On Rajiv Gandhi’s Pretense for Eelam Cause: ‘Operation Flower Garland’ of 1987
by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 11, 2022 35 years will pass on June 4, 1987, when the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi executed his machismo pretense for the Eelam Cause by providing relief air-drop to Jaffna Tamils, who were suffering from the Sinhalese military onslaught. At that time, every Sinhalese politician, pundit, and journalist… Read more »
A Multispecies History of the Ceylon Pearl Fishery 1800–1925
Seeing like the sea by Tamara Fernando, Past & Present, Volume 254, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages 127–160, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtab002 Published: 21 September 2021 PDF Abstract The pearl fishery of Ceylon was a lucrative source of pearls as well as a theatre of colonial power. But instead of narrating a story of abstracted governmentality, this paper dives below… Read more »
Despite High Stakes in Ethiopia by Joseph Sany, Ph.D. & Thomas P. Sheehy, US Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, January 19, 2022 Since November of 2020, Ethiopia has been suffering from a deadly internal conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and displaced over two million. The United States, the African Union and others… Read more »
by Groundviews, January 17, 2022 Interview with Ms. Yasmine Sooka, head of International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa While Sri Lanka grapples with an inevitable economic meltdown, the international community has not forgotten the country’s obligations to move towards a reconciled society through the process of transitional justice. One of the requirements for sustainable… Read more »
by Thambu Kanagasabai – Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 26, 2022 The 1987 13th Amendment, a conceived and delivered baby of India under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 for adoption by Sri Lanka, has been lying in the constitution of Sri Lanka partly implemented and mostly ignored by the… Read more »
‘Manthiri Kumari’ (1950) movie – revisited by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 21, 2021 Fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan’s comments to my previous part 62, received on October 4th, was as follows: “You have discussed two difficult issues related to MGR. Annaism brought much flak. Most of what it said about nationalization and the right to… Read more »
by Anuradha Srinivasan, Sri Lalitam Trust, Pondicherry, December 6, 2021 Rows of unlit lamps dot both sides of the street, all the way to the village temple tank. Women dressed in colourful silk saris, draw intricate geometric patterns, or kolams, at the entrance to their house. In the centre of each kolam stands a kuthu… Read more »
Of pre-1943 period translated by Sachi Sri Kantha, October 25, 2021 Front Note by Sachi 40th death anniversary of King Poet Kannadasan (1927-1981) passed by on October 17th. Among his numerous books, two autobiographical memoirs, Vana Vaasam (1965, 376 pp) and Mana Vaasam (1980, 228 pp) stands out. Vana Vaasam covers the period of Kannadasan’s… Read more »
Chinese sea cucumber farms back in operation in Kilinochchi by Dinasena Ratugamage, Sunday Island, Colombo, August 6, 2021 Two sea cucumber farms, managed by a Chinese company in Kilinochchi, recommenced its operations after fishermen’s associations in Jaffna and Kilinochchi said that they no longer opposed the farms. The operations of the two farms were stopped… Read more »
A review of Peer Vries’ “Escaping poverty” by Branko Milanovic, his personal Substack, July 22, 2021 While the world is witnessing global convergence (essentially the catch up of Asia with the West), the debates about the origins of the Great Divergence—the take-off of the West and absence of growth in the Rest—are going strong. I… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa Dynasty is Not as Secure as It Appears
by Banyan, The Economist, London, July 17, 2021 The family that runs everything is running out of cash Since winning the presidency in a landslide nearly two years ago, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has worried not that he has too many relatives in government, but that he has too few. One of the 72-year-old’s elder brothers, Mahinda, himself… Read more »
False Promises by Ambika Satkunanathan, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 14, 2021 For decades human rights activists have highlighted the draconian nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which promises safety and security, yet in practice makes each citizen vulnerable to being arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured and even convicted of an offence the person did not… Read more »
by Nimal Wijesinghe, Daily News, Colombo, February 27, 2021 There is an awakening in the field of irrigation development in the country. The ancient kings treated rainwater as a highly precious national asset and constructed small, medium and large-scale tanks and anicuts for collecting and storing every drop of rainwater for irrigational, agricultural and drinking… Read more »
by N. Shanmugaratnam, Groundviews.org, Colombo, July 13, 2012 Image courtesy Sainthan Sivanesan on 500px I am thankful to the Norwegian Tamil Study Forum for inviting me to address this Workshop and am looking forward to listening to the main speakers. In this brief intervention I wish to make some general comments and raise a few issues,… Read more »
Masters Politics, social tensions, and comedy all found a home in Tamil cinema. The Tamil meme needs all four things to work. by Aditya Shrikrishna, FiftyTwo.in, March 25, 2021 Nesamani was a contractor. On 26 May 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party was confirmed to have swept the seventeenth Lok Sabha elections. At some point on… Read more »
Feedback re 1986 killing of TULF MPs Alalasuntharam and Dharmalingam from a reader: March 29, 2005 Dear Editor, In Chapter 38 the writer mentioned that the TULF MPs’ murder had been carried out by Das. This is totally untrue. Sri Sabaratnam gave the order to kill all former TULF MPs who lived in Jaffna at… Read more »
by T. Sabaratnam, February 25, 2005 Chapter 35 Original index to series Original Chapter 36 [renumbered from Chapter 35, Part II] The First Round (Continued) As indicated in the previous chapter, the first day of the Thimpu Talks was devoted to the inauguration. Talks commenced on the second day, 9 July 1985. The entire morning… Read more »
by T. Sabaratnam, November 25, 2004 Chapter 25 Original index to series Original Chapter 26 Three Factors 1984 is a milestone in the life of Pirapaharan and in the history of Tamil freedom struggle. In that year, as I indicated in Chapter 21, Pirapaharan switched over from hit-and-run guerrilla combat to sustained guerrilla warfare, and… Read more »
by T. Sabaratnam, August 2004 Chapter 10 Original index to series Original Chapter 11 Training Militants Indira Gandhi always called President Jayewardene ‘the old fox.’ Her assessment of him was that he could not be trusted. Her opinion of Jayewardene was based on the information given to her by her friend Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the lady… Read more »
by T. Sabaratnam, June 11, 2004 Chapter 5 Original index to series Original Chapter 6 Tamil Nadu Erupts Tamil Nadu erupted in anger on Tuesday, 26 July 1983, when news spread that atrocities had been committed on Tamils in Sri Lanka. Thousands of Tamils poured onto the streets in Chennai, Madurai and other cities denouncing… Read more »