This weekend marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of war in Sri Lanka, which is commonly dated to the anti-Tamil riots there in 1983—a time now known as Black July. The immediate catalyst for the violence: the death of 13 Sinhalese soldiers at the hands of Tamil militants. The longer story: ethnic tension that had simmered for decades, under British colonial rule and beyond.
On the 24th of July, rioting began as news spread about the deaths of the soldiers. The government was obviously complicit in the pogroms. (This link is to a Sri Lankan government website.) People with voter lists directed the mobs to the homes and properties of Tamils, which they destroyed. Thugs stopped vehicles on the streets, and, ascertaining the Tamil identities of the people within, set them aflame. When the violence finally ended, days later, as many as three thousand Tamils had been killed. Thousands and thousands more were left homeless. Shortly after, Sri Lanka saw a flood of Tamil emigration.
The 25th anniversary of such a hellish hour in the country’s history should not pass unnoticed on the Mutiny. Sri Lanka is Mutinous; it’s Mutinous in all the wrong ways: fostering ethnic hatred, distrust, violence, censorship, betrayal, and rootlessness in its own people. And it’s Mutinous in all the right ones: Sri Lanka and its diasporas are full of people who resist easy definition and boundaries, who refuse to cede to what they believe to be wrong, and who still fight, after twenty-five years, for a just home in the most beautiful place on earth. This is not a country that can be seen in black and white. This is a country in which authorities helped Sinhalese civilians to attack their Tamil neighbors. And this also is a country in which the people who saw that what was happening was wrong took their Tamil countrymen in and tried to protect them from the chaos. The best of human nature beginning a long battle against the worst of human nature.
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p>Of course, much has happened in the 25 years since. In the wake of the riots, the Tamil Tigers and comparable groups found more willing and able recruits among young people who were no longer sure what their future was in Sri Lanka. The Tigers launched more military-style actions against the government—but they also engaged in attacks on civilians, elected politicians, and dissidents. Now other minority populations and factions (including Muslims and tea estate Tamils) struggle for purchase on the shifting ground of war. Tamil journalists and civilians disappear in government-controlled areas as bombs go off in urban centers and near politicians. Civilians on the ground pay the price of this conflict, and to what extent, I cannot say—as their voices (Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher…) go largely unheard, and the voices at either end of this argument often drown out those in the middle.
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p>I am not a spokesperson, and I am not a historian. Even if I were, capturing those 25 years in a blog post would be a thankless task. But I am an artist, and as an artist I am against war. So I wanted to tell the Mutiny that I will take a moment of silence this weekend for those who suffered in 1983, and those who have suffered since. This is a moment of silence that I choose, and that no one can impose upon me.
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p>I will leave you with links to other reading.
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p>One, a poem by Indran Amirthanayagam that I like particularly because of its ending on a note of goodness and hope. (More Groundviews coverage of the anniversary here.)
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p>The other, a piece I wrote in a recent Washington Post, about finding myself in the tough position of trying to articulate Sri Lankan issues and history.
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p>Finally, a couple of pieces of miscellany: The BBC on the 25th anniversary and a report about the Sri Lankan government asking other countries to make sure Tiger “front groups” don’t hold Black July commemorations. Also: UTHR(J) (University Teachers for Human Rights—Jaffna) from their book The Broken Palymra on Black July.
UPDATE: Pass the Roti on “Six Days in July.”
Strange – reading this from Bangalore, the day after the bomb blasts here and the same day that Ahmedabad had a taste. And sickening – I was 250 metres from one of the blasts. And to think that the likely perps of every one of these attacks owes at least a little to to those brave souls, the Tamil Tigers. (Not to mention their brothers-in-butchery, terrorists everywhere, Islamic, Irish, Israeli, & the VHP).
Riots – in Colombo or Godhra – are ugly. No glibness, no b/s, no nothing. Killing innocents – using voter lists, or whatever. But we also don’t need reminders – when Tigers, or wannabes do their bit. Brutalizing all around them. (And brainwashing the rest – their apologists, or simply murdering dissidents).
Who are the worst: a) the perps? b) the politicians (behind Colombo/Godhra/WestBank)? c) the “diaspora” (i.e. the lucky few who fled to Staten Island, Missisauga, etc) and pump money and, dare I say, hatred, into the coffers of the Tigers? d) all of the above?
I root for (d), but I reserve a special condemnation for (c) – coz they aren’t held responsible enough. They too deserve the equivalent of public shaming. (Wish we could publicize all donors to the VHP and Tamil Tiger-type causes – especially the rich folks from the US). They are the artists, cabbies, MDs, maids on SM (actually, maybe only a couple of those professions may find representation here).
Why do I suspect you (VV) are all puffed up when say you’re an artist? When did slapping paint on a canvas or a few words on paper make you an “artist” – someone more attuned to the human condition? (To me, that’s the only meaningful definition of an artist – everyone else is a technician – a wordsmith (Rushdie), a painter (MFHussain) etc). Oh, and in case you’re interested, I’m an ex-janitor. Not an artist, as you can see. Guess we now know who must be dismissed here! Good old desi totem-pole. If we were back a few decades, we’d exchange caste info. I’m sorry if maybe “desi” isn’t SouthAsian enough for you.
Interesting choice of words VV uses (italics mine below) – our artist must be a writer: “In the wake of the riots, the Tamil Tigers and comparable groups found more willing and able recruits among young people who were no longer sure what their future was in Sri Lanka.” Meaning – strictly volunteer; “age no bar” as they say here in India; us SouhtAsains just love child labor.
“Tigers launched more military-style actions against the government ..”  meaning kosher stuff, i.e. not terrorist attacks? I especially like “actions”. (How does “the 9/11 action/s” sound? – too much of Tom Clancy?)
“but they also engaged in attacks on civilians, elected politicians, and dissidents.” Oh my, did they? I guess they’re not quite up to Gandhi & King, are they?
“Now other minority populations and factions (including Muslims and tea estate Tamils) struggle for purchase on the shifting ground of war.” Wait, wait! So the “Tamil cause” (or should I spell it the way my 4-year old might – Damighiz or something) doesn’t quite include everyone who is a Tamil speaker, does it. Confusing. Maybe its just the bootlickers vs the rest. As in those who profited and profiteered in colonial times vs their Sinhalese countrymen. That’s why the poor tea-picker got left out. See, language and all that is crap. Even when its the regal Tamighiz. Power equations explain all. And why do the Bashas (tamighiz for Pasha) get left out?
“Tamil journalists and civilians disappear in government-controlled areas as bombs go off in urban centers and near politicians.” Vatta statement, da! Yowree-ware dhare dissapearing its (i) both gov’t controlled, and (ii) its anna-fartunately kalllaaa-ttteral damage. One would think Jaffna or the jungles near them in Tiger hands are havens of peace-loving, clear-eyed folk united in their just struggle. Not a peep or a skepticism voiced!
Nevertheless, sigh! Your post moved me. Let me shed a tear.
Actually, no. I can’t find time for a tear when I’m either sobbong non-stop or out cold from all the pain.
i’ll take that moment of silence with you. thx for the update, VV.
It reminds me of New Delhi 1984.
Thanks for this history lesson VV, shamefully I was not fully aware of the events surrounding this date.
Thank you.
Beautifully written.
🙁
re: comment #1 and the diaspora, the last time I ate in a Sri Lankan restaurant on Staten Island, they had a “we cooperate with the Police anti-terrorism campaign” type of notice up and displayed prominently. I’m not really sure what the “social meaning” of that notice was–is it warning the LTTE thugs not to ask for $$ (i.e., an implicit threat to call the cops on them?), or just warning not to use it as a hang-out if you’re wit the LTTE?. I have to admit it creeped me out a bit–i.e., as an obvious sign that things were going on that I have no idea about. Good food, though!
I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, and I know you’re trying to be as fair as possible. But in your article you give a reason for the Tamils unrest –government discrimination for decades–but don’t offer where Sinhalese unrest stems from, just what incited the Black July riots.
I know it’s not fair for you to represent the diaspora. But I think Sinhala grievances are a little more tangible than what you imply.
Thanks for writing this, dear Sugi. As you know, I stand with you in that moment of silence. No Guesses (comment #1) has absolutely no idea how wrong s/he is about your stance.
Paul (#3), your observation about Delhi in ’84 has been noted by various social scientists and activists, and there are some striking parallels: The use of voters lists to identify potential victims, the inaction of government and police at the time, the justification of pogroms as a ‘natural’ and ‘spontaneous’ response to militant violence (witness: Rajiv’s “when a mighty tree falls” comment and Jayawardene’s address to the country after five days), etc. But to respond a little more directly to Sugi’s post, I also think it’s important to delve into the specifics of this moment in Sri Lankan history to understand why and how it happened, rather than place it as one incident in a larger narrative about human nature.
Sugi mentions the flood of emigration after Black July here and in her Wash. Post piece; in the latter naming the west where people sought refuge. I am just curious about the silence about the thousands who sought immediate refuge in India – remember pictures of boatloads of women and children, and also whether there are any estimates on the number of Srilankan Tamils still living in India.
Thanks for posting, Sugi.
Kettikilli,
Specifics would be nice, but when one asks a family member to recall the exact time line (which is generally how I’ve tried to get a ‘ground-level’ perspective) of events,the account comes out as anything that aged will: wrinkled, dusty, unclear. This is clearly not a time when one can call “bullshit!”
unlike most ethnic-religious-national conflicts across asia right from middle-east to the korean peninsula in which there is some role played by european colonial exploits and stupid american-soviet union/capitalims-communism rivalry, the locals are solely to blame for the srilankan conflict.
This is an interesting statement because conflicts that call into question contradictory professional, national, ethnic and humanatarian loyalties are brutal. Or maybe thats why they are conflicts because you cannot please everyone at the same time.
Thanks for marking the anniversary and the pause for thought.
No guesses: How much cheaper can you get? Are people not allowed to mention any atrocity in this conflict because there are hundred more we can quote?
From VV’s WP article –
VV, I disagree with you on this precisely because people who may read historical fiction with no knowledge of history/conflict/realities/subtleties chalk out their biased mental picture of the entire issue. Sometimes these become the cause of more conflicts and falsehoods. I have not read your book and I am not saying that you have presented a biased history of the conflict or region, but I think anybody who writes historical fiction has to strive to become an academic historian as he or she writes the story so as to avoid making it as a vehicle of media propaganda like many pithy tv shows, hollywood movies etc. But I do agree that it is ironical that sometimes works that involve unbaised, realistic historical picture too get into trouble, especially in the subcontinent.
I was a little kid in 1983 and my memory is vague. I remember the names Jagan and Kuttimani, reading the gory details in Tamil news papers of how they were killed in prison after their eyes were gouged out.
Were the riots just in Colombo or all over Srilanka?.
6 · rob said
unless the american intelligence services have suddenly made LTTE a priority, i doubt it was deterrence (to anyone with access to a computer and google news). I’m not sure about the extortion efforts there, but I doubt it’s as significant as in Toronto, London or Australia (and probably wouldn’t be a factor if the owners strongly maintained non-tamizh identity).
well on this anniversary date, we can mark the entry of the first American political opportunist (lobbyist, scumbag, ‘constitutional law expert’) into the matter: good ole bruce fein! Can’t say i’m too thrilled about the prospect of Prabster shooting ducks with Cheney.
1 · No guesses said
I empathize with you and everyone in the world against all kinds of atrocities against humanity. “No guesses”, I did not have any empathy for your tone. It is the similar tone that started the problems in Sri Lanka. It is the similar tone from the Indians with no clue about Sri Lankans issue, that exacerbated the pain for the people of Sri Lanka with the naive Indian action. I am sure, all the people close to the decision making realized their mistake, albeit anachronically. I often hear indians critical about foreign policy faux pas of US, we should do some introspection on this issue. I wonder, whether the schools in India even talk about this.
Lack of integration among different ethnicities is root cause of the evil in Sri Lanka. We(india) have the similar issue, multiplied several times in India. Thank Goodness!, we have not started armed fight( I might have to take that back on some armed ethnic conflicts in India). The government picking sides flamed the issue. Then, the iron hand (Premadasa), tried to quench the fire with cunning strategies. Premadasa succeded in part on the Singala side, but failed on Tamil side. The failure showed the clear cause of the problem, that the political system failed to produce strong leadership on Tamil side. That is understandable, given the political situation of Tamils.
A fedaral system where states have much better control on their own issues would have been preferable for that part of the world, where different ethnicities live side by side. The states should have been carved small enough to settle the issues locally. A singalese living in far south cannot relate politically to the issues of the tamils in the north at a national level. The national government clearly failed in Sri Lanka, time and again. The golden chance for an early peace is lost again. Just as LTTE, the government in Sri Lanka cannot wash off the blood from its hands. They should remember that the world is giving them more chances despite that blood.
But I am optimistic, Sri Lanka will come out of the rut, given some more time.
Thanks V.V to throw light on this issue.
From the comment number 1…
“Guess we now know who must be dismissed here! Good old desi totem-pole. If we were back a few decades, we’d exchange caste info. I’m sorry if maybe “desi” isn’t SouthAsian enough for you.”
Wow. You really have some self-hatred issues, don’t you? Maybe you need to see someone for that. And also, why are you so angry? And yes, by the way, most of us on this blog consider VV an artist and a damn fine one at that. She’s probably contributed more to this world so far than you have (or will) and we know that you’re much older than her. No, don’t puzzle over that one – we just know you’re older 🙂
And now, for some instructions for you: stop reading into the posts on this blog so deeply, find out another way to work out your stress, and take this specific post for what it’s supposed to be – a moment for reflection and pause.
I was debating whether or not to post here, seeing my last favourable reception, but I couldn’t resist and I will keep it short. I do think that picking Black July as a memorial date is rather polarizing, specifically because I think this date is used in a lot of pro-Eelam propaganda both in Sri Lanka and by the Tamil diaspora. All movements exploit such events to build a culture around emotional symbols. But the truth is, this was NOT the beginning of the struggle for the LTTE (the assassination of Alfred Duraiyappah in 1975 already marked the LTTE’s ambition and ascent to power. That they spent the next decade systematically trying to “consolidate” TELO, PLOTE etc. suggest that the cause underlying their movement was not a simple liberation struggle that stemmed from such an event.
(By the way, VV, when you talk about Sri Lanka and its diasporas refusing to cede to what they believe is wrong, you are talking specifically about the Tamil Diaspora, and although you qualify the statement with “resisting easy definition”, it is true that there are very few organized Sinhalese diaspora groups, and that most of the organized Tamil diaspora groups generally lobby their host governments for increased recognition (of whatever sort) and legitimacy regarding the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately I agree with one sentence of “No Guesses” here, and that is that this diaspora has a very strong responsibility (commensurate with the power that it has in terms of money and influence) to understand the burdens that the conflict places on Sri Lankans of all ethnicities and to choose their positions very carefully.
But, regarding “No Guesses”, I will say one thing. There is always an attempt to paint the LTTE and its satellite organizations as being staffed entirely by people who have been coerced. Both in Sri Lanka and outside, this is patently not true. There are many villages in Sri Lanka that subsist entirely on the LTTE who act as providers and guardians for them. There are many recruits to the Tigers that are not simply, ‘brainwashed”, but have suffered the same pain as you seem to have, and see only vengeance as an appropriate response. And, believe it or not, there are plenty of Muslim, and yes, even Sinhalese, sympathizers with this cause. It is what gives a moral power to the organization (a moral power which they fully exploit), but one that is true nonetheless. And of course, they supplement it with coercion and extortion and everything else we know about as well, but that goes without saying. And to say all of this, is not to be an ‘apologist’ for the cause, but to recognize the sad truth for what it is.
You’re right, AVIAF, the LTTE’s roots go a bit further back, as do the roots of the agitation (violent and nonviolent) for an independent Tamil state. I think Black July is seen as a turning point, when things got really bad, so to speak, when the conflict flared up and started consuming the attention and resources of everyone involved. It set off the mass emigration, the military campaigns, granted the LTTE the legitimacy that resulted in their stranglehold on everything Tamil in Sri Lanka.
Sure it’s polarizing, but how could it not be? To me, it crystallizes all that can go wrong in a democracy when the leadersihp plays groups off against each other for its own gain. That’s been the nature of this conflict since, what symbolizes it better than Black July?
As for the diaspora, no one with any sense would disagree with the fact that they’ve helped inflame the conflict, but what would have happened without their money? Would the conflict end? Would Tamils be safe in Sri Lanka? Considering the actions of the Sri Lankan state since, I have serious doubts. Black July caused the diaspora, the diaspora didn’t cause Black July. Commemorating it should serve as a lesson that’s as important today as ever, not another launching point for the interminable blame game.
Hi all,
Thanks for reading. AVIAF, it’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: you’re welcome.
Going to split my responses in two for readability.
I agree with Kettikili that it’s important to delve into the specifics of the event. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive post about the war.
Keralite, I intended no particular silence about Sri Lankan Tamil refugees going to India. This 2006 Reliefweb release includes an estimate of 60,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living in camps in India. Here’s another link that puts the number slightly higher in 2004. I’ll keep hunting for better sources and numbers, as I am curious myself.
Ponniyin Selvan: There was violence in other parts of Sri Lankaâ€â€not just Colombo. You might look at the Wikipedia article on Black July â€â€which in the section on places affected by the violence sends you to a book called The Cyanide War.
LandBeyond7Zsâ€â€I don’t know; do schools in India talk about India’s actions in Sri Lanka? Does anyone know the answer to this? I actually find this quite an interesting question.
Rajesh @ 18… I appreciate the kind words.
AVIAF:
Welcome back.
Crane has already quite effectively argued some points. Yeah, I didn’t say that 1983 was the start of the LTTE, because it wasn’t; and of course, yes, if you want, you can argue that the war started at a different point, and Duraiappah’s assassination would not be illogical, although I find it less persuasive than Black July for some of the reasons Crane cited. (Agence France-Presse dates the war to ’72, whereas most American news organizations use 1983.) To me, Black July seems more of a turning point.
Second, yes, the event has been used for propaganda. That doesn’t mean that ALL recognition of it is propaganda. If you say that, you leave no room for the legitimate expression of grief.
You wrote:
Nope, I am not. I am talking about Sri Lanka and its diasporas. My phrasing again:
“And it’s Mutinous in all the right ones: Sri Lanka and its diasporas are full of people who resist easy definition and boundaries, who refuse to cede to what they believe to be wrong, and who still fight, after twenty-five years, for a just home in the most beautiful place on earth.”
That was quite specifically chosen wording, and to reach your interpretation, you have to assume a number of things that are actually not in what I wrote. A Sri Lankan of ANY ethnic background can “refuse to cede to what they believe to be wrong.” And that could be wrong committed by any of a number of parties. Nor does one have to be a member of an organized group to be a part of the diaspora (I certainly acknowledge that such organized groups have sway, although groups do exist that do not fall into the categories you suggest). I am also referring to how individual people conduct themselves.
I do agree with you that Sri Lankan diasporas have “a very strong responsibility (commensurate with the power that it has in terms of money and influence) to understand the burdens that the conflict places on Sri Lankans of all ethnicities and to choose their positions very carefully.”
As one of the (abovementioned) ignorant Indians, I don’t know enough about this specific issue to comment on it, so I will read up on it before I take any sides (or maybe I just won’t take any sides and just read up on it some more)…but I was wondering…
Most ‘desis’ are very clear about what ethnicity they belong to because our age-old arranged marriage system has ensured the water-tightness of communities. Even now in India, while liberal parents may encourage their children to find their own partners, there is an implicit understanding about finding one who falls in the same caste/religious/linguistic/whatever category.
That is why when one hears of things like Godhra (Hindu/Muslim/State-sanctioned pogroms) or the anti-Sikh riots or even Raj Thackeray spouting his two minutes of hate-driven nonsense, one just feels helpless…no amount of remembering, forgiving, or revenge-seeking can even begin to set things right till we persist in seeing people as ‘us’ and ‘them’.
I think it’s high time we dissolved these boundaries. Let’s intermarry like crazy in the next few generations and achieve REAL (inter)national integration. I’m a half-Maharashtrian half-south Indian girl who’s going to marry a Kashmiri Sikh. Where will my children’s loyalties (and language!) lie? I have a Yoga-teacher who’s a Muslim. Can I blanket-ban him and his community as unpatriotic? Maybe if enough Sinhalese married Sri Lankan Tamilians in the next few years, it wouldn’t be possible to think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Maybe this is too off-topic, over simplistic, or naive. But since this is a forum for this mixed-up breed called ‘desis’, it’s just a thought…so tell me…if you are a Hindu, would you tell your child to look for ‘anybody but a Muslim’? That’s what is really wrong with the Indian sub-continent…
Let us take a step back. From the vantage point of an outsider and a newbie to Sri Lanka politics/economics (which I imagine some people readng this thread are as well), trying to understand what led up to it as well as what followed it is extremely important, because otherwise it’s impossible to understand which of the many many competing narratives about this set of conflicts to believe. I won’t bother you with my own analysis, because it’s really uninformed. However, this reading list might be useful for some, particularly people like me who have only recently been introduced into learning about Sri Lanka. It covers some ideas on economics and the role it played and did not play, the role of British colonialism (see esp. the Scott below, as well as comparative examples of African countries, Cyprus, and Palestine in Blanton, Pollis, and Kliemann respectively), the role of the party system (see Bardhan, Edrasinha, Bose, and others) and the Wickramasinghe for a recent basic overview of the history. Again, like I said I’m new, so if other people who have a more in-depth knowledge of this stuff want to offer different works or additional, please do so.
Sirimal Abeyratne, “Economic Roots of Political Conflict: The Case of Sri Lankaâ€, ASARC Working Papers, Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre, 2002, available at http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/pasasarcc/2002-03.htm
Carl Armon and L. Philipson, eds., 1998, Demanding Sacrifice: War and Negotiation in Sri Lanka. London: Conflict Resources.(Nissan, Edrisinha, Sathananthan: 14) available at http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/sri-lanka/contents.php
Pranab Bardhan, “Method in the Madness? A Political-Economy Analysis of the Ethnic Conflicts in Less-Developed Countriesâ€, World Development, Vol 25:9, 1997, available at
Robert Blanton, T. David Mason, and Brian Athow, “Colonial Style and Post-Colonial Conflict in Africaâ€, Journal of Peace Research, Vol.38,No.4.(Jul. 2001), available at http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-3433%28200107%2938%3A4%3C473%3ACSAPEC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
Sumantra Bose, States, Nations, Sovereignty: Sri Lanka, India, and the Tamil Eelam Movement (Sage: New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London, 1994)
Rohan Edrisinha, “Multinational Federalism and Minority Rights in Sri Lankaâ€, in Kymlicka, Will, and Baogang He, eds. Multiculturalism in Asia (OUP: Oxford 2005)
Lionel Guruge, Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Problems and Solutions, (Centre for Policy Alternatives, publishing information given); available at http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/Ethnic_Problem_and_Solutions_English.pdf
Paul Isenman, “Basic Needs: The case of Sri Lankaâ€, World Development, Vol. 8:3 (March), available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VC6-45DHTM3-P/2/87a23e592f36c4cd2e42df74c8b268ba
Aaron Klieman, “The Resolution of Conflicts through Territorial Partition: The Palestine Experienceâ€, Comparative Studies in Society and History,Vol.22,No.2.(Apr.,1980), available at http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-4175%28198004%2922%3A2%3C281%3ATROCTT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
James Manor, ed., Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis (Croom Helm: London 1984)
Adamantia Pollis, “Intergroup Conflict and British Colonial Policy: The Case of Cyprus†ComparativePolitics,Vol.5,No.4.(Jul.,1973),pp.575-599. Available at http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-4159%28197307%295%3A4%3C575%3AICABCP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I
Kumar Rupesinghe and Khawar Mumtaz, eds., Internal Conflicts in South Asia (International Peace Research Institute: Oslo 1996; SAGE Publications: London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi )
David Scott, Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality (Princeton University Press: Princeton 1999)
Dhanajayan Sriskandarajah, “Fuelling the Ire: Inequality and Conflict in Late-Twentieth-Century Sri Lanka.†(unpublished manuscript, Annual South Asian Studies Conference: Madison, WI 2002)
R.L. Stirrat, “The Riots and the Roman Catholic Church in Historical Perspectiveâ€, in James Manor, ed., Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis (Croom Helm: London 1984)
Stanley Tambiah, Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka (Chicago: Chicago 1992)
Stanley Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd: London 1986)
Cecile Van de Voorde, “Sri Lankan Terrorism: Assessing and Responding to the Threat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)â€, Police Practice and Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, May 2005, available at http://www.soc.tcu.edu/Cecile_V_article.pdf
Nira Wickhramasinghe, Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (Hurst and Company: London 2006)
A. Jeyaratnam Wilson with a chapter by A.J.V. Chandrakanthan, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and development in the 19th and 20th centuries (Hurst & Co: London 2000)
23 · Praxikat
I think it’s high time we dissolved these boundaries. Let’s intermarry like crazy in the next few generations and achieve REAL (inter)national integration. Maybe this is too off-topic, over simplistic, or naive.
This isn’t naive at all on the personal level, but it’s naive politically, b/c nobody’s doing it on a large enough scale to ward off the next wave of ethno-linguistic-religious atrocities. Better to pack some heat.
well, hopefully this violence stops as early as possible.
Why in the world should anyone deliberately set about to destroy their identity, heritage, and language!!! I find this notion ridiculous and offensive. Of course if you find someone compatible of a different background then by all means you should marry them…but to outmarry in order to “dissolve boundaries” and merely to create a generation of people who have no sense of who they are or where they come from and no clear-cut identity other than ‘desi’ or ‘Indian’…I think that’s preposterous.
I find that often Indians who are a mixture of two or more different Indian sub-ethnicities are the ones who embrace this ideal…because they are already there…and like I said there’s nothing wrong with marrying outside your background so long as you love the person and are compatible…but don’t insult the concepts of heritage, identity, and mothertongue. I never blame anyone if they want someone of their own background to marry.
maybe being born into a particular ethnicity or regionality does not, by default, make that their identity. maybe who they are and what they identify with most is something like cosmopolitanism, such that they do not feel bound by or do not ultimately identify with a particular regionality. i think you have made it very clear on this blog how much you value keeping up desi and regional traditions. however, i don’t think you should assume that this is what all other desis value most.
and even keeping things within a desi frame, what about people who identify most with their religion and less or minimally with their mother tongue or region – in that sense, that is their identity and where they come from – and mixing with people of other languages still allows one to preserve that.
does the converse also hold for you?
not an expert, but someone ought to do a genetic study of sri lanka, i bet there’s been far more mingling between the groups over the past few centuries/millenia than we think
I think I said that at least twice in my comment.
I never assumed that, in fact the converse has been made abundantly clear to me on this blog as well.
is it not the slightest bit absurd that those furthest (geographically) from the conflict must be considered historicity guarantors for the very same, though often possessing far fewer provable sources (AP, the Island, Reuters etc. simply don’t count) than anyone ‘over there.’? (not to re-open the ‘who has the authority to comment’ argument but i have neither money nor power and living abroad has not gifted me with powers of immediate conflict resolution or the ability to deliver extemporaneous in-depth historical analysis for the benefit of multi-culti-curious questioners.)
yes, i have the same feeling. And it’s not just when I look into the mirror everyday and see a disgruntled mash of Sangakarra and Muralidaran staring back.
One of the bigget loads of crap I’ve read.
You know, chandare, not all of us are tiger-loving eelamists. At the same time, we aren’t all that happy with the sri lankan government either (especially its latest incarnation). It’s difficult to say you don’t support a ‘side’ in a conflict that’s always presented as being between exactly two groups. I’m sure there are many sinhalese who feel the same way, locally and internationaly. Aren’t we all resisting easy definition? That might not be what VV meant, but it’s one incarnation, to me.
Guessing chandare didn’t read my comments in the thread. Or maybe he/she thinks it’s crap anyway. But yes, mixalot, that is pretty much what I meant.
Priya wrote: “you cannot please everyone at the same time.”
Yup, that’s also quite evident 🙂
i didn’t necessrily say you assumed that – i just said that perhaps you shouldn’t. but i also don’t think it’s correct to think that people do not have a sense of ‘who they are’ simply because they don’t keep ‘preserve’ lines of language, region etc – that was my larger point in response to your earlier statement.
Dr AmNonymous – thanks for the sources. i am poorly informed on the subject, so i look forward to looking through a few of these.
VV – thanks. i am happy that SM has bloggers such as you and cicatrix who can shed some light, and some personal/emotional insight on this situation that is, no matter which side of the issue you may take, tragic for all involved.
Are there any studies of the last decade or so that suggest that whatever goals the warring parties espoused a generation ago, the conflict is now driven more by greed, racketeering, warlordism, and corruption than anything else? That’s a question, not a statement . . .
I know I do not get out that often but I have yet to encounter these wonderful creatures.
May be I’m hanging out with selfish bastards who left Sri Lanka to get the hell out of the place and only play lip service to those values. One more thing ,I know we always say it is the most beautiful place on earth but who are we kidding?This phrase is used by diaspora who once ever 5 years go home and stay in highend hotels and tour the country or clueless mnoron who haven’t set foot outside the island.!
33 · chandare said
You should try reading your own writing. Then you wouldn’t need to come hang out on this blog to activate your crap-o-meter.
commenter crap thyself, advice taken . Taking my ball and going home to crap in peace. Bye beautiful people!
27 · Amitabh said
Amitabh I agree with you completely on this. Just dissolving boundaries and identities for the sake of of resolving conflicts, peace and cosmopolitanism is like “homogenisation”…. There is beauty in maintaining diversity of tradition culture, languages etc. etc. Moreover American style homogenisation will not work for the subcontinent. The subcontinent has to have its kind of fedealism and multi-culturalism. Moroever you need a lot more of urban centers like Bombay or Delhi where people from variety of backgrounds to intermingle to create that kind of cosmpolitanism.
i would be interested to know, as well. i also think, regardless of any central curriculum/texts, how it is being taught in tamil nadu as opposed to the rest of the country. in TN, there is a large variation in how people look at this matter – there are those who are against the separatist movement itself and/or the tigers/terrorist tactics, and those who support one and/or the other. these variations in POVs are also translated (not sure how proportionally) to the indian tamilians that live outside of india…
42 · ak said
Whatever the situation used to be pre-1991, the LTTE lost massive sympathy after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Pols like Vaiko who nakedly exploited the Tamil cause could no longer be as blatant about it, and it even got to the extent that Jayalalitha locked him up for a while under POTA (India’s law for “terrorists” that suspends habeas for 6 months, allows confessions as evidence etc.) At this point, while there might be support, I don’t think it is a significant issue any more. (I also think there has been a much more severe crackdown on the shipment (by sympathetic Indians) of weapons and equipment to the LTTE from southern Tamilnadu, which used to go on. I don’t have a good sense of how effective that is.)
Chandare @ 38: Those people are out there.
And of course there is an expat population that goes back to Sri Lanka and stays in high-end hotels. But there’s also a population that doesn’t.
ak and others, I would be particularly interested to know what India schools teach (if anything) about the IPKF and Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
I had a question when I look at the Sinhala population perecentages, there is a state on the east coast of Sri Lanka that has a 3.5% Sinhala population. What is this region called? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sri_Lanka_Sinhalese.svg
25 · rob said
I think both points of view miss the essential aspect: We’re all pretty well mixed already, anyway. At least when you consider a large enough sample in South Asia, and that includes Sri Lanka, and look back far enough in time.
But there are still going to be pseudo-‘origin myths’, and after-effects of colonial attempts to introduce artificial class stratification, colonialist minority preferences, colonial labor relocation, divide and rule, minor differences in phenotype, etc. Language brings in another huge variable.
The lesson is, no matter how well mixed you get genetically – cultural, linguistic, and religious ‘differences’ will arise, ‘spontaneously’, and divide you. So better learn to live with difference, not try to suppress it, whether from an ‘assimilationist’ point of view, or from the Bulworth solution pov:
Huh?
It’s a great thought, but it won’t solve the problem. We’ll find new ways to make much of smaller differences in phenotype, as indeed happens in South Asia, and North America, and every elsewhere, every day.
ak and others, I would be particularly interested to know what India schools teach (if anything) about the IPKF and Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
I will say this again, and I repeated it while ago.
Which schools are we taking about?
a) Doon school in DehraDun
b) Springdales in Delhi
c) A small school in Sakotidandha (near Meerut) that has no building and bathrooms with Hindi as their primary medium
d) Kendriya Vidhyala (CBSE Board) in Chennai as a English medium school
e) A high school in Hyderabad governed by AP School Board with Telugu as their primary medium
f) A Jesuit school in Megahalaya.
g) Internation High School in South Delhi which has O-, A-level exams.
Given the large diversity of educational system, in economics, governing educational systems, there is no single answer, for that not even three dozen answers.
Raising such a question is moot, if one has spent more than two hours in India.
On the other hand, there are thousands of articles in print media (in India Today, Indian Express, Danik Jhangran – A Hindi newspaper) over IPKF, Norway accord, etc.
Make that INDIAN schools, not India schools. 🙂
Preston, I have no idea. I no longer have access to academic databases, so perhaps someone else who does can answer that?
To Amitabh (#27): Sabash! Well said.
I will take a moment of silence this weekend for those who suffered in 1983, and those who have suffered since VV, did you take a moment of silence couple of months back, May 21st, the day when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by our Tamil neighbors from Sri Lanka? Instead of assassination, should I say “took military-style action upon”? Or would you also justify the event in favor of the Tamil neighbors with your artistic flair?
Sometimes I wonder why Tamilians have such a passion for separatist movements, anywhere and everywhere? For example, in recent Malaysian protests, Tamilians have indicated Sri Lanka style liberation movement (read http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1136140). If they proceed with the plan, Malaysia would be another Sri Lanka in making. After Indian independence too, many Tamil politicians, who had pro-British views for long time, were demanding separate country as Tamilnadu (read http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/annadurai.htm).
This is a moment of silence that I choose, and that no one can impose upon me. VV, it’s your choice to mourn for Tamilians in Sri Lanka and I would understand that. At least for me, I would say that 13 Sinhalese soldiers were killed by Tamil militants first. Riots against Tamilians followed later. We can see similar situation in every riot in India (count anti-Sikh, anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu etc). Violence begets violence. It is indeed a sad phase and I would mourn for loss of human life, both Sinhalese and Tamilian. It is indeed sad when people decide to be boneheads.