Posts Categorized: History

Sinhalisation of the North-East

http://www.sinhalisation.com/ About Since time immemorial the island of Sri Lanka has been largely divided into two linguistic regions, the Tamil North-East and the Sinhala south. The North-East region encompasses the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Batticaloa and the littoral areas of Trincomalee and Amparai. It is a contiguous region that has traditionally been inhabited by Tamil speakers. This… Read more »

1990 Planned Genocidal Attack on Tamils in the East

Contents Planned genocidal attack in the East Carefully planned strategy Sri Lanka ignored ICJ recommendations Concerns of UK Parliamentary Human Rights Group Tamils driven out from Pottuvil to Thenmaravadi Several reports of large scale killings Refugees in Iruthayapuram Camp compelled to act as “human mine detectors” Attack on the Tamils clearly genocidal in intent “..The… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Icon of Colonial Rule rises from the Rubble

As an army of labourers churns out limestone bricks, archeologist Prashantha Mandawala reflects on the ambitious task of restoring Sri Lanka’s centuries-old Jaffna fort, destroyed by ethnic war. The project has so far included the dangerous task of clearing unexploded mines and shells from the seafront site and scouring the northern Jaffna peninsula for scarce… Read more »

Legacy of 1962 Coup Plot

Forty years ago on 28th January 1962, Sri Lanka awoke to the startling news that a coup d’etat by key police and military officers had been foiled. In retrospect the Sixty Two Coup was a crucial turning point in Sri Lanka’s contemporary history. Sri Lanka experienced one of the longest unbroken periods of colonial rule…. Read more »

Tamil Women: Into Public Space

The political struggle of the Eelam Tamils began even before the end of colonialism in 1948. Over the following decades, this struggle gradually unified the Eelam Tamils who were fragmented until then. There is no evidence that women took part in this struggle until after the 1970’s. Another struggle took centre stage in the Tamil… Read more »

How English Ruined Indian Literature

India, if it is to speak to itself, will always need a lingua franca. But English, which re-enacts the colonial relationship, placing certain Indians in a position the British once occupied, does more than that. It has created a linguistic line as unbreachable as the color line once was in the United States.

Letter to PM Rajiv Gandhi from TULF on 13th Amendment

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/archive/20080217/issues.htm Our Disappointment With Proposals Contained In The Two Bills 28th Oct 1987 Shri Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, New Delhi. Dear Prime Minister, We thank you once again for all your efforts on behalf of the Tamil people. We repeat our deep anguish at the tragic turn of events in Jaffna. We feel it is… Read more »

Pirapaharan at Sixty

by Karthik RM, November 21, 2014 Is Pirapaharan dead? Ten years back, TamilNet senior editor and military analyst Taraki Sivaram wrote a brilliant piece on the political legacy of Pirapaharan at fifty.  Come 26 November this year, the founder-leader of the LTTE and one of the most brilliant military minds of South Asia will turn… Read more »

Rev. Dr Emmanuel on Collapse of CBK-Prabhakaran talks

Rev. Dr. Emmanuel, who had occasionally provided to the writer valuable perception, as regards significant conflict-related events, made available to The Island his presentation at a conference organized by the International Alert, way back in July, 1997. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel dealt extensively with the Kumaratunga-Prabhakaran talks during 1994-1995 period…

“The government did not understand the LTTE as representatives of an aggrieved and oppressed people. Nor did they recognize the LTTE’s demands as the demands of the people.”

Remember to Remember Part 2

In the Vanni, through the unceasing waves, LTTE created areas of full control. And invested heavily in projects of statebuilding that gave people a sense of dignity, safety, limited freedom of movement. Before that meeting, Sivaram saw those projects as waste of precious resources during the time of war. He was of the opinion that, as a direct consequence of state building, LTTE focused too much on expanding conventional capabilities and on protecting territory at the expense of its guerrilla roots. But the witnessing of statebuilding exercise has left an everlasting impression on the Vanni people as well as on the visiting diaspora. That investment paid off in the form of willing participation and in unflinching loyalty to the LTTE even in its dying days.

Beyond the Beach

 by Marcelle Hopkins, AlJazeera, May 17, 2014  Five years after one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history, Sri Lanka hovers between war and peace, as a profoundly traumatised population grapples with creeping militarisation, continuing ethnic divisions and a crackdown on dissent.       Interactive website at http://ajinteractive.businesscatalyst.com/srilanka/home_txt.html 

Thamils Should Not Lose Heart, But Fight Back Peacefully

Independence for the Thamils have meant slow liquidation of their identity as a Nation that lived in well defined territory with their own language, arts, culture, customs and heritage. They have been living in the Northeast historically for several centuries…

In 1946 the Thamils (both Ceylon and Thamils of Indian origin) constituted 22.75 (1,514,300) and Sinhalese 69.41 (4,620,500), but in 2011 the Thamil population declined to 15.37 (3,113,247) while the Sinhalese population rose to 74.88 (15,173,820). This decline is reflected in the dilution of their parliamentary representation

Tamil Nadu Government Decides to Release 7 in Rajiv Assassination Case

The Tamil Nadu Government, in a suo motu statement to the State Assembly on Wednesday said it has decided to release the 7 prisoners, now imprisoned to lifetime in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The decision comes as the Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to commute the death sentence on Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan to… Read more »

Channel 4’s ‘No Fire Zone’

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/no-fire-zone/4od   ABOUT THE PROGRAMME The team behind the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields tell the story of the 138-day-long final offensive in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war Available for a limited time only at Channel 4 site. —————— Channel 4 Nov. 9 blog on interview with Isaipriya’s mother and sisters http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/sri-lanka-tamil-familys-distress-footage-daughter/430

Sri Lanka: COIN or Civil War?

Ambassador (Ret.) Edward Marks, a veteran of 40 years in the Foreign Service and currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at George Mason University, contacted Joint Force Quarterly with comments about “Understanding Sri Lanka’s Defeat of the Tamil Tigers” by Niel A. Smith, which appeared in issue 59 (4th Quarter, 2010). Ambassador Marks believes that MAJ Smith misreads the context… Read more »

A Violent Non-State Actors Reading List

About Daveed Gartenstein-Ross Visiting research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)–The Hague; senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Ph.D. candidate in world politics at the Catholic University of America; etc. In the introduction to her edited volume Violent Non-State Actors in World Politics, Klejda Mulaj notes that, while political science scholarship has… Read more »

Understanding Sri Lanka’s Defeat of the Tamil Tigers

After three decades of conflict, Sri Lanka’s government defeated the ethnic separatist insurgent group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), popularly known as the Tamil Tigers, in May 2009. The violence and brutality employed by both sides in the final years of the conflict drew significant interest from the global civilian and military communities, especially… Read more »

Compilation of Material on IPKF

“The Satanic Force” http://ebook.yarl.com/ on the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-1990 Vol. 1, Part 1 http://ebook.yarl.com/index1.html   Vol. 1, Part 2 http://ebook.yarl.com/index2.html Vol. 1, Part 3 http://ebook.yarl.com/index3.html

Mullaitivu Falls to the Tamil Forces 210 Years Ago Today

At least as far as the records and anecdotal history go, there was no war of independence following Kaadu Rajah Vinnasythamby’s 1878 defeat anywhere in Vanni. According to the known history, Pariyari Velar was never captured alive but his son Kaadu Rajah Vinnayar was pardoned by the British authorities and he remained in obscurity following his defeat until his death. A century later his great-great-grandson took up arms and joined a liberation organisation which defeated the enemy and once again took over Mullaitivu in July 1996. The great-great-grandson of Kaadu Rajah was known by the nom de guerre ‘Major Curdles’ and was affectionately known as Kerdy to his fellow freedom fighters. The great martyr (Maveeran in Tamil) Mahalingam Thileepan, otherwise known as Major Curdles, is a cousin of the most illustrious freedom fighter Brigadier Theepan.