[TamilNet, March 31, 2004 04:15 GMT]
The 106th birthday of the late Tamil leader and the founder of the Federal Party (Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi -ITAK), Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam, falls on Wednesday. Tamils in the country, who still fondly remembering Mr. Chelvanayakam as “Thanthai (father) Chelva,” will celebrate the late leader's birthday Wednesday at a time when the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is contesting the forthcoming general elections on the ITAK ticket, with its HOUSE symbol revived after 37 years, political sources said. Mr. Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam (SJV) was born on 31st March 1898, in the Malayan town of Ipoh, to Viswanathan Velupillai, a businessman, and Harriet Annamma Kanapathipillai. He moved with his mother to Tellipallai in the Jaffna district when he was four years old to be educated in Jaffna. 

SJV qualified as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon and in 1927 married Emily Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe (Rathinam). He fomally entered Tamil politics in 1944 when the British government announced the appointment of Soulbury Constitution. At that point, Tamils decided that they needed to create a political organization to formulate their demands and articulate these to the Commission. 

It resulted in launching the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) by the late leader Mr.G.G.Ponnamabalam with Mr. Chelvanayakam as one of its principal organizers.

Later SJV left the ACTC due to differences of opinion with Mr .Ponnambalam and launched a new Tamil political party, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), also known as the Federal party (FP), in December 1949.

Mr. Chelvanayakam declared, "we want a federal constitution made up of two linguistic provinces with a federal centre at Colombo dealing with only defence, foreign affairs and inter-provincial communication. Each linguistic province will be its master in all internal matters."

Tens of thousands ITAK activists marched from Point Pedro in the north and Pottuvil in the east (Thirumalai Yaththirai) to Trincomalee on foot and participated in the historical Trincomalee (Thirumalai Maha Nadu) conference in August 1957. 

In that conference, Mr.Chelvanayakan issued a deadline to the incumbent Prime Minister, Mr.S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, to fulfill several demands including the immediate halt on the State-aided Sinhala colonization in the Tamil dominated northeast, parity of status to Tamil language and to give self-rule to Tamils in the northeast under a federal constitution.

Mr. Bandaranaike, who was the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), immediately invited Mr. Chelvanayakam for political negotiations, which resulted in the signing of the historic Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam (Banda-Chelva) pact in the latter part of 1957. 
 

The B-C pact envisaged a regional council for northeast, conferred with powers on land alienation and the amalgamation of north and east provinces into one. The United National Party, which was in the opposition at that time with Mr. J.R.Jayawardene at the helm, led a protest campaign against the implementation of the B-C pact, accusing that the establishment of a regional council in the northeast would lead to the formation of a separate Tamil state.

Later, Mr. Bandaranaike abrogated the pact, which was signed by leaders of the two communities for the first time in the history of the country to resolve the Tamil national question through negotiations.

Thereafter during the regime of Prime Minister Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike, in 1961, the ITAK led by Mr. Chelvanayakam launched a civil disobedience movement in the northeast province to win the lost rights of Tamils. A Satyagraha campaign was held in front of all government offices, including district secretariats in the province, thus bringing the central government's civil administration in the northeast to a complete halt. 

Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike restored normalcy in the northeast by declaring a State of Emergency and arresting Tamil leaders including Mr. Chelvanayakam, putting them under house arrest.

After 1965 general election when no major Sinhala political party in the south obtained an absolute majority in the parliament, the UNP leader Mr.Dudely Senanayake signed another agreement with Mr. Chelvanayakam, which was called the Dudely-Chelva pact, to resolve political demands of Tamils by establishing District Councils in the northeast province. As a result of that, the ITAK supported the UNP to form a government. However Mr.Dudely Senanayake later abrogated the pact due to vehement opposition from chauvinist forces, led by the SLFP, which was, then in the opposition, historical records say.

Thereafter an attempt to bring all Tamil political parties under one umbrella was mooted to take forward the freedom struggle. Hence the inauguration of the Tamil United Liberation Front in 1972 at a historical meeting held in Trincomalee with the participation of leaders of ITAK, ACTC and "Adanka Thamilar Munnani" led by Mr.C.Sutharalingam of Vavuniya when the SLFP government led by Mrs. Bandaranaike brought a new constitution ignoring Tamils’ demands and declaring the country a Republic by replacing the Soulbury Constitution, which provided some security to minorities through Section 29. Mr. Chelvanayakam presided at that meeting, sources said.

Later in his political life ‘Thanthai’ Chelvanayakam started advocating a separate Tamil state in the island to regain the lost sovereign of Tamils under the administration of Britishers. 

The goals for a separate state were ratified in the Vaddukoddai resolution of 14th May 1976 at the first national convention of the TULF under Mr. Chelvanayakam' chairmanship. 

The historic pronouncement made by Mr. Chelvanayakam at the Vaddukoddai convention accused the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Bandaranaike, of having "callously ignored" the TULF's "last attempt ...to win constitutional recognition of the Tamil Nation without jeopardizing the unity of the country." 

The convention called on "the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward and throw themselves fully in the sacred fight for freedom and to fight till the goal of a sovereign socialist state of Tamil Eelam is reached." 

Till his death on April 26th in 1977, Mr. Chelvanayakam was the acknowledged leader of the Tamil people. He was the only statesman to be returned in five general elections in a row and to remain a hero and a father figure to his people for thirty-three years. Mr. Chelvanayakam passed away on April 26, 1976 in Jaffna, a few days after celebrating 78th birthday.

source: tamilnet.com