Thursday, February 13, 2025

Tourists like our diversity

by damith
January 19, 2025 1:10 am 0 comment 1K views

BY RAJPAL ABEYNAYAKE
Multi-culturalism is something people are intensely proud of

Sri Lanka is a hot tourism destination, or at least is in the process of fast becoming one. Sri Lanka is also a country that was known — once upon a time — for ethnic strife among its citizenry. There was war and violence, and at least some said this was essentially between an armed group and the Army.

That notwithstanding, globally, we were known for ethnic strife, meaning that whatever interpretations we may have given to the war, people the world over thought various ethnic groups were at each others’ throats.

Was that correct? In retrospect, it could probably be said, yes and no. Armed groups and the armed forces engaged in hostilities, but the people on whichever side of the ethnic divide wanted peace, and an end to the bloodletting. There was enough evidence to say that different ethnic groups had always got along, until various interested parties started a war over contentious political issues.

But the war sometimes drew various ethnic groups into the vortex of conflict, and inevitably, there were simmering tensions between various racial and religious groups. To top it off, various politically exploitative forces wanted to create new ethnic fissures so that they could divide and rule.

hostilities

Soon, as a result, there were hostilities developing between different ethnic groups rather than groups whose cadres were ostensibly engaged in armed violence, though it’s the armed groups and the military that were primary actors in that battle and not the people themselves.

Reasons apart, upshot was that the people of this country were seen once upon a time as being at each others’ throats. All that has now ended. In 2022, people found a common cause in economic difficulty, and came together in a show of religious and racial unity.

Sri Lanka as a country that is multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, is a recent positive development, which has particularly caught the eye of tourists. This is a country that is famous for its indigenous Muslim cuisine, as it is for Sigiriya and ancient Buddhist archaeological sites.

We can, therefore, make Sri Lanka the Thailand of multi-culturalism. Thailand is a tourist paradise because of its themed tours and the plethora of different experiences on offer.

But Thailand is not multi-cultural. Malaysia is, but Malaysians have not made a celebration of this fact. Neither have the Singaporeans.

Sri Lankans during the war owned the appellation of the country of racial discord. We allowed people to denigrate us with trumped up depictions of a country where people could get along.

Though at one level this was true — obviously with a war on some discord is to be expected —it was not true, by and large. The people of this country still got along in the main, and events such as the 83 riots were also politically driven for petty gain.

Novelists tried to depict us as the country of race riots and evil people. But these portrayals were also for financial gain for the most part, and those who wrote such books were often foreigners or Sri Lankans who had found happy domicile in England and the West so-called. It was cultural appropriation of the worst order.

But people here found they couldn’t even call out this cultural appropriation because its depiction of Sri Lanka as an essentially evil place was part of a political project. Various vested interests propagated this view, and the politicians at home sometimes had a stake in dividing the country, so they could achieve narrow political objectives.

This mistreatment and the shaming of this nation as being war torn and heavily polarised has ethically had its repercussions, but it is a testament to the core values of our people that this phase is essentially past us.

It could not have happened if our core values were not aligned towards amity and consensus. This is why we should start showcasing this amity to the tourists. It is already being done. In Galle, Muslim women make a point of showcasing their special Sri Lankan recipes whenever they can.

There is Muslim cuisine, and then, there is Sri Lankan Muslim cuisine. There is Tamil cuisine and there is Jaffna cuisine. Multi-culturalism is so woven into our social fabric that there is no need sometimes to showcase it particularly. Kottu as a Sri Lankan dish is now established and any guest at a five-star hotel or any other restaurant in any part of the country would be able to order this specialty.

But Kottu doesn’t have its origins in Colombo. It is Sri Lankan as they come, but apparently this mixed preparation had its origins in Batticaloa. Apparently some sailors descended on a restaurant in Batticaloa in the eighties and asked that the chef rustle up something, even though it was late and the establishment was about to close for the night. The chef had nothing, but there were some leftover rottis which he chopped up and mixed with vegetables and meat, and kottu was born.

Tourism authorities generally are averse to making use of a vibrant living culture so to speak, as a tourist draw. They are comfortable with archaeology because they can lecture tourists on history and events that happened thousands of years ago.

multi-culturalism

But they are averse to talk about cultural amity of today, because they think the subject is out of bonds for tourism. But it isn’t. Our colourful tapestry of multi-culturalism is something people are intensely proud of. It is why kottu caught on, and Sinhala dishes so-called are a staple in Muslim homes, though the preparation is with a Muslim twist.

People are ready for multi-cultural showcasing, but there has to be a more organised effort that also has some impetus in the form of State and Corporate funding.

The people of this country are not content to hide their convivial impulse under a bushel.

It’s why during the Easter Sunday attacks, Buddhist temples were offered to Catholics to conduct their services. It is true that this was a period of suspicion centred around certain ethnic communities, and the nature of the attacks would no doubt give rise to such a situation.

But soon people realised that terrorist attacks were terrorist attacks, and had nothing do to do with ordinary people of any community.

Our sporting squads are very multi-cultural and some of the best sportsmen have been from minority communities even though it doesn’t matter. There is no such divide when it comes to celebrating talent, and Muttiah Muralithran is known as a Sri Lankan bowling wizard and not a Sri Lankan Tamil bowling wizard.

The point being made is that the potential is there. Sri Lankans are fiercely celebratory of their diversity, though the politically minded would always try to divide and rule. But these days, the core impulses of getting along are at a zenith. It is why we should take that extra effort to show the world that we are not what some novelists depicted us to be.

We should be able not merely to redeem our image but also to transform it entirely.

We have folk in the tourist trade from all communities so it should not be difficult to bring these people together to come up with a plan to proactively showcase our diversity.

We don’t have to re-invent multi-culturalism as some countries have. Some nations go out of the way to showcase indigenous ethnic groups that are very rare and are hardly part of the social fabric.

But we have multi-culturalism as our core experience, and we have been a very hospitable people to all communities that have settled in this island, some later than others. We should make this one of our strengths, because misguided elements tried to depict our ethnically diverse country in a negative light. They can now be shown that the opposite of what they imagined is true.

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