The Lost Battle for Tamil Eelam

“When political wisdom and vision edged away among the Tamils, this elite class failed and the vacuum was filled by those who thought that only a violent revolution, or as was called, a liberation armed struggle was the answer. In fact, this was even encouraged by some of the elite politicians.”
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(March 02, Frankfurt, Sri Lanka Guardian) The battle for Tamil Eelam was lost many years ago when the various leaders of the political parties that served the Sri Lankan Tamil community like the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the Federal Party, the Eela Thamilar Ottumai Munnetram (ironically neither united nor progressive), the maverick C Suntharalingam’s Adanga Thamilar Party and even finally the Thamil United Liberation Front never had the foresight to press into their respective parties intellectuals, political visionaries and even more, the grassroots of the community in any way.

They paraded around as the lords of the manor and recognized the society as a kind of a feudal entity in that people with certain professions had legitimacy and rights as full-fledged citizens and the others involved in various trades and agriculture, as lesser beings virtually at their command. One has to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer or a rich landlord to be somebody in the community and others in varying degrees were less-bodies or nobodies.

These were the Upper Middle and largely Colombo-living elite who were merely election oriented and never developed grass root political consciousness or activities. They merely flashed their elitist identities and labels as the kind ideals the Tamil people should respect, honour and even aspire for, provided of course in the last category, they belonged to their class.

The grass root political work was mainly done by the Lanka Samaja Party and the Communist Party but the majority of the Tamils had an allergy to these parties as serving the lowly placed communities and also as anti-God; both these misconceptions were unfortunate and eventually proved to be a major setback to the Tamils. It was as if any talk of socialism was anathema to the Tamils.

When political wisdom and vision edged away among the Tamils, this elite class failed and the vacuum was filled by those who thought that only a violent revolution, or as was called, a liberation armed struggle was the answer. In fact, this was even encouraged by some of the elite politicians.

The liberator had an easy entry and no doubt he had his own agenda too coming as he did from the smuggler fraternity. He did have some foresight in that, if he had to realize his ends the way he wanted, all voices against him must be silenced and destroyed altogether. It was a deadly foresight. Not even moderates were spared and sheer terror became his weapon. Such was the way he went about terrorizing the people, the community lost many great people in consequence.


"Sadly, for all purposes Eelam is a lost cause; it was lost on the day when the liberator turned his gun on a popular Tamil mayor, Alfred Durayappah, July 1975. Since then, there has been no end to his killings."


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Some were killed, some fled and a few shut their mouths and became sheer vegetables in their own regions. The liberator sought out every dissenting voice and gunned it down mercilessly; only his voice had to matter. Even in his own liberation force, he did not spare his men who dared to utter an idea that was against him. In course of time, he held the entire Tamil community in Sri Lanka in ransom.

There are the Diaspora Tamils who have made good in foreign lands and their children comfortably placed in life. They saw the liberator as some kind of a hero because he was demanding an Eelam state to which these people would of course never return even if it was achieved. But they sought an identity for themselves as supporting a liberation struggle in Sri Lanka against the majority Sinhala community and this identity has caused much bloodshed among the Tamils. The Tamil Diaspora has contributed a great deal towards killing their own people in Sri Lanka let alone innocent Sinhala civilians.

They did not care whether young Tamils were sacrificed to satisfy the liberator’s yearnings and that almost the entire Tamil community was being ravaged with many seeking refuge in Sinhala areas. They cheered every murderous act of the liberator in their many tabloids some of which specialized in false reports but all in praise of the great liberator.

When talks were attempted there was no one who could talk proper political solutions for the Tamils because the liberator has none and even if he had, they could only speak his language. No doubt there is a strong and growing feeling among the Tamils that only when the liberator is dead, the Tamils will have some hope of a solution. Unfortunately, the Tamils have hardly any political visionary or intellectual to lead them towards a political solution.

The irony is that unless some Sinhalese party or leaders come out with a meaningful proposal for a solution, Tamils would be left with nothing. They have nobody not even from the Diaspora community because they are elsewhere in their mansions and having a great life for themselves. In Sri Lanka, the liberator has made sure there are no Tamils to take up the gauntlet and stake a case for them for political solution.

Thank God, however for Mr Anandasangari but he has been made a loner by the government that should have in the first place recognized him as a genuine leader of the Tamils. This fearless politician has a statesman character about him and is the only one who holds a tiny hope for the Tamils. Unfortunately, statesmanship and Sri Lankan politics are far apart; too, too far apart.

Sadly, for all purposes Eelam is a lost cause; it was lost on the day when the liberator turned his gun on a popular Tamil mayor, Alfred Durayappah, July 1975. Since then, there has been no end to his killings. `

(Satchi Sithananthan is prominent writer born in Sri Lanka who lives in Frankfurt, Germany)