By: Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM {Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 15, 2018 Tamils in Sri Lanka, being the original inhabitants even before BC 500 according to legend, have ruled Sri Lanka before the arrival of Buddhism in BC 247 and formation of Sinhalese language during the 6th century AD, which… Read more »
The Dravidian Sun Sets
by A Kalaiyarasan & Karthick Ram Manoharan, ‘Economic & Political Weekly,’ Mumbai, India, August 8, 2018 When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Muthuvel Karunanidhi passed away on 7 August 2018, he had outlived most of his friends and all of his rivals. “Kalaignar,” as he was popularly known among… Read more »
Karunanidhi’s Politics from Cartoons – Part 2
by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 13, 2018 Part 1 I provide seven additional cartoons from Thinamani daily’s cartoonist Mathi (b. 1968), compiled in his 2010 book. These cartoons cover M. Karunanidhi’s political deeds from 1998 to 2009. In 1998 (at the age of 74), he was out of power. In 2009 (at the age of… Read more »
Karunanidhi’s Politics from Cartoons – Part 1
by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 9, 2018 The expected death of Muthuvel Karunanidhi (1924-2018), at the age of 94, saddened me. Make no doubt about this. I have been a strong critic of Karunanidhi’s politics, since 1972, when he expelled MGR from the DMK party. Nevertheless, I have always appreciated his contributions to Tamil literary… Read more »
The Man Who was Muthuvel Karunanidhi
DMK patriarch Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a champion of federalism, showed how a regional party leader can become indispensible in the national political sphere by Dharani Thangavelu, ‘LiveMint,’ India, August 7, 2018 Chennai: It was the morning of July 15, 1953. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) members had launched a protest against the renaming of Kallakudi to Dalmiyapuram, near… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 46
Nadodi Mannan and Adimai Penn by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 6, 2018 Part 45 In his cinematic career, MGR produced three movies, namely Nadodi Mannan (1958; Vagabond King), Adimai Penn (1969; The Slave Woman) and Ulagam Sutrum Vaaliban (1973; Globe-trotting Youngster). The first two movies were released while he was a ranking member of the… Read more »
UN SR Ben Emmerson’s Report on Sri Lanka
by UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, July 24, 2018 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism on his mission to Sri Lanka Sri_LankaReportJuly2018.PDF A. Conclusions 59. In 2015, Sri Lanka seemed to have turned a corner. New elections brought to power a coalition government and with it the… Read more »
Water Resources and Agriculture Development Strategy North East Province
Volume 1 & 2 Special Emphasis on Irrigation Project in North by Saravanamuttu Subramaniam Sivakumar, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna, February 2015, 2nd edition, 10.13140/2.1.3996.4961 Go to publication Download Abstract 2. Status of Water Resources With the increase in population, industrialization and urbanization, demand for water has increased. Population has increased from 1.9 million in… Read more »
Losing Santhia, Part One
The death of a Tiger and the fate of a nation by Ben Hiller, ‘Red Flag,’ Australia, July 5, 2018 In October 2017, Santhia, a former high ranking cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“Homelands”), died in a Jakarta hospital. She was only 42. Almost a decade earlier, she had fled Sri Lanka, via… Read more »
Losing Santhia, Part Two
From cubs to Tigers by Ben Hiller, ‘Red Flag,’ Australia, July 20, 2018 In October 2017, Santhia, a former high ranking cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“Homelands”), died in a Jakarta hospital. She was only 42. Almost a decade earlier, she had fled Sri Lanka, via Tamil Nadu, India, with her young son…. Read more »
Sumathiran’s April Speech re Constitution
by M.A. Sumanthiran, University of Peredeniya, April 18, 2018 posted on TNA Politics.org in July 2018 Sumanthiran-SPEECH-PGIHS Keynote speech by M.A. Sumanthiran, 3rd April 2018, Research Congress, Inaugural session of the Post Graduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peradeniya The Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Director,… Read more »
Tackling Sri Lanka’s ‘Torturers’
From Point Pedro to Dondra Head by [no author noted], ‘The Sunday Times,’ Colombo, July 29, 2018 There is little doubt that the findings of United Nations Special Rapportuer on Countering Terrorism, Ben Emmerson on the sorry fate of Sri Lanka’s justice system, particularly in regard to the continuance of a ‘culture of impunity’ are… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s New Right-Wing Politics
by Jayadeva Uyangoda, ‘The Sunday Observer,’ Colombo, July 8, 2018 There are two new developments in Sri Lanka’s contemporary politics which is getting crystalized and clearer these days. They are: (a) the consolidation of a hard right-wing alternative to a weak and shaky democratic regime option, and (b) the projection of an ex-military officer as… Read more »
‘King Poet’ Kannadasan at 91
Random Thoughts, Part 3 by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 28, 2018 Part 2 Recently, I provided the English translation of poet Kannadasan’s powerful 48 line verse on sympathizing with Eelam Tamils during the 1958 anti-Tamil riots. [http://sangam.org/60-anniversary-1958-anti-tamil-riots-part-3/] Kannadasan’s cousin, and assistant cum biographer Rama Kannappan described what many may be unaware of, that, as a… Read more »
Akil Kumarasamy’s “Half Gods”
A Début Collection Explores Strife, Trauma, and “a Lifetime Loving Strangers” by Katie Waldman, ‘The New Yorker,’ July 7, 2018 The dinner party is for fiction writers what the étude is for pianists: a high-stakes showcase for their many talents. Authors must stage-manage a large number of characters brought together into one enclosed space; they must… Read more »
Debut Stories Trace the Aftershocks of the Sri Lankan Civil War
by Tania James, ‘The New York Times,’ July 5, 2018 HALF GODS By Akil Kumarasamy 224 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $25. In Tamil, farewells are never final. As Akil Kumarasamy pointed out in a 2017 interview, the Tamil equivalent of goodbye is poyittu varen, meaning “I’ll go and return.” These are parting words especially suited… Read more »
Protecting or Facilitating?
A review of the humanitarian response to IDP detention in Sri Lanka, 2009 All too often however, humanitarian organisations were poorly equipped with the time, skills and attitudes to address a situation where the state was not representing the interests of the population. In these cases, supporting the vulnerable means contesting state agendas, even where… Read more »
“In 1983, As Our Ship Left Colombo Port, I Saw Pettah Burning”
by Dimuthu Attanayake, ‘The Sunday Observer,’ Colombo, July 22, 2018 TNA Legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, recalls being 19 years old when communal violence rocked the capital city in July 1983. Packed off to Jaffna where the Government thought Tamil families residing in Colombo and other parts of the south would be safer, he recalls an arduous… Read more »
Sri Lanka Military Caught Red Handed While Misleading Public Inquiry
by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, July 18, 2018 Military authorities in Sri Lanka have been providing incorrect information about sexual abuse by its soldiers and officers while on a UN peacekeeping mission. A joint press release issued on Tuesday (17) by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) has… Read more »
Sri Lankan ‘War Criminals’ Deployed as UN Peacekeepers
by Mark Townsend, ‘The Guardian,’ Manchester, July 21, 2018 The UN has been sending alleged war criminals to act as peacekeepers in conflict zones, a confidential report claims. The document, seen by the Observer, and sent to the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations last month, claims that senior Sri Lankan officers accused of war crimes have… Read more »