Professor Chelvadurai Manogaran Passed Away

Chelvadurai Manogaran, retired Professor of Geography and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Parkside, (USA) passed away this morning at the age of 67. He was on a tour of the northeast United States at the time of his death.

Prof. Manogaran was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and migrated to his native country Sri Lanka in 1949. He earned his first degree at the University of Ceylon and was appointed lecturer in the Department of Geography at the Jaffna College (Undergraduate Division). He then proceeded to the United States in 1966 and received his MA at the Clark University in Massachusetts, and his Ph.D. in Climatology from Southern Illinois University. He held the position of Professor of Geography and International Studies at University of Wisconsin since 1970, until his retirement last year.

He had published several academic papers on Climatology and had a special interest in the Tamil national struggle in Sri Lanka. He had authored two books, “Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka” [University of Hawaii Press, 1987] and “The Untold Story of Ancient Tamils in Sri Lanka [Kumaran Press, Chennai; 2000,] and co-edited (with Bryan Pfaffenberger) the book “The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity” [Westview Press, Boulder Colorado; 1994]. He had also published several articles on the Tamil National Struggle, especially on the State Aided Colonization of Tamil Homelands in Sri Lanka. As an expert in geography he demonstrated how the names of rivers and rivulets in the Tamil homelands, which ended with the Tamil Aru in the early maps of Sri Lanka, were changed in the subsequent maps with the Sinhala Oya.

He presented a paper at the International Conference on Tamil Nationhood and the Search for Peace in Sri Lanka, at the Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada May 21-22, 1999, on the subject of “Sinhalese Settlements and Forced Evictions of Tamils in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.” He also presented a paper titled “Sri Lankan dilemma: Negotiated Settlement or Continuing War” at the International Alert Conference in Lucerne, Switzerland in July 1977.

His expertise on Sri Lanka has also been utilized by the U.S. State Department for which he has served as a consultant on Sri Lanka in the nineties. His papers have been quoted in Encyclopedia Britannica.

Prof. Manogaran has been actively involved in many of the activities of the Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, and was the Chief Guest at this year's sangam Spring Cultural Event.

He is survived by his beloved wife Devi, two daughters Shakila and Anita, grandson Nathan, brothers Kamalakaran (India), Baskaran (USA), Iyngaran (USA) and sisters, Vijasathaiya (Singapore), Jeyasathya (Zambia).