‘Modern Tamils & the Tamil National Question’

Two books by Nagaratnam Parameswaran are now available on Kindle via Amazon.

Modern Tamils and Tamil National Question: Sri Lanka/Ilankai 1798-2012

This book is the third and final in the series on the history of the Sri Lankan Tamils. As its title states, it covers the modern period of British rule of the island (1796 – 1947) and thereafter from independence in 1948 to present times. It is written from a Tamil perspective and charts their history in an interconnected and contextual way of the island’s history. It is largely thus the history of Sinhala/Tamil relations and their interactions which is seen as driving the political developments.

Of the European colonial powers who ruled the island, it was the British who left strong imprints,unifying the country and structurally changing its administration, judicial system and politics as well as its economy and trade. Yet as the British prepared to hand over power to the indigenous peoples,the dormant ethno-cultural differences between the majority Sinhala and minority Tamil nations which existed before the Europeans arrived began to surface again. Soon after independence, it led to their confrontation and then to conflict and war. Four years now after the war ended in May 2009,the underlying problem remains unaddressed. Given the geo-strategic location of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, there is an added international dimension to the problem which has seen Indian intervention followed by that of the international community, particularly the United States and its allies as Co-chairs to the collapsed Ceasefire Agreement of 2002. The ending of the war also brought with it the issues of accountability and war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide involving the United Nations and its failed mission in Sri Lanka.