[This history series by K T Rajasingham is no longer available on the Asia Times website, so the links provided at https://www.sangam.org/ANALYSIS/AsiaTimes.htm are no longer active. As time permits, we will be re-posting this series, along with that by T. Sabaratnam, which has some chapters missing. Sachi Sri Kantha’s biographical series is available at https://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/index.htm… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
The Education of Jaffna
by Sen V., TamilCulture, January 16, 2013 This year marks the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) to the Jaffna peninsula. January is Tamil Heritage Month. To mark this occasion, TamilCulture Magazine will publish a series of articles on Tamil history and heritage. Today’s article will reflect on the legacy of… Read more »
Tamil Women Freedom Fighters
by Usha Sriskandarajah, October 10, 2018 Remembering Malati and Celebrating Women’s Day of Awakening Today is a solemn day as well as a day that ought to inspire all Tamil women and men – to take the ideals of our freedom fighters and continue the struggle for the emancipation and restoration of Tamil Eelam. We… Read more »
The Outbreak of ‘Hell’ by the Portuguese on Jaffna
by G. Pathmanathan (Dept of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India) and Raghavan Pathmanathan (School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia), ‘Nalluran.com,’ January 14, 2014 OUR CHERISHED MEMORIES OF TWO LORD SRI KARTHIKEYA TEMPLES AT MAVETTAPURAM & NALLUR, JAFFNA PENNINSULA, SRI LANKA [Not sure why the section on the Portuguese is in this article, but it… 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 »
“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 »
What Chelvanayagam Envisaged
Prabakaran was determined to achieve by M.K. Eelaventhan, March 31, 2015 According to Rt. Rev. D.J. Ambalavanar, “Chelvanayagam died like Moses himself without reaching the promised land, but the vision he saw he leaves behind as the heritage and challenge of his people.” What Chelvanayagam Envisaged
The United States’ Role in Sri Lanka’s Peace Process: 2002-2006
by Jeffrey Lunstead, Asia Foundation, 2007 A Supplementary Study to the Sri Lanka Strategic Conflict Assessment 2005 Lunstead US Role in SL Peace Process 2002-2006 Contents Acknowledgements About the Author Executive Summary 1. Introduction 2. U.S. Interests and Engagement in Sri Lanka 3. Enhanced U.S. Engagement 3.1 Enhanced U.S. Interest 3.2 U.S. Relations with the… Read more »
Sivakumaran’s Supreme Sacrifice
Of his life was a turning point in the history of Tamil Eelam liberation struggle! by M.K. Eelaventhan, June 14, 2018 This article is based on two of my talks; one is given at the Trans-national government of Tamil Eelam office at 5210 Finch Ave. Unit 24, Scarborough (Middlefield and Finch) on 5th… Read more »
Counter Terrorism & Legal Certainty
by Gehan Gunatilleke, The Bar Association Law Journal, Colombo, 2017 Counter-Terrorism_and_Legal_Certainty
How Long Can the GoSL Hoodwink the UN?
And the International Community? by Kumarathasan Rasingam, May 31, 2018 The Sri Lankan State runs on Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, the Maha Sanga and the Buddhist Clergy. The Sri Lankan State has to obtain the blessings of these people to enact any laws regarding devolution of powers to the Tamils in the North and East of Sri… Read more »
An Ethnic Conflict & an Accord
by Press Trust of India on Shruti TV, May 10, 2018 Discussion of T. Ramakrishnan’s book ‘Or Inapprachinaiyum Or Oppandhamum,’ ‘An Ethnic Conflict and An Accord’ at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. With Prof. V Suryanarayan, & Chandrahasan. Moderated by Col. Hariharan. Most interesting is the Q & A starting at 1 hr. 12+ min…. Read more »
Tamil National Question & Tamil Insurgency in Sri Lanka
by Imtiyaz Razak, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ May 14, 2018 On May 17, 2009 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) admitted the defeat in the war against the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lanka security forces and vowed to silence guns. In May 18, Sri Lanka security forces announced that the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who led the… Read more »
Saint Anthony’s Church and Cemetery
The ruins of this old church are slowing sinking into the sand. by Max Cortesi, Atlas Obscura, no date, accessed May 12, 2018 On the far northeastern beaches of Sri Lanka there is a tiny village called Manalkadu. It doesn’t see many tourists—and with only one battered unnamed road to get there, that’s not surprising. What… Read more »
1991: The Mothers Who Won’t Disappear
by Steve Coll, ‘The Washington Post,’ March 3, 1991 COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — The letter arrived by regular post in the afternoon. A mailman carried it up the walkway of a posh bungalow lined with palms and splashed with tropical light. The letter was handwritten in English, addressed to Manorani Saravanamuttu, a medical doctor and a child… Read more »
The Anti-Tamil Gal Oya Riots of 1956
by Prof. Stanley J. Tambiah, posted in Thuppahi’s Blog, February 2, 2017 My own first hand and indelible experience of ethnic riots happened in June 1956, when as a twenty-seven-year-old social scientist, recently returned from graduate studies in the United States, I took a team of thirty three students (twenty-six Sinhalese and seven Tamils) to conduct… Read more »
Recent Pieces by N. Malathy
December 14, 2017 1. This website, TamilTigerwomen.com is the byproduct of the project to record women’s history in the LTTE. A translation of some of their writing. The project itself is not complete yet. 2. Peopling an Island – the case of Sri Lanka (appeared in the telesur site, April 2017) 3. Rape: Sri Lanka’s Weapon of Genocide (appeared in… Read more »
Burying History
by Sanjana Hattotuwa,’ ‘The Island, Colombo, November 18, 2017 Over four years ago, I wrote an article on mass graves in Sri Lanka that could be seen using Google Earth imagery, serving as a solitary, virtual witness to what happened on the ground. The article focused in and around Nandikadal – the sliver of land… Read more »
JR: I was Forced into a Deal with India
Jayewardene told U.S. envoy by Amit Baruah, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, February 5, 2017 Former Sri Lanka President claimed his troops refused to take Jaffna, reveal declassified papers Sri Lanka was forced into making a deal with India as its own armed forces had twice refused to “take Jaffna”, then President J.R. Jayewardene has been quoted… Read more »