Monthly Archives: June 2024

India’s Modi, Humbled by Voters, Faces Potent Economic Struggles

With his grip on political power weakened, the Indian prime minister is confronting the same formidable challenge — how to generate hundreds of millions of jobs. byPeter S. Goodman, The New York Times, June 7, 2024 Before the Indian election results emerged this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely viewed as a charismatic and popular strongman… Read more »

On the Tamil National Army (TNA)

RAW’s malformed Baby that lived for 9 months by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 10, 2024  As a chronicler of Eelam history of the 20th century, I had been highlighting issues and items that demands a record and focus. One such item was the brief existence of Tamil National Army (TNA), a malformed baby of India’s… Read more »

Tarzie Vittachi on Abrogation of B-C Pact

Excerpts from Emergency’58, The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots by Tarzie Vittachi, Andre Deutsch, 1958, courtesy TamilNation.org “The Prime Minister, Mr S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, continued with his year-long efforts to convince the people that the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact which he had made with the Federal Party a year ago, was a fool-proof solution of the… Read more »

TG: Nowhere to Hide

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 9, 2024 Britain’s Metropolitan Police made a significant announcement this week; only the second of its kind. A man accused of committing war crimes in Sri Lanka was arrested in South London. Though this is just a single person being investigated it sends a powerful message to those in Colombo… Read more »

TG: International Criminal Court and Beyond

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 2, 2024 Recent weeks have seen several senior politicians from the two leading opposition parties in the UK, reiterate the importance of ensuring Sri Lanka is referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Keir Starmer, the man widely tipped to become Britain’s next prime minister, called on the ruling government… Read more »

A View from the North

Presidential Elections by Groundviews, Colombo, May 27, 2024 For the first time, Sri Lanka’s presidential election in October will have three main contenders – President Ranil Wickremesinghe contesting under an independent symbol, the SJB represented by Sajith Premadasa and the NPP/JVP by Anura Kumara Dissanayake. There is speculation about a common Tamil candidate as well as rumours… Read more »

Burning of the Jaffna Public Library

43rd anniversary remembrance  by British Tamils Forum, London, June 1, 2024 June 1st evokes the scar of the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the irreplaceable asset of Tamil people. This calculated arsenic destruction was one of the major cultural genocides against Tamil people masterminded by Sri Lankan state to destroy historic evidence of Tamil… Read more »

Middle-aged Politics?

by Nillanthan Maha, Jaffna, June 1, 2024 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with improvements by the Editor.] A friend who is a medical professional recently asked, “If my child asks why he should not go abroad, is there any valid reason for me to tell him why you should stay in the… Read more »

Am I A Settler Too?

Reflections of a Sinhalese from Sri Lanka after Gaza by Nalin Jayathunga, Polity.lk, Colombo, April 29, 2024 Mapping temporal and spatial lines between the past and the present, this reflection draws parallels between the Palestinian genocide and the Tamil genocide. It is premised on my moral conundrum of protesting the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza,… Read more »

Second Arrest inn UK’s Sri Lanka War Crimes Investigation

Police appeal for information by uknip427 (UK News in Pictures, June 5, 2024 Counter Terrorism detectives investigating allegations of war crimes linked to the Sri Lankan civil war in the early 2000s are appealing for anyone who might have information that could assist their investigation to contact police. The appeal comes after a second UK-based… Read more »

Two Poems by V.I.S. Jayapalan

translated from the Tamil by Shash Trevett, Harvard Review Online, Boston, MA, USA, December 5, 2023 One Night in Frankfurt Packed like litter in the belly of a pregnant sow, a group of men from Jaffna lie seemingly lifeless in a room in the heart of Frankfurt— their bodies curled in blankets wrapped tight like… Read more »

Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala, & English Poetry from Sri Lanka & Its Diasporas

Edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett, Bloodaxe Books, UK, June 22, 2023 Paperback £14.99 ISBN: 9781780376738 E-book £12.99 ISBN: 9781780376745 Poetry Book Society Special Commendation Sri Lanka has thrilled the foreign imagination as a land of infinite possibility. Portuguese, Dutch and British colonisers envisioned an island of gems and pearls, a stopping-point… Read more »

Gnanam: Life Lessons from Her Mother

‘Gnanam” by Selvi Sachithanandam, shortlisted for 2023 Gratiaen Prize Gnanam is a biography cum memoir and charts the stories of 5 generations of women belonging to one family in Jaffna and it was inspired by the love, empathy, and trust that they handed down. The spiritual thread that runs through the book is innocuous, but… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Cast a Long Shadow

Impunity for crimes committed during the civil war has fuelled post-war repression in Sri Lanka. by Al Jazeera, May 18, 2024 By Madura Rasaratnam and Ambihai Akilan Published On 18 May 202418 May 2024 Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical… Read more »

Recognising Genocide

by Tamil Guardian, London, May 25, 2024 Tamils across the world marked the 15th anniversary of the massacres at Mullivaikkal last week. Thousands gathered, en masse in public commemorations and in private ceremonies at homes, to pay tribute to those who were killed by the Sri Lankan state. As they did so, they were clear… Read more »