Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
We are re-tracing the journey of the first groups of men and women brought to this country to work in the plantations in the hill country. Over the years thousands landed in Mannar and made the dangerous trek on foot to Matale. They endured diseases, cleared jungles and braved wild animals. (...)
Report highlights community’s continued marginalisation and vulnerability due to State non-intervention to facilitate basic rights
Despite being granted formal citizenship, the previously State-less hill country Tamil community continues to be one of the most socio-economically and (...)
Residents of Thennamaravadi, Kuchchaveli, which is a rural village some 65 kilometres north of Trincomalee, on the Pulmoddai Road, are struggling due to issues pertaining to the lack of land and housing.
Speaking to The Morning, the residents claimed that most of their lands had been (...)
Thiruchandran, Selvy. Caste and its Multiple Manifestations: A Study of the Caste System in Northern Sri Lanka. Colombo: Bay Owl Press, 2021, pp. 231 + xii
Caste in Sri Lanka is something of an enigma to social critics and social researchers alike. People do not justify, refer to or even (...)
The mass uprisings and public protests centred at, though not limited to, GotaGoGama (GGG) are of epic significance in Sri Lanka, which in its post-independence history has not seen such a diverse, inclusive and sizable resistance movement for justice and accountability. Beyond the coming (...)
Life in Tamil Nadu is fairly secure, but it is the ‘refugee tag’ that prompts Sri Lankan Tamils to consider returning home
For over 80 Tamils, including children and infants, who took boats and landed in Tamil Nadu in the last few months, the risky journey was not only about fleeing Sri (...)
Of the many horrific visuals of the end of the war the one that is etched in my memory is of people crossing the Mullaivaikkal bridge. At the time it was not possible to watch it without crying. Even now, it is difficult to watch without feeling emotional, if not cry.
Why?
Violence, loss (...)
For the past few weeks, many in the south have been asking us why the current crisis has not led to widespread protests in the north. Some ask this question with an implied message that the North should protest; but they fail to question the violence and surveillance that those in the North (...)
Weeks of citizen-led protests in Sri Lanka have demanded that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ‘go home’. These protests began in early March, in response to the worst economic crisis the country has seen in decades. In this blog, Vindhya Buthpitiya (Associate Lecturer, University of St Andrews) (...)
Why aren’t the northern people protesting over rising prices and shortages of essential items? The answer: Economic hardships are not new to them.
When the war was raging in the Northern Province just over a decade ago, electricity was a luxury for many families in the region.
To survive (...)
Nearly 13 years after the end of the war, the communities in the North are yet to recover from the social, economic, and psychological impact of the armed conflict. The pandemic and worsening economic crisis have pushed them, particularly people in places like Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, (...)
When a judge becomes a politician, they may think they can pass judgment on any subjects. C.V. Wigneswaran, a new Parliamentarian, in my opinion totally out of context, made an attempt to show that he was an anthropologist, archaeologist and a historian all at the same time as he is a (...)
A Gazette revealing 196 new members of the Parliament who have been elected at the Parliamentary Election held on August 5 is out. We have to wait to know the names of the rest of the parliamentarians until respective parties announce their national list members.
Election results show a new (...)
The Eluga Thamil rally on September 24 in Jaffna was nothing but the continuation of efforts to keep reactionary Tamil nationalism mobilised after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. The forces that organised this protest have been active with the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), the (...)
The government justified the schoolhouse bombing by calling teenage girls terrorists-in-training.
August 14, 2016 marks the 10-year anniversary of the macabre slaughter of more than 61 Tamil children by the Sri Lankan state. And yet a decade after this fact and seven years since the end of (...)
I
When Govinthan penned Puthiyathor Ulagam (A New World) in 1985, the intelligence wing of a Tamil militant group was hunting for him across Tamil Nadu.
Govinthan (real name: Soosaipillai Nobert) joined the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in 1982. He and several (...)
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has swept the 2015 parliamentary elections in its Tamil constituencies. This victory further consolidates the power of the TNA and particularly the Federal Party (ITAK). However, this is also the weakness of Tamil nationalist politics. Historically, Tamil (...)
The phenomenon of “Traitorization” in Tamil Nationalist Politics has raised its ugly head again. I use the word traitorization instead of treachery or treason in order to differentiate between those who are actually treacherous or really committing treason as opposed to those being accused or (...)
The UN Human Rights Commission’s decision to investigate violations and the huge loss of life during the last months of the war concluded in 2009 was a significant victory for the victims. The dignity of the victims required that the truth must be told without fear or favour, and processes of (...)
What is striking about the 2015 elections? It is the upsurge in the call for democracy and the call to put an end to aggression, arbitrary actions. Significantly, it has opened up spaces for the minority community, the minority voter, to once again find a voice within the politics of the (...)
Twitter
Facebook