Thirteen LTTE supporters have been arrested in various parts of the U.S., after some of them attempted to buy arms from a U.S. agent (thanks, tipsters). 
Others were involved in a bribery plot to have the LTTE removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. One person (the liasion between the group of 13 and the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka) is still being sought.
Sense any irony here? In case not, let me spell it out: if you’re trying to buy bombs to use in terrorist attacks, it may be difficult to “convince” the State Department that you’re not a terrorist organization.
Another thought: this is the first time I can remember that LTTE supporters have been arrested in the U.S. for involvement in terrorism.
The government in Sri Lanka is by no means innocent in the current conflict. It has, to begin with, bombed the Tamil-controlled areas of Sri Lanka pretty aggressively. The LTTE claims one of the recent targets was a home for orphaned girls, and that sixty of the schoolgirls living there were killed, and another sixty wounded. (The LTTE claims have not been confirmed by any neutral observers, so it might not be true. The Sri Lankan government claims the site was an LTTE military facility.) And a Swedish negotiator has criticized the Sri Lankan government for starting military action against the LTTE too soon after negotiations over water ran into trouble three weeks ago. The same negotiator argues that the dispute over water was both overblown and on the brink of being resolved at the time the government started its artillery assault.
But the LTTE has also delivered a number of bombs to Colombo this summer, the worst of which being a June 15 bombing that killed 64 people (civilians). And there have been many others, including a bombing this week that killed seven and injured many more in Colombo. And thus far, it is the LTTE that has resisted returning to the table to resume talks; according to this report, the government has made it clear that it wants talks to get underway again as soon as possible.
The folks at What is Really Going On? point out that the number of dead in Sri Lanka this summer — 800+ — equals or exceeds the number of people killed in the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The site is not a neutral one, but the point they make is valid. Despite the large number of deaths, the news about the conflict has been effectively absent from the U.S. media (and, for that matter, from the internet).
I linked to the story of the car bomb on my web site. (Beware of all the clear LTTE sympathy in that little post.)
PS Haven’t been to your blog, but it’s clear you’re a crank.
I think the LTTE has followed exactly what the Pol Pot did – kill all the intellectuals and simply anyone who stands in their way. It has done a bang-up job (crude use of words I agree but true) of killing Tamil moderates and continues to kill Tamils who stand outside its group. It claims to fight for “Tamil freedom” but goes around and kills Tamil politicians voted into power by the Tamil people themselves. It claims it is is “uplifting Tamils” but then conscripts and abducts Tamil children for use as child soldiers. I need not mention here the hundreds of Tamil men and women of other Tamil nationalist groups that were killed by the LTTE before it gained its dominant position within the community. Let’s not forget all the lampost killings.
Here is a video of surrended LTTE child soldiers
Just because Pol Pot may have killed more people doesn’t make the LTTE any less Pol-Potish.
This might be of interest you too:
LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora
The Government of Sri Lanka is Democratic and is voted into power by the people. Let me know when the LTTE sheds its facist ideology and stands for elections.
Hi Conext THis is about issues one . You can find the same thing with screen shots/pictures at http://chandare.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-tamil-ealam-is-run.html The most common myth about LTTE run de-facto state is how it is run and funded.Most assume that Sri Lanka has cut off the LTTE controlled area and it is all out war against each other like two separate countries. commenter context wanted me provide me the proof that government infrastructure is functioning inside Tiger controlled area and the civil servant report both to LTTE and GOSL .In fact it is the GOSL government money that is running the essential services in those areas and it is Sri Lankan tax payer who will be paying the loans taken for rebuilding going on in the LTTE controlled area.
How the Sri Lankan Government is run.
This is a primer for the non-Sri Lankans. GOSL consists of three branches .The executive (President and the cabinet),Legislative parliament and judiciary .Then there are 8 Provincial councils out of which the most importent one the merged North and East council is not functioning . The Civil administration falls under the government ministries headed by a minister.For instance all the funds for education is channeled through Ministry of Education (duh!).They share the money with provincial council education departments as well as spending on the central government institution(some schools,teacher salaries,technical collages, universities etc..)
Civil administration is handled via Government Agents called GAs or Divisional secretariat (Ministry of home affairs) agents for each districts(24 districts) which has an elaborate bureaucracy.
What Areas are the under LTTE control?
2002 ceasefire agreement depends on the fact that there are LTTE controlled areas.(from LTTE ) Please check the map in Wikipedia( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Eelam) Districts in LTTE control are Killinochchi and Mullaithiv. Then they control a big part of Vavuniya and Mannar as well as some small areas in Trincomalle,Batticolo and Ampara
How the LTTE administration is run.
LTTE is running a their own administration in the areas under their control.It includes police,courts,education and other civil functions.Of course the government doesn’t pay salaries to LTTE judges and policeman but what about the others? Let’s take a simple example of paying a salary to a teacher in Kilinochchi.Government money ends up in the hand of the teacher via education director/principal appointed by the Govevrnment.Education director might report to both LTTE representative(LTTE education head) and his boss in Colombo.Same goes for other functioning things such as hospitals,social welfare (food stamps for the poor and displaced).
This article is from The Hindu . They are quoting SCOPP.It is a government agency but I wanted it to be the first quote since it shows enormity of the issue.Their deputy director who happnens to be a Tamil was killed recently.(check DBS Jeyaraj )
Then check the others…………………..
Instead the visiting NDTV team was taken on a guided tour that only exposed the charade of a separate country, with Tamil Eelam district court, the Eelam police station and finally the Bank of Tamil Eelam. On the surface, the bank seemed normal with customers busy taking loans and withdrawing cash, except that the bank used Sri Lankan currency and had only one other branch in the LTTE-held town of Mulativu. From NDTV
UTHR(J) is an human rights organization which is critical of Government,LTTE and other paramilitaries. Here are several quotes. quote1 Take some of its ramifications. At a regular meeting of principals in one district, a matter came up under any other business. It was reported that several principals had already received letters from the LTTE to collect 8% of the salaries paid to the staff to be handed over to them. The question put to the chairman was what should they do. The chairman who had a family to think about was being asked to decide for everyone. After a pause the chairman blurted out, “This situation may not last for more than a few months. Don’t add to your troubles needlessly.” Everywhere, the principals decided to surrender. quote2 (This when LTTE controlled Jaffna 1990-95) In fact, the LTTE has already vastly expanded its control. In Jaffna it virtually controls the Sri Lankan Police, administrators, local councils and educational officers. It controls schools and through the education department in Batticaloa has distributed portraits of Prabhakaran to be hung up in schools in lieu of the Head of State. The LTTE already has an army, navy, police, courts, administrative structures and prisons. quote3 The distortions regarding Veerasingam’s case in the LTTE media should alert us to something deeper. According to local sources Veerasingam had approached the Vavuniya Kacheri trying to defer a transfer order to an LTTE controlled area and had been severely warned by them. From our sources the murder has much to do with the LTTE’s programme to appropriate the government administration. There being government controlled areas and LTTE controlled areas in the North, the LTTE by using its virtual control of the District Administrations or Kacheris could dictate transfers and get the lower level officials moved around, monitored and ensure they work the way they want them to work.
quote4 Controlling village headmen (GSs) is also to control the people. The government’s social welfare measures, ration cards, identity cards and voters’ lists are all routed through the headman. From the 1990s the LTTE has used the headmen under its control to police the people, force them to attend demonstrations, perform compulsory military service as auxiliaries, impose punitive cuts of rations, fiddle government aid and report on those coming in and going out. Veerasingam had no political connections. The LTTE evidently would not allow him to set a precedent to headmen who disliked taking instructions from them. The Sri Lanka government may pay them, but whoever wished to live must understand that there is only one ‘who must be obeyed’. The stakes are too high. This is from Sangam (US tamil association pro LTTE) quoting Sunday Leader which is pro UNP and pro LTTE newpaper in south )SundayLeader from 2003 It mentions how the government agancies were run in 2003.Also note the 900 million A9 road rehabilitation project which is ADB funded.The money is a loan which needs to be payed back by the government (not LTTE).
This how the health infrastruture work work under LTTE India donated money to Sri Lankan government which is running Killinochhi hospital.It’s the government who pays the salaries and bears the cost .
This about the same hospital
Here is how LTTE opened the hospital with pomp and pagentry. Check the news from LTTE’s Tamil net to get the idea of the infrastructure. Dr. K Nandakumar said the decision to build a hospital in Kilinochchi was made by a previous Kilinochchi district health services officer, Dr. Sathiamoorthy and the Government Agent (GA) Mr. Rasanayagam with a proposal for funding from ADB. He requested the GA to make arrangements for medical specialists to make regular visits to the facility. Without the needed doctors patients have to suffer the inconvenience of travelling to the Jaffna General Hospital or to the Vavuniya Hospital. Ambulances are forced to make five to six trips a day, he said. So who funded whole project ? Who is paying back the money? Please check the screen shot on the top or read the whole document.
LTTE administration is running the Sri Lankan government administration by the gun.Government has to bear costs ,pay salaries and pay back loans .LTTE gets to cut the ribbons. I’m not trying paint a rosy picture here .Areas under LTTE is the least developed in sri lanka and has been neglected for decades.What I’m trying to say is all the money LTTE collects goes to buying arms while government has to prop up the LTTE administration with their money.
You’re right Chandare, not only that, the Government of Sri Lanka pays all the principles, teachers, clerks, postmen etc etc in LTTE controlled areas. The Government of Sri Lanka pays for the upkeep of schools and government servives, and runs the education. It is also the Government of Sri Lanka that sends in food and pays for the rations for internally displaced (a lot of which is stolen by the LTTE for its own consumption). Why, it’s the Government of Sri Lanka that provides medical aid when the LTTE hierarchy fall sick – and in Colombo hospitals too. Strange how the “freedom fighters” can’t even provide the ordinary people with the basics in their proud “defacto state” but have more than enough money to build glorious cemetaries for their dead cadres, and of course bombs, and guns and artillary.
Wow, it’s been busy since I left. Bench: I compare the Sri Lankan government and army to the Tigers because their behavior merits it. Name me another country that has bombed its own citizens with human excrement (Wikipedia cites the Daily Telegraph, London, 13 July 1990 and London Independent Magazine, 3 November 1990). If I were to list the torture tactics, I’d start with the chillies. Or what about the torched Jaffna Library, with its repository of valuable Tamil manuscripts–some single-copy originals!–destroyed by government security forces on a rampage in 1981? For an all-too-vivid description of how badly the government treated Tamils long before the advent of Tamil militants, check out “Emergency ’58,” by Tarzie Vittachi. The Sri Lankan government is not one of the great humanitarian governments of the world. In fact, it helped to make the Tigers, and there is a wealth of evidence for that. I have listed only the tiniest fraction of what they have done. Putting “state-sponsored” in front of criminal acts does not make them better, or even defensible.
Further, Bench, I’m not sure why you’re being snide about whether or not the Tigers use female fighters. Of course they do. That wasn’t a point of dispute.
Razib the atheist: I read “Dying to Win” too (very interesting book!). And the short version of the story is that Premadasa gave the Tigers arms to get the Indians out of Sri Lanka. They did. Bench is correct that the Tamils wanted the Indians gone too (the IPKF committed innumerable atrocities in Jaffna, including a massacre in Jaffna Teaching Hospital). Still, Bench seems to be missing the point, which is that Sri Lanka helped to arm the Tigers too.
Bench, again: you misrepresent me as citing TamilNet regarding the killing of the Tamil journalist. My link went to SAJAforum, which includes a snippet from a Reporters without Borders press release, which refers to the HSZ. Reporters without Borders has no political affiliation in Sri Lanka. TamilNet did say the same thing; that alone doesn’t make it false. Your counter-link is from the government–why should we believe that any more than TamilNet? Third-party sources are best, obviously.
I agree with Ramanan and Amardeep re: democracy. Even a democratically elected government cannot just go around doing anything it wants. Consider that the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka has a history of sending Sinhalese settlers into Tamil areas. This reduces Tamil representation in Parliament. Not to mention endless election debacles perpetrated by both the LTTE AND the government. Tamils boycotted the last elections on a rather strong “suggestion” from the Tigers, and the anti-Tamil riots in 1983 included Sinhalese perpetrators who carried lists of Tamil voters. Awesome incentives to vote. Way to encourage democracy on BOTH SIDES.)
Re: sarcastic comments about Tamil children–again, IF they were soldiers–a claim for which there’s little proof, or even testimony from a neutral third party–who knows if they were there of their own free will? See above comments about moral question of attacking conscripted children.
Anyone interested in an exhaustive recounting of human rights violations on both sides, might check out The Broken Palmyra. It contains an excess of research–enough to convincingly damn the Tigers, the government, and the IPKF. Another read: “Only Man is Vile,” by Wm. McGowan.
I’ve always tended to side with the fighters Ceylon Tigers Contingent. They (CTC) need land you know:)
The Tamil-Sinhala conflict in Sri Lanka rivals the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of complicated historical background, and numerous wrongs on all sides… but as someone who is neither Tamil nor Sinhalese, I agree with the following point made by Ramanan:
“There were about 30 years of non-violent resistence to what was happening in Sri Lanka prior to all the armed resistence of the late 70s and 80s. I am no fan of the LTTE, but it’s stupid to pretend they have no reason to exist”.
Now, getting back to this discussion…it’s pointless to argue back and forth about who is more wrong, or who did exactly what on which date to whom. How about solutions to this conflict? Any one have any ideas? How about this to start with – respect everyone’s language and cultural/religious rights and recognize that you live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation. Perhaps some political autonomy for the Tamils is something the Sinhalese will have to concede in order to get some peace and stability.
Oh please context, let’s keep the Tamil Tiger propaganda websites out of this. Lets say the Sri Lankan government is the most despicable government ever on the face of planet earth. But look at what the organization that claims to be fighting for “Tamil freedom” is doing. It is completely and utterly destroying the Tamil community from within – and doing a far better job than the “evil” Sri Lankan government. It has killed off Tamil democracy single handedly by assasinating and culling all Tamils who dared to stand against it. Any Tamil who works outside the LTTE sphere of influence is a target of assasination, and all thse Tamils live in the South in government controlled terroritory where a “genocidal campaign” is allegedly being carried out to “wipe out” the Tamil people. These Tamil folk sure are brave people to run away from the “saviours” and into the arms of the “enemies” huh?
And context, the LTTE prevented Tamil voters from exercising their franchise. That was part of the reason they were banned by the European Union. Another example of how the Tamil Tigers are fighting for “Tamil freedom” in Sri Lanka – by denying the right of the Tamil people to vote. It wasn’t the “evil” Sri Lankan government that did it, it was the self-proclaimed “sole representatives” of the Tamil people.
And you mention the Broken Palmyrah? And guess who assasinated the author of that book?
The Tamil “freedom fighters” again.
they should partition the place have and an exchange of populations like greece and turkey did in the 1920s.
Razib, that might not be a bad idea either…much better than the current status quo of endless violence with no solution in sight.
Amitabh,
pape’s book (which i referenced above) does suggest that tamil violence was initiated and escalated during the 1970s during a period of increased sinhalese-buddhist assertiveness. i have read this is other sources. this is no excuse, but an explanation. my understanding also is that the ceylon tamils (as opposed to the ‘indian tamils’ who were brought over in the 19th century) were somewhat more ‘advanced’ than the sinhalese because of their greater openness and acceptance of western educational opportunities, so this might explain some of the assertiveness of the sinhalese.
Amitabh, you said “How about this to start with – respect everyone’s language and cultural/religious rights and recognize that you live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation. Perhaps some political autonomy for the Tamils is something the Sinhalese will have to concede in order to get some peace and stability.”
I agree. But government-controlled areas in Sri Lanka ARE already multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual. Minorities outweigh the Sinhalese in the capital city of the country. The Mayor of Colombo is Muslim. In contrast, LTTE controlled areas are bereft of non-Tamils. Even non-LTTE Tamils aren’t welcome. The Sinhalese and the Muslims have been ethnically cleansed from these areas. In case you didn’t know, the Tamil Tigers gave Muslims who had been living for generations in the Jaffna Peninsula 48 hours to leave their homes and belongings behind in October 1990. Many of them are still languishing in refugee camps in Puttalam and Anuradhapura. This is all part of the LTTE’s campaign to create a separate mono-ethnic state called “Tamil Eelam.”
Hi Chandare,
Some of your links (the UTHR(J) ones) support that the Tigers siphon GoSL funds through their administration. So that’s useful to the debate. They do have a long history of doing that.
The links about the hospital don’t entirely back up your claims: one talks about India donating medicine to Killinochi Hospital, and basically using GoSL as a go-between. The second one talks about the Government of Japan, with no indication the Japan did not directly deal with the Tigers. The fourth one, the proposal to fund the hospital during the ceasefire, backs up what you said. But it’s dated May 2004. Does that mean that they are still funding the hospital now that the ceasefire has effectively been broken? I doubt there are current citations on that, which is a shame–it would be interesting to know. I guess I’m about half-convinced.
Re: the first Hindu link–I am skeptical for precisely the reason you cite: SCOPP is a government agency. I’d like to see third-party fact-finders back that up. UTHR(J) I know and respect–I’m sure their sourcing is on and linked them myself in my last post.
NDTV is not an unbiased source. I say this because they call the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization a “front organization” without any proof. The Wall Street Journal tried and failed to prove just that. What they said about child soldiers is likely true. As for the bank, Google gives me differing answers as to whether LTTE-controlled areas have their own currency or not. Can anyone provide a definitive citation on that?
Chandare, you write that, “In fact it is the GOSL government money that is running the essential services in those areas and it is Sri Lankan tax payer who will be paying the loans taken for rebuilding going on in the LTTE controlled area.”
Okay…. So what? Considering that they also pay for and fund the GoSL, which, as I’ve detailed above, has committed its share of atrocities leading to displaced persons fleeing Jaffna and other locations for those LTTE regions? What about the fact that taxpayers are also paying the salaries of soldiers abusing civilians?
Chandare, I look forward to hearing your answers to my other questions.
Regards.
$text = preg_replace(“/tamil/”,”arab”,$text); $text = preg_replace(“/sinhalese/”,”jew”,$text); …proceed through key words… if (“arab/israeli conflict == $text) { echo “you’re done!”; } else { …proceed through key words… [recursive] }
🙂
Wikipedia also supports the claim that the LTTE controlled areas continue to use the Sri Lankan Rupee.
Amardeep,
that page isn’t locked. perhaps i could change it.
that wuz a joke btw 🙂 (i wonder if anyone’s changed it?)
I get it, Razib — it’s not like Wikipedia is a bastion of reliability on these types of questions. I suppose one would have to look at the editorial history.
I just glanced at this week’s edits, and it looks like the biggest changes involve references to the popularity of cricket in SL, and the insertion (and subsequent removal) of the sentence: “Sri Lanka is a land full of awesome people, unlike Michael Jackson.”
More seriously, there was a recent tussle over whether to use the word “separatist” or “terrorist” to describe the LTTE. The Wikipedia NPOV (No point ot view) policy encourages “separatist.”
That’s pretty much it too. This thread somehow managed to stay relatively sane but it comes to the same dead end all discussions about this conflict come to… what now?
Please let me know what “Tamil Tiger propaganda website” I cited. You should read the Vittachi (“Emergency ’58”). As I already noted, this predates the Tigers and helps to explain their existence. Plus, I believe Vittachi is Sinhalese. Unbiased enough for you yet?
Not actually true, but they’re up there, so okay, I’ll pretend. (Human Rights Watch is not “Tiger propaganda”–they have plenty of links complaining about the Tigers too.)
“Far better” is a matter of opinion. As Ramanan has already stated, both the Tigers and the government are bad. I am not defending the Tigers. I am explaining their existence. THE GOVERNMENT CREATED THE TIGERS. I’m not sure why you are bent on defending it. Do you really think that every single thing the government or its agents did was defensible? Really? REALLY? Please respond to anything specific that I said about the government; there’s plenty of material in my earlier comments.
factually unsound. as I said before, the government bears their share of blame for this.
This is true. I never disputed this.
This is true in the most recent election, and I did not need you to point it out for me–I already cited this myself. You did not address what I said about rioters and others using Tamil voter lists to target voters after earlier elections. That’s awfully convenient of you.
That’s true–and actually part of the reason I cited it; I thought you’d have to admit that it was an unbiased source, as it ticked off all sides. As I stated originally, the research in BP damns the LTTE, the GoSL, and the IPKF.
As Chandare (I think?) noted, we have to maintain gainful employ, and with that, I depart, at least for now. Basically, I agree with Ramanan. If I come on here again, I will not address Bench unless s/he provides some specifics and citations instead of vague accusations and statements without evidence. Chandare, thanks for your willingness to engage. Amitabh, thanks for trying to move us to more productive grounds. In case it has ever been at all unclear, I want to state again that I do not support the Tigers. They certainly have killed many Tamils and Sinhalese and committed horrible crimes. But the Sri Lankan government should be held equally accountable for what it’s done, which also terrible.
Further,
The logic of rule through ethnic division worked elsewhere, too. The case of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) shows how, even when colonizers did not favor a single group, colonial rule could foster interethnic violence. The Sinhalese and Tamils of Sri Lanka have a common origin and, contrary to stereotypes of dark Tamils and light-skinned Sinhalese, they cannot easily be distinguished by their physical characteristics. The distinction between them is based mainly on the language spoken. Before this century there was little conflict between them; indeed, they did not think of themselves as two distinct kinds of people. Then came British rule. As they did throughout their empire, the British ruled Ceylon by creating an English-speaking elite, and, here as elsewhere, their favoritism engendered an opposition. In Ceylon this opposition took on racial and religious overtones. The majority of those who had been left out of the elite spoke Sinhalese and were Buddhists, and they began to promote a racist notion of Sinhalese superiority as an “Aryan race.” After independence it was this Sinhalese-speaking group that gained control of the new state of Sri Lanka, and began to exclude Tamils from the best schools and jobs, mainly by requiring competence in Sinhalese. Not surprisingly, Tamils resented this discrimination, and some–initially only a few–launched violent protests in the 1970s. These riots led to massive state repression and, by a logic similar to that shaping Tutsi rebellions in Rwanda, to the creation of the Tamil Tigers (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and their demands for an autonomous Tamil region. As the anthropologist Stanley Tambiah has argued, the island’s violence is a late-twentieth-century response to colonial and postcolonial policies that relied on a hardened and artificial notion of ethnic boundaries. 3
No Von Mises:
Thank you for the historical background you provided. Mistakes have been made on both sides. The Sinhalese who followed rigid pro-Sinhala, pro-Buddhist policies as you describe, could never have foreseen the consequences. And as others have pointed out, the Tigers are now more concerned with sheer corrupt power than with the welfare or well-being of the Tamil people. How do we (I speak as a concerned individual, not as a party to either side) get out of this morass?
Can someone explain this pattern clearly evident in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka today for me, please?
Sri Lanka: Post colonial era, under the pretext of democracy the majority using the power of the vote enacted laws favoring the majority and discriminating against the minority that until then were well (one could even say “disproportionately”) positioned in industry, academia, and general society. The minority suffered from adverse conditions imposed on them wrt education, jobs, etc. They faced rampant discrimination in society from the majority and one thing led to another to the current morass.
Tamil Nadu (India): Post colonial era, under the pretext of democracy the majority using the power of the vote enacted laws favoring the majority and discriminating against the minority that until then were well (one could even say “disproportionately”) positioned in industry, academia, and general society. The minority suffered from adverse conditions imposed on them wrt education, jobs, etc. They faced rampant discrimination in society from the majority. That continues to this day and the minority community has borne its abuses without a single act of violence.
What seems perplexing is that those Tamils in Tamil Nadu who claim to empathize and speak for the Sri Lankan Tamils (conveniently) forget their own atrocities and discrimination against certain communities in their own midst. And Sri Lankan Tamils, who should understand how deplorable discrimation is, seem to target that community in Tamil Nadu facing similar discrimination and blame/abuse them further. Witness the way they go on about N Ram and The Hindu paper, and the abuses targed toward N Ram, the editor of The Hindu newspaper, and the community he was born into.
Explain. Discuss. For this has baffled me for long.
Patterns:
Last time I checked, Brahmins in Mylapore (in Chennai) weren’t fleeing their homes because the DMK was bombing the shit out of them. You make your point with a problematic conflation of the term minority to both refer to population and oppressed community.
Please enumerate these abuses which one might expect would push the poor suffering Tamil Brahmins to take up arms against their oppressors. It seems to me that most are still pretty well off and proudly displaying their bling and zari at weddings, uppanaayanams, and the Music Academy.
I do acknowledge that the emergence of the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu has created a new leadership class which has become entrenched, using anti-Brahmin rhetoric to gain power; I don’t, however, see evidence that Brahmins have on the whole suffered materially from this rhetoric.
Example: Despite the fact that Brahmins comprise approximately only 3% of Tamil Nadu’s population, 38.5% of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Tamil Nadu are Brahmin. [Link]
The people who have truly suffered at the hands of the Dravidian parties aren’t Brahmins, but the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.
Context: Proving It’s the Sri Lankan government infrastructure and money the tigers are using by gun point is sort of like proving Sri Lankan parents love their children.I dare you to find third party evidence from the web to prove that! It is common basic knowledge you just have to read between lines. Forget about third party ,let’s take a very biased party. Check the Tamil Net artical I linked.http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=18773
Dr. K Nandakumar said the decision to build a hospital in Kilinochchi was made by a previous Kilinochchi district health services officer, Dr. Sathiamoorthy and the Government Agent (GA) Mr. Rasanayagam with a proposal for funding from ADB.
He requested the GA to make arrangements for medical specialists to make regular visits to the facility. Without the needed doctors patients have to suffer the inconvenience of travelling to the Jaffna General Hospital or to the Vavuniya Hospital. Ambulances are forced to make five to six trips a day, he said.
Who made the decision? Who are they reporting to? Where does the specialist come from? How are the salaries and ,health care cost are provided?
Also please check the ADB document to see who provided the funds. http://www.adb.org/Documents/RRPs/sri/rrp-R7404.pdf#search=%22kilinochchi%20hospital%2CADB%22
ADB provided 70% (Government pays this back as a 40 year loan interest 1% ,10 year grace period.2%percent for the first 10 years after grace period and 4% after that) SL government 30%
Killinochchi is capital of tiger control territory .The whole Killinochchi is under tiger control .
And Sri Lankan Tamils, who should understand how deplorable discrimation is, seem to target that community in Tamil Nadu facing similar discrimination and blame/abuse them further. Witness the way they go on about N Ram and The Hindu paper, and the abuses targed toward N Ram, the editor of The Hindu newspaper, and the community he was born into.
Explain. Discuss. For this has baffled me for long.
I believe the Sri Lankan Tamil separatists perceive the Tamil Brahmans as Indian Nationalists and utterly unsympathetic to their cause. There is much truth to this. Though frankly, as a poster above notes, there is not much active support at all for Eelam in TN. I would say Sri Lankan anti-Brahmanism is a recent phenomenon, even more recent than anti-Brahmanism in Tamil Nadu. Historically in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Brahmans were not the dominant caste. The Vellalas (upper caste landowners and agriculturalists) dominated life, including in education, in civil service, in trade. Even in Hindu religious life, Vellalalas like Arumuga Navalar the Shaiva Siddantin were most influential.
Example: Despite the fact that Brahmins comprise approximately only 3% of Tamil Nadu’s population, 38.5% of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Tamil Nadu are Brahmin. [Link]
Aren’t IAS officers selected by a national examination?
The educational policies enacted by the Sri Lankan Govt favoring the majority (Sinhalese) and making it harder for the minority (Tamils) is very comparable to the “reservation” system in Tamil Nadu’s educational system. In fact, the latter is far more onerous and insidious.
The Sinhalese also claim, with legitimacy, that the Sri Lankan Tamils are a minority wielding an influence and presence in Sri Lankan academia, business, and society far disproportionate to their numbers in the population. They also claim the Tamils were favored by the British and the Sinhalese are just repairing the damages of the past and their policies reflect the reality of the numbers in a democracy.
How different is all this from what the Dravidians exclaim to support their policies in Tamil Nadu? To wit, the point Vivek makes: Brahmins are a small % of the population and dominate the engineering/medicine/IAS/etc fields. Brahims this, Brahmins that. All this while supporting the Sri Lankan Tamils that are “exploited, suppressed, …”.
Talk of Mylapore, ceremonies, etc. is irrelevant. There are comparable number, perhaps more, of Sri Lankan Tamils that live well in Sri Lanka today. We are talking about systemic policies that favor one over the other, using the vote.
patterns:
Why are you trying to compare “apples and oranges”?.. There was no ‘non-Brahmin’ only policies in TN like the ‘Sinhala’ only policies of Sri lanka.. Rather if you look at it pre-Independence-1920s there were ‘Brahmins only’ hotels / messes and what not…. where ‘low castes’ are not allowed.. Well, they are just following the ‘Whites only’ hotels/messes.. Your analogy is a poor attempt in trivialising the Tamil/Sinhala problem..
How different is all this from what the Dravidians exclaim to support their policies in Tamil Nadu?
I don’t know if I agree. Getting thrown of your motorbike and having your poonal and tuft cut off is markedly different from getting bombed. Is there any evidence that the Dravidians physically harmed Tamil Brahmins? With regard to reservations, Brahmins seem to always win the majority of “open” seats and are disproportionately represented still? I may be wrong. Rather if you look at it pre-Independence-1920s there were ‘Brahmins only’ hotels / messes and what not…. where ‘low castes’ are not allowed.. Well, they are just following the ‘Whites only’ hotels/messes..
Upper caste Vellalas, Naidus, Pillais, Mudaliars all shunned the Pariah/”Adi Dravidas” too. Not just Brahmins.
Context wrote :
Chandare:
You wrote:
Can you provide a citation to prove that? I’ve never read anything indicating that that was true. In fact, there’s been considerable news coverage of the fact that the Tigers run a de facto state.
Hi Context, If we can both agree that it is Sri Lanka government that is providing basic infrastucture(except police and judiciary) we can move to the next issue.
When did that ‘motorbike’ incident happen?.. 1960s??… You are wrong on the ‘open’ seats too. Check the latest ‘medical admission’ list..
Right, ‘self respect’ movement is hijacked by non-Brahmin upper castes like the ones you mentioned above.. They are getting their turns too. Why do you think parties like the PMK and Dalit Panthers are gaining support (parties representing lower castes)..
but that is completely irrelevant to the current blog on Tamil/Sinhala relations..
Last time I checked, Brahmins in Mylapore (in Chennai) weren’t fleeing their homes because the DMK was bombing the shit out of them. You make your point with a problematic conflation of the term minority to both refer to population and oppressed community
Very true. But then again tamil brahmins dont conduct suicide bombings against civilians and politicians demanding a separate “elam”.
There was no ‘non-Brahmin’ only policies in TN like the ‘Sinhala’ only policies of Sri lanka.. Rather if you look at it pre-Independence-1920s there were ‘Brahmins only’ hotels / messes and what not…. where ‘low castes’ are not allowed.. Well, they are just following the ‘Whites only’ hotels/messes.. Your analogy is a poor attempt in trivialising the Tamil/Sinhala problem..
Very true. But the current reservations system makes it near impossible for an average bramin kid to get into any medical or engineering school. Ditto for government jobs. So from that stand point, it is similar and not quite apples to oranges. May be we are comparing apples to pears…
Upper caste Vellalas, Naidus, Pillais, Mudaliars all shunned the Pariah/”Adi Dravidas” too. Not just Brahmins.
Yet there fall quite comfortably under the radar. The reservation system specifically targets just brahmins. Vote bank politics at its worst. No one needs to appease 3%.
The patterns in Tamil/Sinhala relations have a bearing on Indian (esp Tamil) interests and society. I think this discussion therefore is extremely relevant, if a tad uncomfortable for some, to this forum.
As an exercise, consider this: bar Sri Lankan Tamils from 80% of educational seats. Open the remaining 20% for all (Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims, Burghers). The Sri Lankan Tamils, owing to the historical emphasis on educational achievement, probably will garner a disproportionate share of that 20%. Will you then say as you do above in the case of the Brahmins? This example should illuminate further the shared patterns between the Sri Lankan Tamil and Tamil Brahmin experience, regardless of the assorted justifications offered.
Sure, there is a lot more common between the Sinhalese, Malaysian Bhumiputra, and the assorted communities in Tamil Nadu that engaged in enforcing systemic policies through power gained by the vote, favoring themselves and disempowering othes. Dismissing that, and the common patterns amongst the affected partise be they Sri Lankan or Malay Tamils or Tamil Brahmins, with a comparison to “apples and oranges” seems empty and smacks of knee-jerkism. Perhaps its easier to identify with and bemoan the woes of distant affected parties than to recognize and correct the same problems that prevail in surrounding society 🙂
Patterns, The subject you are bringing up is irrelevant to this discussion, which should be focused on Sri Lanka.
Please save it for another day or another blog.
Amaradeep : All though Brahmin/quota issue doesn’t look like not related to Sri Lankan issue at a first glance, that’s how the whole mess started in Sri Lanka!
The whole movement was started as a backlash from influential Jaffna Vellala Tamils against taking away the power they had.(Not only migrant Indian Tamils but also Eastern Tamils were mere spectators in the begining).
Contrarary to the current perception that 1956 Sinhala Only act was done to strip Tamils of their right,It was the English educated upper class that was the target at the time.Jaffna Vellala Tamils happen to be English educated working in government jobs ,without fluency in the Langauge of the 75% of the people of the country. The Biggest victims of the Sinhala Only act were Burgers of European ancestry .They began emigrating to Autralia,England and New Zealand.Just read Micheal Ondatchchi or Carl Muller.
I think Bandaranayeke government had to introduce a bill to accomodate Tamil within 3 years. Sinhala Only act targeted English and the upper class that held most of the government jobs.I don’t doubt the racist element with Sinhalese wanted to use it as a weapon against minorities but movemment for Sinhala only Act stemmed from a legitamate grievanve in part of Sinhala educated lower class who were kept out of halls of power.
Chandare, the history you refer to has to do with Sri Lanka at least — a country which has been impacted by civil war for more than twenty years now.
It’s fine if people have complaints about reservations in India, but it’s really a very different issue, and the attempts to draw parallels to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict are pretty stretched. Really Israel/Palestine or Northern Ireland have more in common with SL, though they are thousands of miles away. It seems to me that Patterns is just expressing a caste grievance.
I had another thread last week (on Indra Nooyi) get taken over by this kind of caste talk, and I’d really prefer not to see that kind of discussion start up again. Ironically, the discussion on that thread was why Tamil Brahmins are such over-achievers.
Amaradeep: point
$text = preg_replace(“/tamil/”,”arab”,$text); $text = preg_replace(“/sinhalese/”,”jew”,$text); …proceed through key words… if (“arab/israeli conflict == $text) { echo “you’re done!”; } else { …proceed through key words… [recursive]}
razib, i like that a lot. Is that javasct or html, LOL. 😉
For an in-depth and very up-to-date look at the conflict in Sri Lanka, see this article published today in the new Web publication World Politics Watch:
http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=139
Thanks
Hampton