“What is the point in ransacking public library housing literary wealth of Tamils? One of the analyst in the film gives his perspective: Sinhalese feel inferior to Tamils and want this ethnic group should be kept under subjugation or otherwise they will rise up to create problems.”_____________________
by V. Muthukumaran in Chennai
(June 02, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Ethnic conflicts and civil wars have plagued mankind since ages. But the strong undercurrent of pathos in the suffering of Jaffna Tamils in the course of on-going war at Northeast part of Sri Lanka between Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese army is brought out vividly in a 50-minute documentary titled Burning Memories by film-maker S Someetharan.
If one has to mark the calendar in the rise of ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, then it would begin with the organised massacre allegedly by paramilitary forces and local police on 31 May, 1981 during which TULF party along with the office of daily Eelanaadu in Jaffna were ransacked and properties were destroyed.
A temple and hundreds of shops were gutted in the unprovoked violence indulged by State forces which were deployed to monitor elections. The carnage went on for three days.
But what shocked the people was the burning of nearly 97,000 books, rare manuscripts and literary works of historical importance for Tamils at the Public Library in Jaffna by thugs and violent groups.
A grand building, the Public Library was a symbol of pride for Tamils. Scholars and research people frequented the library for intensive study.
Not to be cowed down, Tamils along with the Municipal Council decided to rebuild the second wing of the library at another spot near the Jaffna Port leaving behind the gutted place of the first stage building as memorial to the ethnic vandalism.
The second wing of Public Library was opened on 4 June 1984, but war clouds gathered speed over Jaffna skies. In the height of civil war between Tamil rebels and government forces, soldiers blasted the lending room of the new building, thus destroying the catalogues having new range of collections.
Further, the Public Library came under heavy bombardment by the Lankan Army which felt the structure was being used for arms dump by separatist Tamils. Having a ghostly look, the Public Library is turned into a grotesque reminder of cultural genocide in Jaffna, says Someetharan.
But the Lankan government is now on the path of reconciliation and has charted a mega plan for renovation of the haunted library in 1998. So far, more than $one million was spent and thousands of books were collected for a new building which was opened in 2001.
A student of Visual Communication from Loyola College, Someetharan explains the destruction of Public Library in Jaffna had led to irreplaceable loss of Tamil literary works and palm scripts which were sent to this building from Madurai in 15th Century during the Muslim invasion of Tamil kingdom. ‘
This docu-film will create awareness on what Tamils have lost in Jaffna on that fateful day. Moreover, thousands of books and documents of historical value were consigned to flames during the pogrom,’ he informs.
What is the point in ransacking public library housing literary wealth of Tamils? One of the analyst in the film gives his perspective: Sinhalese feel inferior to Tamils and want this ethnic group should be kept under subjugation or otherwise they will rise up to create problems.
Born in Jaffna 19 days before the burning of Public Library, Someetharan is taking another film on internally displaced refugees in Lanka with focus on children. He has worked in Tamil and English dailies of Sri Lanka before arriving in Chennai in 2004 to study at Loyola College.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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