj R. B. Lenora L.A.M.S. Hons (Cal.) head of the ayurveda section at the College of Indigenous Medicine, relinguished his post and proceeded to England in quest of knowledge of modern medicine .He confessed to his friends and students that without a knowledge of modern methods of diagnosis, one could not be a successful physician. A sound knowledge of modern physiology (Prakruthy Vignana) is a pre-requisite for a student or a physician, not only to diagnose diseases but also to understand the pathology (Vikruthy Vignana) i.e. the morbid state of the tissues in disease. Ayurveda text books have not described the functions of the various organs and systems in the body, neither have they described vitamins, hormones, hypertension, coronary occulusion, aphasia, and other common diseases. After Capt. Dr. A. N. N. Panikker M.B.Ch.B. (Edin) Ayurveda Bhooshana (Cal.) retired in 1949 after 20 years service as principal, the post of principal remained vacant for a few years. In 1952, the then UNP government requested Dr. Lenora LRCP & S, LRFP & S to take up duties as principal of the college. Dr. Lenora imposed one condition i.e. the present four years under graduate course should be extended to five years to enable him to teach "modern methods of diagnosis". On the government acceding to his request, he assumed duties as principal of the college and chief physician of the hospital in 1952. None can dispute the fact that indigenous medicines are efficacious as therapeutics, palliatives, prophylactics, aphrodisiacs, geriatrics, rejuvenators etc. The only negative aspect about indigenous medicine is that, like the bullock cart, they are slow in action. On the positive side, they are, unlike drugs used in modern medicine, harmless to the tissues and do not produce obnoxious side effects. My 30 years association with the college in particular and the hospital in general, enables me to vouch for the fact that no sick patient is taken to the ayurveda hospital to have his/her life saved; only those who cannot be tolerated in their homes are taken to the ayurveda hospital which, in my opinion is more a sanatorium than a hospital. I also vouch for the fact that no lecturer of the college, physician of the hospital or non-medical staff of the department, seeks treatment at the ayurveda hospital as in-door patient. When any of the above mentioned or any of their family member falls sick, he/she is rushed to a hospital where modern drugs are prescribed. On the face of the above facts, I suggest that (a) All ayurveda hospitals in the country be converted to hospitals of modern medicine (b) All out-door dispensaries in urban and rural areas presently prescribing modern medicine be converted to OPDs to prescribe indigenous medicines only i.e. indigenous medicine should be at OPD level only. (c) Assistant medical officers scheme should be scrapped, as the country feels that they are half-baked physicians, despised and disowned by the Sri Lanka Medical Association. (d) The AMO’s scheme runs contrary to the avowed assurance of the government to promote the ancient art of healing the sick and to promote the prospects of the practitioners of indigenous medicine especially in rural areas. Why take lessons from India? Who said Indian brains were superior to Sri Lankan brains? Let Sri Lanka lead where it matters. An experiment carried out in
1947 In the year 1947, cholera broke out among the thousands of labourers in the State farms under the Parakrama Samudra Colonisation Scheme, where virgin jungle was felled, burned and land converted into luscious paddy fields. The few positive cases of Cholera were isolated and treated at the Polonnaruwa Hospital which was manned by a qualified D.M.O. and an apothecary. In order to trace any carriers among the thousands of labour force, taking of anal swabs from them and despatching them to the Bacteriological Institute, Colombo was a slow process. Therefore, the Department opened up a cholera laboratory at the hospital under the supervision of a most senior medical laboratory technologist and a public health officer. Anal swabs taken from the labour force thereafter were cultured and examined at the emergency lab. The work of the health officer was to chlorinate all the drinking wells in the area and collect samples of water from the wells for examination for the presence of Cholera Vibrio. The wells were chlorinated once a week keeping records and using excessive doses of Tropical Chloride of Lime (TCL) for each well to make the water super chlorinated. It was found that in spite of successive chlorination of wells there was still the cholera vibrio present in the well water. As I was the officer in charge of sanitation it occurred me to mention to the M. L. T. Velaudam-pillai, who later was designated as a doctor, that there were very many frogs in the wells I chlorinated. He at once questioned me whether there was a possibility of catching some of the frogs from the wells to carry out an experiment to find out whether frogs were the carriers of cholera. As I was an angler, I accomplished this task with an improvised rod and line with a bent pin as the hook and a grain of boiled rice as the bait. Two frogs were caught in this manner and brought to the lab in a Horlicks bottle. The two frogs were well washed in distilled water and kept overnight in a sterilised beaker swimming in a content of distilled water. The following day the frogs were removed and the water they lived in during the night was examined under the microscope to find that there were hundreds of living cholera vibrio. It was thus proved that the frogs harboured the cholera vibrio which they constantly introduced into the well water. But alas, the paper describing the experiment we submitted to the then D.M. and S.S. was not considered worthy of recognition. Malaria
and Sir Ronald Ross Malaria is reported to have raised its ugly head claiming many lives in the uncleared Wanni areas — "33,717 cases of presumed malaria from both indoor and outdoor patients, have been reported from the Pudukudiyiruppu District Hospital in Mullaitivu in 1997". Malaria is one of the most harmful and dreaded diseases of the tropics, and it is mostly prevalent in countries lying between 60 deg. North and 40 deg. South of the equator. Sri Lanka is within this malarial belt, and many have died of the lethal disease for centuries past. It kills millions of people every year, throughout the globe, and does even more damage by causing widespread weakness and depression. It saps the vitality of the living, reduces economic productivity, slows progress and lows down the standard of life of the community. Indirectly, it also diminishes the economic life of the country, as workers fall sick and become physically weak. Generally, it undermines the strength and the will to work. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which opened a new chapter in its fight against malaria, has listed Sri Lanka as "having the fourth highest incidence of the deadly disease". The WHO, as far back as 1955, launched an eradication campaign to prevent the disease afflicting mankind, and its aim was to reduce mosquito numbers sufficiently to break the parasite's transmission cycle and thus eliminate it, but was stimulated by the development of mosquito resistance to the new residual insecticides such as Dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), dieldrin, etc., and of the parasite's resistance to the drug plasmoquin, atebrin, chloroquine, which are synthetics to avoid the disadvantages of quinine (the colourless, unordorous and very bitter alkaloid present in the cinchona bark), earlier prescribed to patients suffering from malaria. Cinchona is a tree belonging to the botanical family Rubiaceae, and growing wild in the Amazonian forests of South America, from which quinine and its congeners are obtained. In 1638, the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, the Countess d'El Cinchon, who was cured of malaria by treating her with the bark of the cinchona tree,reported the great discovery to Europe, and thus spread the knowledge of quinine and its affectiveness in curing malaria. However, the cause and transmission of the disease remained a mystery until Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) discovered this basic knowledge which brought the conquest of malaria within human reach. He proved that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes, and identified the particular kind of mosquito which was responsible for the spread of the disease. Malaria is a recurring fever due to the invasion of the blood stream by the minute parasite plasmodium (a naked mass of protoplasm with many nuclei), which develops in the stomach of the anopheles mosquito. It passes into the blood when the mosquito pierces the skin to feed, enters the red blood corpuscles, completes its growth, and is then liberated into the blood stream where its toxins cause fever. Man is said to be normally host to four kinds of malarial mosquitoes, e.g. Plasmodium vivax, P.Ovale, P. falciparum and P. malariae. About 95 per cent of malarial infections in Sri Lanka belong to the kind Plasmodium vivax, and the incubation period is said to be 10 to 15 days being the usual range. The word mosquito is of Spanish derivation, often used in referring to species of gnat, belonging to the family of flies Culicidae in the order Diptera. The eggs are laid in water, where they hatch into worm-like larvae, which after passing through a pupal stage emerge as perfect insects. The well known species are the common gnat (Culex pipiens), the carrier of malaria (Anopheles maculipennis) and the banded mosquito (Aedes aegypti), which transmits yellow fever. Only the female is capable of drawing blood, since the male possesses no piercing mandibles. Hippocrates (BC 460-357), the Greek physician did associate the disease malaria as an outcome of the marshes and water-logged terrain. He called it 'march ague'. He was partly correct in his assumption because mosquitoes breed on marshy grounds, but he did not know that mosquitoes were the carrier of the ague (fever). However, he was confident that air emanating from wet grounds, morasses, swamps etc., was responsible for the ague. Hence the name 'malaria' from the Italian 'mal-aria' (bad air). When a malaria mosquito bites a man, it injects some of its saliva into the blood stream, along with the plasmodium parasite. At this stage, if the same person is bitten by another malarial mosquito, some of the infected blood is drawn from his body into its stomach, and the parasite invades the salivary gland of the mosquito, ready to be injected by another bite and thus continuing the cycle of infection. The reproductive exuberance of the female demands much protein to build and nourish its eggs, and hence, it has a voracious appetite for human blood. It is said that "its gorged guts may contain from one to more than four cubic millimetres of blood, and it may suck twice that much in order to concentrate on the haemoglobin solids, from which it takes all nourishment for itself and its eggs". In the absence of a host (man), the female mosquitoes feed on animal blood, but they relish human blood, perhaps, as a nature's curse. Of all the places in the world, the malarial parasite has chosen the stomach of the mosquito to celebrate its nuptial, but the wonder is that it cannot complete its life-cycle without passing through both the man and the mosquito. The average blood-meal taken by a mosquito is said to be double its body weight, but varies according to the insect. In 1935, there was an unexpected catastrophic malarial epidemic in Sri Lanka, never recorded before, which took a heavy toll of human lives, both old and young. The Report of the Commission on Social Services (S.P. VII of 1947), gives the following figures from 1934 to 1944, which includes patients treated in hospitals and dispensaries: 1934 — 2,334,795 1935 — 5,454,781 1936 — 2,946,655 1937 — 2,308,976 1938 — 3,210,795 1939 — 2,053,079 1940 — 3,091,509 1941 — 2,922,752 1942 — 2,933,074 1943 — 2,033,383 1944 — 1,590,067 The Report says "It is possible, in an epidemic year, to have as many cases treated in hospitals or dispensaries, as there are people in the island". Reckoning on the average of 2,808,822 cases per year, the increase in the epidemic year (1935) shows an increase by 51 per cent. Throughout the dry zone in Sri Lanka, malaria has been either endemic (among the population) or hyperendemic (when 50 per cent or more children are infected with the disease). Ever since 1935, the health authorities have maintained a surveillance service, which not only kept a watch over possible resurgence of the lethal disease, but also accumulated information on carriers and vectors of malaria. The insecticide DDT proved very effective at the start. It was discovered by the Swiss firm J. R. Geigy, for use agaist flies, mosquitoes, lice, fleas, etc. Unfortunately, with its constant use, the insects became resistant to it. Then, malathion became the next substitute for DDT. Malaria is still endemic to rural areas due to favourable breeding conditions, open unlimited space, marshy lands, coconut-husk pits, stationary pools, and the presence of more children, who sleep with their bare bodies, providing enough blood-meal for the mosquitoes in conforming to their habitat of moving in the dark, when they usually come out to fill their stomachs with human blood. The Anti-Malaria Campaign, established in Sri Lanka to eradicate the deadly disease, was provided with foreign aid, and some of the donors were the United States, the WHO, the Misereor (Germany), the Overseas Technical Co-operation Agency of Japan, Republic of Germany and Cathwall (US), by way of commodity loans. But, the disease still persists because malaria cannot be controlled without breaking the life-cycle of the mosquito at any point. When we speak of malaria, we cannot omit to mention the name of Sir Ronald Ross who made the greatest medical discovery that the disease was transmitted by the mosquito. Ross was born in India and served in the Indian Medical Service from 1881 to 1899. His genius was shepherded by circustances to solve the mystery of the lethal disease. By about 1890, his medical conscience was stirred by the appalling disease and misery with which he was surrounded in the corse of his work as an army surgeon in India, and he began to feel that he ought to try to do something about it. He started to study malaria with Dr. Patrick Manson learned in tropical diseases. Later, he became the Professor of Tropical Medicine at Liverpool in UK and received the Nobel Prize for medicine. It was then worth £ 7,880 a considerable sum in those days. Ross was the eldest in the family and, in all, there were ten children and most of them were born in India. His most striking later work was in sanitary expeditions against malaria. He first was sent to West Africa, then known as 'the white-man's grave'. He drained the puddles where the malaria mosquitoes bred, and killed the larvae by spraying with petroleum. His most immediate success was at Ismailia, the seat of the headquarters of the Suez Canal. The population had suffered severely from malaria. Having passed the Apothecaries Examination in 1881, he got the first appointment to the Station Hospital in Madras. As a temporary medical officer attached to the 17th Madras Infantry, he was stationed at Vizianagram in India. In 1884, he became a temporary surgeon at Bangalore. There he was severaly bitten by mosquitoes. Later he said "The mosquitoes were breeding in a tub outside the window, and when I upset it I found that they had almost disappeared". Thenceforth, he became seriously interested in mosquitoes. The young Ross took a course in bacteriology and sat for the Diploma in Public Health. He was successful. He was the first member of the Indian Medical Service to gain such a success. He married Rosa Bloxam in 1889, and they both had to leave for Burma (now Myanmar), to take up a new appointment, and in 1890, they had to return to Bangalore having received a regular appointment. He made known to the world that malaria is a disease spread by the mosquito anopheles, and suggested the draining of puddles to prevent their breeding. Ross was knighted in 1911, and in 1926, the Ross Institute was founded by his admirers. His wife died in 1931, and he in the following year. His last words were "I shall find out things, yes, yes". The basic problem concerning malaria was solved at last by the discovery that the kind of mosquito which carried the parasite was the anapheles. Ross scribbled "I have found thy secret deeds. Oh, million-murdering death". |
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