Evidence Against Asoka Brian Senewiratne and The Tamil Tigers (LTTE)

Evidence Against Brian Senewiratne of 292 Pine Mountain Road, Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia.
EVIDENCE AGAINST THE TAMIL

TIGERS (LTTE)
CALL TO TELSTRA 20 September

2013
Status: Connected
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telstra.com. Please select 'End chat' if you do not wish to proceed.
Mark Vincent
Hi Dr Romesh, how may I help you?
Mark Vincent
Hi there, Romesh.
Dr Romesh
Hi
Mark Vincent
How may I help you today?
Dr Romesh
I'm setting up a business
Dr Romesh
A few businesses associated with the Holisitic University of
Brisbane (HUB).
Mark Vincent
I see, are you trying to register your Business account for My
Account?
Dr Romesh
HUB is an internet business providing educational, creative,
strategic and artistic services as well as professional services in
health program design and consultancy.
Dr Romesh
Yes - but also to link with educational networks and government
networks.
1
Mark Vincent
Let me check the details on your account and I will be assisting
you to register for My Account.
Dr Romesh
Thanks
Mark Vincent
May I please have any mobile or home phone number you have
with Telstra to check your account?
Dr Romesh
Home: 617-3277-2010 (which I also use for the HUB and BDI
businesses at present)
Dr Romesh
Mobile: 614-1271-0228
Mark Vincent
Thank you for the information.
Dr Romesh
I've had problems with my mobile phone and landline
connections and also in my Internet connections due to my work
in fighting against organized crime by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)
Dr Romesh
Please be aware regarding security issues.
Dr Romesh
My father is a key enabler for this Sri Lankan terrorist
organization and he shares my surname and middle name - Brian.
This name is on my birth certificate and driver's license but has
been used to divert calls and royalties in the past.
Mark Vincent
I understand, let me check the details on your account to make all
enquiries will be covered and the account details will be secured
and protected.
Dr Romesh
So I want to correct the Telstra records as follows:
Dr Romesh
NAME:
Dr Romesh
Dr Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti
Director, Holistic University of Brisbane (HUB)
2
76 FEGEN DRIVE
MOOROOKA, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA 4105
Email: romeshsenewiratne@gmail.com
HUB
The TALL TALES of the TAMIL TIGERS:

an analysis of propaganda
HUB Forensic Investigations (2013)
The following collection of documents was downloaded from the public domain in May
2013. Copyright is owned by respective authors and publishers.
These documents shed light on a number of unattributed and/or unpunished murders, all of
Tamil intellectuals, politicians, civil leaders and human rights workers. In all cases the
assassinations appear to have been carried out by the organization known to its fans as
“The Tigers”.
So who were, or are, the Tigers?
Well, they are the people who killed Dr Rajini Thirinagama, some years after they’d killed
the popular Mayor of Jaffna, The Honourable Alfred Duraiappah, for reasons that will
become quite clear by the time you finish reading the next 180 pages.
The first HUB Forensic Investigation is into the murder of Professor Rajini Thirinagama, head of the
Department of Anatomy at the University of Jaffna in 1989.
3
The following document was downloaded for the website of University Teachers for Human Rights,
the organization she founded at the university not long before she was killed for “getting too big for
her boots” (as was memorably explained in the documentary No More Tears, Sister:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C803NOvmTqk)
A FOREWORD
Brian Seneviratne
Consultant
Queen Mary Hospital [incorrect – Princess Alexandra Hospital]
Brisbane, Australia.
"The Broken Palmyra" is a very disturbing account of what has gone on, indeed what is still going on,
in the North of Sri Lanka. It documents in painful detail what the Sri Lankan government and the
Indian "Peace-Keepers" have been doing and, more informatively, what our "heroes" in the various
militant movements (and even the non-militant politicians) are really like. Not what they pretend to
be, but what they really are. Not what our biases, hopes and imagination make them to be, but what
they are. No person or group is spared, and no information suppressed for fear of offending a
particular interest. The militant groups, the Indian army and the Sri Lankan army, have a charge to
answer to. It is the assassination of one of the authors. We may not know who killed Dr. Rajani
Thiranagama, but we must certainly know why she was killed. She was killed because of her human
rights work and her contribution to "The Broken Palmyra". It was a warning to the others that the
totalitarian regime that has established itself in Jaffna, whatever its changing label may be, is not to
be challenged, questioned or exposed. Rajani's murderers were trying to destroy a lot more than an
outstanding daughter of Jaffna who has done so much for her people. For this reason alone, as
someone concerned with the plight of the Tamil people, I am delighted to see the publication of this
book.
A "liberation struggle" is to do with people, with freeing them from oppression, and with
decreasing the violation of internationally accepted human rights. If the converse is being
4
established in the name of liberation, then concerned people must question what is going on. "The
Broken Palmyra" documents what we have all known, but not had the courage to say - that the
civilian population has been cannon fodder in a despicable power struggle. Across the country, the
Rule of Law has been replaced by the Rule of the Armed Hoodlum. If Sri Lanka is to return to
civilisation, what is going on in the country will have to be exposed. With internationally credible
human rights groups such as Amnesty International expelled from the country and the media gagged
or intimidated by the State and by armed groups, it takes outstandingly courageous people to
publish what really is going on. As a Sinhalese, my only regret is that we in the South have not been
able to come up with a group who are prepared to write a similar account of what is going on in the
rest of the country.
The first question that must pass through the minds of anyone who reads this incredible book is,
"How reliable is it? How accurate is the information?" Those of us who have had the privilege of
knowing the authors would have no difficulty in answering this question. The authors, senior
members of the academic staff of Jaffna University, are people of indisputable honesty and integrity
who have made unbelievable efforts to check their facts. The methods they have used to collect the
data underscore their determination to sort out fact from fiction and present the situation as it is,
not what people imagine it to be. ".....members of the U.T.H.R. worked both as a team and some
times as individuals to visit places where incidents occurred, interview eye witnesses and to check
what actually happened." They have presented their findings in a frank and a fearless manner with
no bias towards one or other of the pressure groups. If the incidents reported in "The Broken
Palmyra" conflict with the versions put out by the militant groups or the State (whether Sri Lankan or
Indian), I would personally have no difficulty in choosing which version to believe. Such is the
integrity and credibility of the authors.
No worthwhile contribution to solving the mess in Sri Lanka can be made by those such as the
writer of this Foreword and the thousands of other Sri Lankans who have not had the courage to
stay in Sri Lanka. It can only be made by those such as the authors of "The Broken Palmyra" who
have the courage, determination and patriotism to stay where they are needed and say what is right
rather than what is convenient or acceptable to some power base. That is what integrity and true
leadership is all about. The "Broken Palmyra" is compulsory reading for anyone who is interested in
the future of Sri Lanka. I have no doubt that the authors will be condemned by Tamil fanatics as
"traitors to the Tamil cause" for exposing what is going on in Jaffna in the name of "liberation",
"peace-keeping" or "national security." It is hoped that when sanity returns, the authors of this
exceptional book will be recognised as true patriots (of the non-pseudo variety) and their work an
outstanding contribution aimed at preventing the establishment of anarchy in Sri Lanka.
[Top]
5
History of the Organisation
Dr.Rajani Thiranagama
M.B.B.S(Colombo), Ph.D(Liverpool)
Head Dept of Anatomy, University of Jaffna
[Dr.Rajani Thiranagama, a mother of two and a courageous activist and a live wire of UTHR(J) was
killed by a gunman on 21st September 1989]
Mission and statement of purpose
The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) (UTHR(J)) was formed in 1988 at the University of
Jaffna, as part of the national organisation University Teachers for Human Rights. Its public activities
as a constituent part of university life came to a standstill following the murder of Dr. Rajani
Thiranagama, a key founding member, on 21st September 1989. During the course of 1990 the
others who identified openly with the UTHR(J) were forced to leave Jaffna. It continues to function
as an organisation upholding the founding spirit of the UTHR(J) with it original aims: to challenge the
external and internal terror engulfing the Tamil community as a whole through making the
perpetrators accountable, and to create space for humanising the social & political spheres
relating to the life of our community. The UTHR(J) is not at present functioning in the University of
Jaffna in the manner it did in its early life for reasons well understood. (See Preface to Report No
1, Foreward to Special Report No 10)
6
Our reports deal with several aspects pertaining to violations and are very unorthodox as human
rights documents. In order to clarify our position, we once more reiterate the purposes for which
these reports are written:
1. To document human rights violations by all forces in order to bring about general awareness
and to make violators accountable.
2. To bring out the human background to these violations through a portrayal of individual
characters together with an analysis of social pressures and external circumstances
governing their behaviour. We try to show that the characters involved, even in the worst
violations, are often human, whose actions are governed by mislaid human potential, past
choices and oppressive circumstances.Its an endevour to capture a narrative space for the
people who were trapped in the conflict and in their name only many atrocities were
justified by the protagonists
3. To leave behind a historical record of this crucial part of our history. Since there is no space
in our community to discuss and choose between different options,and the young especially
are giving their life even without knowing our recent history, we feel it is necessary to leave
a record. Moreover, in this country, we seem to suffer from historical amnesia combined
with a moral vacuum, forcing us to re-live an unpleasant history again and again. We trust
these records will also help benign minds who in the future would like to make a re-
evaluation.
4. As responsible members of an academic institution and citizens of our community, we would

like to express our opinions and make room for free expression and an edifying debate. We
also seek to highlight the untapped human potential in all communities in our country, for
both internal regeneration and to make a success of living in one plural nation.
Sri Lanka, once a role model for third world democracies, is now for the last 20 years, a scene of
obdurate violence and war ( See Broken Palmyra, The Tamil Secessionist Movement in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon):A Case of Secession by Default? , Sri Lanka:The Arrogance of Power: Myths, Decadence &
Murder on this site). The long simmering ethnic crisis, which metamorphosed into a full-scale war,
has now gone through several phases. From 1956, the Tamil community was at the receiving end of
several bouts of ethnically motivated violence that had the connivance of the State. This
compounded the increasingly blatant discriminatory policies of the Sri Lankan State. Ethnicisation of
the political landscape has resulted in a polarization that now appears difficult to disentangle.
The intransigence and opportunism of the Sinhalese polity in its turn gave boost to an insensitive
Tamil nationalist politics that was high on rhetoric. The chauvinist camp among the Sinhalese
capitalized on this, playing on the fears of the Sinhalese. Though a majority in Sri Lanka, the
Sinhalese are in relation to the Tamils a minority in the region. Both communities had launched into
a confrontational political course and for both internal and external reasons, the rights of the Tamils
and their quality of life suffered progressive degradation.
7
The armed struggle of Tamil youth to achieve a separate state, which commenced in the 1970s,
attracted an unprecedented number of Tamil youth to its banner following the government
sponsored pogrom of July 1983 which left about 2000 Tamils dead. India, fearing the Sri Lankan
government's canvassing of Western military assistance, provided arms and training to the Tamil
militants. Various militant formations sprang up. The internal and internecine killings by the militant
groups, introduced a new horrifying dynamism that altogether changed the character of the
struggle.
The continuing war thus resulted in the dehumanization of our society resulting in a violent political
culture Human rights violations are carried out by all parties without any accountability ie. the state,
armed militant groups and paramilitary forces with the connivance of the State ( See some thoughts
on armed oppostional groups).
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) achieved its dominance in 1986 after decimating other
militant groups. In the meantime the Sri Lankan Army gaining upper hand in consequence was on
the verge of capturing Jaffna (in the North).The first half of 1987 was a period of intense hostilities
between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE. Jaffna was continually subject to bombing and shelling.
The arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in August 1987 led to a brief peace.
The ordinary Tamil people had reposed hope in the direct Indian intervention of 1987. That hope
gave way to shock and bewilderment, when the intervention failed, giving way to full-scale war. The
feeling of powerlessness and nakedness among the civilian community was overwhelming. At the
University, a number of us took the initiative to mobilize the university community to work for
democratic alternatives to the violent snare that was consuming us. The first internal effort resulted
in the book, The Broken Palmyra, describing the plight of the people. It touched various aspects of
the conflict, describing the roles of all actors and was based on information we were able to collect
through students, colleagues and others. We published the book openly putting our names to it.
In the meantime unprecedented human rights violations were also occurring in the South of the
country in connection with the JVP uprising and the UTHR(J) was born in mid-1988 as the local
chapter of a countrywide organization launched to address these issues.
The UTHR(J) began publishing reports on human rights violations in 1988 from the University of
Jaffna. Although it started as a branch of the national organisation, it is still continuing to function
against several odds, long after the national organisation ceased to function.
During this period the LTTE was at war, not only with the IPKF, but with all alternative voices in the
Tamil community as well. In time the war displaced almost two thirds of the community in the Jaffna
peninsula. The LTTE engaged in brutal acts of torture and assassination in its struggle for hegemony
within the Tamil community. The Indian army, in turn, was responsible for its own brand of terror,
with widespread violations and killings of civilians. The few independent institutions in civil society
that could have given voice to the concerns of the common people were paralysed by fear.
The University of Jaffna faced the challenging task of maintaining its independence in the face of
external and internal terror. We initiated a novel action committee with support from colleagues -
including academic and non-academic staff, as well as students. The traditional university fora --
faculties, senate and council - still functioned, but focussed narrowly on academic and administrative
8
matters. The action committee became the primary forum for addressing the day-to-day problems
of living with the war. It succeeded to some extent in rebuilding the community spirit, at least within
the university community.
It also sent a signal to the IPKF and the LTTE, demonstrating that the community still retained a
measure of dignity and courage. But while it had some effect on the IPKF, the LTTE was intent on
disrupting the life of the Tamil community and rupturing its civil society. They came head on to
suppress the University's hard earned independence, in their effort to shut down all educational
institutions. The students, with their newly regained sense of responsibility, articulated the need to
keep the University open in the common interest of the community. The University thus succeeded
in asserting itself as an institution in which alternatives could be aired openly.
The new Indian government of V.P.Singh announced the withdrawal of the IPKF on September 20,
1989. The very next day, we were given the most grim indicator of what was to follow: The LTTE
assassinated Dr.Rajani Thiranagama, a founder activist of the UTHR(J), the head of the Anatomy
Department and one of the four who co-authored 'The Broken Palmyra'. After the withdrawal of the
Indian forces in 1990, the LTTE became the de-facto state in the Northern Province. It secured its
control of Jaffna through concerted suppression of internal dissent through detention, torture and
executions [see Report 10].
The war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan forces resumed full scale in June 1990 and with it the
LTTE crackdown on dissent intensified. Many of those associated with the UTHR(J) fled Jaffna -
including the other founding members of the UTHR(J) -- or ceased from open political activity. The
last person to remain and be openly engaged in monitoring had to leave in September 1990, when
there was an attempt to arrest him. All those who helped him to escape were later arrested by the
LTTE and imprisoned for several months.
With the UTHR[J] moving operations to the South, Jaffna lost its last organisation for open political
dissent. There was a continuance of individual acts of resistance that persevered against severe
odds; but the LTTE succeeded in crushing all organized collective effort.
In August 1991, two students, Manoharan and Selvy (Selvanithi alias Chelvi) who had been close to
the UTHR(J) were detained by the LTTE and have since disappeared. Chelvy was a poet and recipient
of awards from International Pen and Poetry International. Her disappearance attracted
considerable international attention, but there has been no official confirmation of what happened
to her.
By combination of internal terror and narrow nationalist ideology the LTTE succeeded in atomizing
the community. It took away not only the right to oppose but even the right to evaluate, as a
community, the course they were taking. This gives a semblance of illusion that the whole society is
behind the LTTE. Since the UTHR(J) was part of the initiative in trying to open up space in the
University, many sharing its aims associated with it openly in the early days. This was until Rajani
Thiranagama was killed. Abandoning and winding up the UTHR(J) now would mean capitulating of
the oppressor. We therefore felt that it is essential to continue with the reports under the same
name, although we had been forced to leave the University of Jaffna [See Report 11, Appendix].
9
Accusations that no one in the University of Jaffna is at present associated with the UTHR(J), only
highlights the stark reality of a terrorized political environment. Its says volumes about the internal
terror which paralysed the community rather than diminishing the legitimacy of the UTHR(J). After
years of terror and paralysis in the mis-1980s, the University re-established its role during the short
period following the Indo-Lanka Accord and functioned as a vibrant institution with the students and
staff regaining their dignity. The killing of Rajani Thiranagama was the first step in pushing the
University back to the dark days of 1985-86. Acquiescing in that terror and disbanding the UTHR(J)
would have nullified the sacrifices made by many. We continue to use the name as guardians of the
legacy and values born through the sacrifice of several others directly and indirectly associated with
us.
The work of UTHR(J) received over the years support from friends, colleagues, and various
International NGOs, including the European Human Rights Foundation.
M.R.R.HOOLE
K.SRITHARAN
January, 2000
Home | History | Briefings | Statements | Bulletins | Reports | Special Reports | Publications | Links
Dr.Rajani Thirangama
M.B.B.S(Colombo),Ph.D(Liverpool)
Head Dept of Anotomy, University of Jaffna
23rd February 1954 -21 September 1989
10
"We have now been living under the long shadow of the gun for more than a decade and a half,
holding hope against hope for the survival of our children who are dominated by violence from all
directions with out a purpose or meaning,. But, on the other hand, we also note the glazed faces of
people accepting it all with a sense of resignation. Under these circumstances, to be objective or
analytical seems to be a major effort, like trying to do something physical in the midst of a
debilitating illness. Whenever we write we are dogged by
this reality, fearing our losing the thread of sanity and
thecommunity submerging with out resistance into this
slime of terror and violence. The community is bereft of
all its human potential. Every "sane" person in fleeing this
burning country- its hospital have no doctors, its
universities not teachers,, its crumbled war-torn buildings
cannot be rebuilt because there are go engineers or
masons or even a labour force, its families are headed by
women, and the old, the sick and the weary die with out
even the family to mourn or sons to bury the dead. If our
earlier account had appeared to be "plugging a line", as
some would want to put it, it was because it was important for us to arrive at a syntheses in analysis
seek an understanding, find spaces to organize, and revitalize a community that was sinking into a
state of resignation. Objectivity was not solely and academic exercise for us. Objectivity, the pursuit
of truth and the propagation of critical and honest positions, was crucial for the community. But
they could also cost many of us our lives. Any involvement with them was undertaken only as a
survival task. One day we sat down to discuss a postscript to our account. As an exercise we started
laying out the complex forces in interaction. After the exercise one of us wrote in bold letters- A
TRAGIC MESS"
- Dr.Rajani Thiranagama, The Broken Palmyra
Dr. Rajani Thiranagama
INTRODUCTION
Immediately following this introduction is a link to a report prepared by Dr. Rajani Thiranagama on
disappearances during the first quarter of 1988. It was circulated privately among interested groups.
Dr. Thiranagama was the Head of the Anatomy Department until her death on September 21st. Apart
from singlehandedly managing the department, Dr.Thiranagama was also an active researcher in her
field, striking out into new areas of thought. She also linked her scientific research to considerations
of conceptual developments of the social sciences. It is this same comprehensiveness of approach
that formed part of her concern for human rights.
The story behind the report says much about her concern for those defenceless persons from the
lower strata of society. A young girl who had been giving first aid to war victims in refugee camps
and whose own family was in a state of despair was referred to Rajani by an acquaintance. Rajani
11
befriended her and counselled this girl who was contemplating suicide. This girl who was anxious to
help the suffering and the needy found in Rajani an ally and a new source of strength. She brought
many persons who had undergone much suffering and had relatives or sons and daughters missing
to Dr. Thiranagama. Dr.Thiranagama did what she could under the circumstances. She compiled
their tales. In some cases she got friends to take it up with the Indian authorities. The Town
Commandant, Jaffna, who had pledged to help was appraised at least of two cases, one being the
case of Sangaralingam whose wife and three daughters disappeared after being detained by an
identified army unit. Nothing came out of this. To meet people in compiling this report, she had to
cycle many miles at a time when many people were scared of being associated with those having
war related problems.
Following links are UTHR (Jaffna) documents which throw more light on Dr. Thiranagama’s work and
life.
DISAPPEARANCES
DR. RAJANI THIRANAGAMA: HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS FOR HUMAN
RIGHTS (UTHR)
RAJANI : Three Years After
The Importance of Keeping Rajani's Feminism Alive - 12 Ocober 1990
15 Years After Rajani:The Continuing Cost of Dissent :21st September 2004
No More Tears Sister - Film 2005
National Film Board Canada- No More Tears Sister
Films Website
Release of a Film on Rajani: No more Tears Sister:21st May 2005
Film - Press Kit
PBS- Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal
Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, 20th Anniversary Memorial Tributes: 21st September 2009
A Tribute and Reflections by the UTHR(J) - 18th September 2009
Keeping memories alive 20th anniversary of Rajani- Dayapala Thiranagama- 16th September 2009
Rajini: 20th Death Anniversary of a True Tamil Heroine
Rajani Thiranagama: Making of a new revolutionary -25th September 2009
12
The Legacy of A Courageous Woman- 03rd October 2009
{{Infobox person
| name = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama
| image = Rajanit.jpg
| image_size = 175px
| caption = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama
| birth_date = {{birth date|1954|2|23|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Jaffna]], Sri Lanka
| death_date = {{death date and age|1989|9|21|1954|2|23|mf=y}}
| death_place = Jaffna, Sri Lanka
| occupation = University Lecturer
| spouse = Dayapala Thiranagama
| parents =
| children = Narmada Thiranagama, [[Sharika Thiranagama]]
}}
Dr. '''Rajini Thiranagama''' (née '''Rajasingham''') (February 23, 1954 – September 21, 1989)
was a [[Sri Lankan Tamil|Tamil]] human rights activist and [[feminism|feminist]] who was
assassinated by the [[Tamil Tigers]] after she criticised the organization she had once been a
member of for human rights abuses of Tamil civilians and documenting atrocities committed in
[[Jaffna]] during the war in [[Sri Lanka]].<ref Name="UTHR">{{cite
web|url=http://www.uthr.org/Statements/Release%20of%20Film%20on%20Rajani%20-
%20No%20more%20tears%20sister.htm|title=On the occasion of the release of No More Tears
Sister, a film on the tragedy of Rajani Thiranagama|accessdate=2007-02-12}}</ref> At the time of
her assassination she was the head of the Department of Anatomy at the [[University of Jaffna]] and
an active member of [[University Teachers for Human Rights]], Jaffna branch of which she was one
of the founding members.
==Biography==
===Early life and education===
13
Rajini was born in [[Jaffna]], in northern [[Sri Lanka]], to middle-class Tamil [[Christian]] parents. She
was the second child of the four female children. In the documentary mentioned above her mother
comments that she and her sister were particularly good singers. She followed her primary and
secondary school education in Jaffna and in 1973, she entered the [[University of Colombo]] to study
medicine. At university, she became actively involved in Left Wing student politics.<ref
Name="sangam">{{cite web|url=http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part24.htm|title=Surviving
the Plots of RAW and Premadasa|accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref>
===Marriage and children===
During her stay at Colombo University she met a politically active student leader from [[Kelaniya
University]] named Dayapala Thirangama. Dayapala was from a rural Sinhala Buddhist background,
from a very poor family. He was actively involved in militant revolutionary politics. He says in the
documentary "No More Tears, Sister" that like many rural youth at the time, he was imbued with
enthusiasm for an armed revolution against the Right Wing government, one that included all the
oppressed regardless of race. Rajini and Dayapala shared an enthusiasm for [[Che Guevara]], Mao
and Marx. Sharing this political ideology and becoming close friends, Rajini broke ethnic and
religious barriers and married Dayapala in 1977. They have two daughters, Narmada, and Sharika. At
present Rajini's husband and Narmada live in [[England]]. Sharika is currently living in California and
is teaching at Stanford University. In 2005 Sharika portrayed her mother in reconstructed scenes in
the documentary film on Rajini called ''No More Tears Sister''.<ref name=no_more_tears/>
This film traces the story of Rajini Thirinagama's life from her childhood in Jaffna to her assassination
just outside her home, where her daughters heard the shots that killed their mother as she arrived
home after cycling from the University, where she worked. It provides candid interviews with her
older sister, Nirmala, who still blames herself for involving her younger sister with the [[Tamil
Tigers]] in the first place. Rajini Thirinagama's serious involvement with the [[LTTE]] began, according
to her sisters and husband, after her sister was imprisoned under anti-terrorism laws for her
involvement with the LTTE, in 1983. A campaign against Premala's imprisonment was launched by
the Tamil Tigers international propaganda machine, and when the LTTE were credited with
"breaking her out of jail" the fact that it was headline news in India, delighted the LTTE leadership.
Once she had been "rescued" however, she was presented with a cyanide capsule and told to kill
herself if she got caught again. Premala recalls being taken aback, thinking she wanted to leave
prison to live and not to die.
Over the next six months, Premala was effectively a prisoner of the LTTE in their military training
camp in Tamil Nadu, where her husband, who was also in the organization, was having difficulties
with the LTTE leadership. She describes what she called "cut-throat ruthlessness" in what was a
purely paramilitary training camp, lacking the idealism and ideology that had attracted her to the
movement. She says, however, that once someone joined the LTTE they were not allowed to leave,
and would be killed if they tried. She describes and atmosphere of fear, where one didn't know who
14
one could trust, and that the young people who were soon to be sent to die were "distant" from
each other. Nirmala says that the six months she spent in the camp were "hugely traumatic".
According to her husband, Dayapala, he was strongly opposed to his wife becoming involved with
the LTTE because of its known ruthlessness, but she could not be dissuaded. After her sister,
Nirmala, was imprisoned, Rajini applied for a Commonwealth scholarship to England, at the same
time leading the pro-LTTE propaganda campaign from its political headquarters in London. Her
sister, Nirmala says, in the documentary "No More Tears", that Rajini would not believe her at first
when she told Rajini about the real nature of the LTTE - based on her experiences in the LTTE
training camp. However Rajini did start asking uncomfortable questions of the LTTE leadership in the
UK, and her family says she was followed, and had her phone tapped prior to her return to Sri Lanka
in 1986. Her family say that the Tiger leadership in England were "furious" at being questioned.
When she returned to Jaffna she became an outspoken critic of the LTTE and paid the ultimate price
for doing so.
===Medical Profession===
1978 Rajini begins her first posting as an intern medical doctor at Jaffna Hospital. After the
completion of the intern, in 1979 she traveled to [[Haldumulla]], a small village situated near
[[Haputale]] to work as a medical doctor. By 1980 she returned to Jaffna as a lecturer in anatomy in
the newly-formed Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jaffna. By this time, Jaffna was a battle
zone in the early stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. Many were leaving Jaffna for [[Colombo]] or
migrating to other countries including the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], and [[Australia]].
===Links with the LTTE===
Encouraged by her older sister Nirmala, then a member of the [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]],
Rajini became involved with the [[LTTE]]. In 1983, Rajini traveled to [[England]] under a
Commonwealth scholarship for postgraduate studies in anatomy at the [[University of
Liverpool#Liverpool Medical School|Liverpool Medical School]]. She was said to be a keen observer,
who was meticulous about dissection. One of her published papers, co-authored by A.T.Chamberlain
and B.A.Wood of the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool
is titled "Vales in Superficial Limb Veins of Human and Non-human Primates". This paper indicates
that she was using dissection techniques for comparative anatomy between humans and monkeys.
While in England she launched a major international campaign for the release of her sister who was
imprisoned in 1982 in under Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act. She also maintained her links
with LTTE by joining its London Committee in order to educate human rights groups and other
international organizations about the atrocities occurring in Sri Lanka. While continuing to write and
publish scientific papers, she also became implicated in grassroots organizations fighting for
women’s rights and against the discrimination of Britain’s black people<ref>{{cite
web|url=http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070212_10|title=South African LTTE
Connections Exposed, By Rohan Gunaratna|accessdate=2007-02-12}}</ref> and became involved in
15
the international campaigns of other liberation groups.<ref name="no_more_tears">{{cite

web|url=http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/nomoretearssister/pdf/press_kit.pdf|format=PDF|title=
RAJANI THIRANAGAMA BIOGRAPHY|accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref>
===As a human rights activist===
What she witnessed when she returned to Jaffna in 1986 made Rajini rethink her position on armed
struggle.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/books/eelam/hoole.htm|title=RAJANI
THIRANAGAMA HISTORY OF CONFLICT|accessdate=2006-11-22}} {{Dead link|date=November
2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> Under an agreement with the Sri Lankan government the Indian military
had been allowed into Sri Lanka to "disarm the Tigers" but this had re-ignited the war in which the
civilians were caught in the crossfire. In addition, there had been several rival armed Tamil gangs
that had been trained in different camps in South India and were fighting each other, and within the
different armed gangs. Another of Rajini's sisters, Vasuki, recalls in the documentary "No More
Tears" that "there was a lot of torture and killing between and within the liberation groups". There
were also abuses committed by the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) and the documentary reports
of rapes by the IPKF, Sri Lankan soldiers and the LTTE. Of particular concern is the statement by
Dayapala Thirinagama that the LTTE assumed that any woman who was raped would join the
organization, providing a motive for the terrorist organization to rape women and blame the IPKF or
army for the assault.
Disturbed that no one was standing up for the victims, Rajini Thirinagama and a small group of
academics at the Jaffna University began collecting evidence about what was being done to the
people of Jaffna and by whom. She continued to teach anatomy and try and keep the anatomy
course going at the university.
At the University of Jaffna, Rajini and some of her teacher colleagues founded the Jaffna branch of
the ''[[University Teachers for Human Rights]]''.
A few weeks before she was killed Rajini and her group of University Teachers for Human Rights
released their findings in a book titled ''[[The Broken Palmyra]]''.<ref name="The Broken
Palmyra">{{cite web|url=http://www.uthr.org/BP/Content.htm|title=The Broken
Palmyra|accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref> The book documents the violence in Jaffna at the time and
who was responsible for the worst human rights abuses in the Jaffna peninsula.<ref>{{cite web|url=
http://www.uthr.org/BP/A%20FOREWORD.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra

Forward|accessdate=2006-11-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite
web|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/books/Eelam/hoole.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra
review|accessdate=2006-11-23}} {{Dead link|date=November 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref>
===Assassination===
16
A few weeks after the publication of book ''The Broken Palmyra'', on September 21, 1989, she was
shot dead at [[Thirunelveli (Sri Lanka)|Thirunelvely]], Jaffna in front of her house by a gunman while
cycling back from work. The University Teachers for Human Rights organization and Rajini's family
(including her sisters and husband) accuse the [[LTTE]] of her murder; her husband says in the
documentary that LTTE members have told him this themselves, and that it was because she had
become "too big for her boots". <ref>{{cite web|
url=http://www.uthr.org/Reports/Report3/Rajaniwork.htm#_Toc515857060 |title= University
Teachers for Human Rights|accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref>
==Legacy and memorials==
===Documentary film===
In a documentary released worldwide in 2005, ''[[No More Tears Sister]]'', produced by the
[[National Film Board of Canada]],<ref>{{cite
web|url=http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/nomoretearssister/film.html|title=No More Tears Sister
Film|accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref> Rajini's life and her legacy are brought to life.
===Quotes===
Embracing [[feminism]] and a belief in [[human rights]], Dr, Rajini felt that women in particular were
the primary casualties of war;
{{cquote|''Men in battle garb, whether they come with swords or guns, on a horse or in armored
cars, the price of conquest seems heightened by the violation of women,''}}
{{cquote|''One day some gun will silence me and it will not be held by an outsider but by the son
born in the womb of this very society, from a woman with whom my history is shared,''}} wrote Dr.
Rajini in 1989, a few months before she was killed.
==See also==
*[[Sri Lankan Civil War]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
17
==External links==
*[http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume2/AppendixIII.htm Dr. Rajani Thiranagama: Her contribution to

the University Teachers for Human Rights (U.T.H.R.)]
*[http://samudaya.org/articles/archives/2005/06/no_more_tears_s.php No More Tears Sister -

Documentary]
*[http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/rajini.html For Rajini 23rd February 1954 * 21st September

1989 by Nalin Swaris]
{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}

{{Persondata
|NAME=Thiranagama, Rajini Rajasingham, Dr.
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Rajini Rajasingham
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Human rights activist
|DATE OF BIRTH=February 23, 1954
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Jaffna]]
|DATE OF DEATH=September 21, 1989
|PLACE OF DEATH=Jaffna
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiranagama, Rajini}}
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Tamil academics]]
[[Category:Minority rights activists]]
[[Category:Assassinated Sri Lankan activists]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan human rights activists]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Christians]]
[[Category:People murdered in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
18
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Colombo]]
Midweek Review
For Rajini
23rd February 1954 – 21st September 1989
by Nalin Swaris
I met Rajini Rajasingham-Thiranagama only once, in the Netherlands, in the
autumn of 1984. The Sri Lankan Workgroup, of which I was a founder,
organised a Sri Lanka Day, in Utrecht, in the aftermath of the terrible events of
the Black July of ‘83. We had invited the various Tamil political formations,
including the militant groups, with offices in London, to send representatives
to the Utrecht conference. Rajini came as a sympathiser of the LTTE. Not
surprisingly, most of the participants evinced the greatest interest in the
problems faced by the Tamil people.
Rajini was the most articulate and charismatic of the Tamil leaders from
London. Another comrade and I were the only two Sinhalese present. We kept
a polite, even reverent distance as Rajini spoke with earnest intensity about
the decades of humiliation suffered by the Tamil people, the savagery of
July’83 and the justness of the armed struggle for Tamil liberation. She knew
to distinguish between the Sinhala people and the perfidy of Sinhala
politicians in power.
Two young Dutch women of the Sri Lanka Workgroup and Rajini became
instant friends. Rajini was a faithful correspondent and we of the Workgroup
followed her activities after her return to Jaffna: Rajini’s indignation at the
treatment meted out to the people by the IPKF, her growing disillusionment
with the militant groups, her disassociation from the LTTE and the decision to
found the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) with a band of brave
colleagues. Then on the morning of September the 22nd 1989, one of Dutch
women of the Workgroup called me and in a voice broken with sobs, said,
"They have killed Rajini". I gritted my teeth, took a deep breath and cursed the
political thugs who ordered the elimination of an extraordinary human being
like Rajini, perhaps the noblest this nation has produced in the post-
19
independence period.
The encounter with Rajini in Utrecht has been seared into my memory. A
slight built woman in jeans and pullover, long dark tresses and large eyes
burning like coals. What I remember is her passion and the pure quality of it.
She dedicated herself to what she believed in with total commitment and
integrity. Rajini was a pilgrim of the absolute. She not only had the courage of
her convictions but more importantly also the courage to question her
convictions, when they seemed misdirected.
An Extraordinary Life
Who was Rajini Rajasingham-Thiranagama? And why should we remember her

with homage and gratitude? One of the most cherished tapes in my video
collection is a registration of the talk given by Dr. Brian Seneviratne at an
extraordinary meeting of the Queensland Tamil Association to commemorate
the murder of Rajini Rajasingham-Thiranagama. Knowing how much I admired
Rajini, a Tamil friend DHLed a copy to me in the Netherlands.
Brian Seneviratne had been reviled by Sinhala Nationalists as a ‘Tamil loving’

traitor. He was an outspoken supporter of the Tamil cause, but unlike some
latter day advocates of ‘substantial internal autonomy’, he did not mince his
words when the so-called liberators of the Tamil people became their worst
oppressors. He was not a crypto-racist who believed that if the Tamil people
are happy with tyrants, of what concern is it to us in the South, as long as we
have peace? Brian Seneviratne was visibly outraged by Rajini’s murder and
was fighting hard to contain his tears as he spoke. He knew Rajini from the
time she was a medical student in Colombo and he was on the teaching staff
of the Peradeniya Medical School. Rajini was a close friend of a niece of his
and they used to frequently visit his home in Colombo.
A brilliant student, Rajini obtained grades in all her examinations and after
passing out began her teaching career at the Anatomy Department of the
Medical Faculty of the University of Jaffna. She was awarded a commonwealth
scholarship to do her postgraduate studies at one of London’s most
prestigious medical schools the Middlesex University Hospital. She then
moved on to the University of Liverpool do research on Comparative Anatomy
for her M.D. Brian Seneviratne pointed out that after obtaining her doctorate
Rajini need not have returned to Sri Lanka: "With the research work she had
done, her training and publications in international medical journals, Rajini
had only to indicate that she wished to stay on in the West.
There is a dearth of qualified anatomists all over the world and people would
have fallen over each other to offer her a job". Neither did Rajini on her return
set up an NGO shop in Colombo. She had developed enough contacts in the
West and Western money-bags would have rushed to fund her if she wanted
to monitor human rights violations in Jaffna, from a villa in Colombo. But she
20
went back to her beloved university and almost single-handedly opened up

the Anatomy Department, cleaning up the rubble of the battle scarred rooms
with her bare hands.
As her friend Amrit Wilson recalled after Rajini was killed, "She taught a
colossal 48 hrs a week. But she found time to set up the university Teachers
for Human Rights Group and in the last few months she also produced and
acted in a play about rape and violence against women in the context of war".
She and some of her colleagues saw with anguish how the fabric of Jaffna
society was collapsing before their eyes.
The peace that the Indian army was keeping had become a reign of terror. The
various liberators were meting out rough justice and instant death to
dissenters and to those whom they decided were traitors to their particular
recipe for achieving Eelam.
That is when the decision was made to found the UTHR(J). To Brian
Seneviratne again: "I do not wish to speculate as to who killed Rajini
Thiranagama. Everyone had a motive, the IPKF, the EPRLF and the LTTE. The
more relevant question is: "Why was his extraordinary girl killed?" Then
holding up the first and second UTHR reports and the pre-publication issue of
the Broken Palmyrah, he said, "This is why she was killed." He then went on to
cite atrocities committed by the Indian army, the TELO, the EPRLF and the
LTTE, recorded in the Broken Palmyrah. He said that knowing the calibre of the
authors, he could personally vouch for the authenticity of the events recorded
and in any case, he said the writers have gone to the trouble of explaining the
way they had gathered their facts individually, and as a group.
A New Standard for Human Rights Work
The UTHR set a new standard for human rights works and a new work style for
gathering information about human rights violations. Rajini expressed the
ideal which inspired them as follows: "A life is a life. Whoever takes life must
be exposed independently of party feeling. We wanted to show, that in the
first place we valued life". For Rajini and the founder members of the UTHR (J)
‘human’ meant all the humans that inhabit this benighted Isle, and life meant
all life, not just Tamil, Muslim or Sinhala lives. Their indignation against human
rights violations was not selective - a tactic of partisan politics. Rajini was
particularly concerned with the plight of Jaffna women.
Whenever reports reached her of atrocities committed against women she

would get on to her bicycle and rushed to the spot to offer comfort and record
the atrocity with meticulous care. Rajini’s reports and analysis of the physical
and psychological damage suffered by Tamil women was titled, "I have no
more tears sister". Every one of the founders were (are) highly qualified
academics. But they did not work from comfortable city-offices, letting their
field workers do ‘the dirty work’, after which they could sift the material and
21
send it off together their learned comment, to interested present and

potential donors.
They were there on the spot and did not shrink from letting their hands be
stained by the blood of victims. They continued their work in Jaffna even after
Rajini was killed and fled Jaffna because their lives were in imminent danger.
These eminent scholars have lived clandestine lives in the South, and the
people who gather information about human rights violations in the North and
the East and smuggle them to the South do so at great peril to their lives.
The UTHR(J) members who work with meagre resources and who have
resisted the temptation of becoming a respectable big NGO, remain an
embarrassment to some ‘peace-process-championing’ NGO wallahs.
A Greek Tragedy
Like a heroine in a Greek tragedy, Rajini knew that the drama of her life was
unfolding inexorably towards a deadly denouement. But it was a destiny she
had freely determined and consciously taken into her own hands: "One day a
gun will silence me. And it will not be held by an outsider, but by a son born in
the womb of this very society - from a woman with whom my history is
shared".
Her murder and that of outstanding Tamil humanitarians like Kanadasamy and
Thiruchelvam exemplify the tragic course of the Tamil Liberation struggle;
begun as valiant resistance to Sinhala-State oppression, it degenerated into
hatred of the Sinhala people.
The hatred then turned inward into a frightening implosion of Tamil on Tamil
violence, with the LTTE emerging, through rivers of blood, as the "sole
representative of the Tamil-speaking people". What Rajini wrote in early 1989,
is equally valid today: "There are no mass organisations which can effectively
mobilise the people, or voice their needs and opinions ... there were all the
externals of change: murals, Tiger courts, ribbon cutting by the Tigers! But the
people have no role. They are spectators, bystanders, unable to determine the
course of their struggle". Rajini did not spare our intellectuals either: "Our
intellectuals should have been the catalysts to energise the benumbed
community" (in the South today, we have, cricket, all night pop concerts and
Sportoramas to distract a besotted community NS.) "In many instances they
have sidestepped confrontational issues... their unprincipled conduct
reflecting merely a desire to create niches for themselves in which they can
survive with the trappings of respectability and nominal power".
Just and Enduring Peace and Rajini
Rajini’s voice has not been silenced. She continues to speak to us through her
writings passionate, limped, lyrical. She was a not an ivory academic writing
22
abstruse and arid pieces for a Colombo conference. Rajini did not try to feel
with her head.
She thought with her heart. A passion for truth and justice, love for her
wounded people and pain, exasperation with hypocrisy, are palpable in her
writings. It as if she knew her time was running out and was writing with
running feet. Rajini realised that whether in making war or in making peace
what is at stake is our common humanity and the right that all of us, especially
the least of us have, to live in freedom and with dignity: that neither national
liberation nor national security justifies the trampling of basic human rights,
especially the right to life.
The first round of talks have ended with both sides expressing satisfaction and
the spectator-people expressing relief. The two negotiating parties, the LTTE
and the Government(s) of Sri Lanka have a horrendous record of gross human
rights violations and crimes against humanity. Torture is routinely practised in
LTTE camps and in our police stations. Torture is endemic to our criminal
investigation system.
There is no difference in the ferocity of Sinhala on Sinhala and Tamil on Tamil

violence. If and when a peace is settled what sort of society will we have in
‘the autonomous region’ and in the rest of the country where corrupt and
cynical politicians gave impetus to the will for separation? This is the question
which Rajini asked during the ‘Indian peace’ and which the UTHR(J) continues
to ask. As the negotiators whittle out their peace, like the ghost of Hamlet’s
father, the spectre of Rajini haunts the battlements of Sattahip.
Any genuine peacemaker or intellectual worthy of his of her salt, including

dottori and professori, must have the courage to "speak to it’.
23
2006 Tamil Canadian Fundraising

http://www.tamilcanadian.com/article/4671
My Thanks to those in Canada and USA
By: Brian Senewiratne, Brisbane, Australia
After all the generous comments about me and ‘awards’, it is time to thank all those who helped me
during my visit to the US and Canada in October 2006. It was the most gratifying ‘mission’ I have
been on, in the past three decades that I have been campaigning for the cause of the Tamil people.
Ilankai Tamil Sangam
It all started when the Sangam invited me to address the 29th Annual General Meeting on October
14, 2006.
I am not the first Sinhalese to be so honoured. The late Adrian Wijemanne was the Chief Guest in
1997. His keynote address, “Amity, not Unity” , is even more relevant today than it was a decade
ago. It sets out the historical basis on which we can confidently predict the final outcome of the
liberation struggle of the Tamil people – the establishment of a separate State, Eelam.
My stance has been as a humanitarian and someone who opposes injustice (as was Adrian’s) –
indeed a series of injustices - done to the Tamil people by a succession of Sinhalese Governments
over half a century.
I accepted the invitation for two reasons, despite compelling reasons why I should be in Brisbane.
Firstly, it was an honour for me, a Sinhalese, to be invited to address a major event on the US Tamil
calendar. Secondly, with the restart of hostilities despite a so-called Ceasefire, the expatriate Tamil
community was losing hope and was confused, if not despondent, and it was imperative to clarify
the situation and call for action, not despondency.
In view of some damaging comments made by foreign politicians and others from outside Sri Lanka,
and the serious consequences these have had in that country, there was a need to apprise these
people, of what was going on in that country which is very different from Sri Lankan Government
propaganda.
I suggested to Sangam that in addition to speaking at the AGM, I should address public meetings in
other parts of the US and Canada and see whoever should be seen to apprise them of what was
24
going on in Sri Lanka. The timing was unfortunate in that it was three weeks before the US mid-term
elections and politicians were more concerned about getting themselves elected than in the
slaughter of Tamils in some distant land which had no oil.
I greatly appreciate the Executive of Sangam for making this visit possible.
The AGM
The AGM was divided into three parts – the morning which was medical (doctors got ‘Brownie
‘points for attending), the afternoon was political (the story that Sri Lankans got de-merit points
from the GOSL for attending this is untrue), and the evening, a dinner and social. I had the fortune (?
misfortune) of having to address all three.
The entire meeting (medical, political and social) seems to have been organized by Tammy Sriharan,
the non-Sri Lankan wife of the President of Tamil Sangam, Sri Haran [Professor Sri Sriharan, ex-
professor of Jaffna University Medical School]. Never have I seen someone so obsessed with ‘getting
it right’. To say that anyone is indispensable could be challenged. What cannot be challenged is that
this meeting would not have been the success it was, without the 110% effort put in by Tammy. At a
personal level, I have nothing but gratitude for the scores of telephone calls she made to me in
Australia and all round the US and Canada, arranging all the crazy things I wanted to do, and what
others wanted me to do, with multiple changes at minimal notice.
The morning session
This was organized and chaired by Dr Karunyan Arulanantham, a long-time campaigner for the Tamil
cause, with special interests in refugees and the delivery of medical services to people who do not
exist in the eyes of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) [i.e: medical services in LTTE-controlled
areas].
There were some outstanding papers, the best by Dr Yasodha Natkunam,

[http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Yasodha_Natkunam/video] the daughter of one of the finest
cardio-thoracic surgeons that Sri Lanka has produced but could not retain, like so many others. Yaso
is famous in her own right and Natkunam is in danger of being referred to as ‘Yaso’s father’.
Yaso is a Consultant Pathologist in the US who has spent time in the North of Sri Lanka setting up
pathology services. Having gone down this road in 1968 – trying to set up a clinical research
laboratory in Kandy, starting from ‘ground-zero’, and with maximum obstruction from ‘above’, I
could appreciate the problems she faced and the way she handled them. Her address must be made
available on a DVD.
While experts in their field (Gastroenterologists, Endocrinologists, Psychiatrists, Pathologists, and

others) spoke on subjects in their specialty, I, a Physician, spoke on Post-Traumatic Depression,
which was not in my area of expertise and in which I have no special interest or training. I simply set
out my experience over 30 years in Australia, dealing with supposedly ‘medical’ problems, but which
turned out to be related to, or precipitated by, events in Sri Lanka.
I was introduced by Professor Sriharan, one of the finest brains that Sri Lanka has ever produced
(and lost, like so many others). The loss of Sriharan was serious. He is a Colombo graduate, adopted
25
by Kandy (when I was there). I had no part to play in his training although he made out that I had. He
ended up as the first Professor of Medicine in Jaffna, and then lost to the UK. When I heard of his
tragic loss, I said that Sri Lanka did not deserve someone like him.
I am obviously not going to evaluate my talk. All I will say is that a single generous comment by Dr N.
Balasubramanium, a Pathologist from New York, gave me enough encouragement to have this talk
put on a DVD and made available. Unfortunately the recording was not great in that while it is
possible to see (and hear) me, the more important slides cannot be seen. This will have to be
rectified but might take a few of weeks.
The afternoon session
A book release A Path to Purposeful Living – The validity and relevance of Thirukkural to modern
times by the author, V.P.Palam, was followed by the political talks.
1. Humanitarian Law and Self-determination by Karen Parker JD.
Karen is a Los Angeles-based human rights lawyer specializing in armed conflict (humanitarian) law
and human rights. She has represented non-governmental organizations at the United Nations, and
has addressed the armed conflict in Sri Lanka since 1983. She has presented more than 30 written
and oral statements to the UN on the application of humanitarian law to the armed conflict in Sri
Lanka and on the situation of the Tamils. She has submitted testimony on the conflict to US
Congress, and at the Parliaments in France, Australia, United Kingdom, and other countries. Much of
what she said has been published, on the net and elsewhere.
2. Genocide of the Tamils, A Failed State and possible Solutions by me
I set out the evidence for genocide of the Tamil people by the GOSL and introduced the concept of
‘economic genocide’, ‘educational genocide’ and ‘cultural genocide’, being the deliberate
destruction of the economy, education and culture of a specific ethnic group. I will put this on the
net.
Sri Lanka satisfies the criteria for a ‘Failed State’. To claim that it is not is deception. This too will be
on the net, although it is already well documented.
As for solutions, I presented the reasons why a separate Tamil State (and a separate Sinhala State)
was the only possible solution today. I will put an expanded version on the net.
3. Politics of Relief: Humanitarian work in NorthEastern Sri Lanka by Nimmi Gowrinathan
Nimmi is a PhD student in UCLA. She has spent some time in Sri Lanka and presented the ground
realities of relief – very different from the false propaganda of the GOSL. This was an excellent paper
which needs wide dissemination to show the international community what the Tamil people in the
North and East are going through.
The formal session ended with Karen Parker conducting a Workshop: The War – Critical issues there
and here.
The evening social
26
This was very well patronized with more than 300 people (or so it appeared to me), turning up. The
Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, New Jersey, was packed.
Sadena Thevarajah and Prem Jayanthan from the Tamil Youth Organisation spoke on Getting Youth
Involved. This is an important problem since it is the youth who will have to take the baton from us.
Nimmi Gowrinathan repeated her experience in humanitarian work since the audience was larger.
I spoke on Why I stand where I do. It was a social gathering and I was asked to keep the diners
amused. Unfortunately, I am not a comedian, nor did I think the situation back home warranted
amusement. I thought that informing people was more important than amusing them. However, I
did go over the nonsense in the Mahavamsa which produced the necessary amusement. I pointed
out that I was a member of the Lion race, a direct descendent from a Lion mating with an oversexed
Princess. It had to be true, it is in the Mahavamsa.
I was simply repeating what that outstanding Tamil journalist, S.Sivanayagam, has written in The Pen
and the Gun, to which he invited me to write a Foreword. When I told him that it will be the kiss of
death for the book, his defiant response was, If people will not buy the book because you wrote the
Foreword, damn them. That was Siva.
The Lion story belatedly reminds me of an event in 1956. Bandaranaike was presenting his infamous
Sinhala Only Act. Protesting Tamil MPs were being mauled outside Parliament by Sinhalese
hoodlums. The MPs entered Parliament, bleeding and bandaged, to roars of laughter and jeers,
“Wounds of War”, from the Sinhalese MPs. Dr E.M.V.Naganathan, not a man to be intimidated,
muttered something like, “When the Tamil Tiger rises, the Sinhala Lion will go with its tail between
its legs.” I wish the prophetic gentleman was there to see it ‘come to pass’.
I will put the more important parts of my address on the net.
I ended my address raising an imaginary glass in two toasts. The first was to two remarkable women,
neither of them Sri Lankans, whom I had met for the first time 48 hours earlier – Avis Sri Jayantha
who runs the Sangam website, and Tammy Sriharan, whom I have already referred to.
I was able to see staff from the US Senate, House of Representatives, the United Nations section on
the Prevention of Genocide, the renowned newspaper, Washington Post, and Human Rights
Watch (which, incidentally, has a higher standing in the USA than Amnesty International).
During my talk I think Tammy was still running around, I doubt if she heard my toast to her. She is of
Irish background, with a colour in keeping with her genetics. There she was in a yellow saree, looking
as Tamil as they come. Had someone put some dark stripes on that saree, she could have been a
Tiger, as I have been called many times – indeed a Tamil Tiger Terrorist. Incidentally, if I am one, so
are the Bandaranaikes since my father comes from that clan.
Tammy makes the best Thosai I have ever eaten, a sad reflection on my Tamil wife. The second toast
was to ‘Eelam’ which will come despite the best efforts of the Sinhala leadership, present, past and
future, to prevent it. They, and the Sinhala extremists, can delay but not, in any way,prevent it.
History, as set out by Adrian Wijemanne a decade ago at a similar meeting, will not have it
otherwise.
27
A passing word about Avis’ husband, the brilliant Dr Sri Sri Jayantha. now with IBM. When Sri Lanka
loses people like him (and many others like him), it is game, set and match. If they did not have to
leave Sri Lanka, that country would have been a leader in Asia – an ‘Asian Tiger’, if you pardon the
pun. Hopefully they will return, albeit on an intermittent basis, to Tamil Eelam, when it moves
fromde facto to de jure.
Finally, a Vote of Thanks by the President of llankai Tamil Sangam, the no-nonsense Sri Haran, who
impressed me greatly.
This was followed by music and dance, Classical Fusion, they called it, presented by Selvi
Chandranathan and her students. It was pretty loud, perhaps my ears are too old to cope with a lot
of vibration. I sloped off to bed at 2 am, not quite sure whether it was 2am (USA), 5pm (Brisbane), or
neither.
At breakfast, in a touching gesture, Karen and I were presented with honour-plaques. I did not see
what Karen’s read. Mine was:-
An “International crusader” for Human Rights and Dignity all over the World and Promoter of Justice
for All
I thought it was an exaggeration but I appreciated the stress on ‘Justice’. That is precisely what I
want – justice for the people of Sri Lanka, and that is what is being denied to them by a succession of
Sri Lankan Governments.
My plaque was presented by a former medical registrar of mine. He was disarmingly honest when he
said, “I did not like Dr Senewiratne when I worked for him. Nothing I could do was right”. It is
probably a sentiment shared by many others who do not have the honesty to say so.
Thanks to Sri Haran, I was able to see Wakeley Paul in his home. He was too unwell to come for the
meeting. I suspect Wakeley had more than a little to do with the invitation to me to address the
AGM. He is a fine soul, totally committed to the Tamil cause. I was most upset to see him so unwell,
but every time I veered towards his medical problems, he veered away! I was delighted to hear later
that he was miraculously on the mend. I’d like to believe that it was the therapeutic effect of my
visit, but I think the medicines is on are more likely to be responsible. He had better be around to
usher in Tamil Eelam, for which he has been campaigning for so many years and with such
dedication.
Wakeley, named after the famous British surgeon, Sir Cecil Wakeley, is the son of one of the most
famous and finest Professors of Surgery that Sri Lanka has ever had, Professor Milroy Paul (‘Polo’ to
his students). Milroy Paul must surely be turning in his grave when he sees what has become of his
beloved Department of Surgery which was, for many years, one of the best in the world and one
that has trained so many top Sri Lankan surgeons. I came all the way from Cambridge, just to go on
one of his teaching rounds.
Washington
From New York, it was a drive to Washington – my ‘chauffeur’, Dr Saba Kulatungam, Cardiologist,
and his wife, Dr Mano (Navaratnam), a former student of mine. We discussed everything from
28
Buddhism to Eelam. In Washington, ‘home’ was with Arichandran, ex-World Bank, and a life-long
friend. It was Arichandran’s father, Dr K.Kanagaratnam, who first invited my family to Jaffna in the
1940s. It was on this trip that I, a 14 year old boy, told his parents, “Until this area is separated from
the South, this area will never develop”. It was an early call for Eelam and recognition that
development, or its lack, was the crucial issue. Until that is addressed, there will be no Peace in Sri
Lanka.
When Sinhala patriots decided to burn Arichandran’s home and very nearly his entire family in July
1983, they were depriving Sri Lanka of a competent accountant and a gifted tennis player at the top
of the pile. That is Sinhala ‘patriotism’.
Arichandran showed me a book, Ramanathan of Ceylon – the life of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan.
With generosity typical of his family, he said, “Nothing would please me more than to present this
book to you, but it was given to me by my father”. This extraordinary book, published in some
backyard in Jaffna, needs to be reprinted. It has invaluable references to Tamils standing up for the
Sinhala leaders, falsely accused and imprisoned by the British in the 1915 anti-Muslim riots.
Anagarika Dharmapala, (1864-1933), the Buddhist revivalist, praised Ramanathan, Solicitor-General,
for getting them freed. He says:
“The day that you (Ramanathan) are taken away from Ceylon, from that day there will be none to
defend the poor, neglected Singhalese. They are a doomed people with none to guide and protect
them. Unhappy Singhalese!”
Dharmapala, who, before his Buddhist-slanted name-change, was a Don Carolis, son of the well-
known furniture maker. I hope he will return to Sri Lanka from wherever he is, and see the damage
done by yellow-robed hoodlums and political opportunists, as a result of his ‘activities’.
Toronto
From Washington, I got to Toronto to address more meetings, a radio and TV interview, ducking out
to Boston while I was there. The biggest was a dinner organised by the Tamil Canadian Congress,
chaired by Fr. Dr Joseph Chandrakanthan, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Bioethics,
University of Toronto. I have known him for two decades, from the time he was studying theology in
Ottawa. He is an articulate and forceful speaker who would have ‘disappeared’ had he been in
Jaffna, as his brother priests have done.
My address to the huge audience has been recorded and will be available on DVD. It sure was
comprehensive, but at the cost of intolerable hunger inflicted by me on those who had paid dearly
for food that did not seem to appear (because of the length of my address).
There was ‘audience participation’ in a big way, one of my former students appreciating the stance I
took on ‘ragging’, which in Sri Lanka is a form of sadism which merits criminal prosecution (one
student broke her spine and later died).
At long last, access to food was possible. Then came yet another ‘Award’. It read:
For Your Tireless Contribution in Upholding Justice and Human Rights”.
Again, I appreciated the reference to ‘Justice’.
29
I did remind them that an ‘award’ was unnecessary since most of the problems in Sri Lanka came
from my relatives, the Bandaranaikes. I can think of no other family in any other country that has
been responsible for wrecking a country and turning it from one with a bright future to one with no
future.
Much as I appreciated the ‘Award’, I had to admit that I valued another ‘Award’ more. This was a T-
shirt I was given many years ago which reads, ”I support Tamil Eelam”. On it is a map of Sri Lanka
with almost half the island shaded to indicate ‘Eelam’! Why not? There will be quantitatively less of a
“Failed Sinhala State”.
I was delighted that the ‘Award’ was presented by Dr Sri Bavan Sri Skandarajah, whose guest I was in
Toronto. Bavan and his highly committed and talented wife, Usha, (who wrote that undeserved
‘Ode’ to me, and the much more appropriate Maveerar poem), could not have been more helpful.
They took me to see a wonderful lady, the wife of my friend Joseph Pararajasingham. She was still
devastated after the outrageous murder of that fine man on Christmas Day 2005. Joseph and
Sugunam have stayed in my home in Brisbane (where I taught him to make ‘godamba roti’).
Bavan and Usha did everything for me, including repairing my shoes which, like Sri Lanka, had fallen
apart, but which, unlike the latter, was readily fixed. They put their lives on hold for the duration of
my visit. I addressed two meetings of University students in the University of Toronto (campus in
Toronto and Scarborough). This is an important area to develop – getting the students involved. The
audience participation indicated the level of interest of these young people, many of whom had
never been to Sri Lanka and whose only connection was their name. It is crucial to take this forward
and build a ‘Federation of Tamil Students’ across the world and link them up with those in Jaffna
(who are facing some terrible problems at the moment).
I barely made it to a Radio interview on CTR (Canadian Tamil Radio) conducted by Wijey
Kulathungam. It went on for double the allocated time because of questions and comments from the
listeners.
I was delighted to be able to reach out to ‘ordinary’ Tamils through this Radio program, an activity
which I think is crucial and which I hope will be the primary focus, when I next go to Toronto (or
elsewhere).
The radio interview was preceded by an excellent interview on television (TVi – Tamil Vision Int.)
superbly conducted by the articulate Vijay Thamil Priyan. It was a wide ranging interview which is
available on DVD and should be re-broadcast in other countries. I will be glad to send anyone a copy.
I was delighted to meet two totally dedicated young men, ‘Danton’ and the outstanding Esan
Satkunarajah whose enthusiasm and commitment know no bounds. No one among the younger
Tamils has impressed me more than these young men. It was great encouragement to me to meet
them. I was deeply moved by an account on Sangam of my time in Toronto.
Boston
Boston is home to a longstanding friend of mine, Sri Srithilliampalam whose contribution to the
Tamil cause in the US has been substantial. Sri is a remarkable fellow who has contacts (to this very
day) in the US State Department and in Boston. It was he who was responsible for the famous
30
Massachusetts Resolution passed in 1979 – which rocked the J.R.Jayawardene Government. It was
an outright condemnation of the Sri Lanka Government and a declaration of “Eelam Day” – 22ndMay.
It was passed by the Massachusetts State Legislature – an unprecedented act by any State in the US.
Sri went on to celebrate this and raised the “Eelam Flag” in Boston in 1981. To this very day, his car
(as old as himself) carries a number plate ‘EELAM 1’.
I addressed a meeting of Tamils in Boston on 22 November 2006. It was regrettable that significant
numbers did not show up because of senseless in-fighting among Tamils. This self-destructive
activity must stop. We are fighting one of the most brutal and ruthless regimes Sri Lanka has ever
had. At a time such as this (for that matter, at any time), it is outrageous that expatriate Tamils
should fight each other over issues which are, at the most, trivial.
From Boston, back to Toronto and then to the West Coast.
San Francisco
A meeting of expatriate Tamils was organized in San Jose by Tom Fernando (a Tamil, despite his
name) married to my ‘adopted Tamil daughter’ and student, Dr Christine Edwards from Kayts. I have
never been to San Francisco without staying with the Fernandos in Sacramento (and never will).
However, chaos on the flights to San Francisco left me no option but a hotel – much to the distress
of Christine and Tom.
The meeting in the San Francisco Bay area was organised by the Tamils of Northern California,
whose President is SivaRaja Swaminathan. The work of getting the meeting together fell on Vimal
Rajagopal, Amaran Wijay and, of course, Tom Fernando. Here are quiet, dedicated people who work
in the background doing the hard yards, while we get the applause.
Donald Gnanakone [brother of LTTE shipping boss ‘Captain’ Charles Gnanakone] came all the way
from Los Angeles for the meeting. He has written more than anyone I know of, on the Tamil struggle.
My computer had to be fitted with a larger hard disc to cope with his emails. How he does it, beats
me. One can think what one wants about his writings, but what cannot be in doubt is his
commitment to the Tamil cause. It is absolute.
That night, I left for my second home - Lancaster in Southern California.
Lancaster
Here live expatriate Tamils who put their money where their mouth is. Dr Karunyan and Dr.Inpam
Arulanantham, Dr and Mrs Shan Sunder, my Tamil brother Dr Moorthy, Kandiah Perinpanathan, and
the silent, totally committed, Harichandra (Hari), and others.
Hari is the living example of a truism, “If you want something done, pick the busiest person and ask
him to do it”. For all things in Lancaster, I pick Hari and it is done. This included driving all the way
from Lancaster to pick me up from Los Angeles airport at midnight and driving back, then feeding
me, and then discussing what practical things we can do in the present crisis, and what can be done
to move the issue to the next level. The Lancaster Tamils have an invigorating effect on me which is
impossible to describe.
31
The public meeting in Lancaster (actually Burbank), was chaired by Karunyan. The comments I made
about Professor Sriharan, apply to Karunyan in full measure. Sri Lanka was too engulfed in anti-Tamil
racism to enable Karunyan (an endocrinologist), and Inpam (a pathologist), to make their
contribution to Sri Lanka.
I dealt with the problem of a lack of information – people, in particular non-Sri Lankans, simply not
knowing what is going on in that country. The suggestion I made was to produce a ‘Basic
Information’ 45 minute video, setting out, especially for non-Sri Lankans, what the conflict is all
about. This is imperative if the GOSL disinformation campaign is to be countered. It has to assume
zero knowledge of Sri Lanka. Starting from some basic information on the geography, and regional
climatic differences, it has to go on to administrative problems, the centralization of power in
Colombo by the colonial British, the developmental neglect of the Tamil areas, the handing over of
the country to a Government that will always be Sinhalese-dominated, the discrimination of the
Tamil ‘minority, non-violent protests by the Tamils, futile Pacts abrogated unilaterally by the GOSL,
the failure of the democratic process to deliver justice to the Tamils, the inevitable resort to an
armed struggle to free the Tamil people from Sinhala-domination and discrimination, and the
response of the GOSL, a decimation of the Tamil civilian population and the area they live in, and
now, to a genocide of the Tamil people and a humanitarian crisis. I said that I will be glad to make
this ‘Information video’.
The highlight of the meeting, from my perspective, was a question by 7 year old Neelan Nanda
Ganshan, “If all the people are Sri Lankans, why are they fighting?” If I could, I’d abduct that boy and
adopt him. Here is a leader-in-the-making and a thinker.
Addressing Neelan’s question as best as I could, I said that my cousin, Chandrika Kumaratunga, when
she was President, in an interview in South African radio, said that the Tamils were asking for a part
of Sri Lanka and, hold your breath, “They are not even the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka”. Alas for
her abysmal lack of knowledge – or is it history being re-written in line with Sinhala ethnic
chauvinism – the cause of the ‘fight’.
It was then time to head off to Los Angeles for the flight back, but not before a final hug at the
airport. Professor Reggie Edgerton and his wife Monica were there for a momentary hug. Reggie was
one of the outstanding Americans from the famous UCLA to come to Kandy and work with me on
the health of the Plantation Tamils. He was disturbed to hear that the contents of that beautiful
research laboratory, the only clinical research laboratory in Sri Lanka, built by me on a personal grant
from the Nuffield Foundation, was smashed by hoodlums for no obvious reason. A senseless act, but
what in Sri Lanka is not? [see ‘Brian’s Lab’ documentaries about this clandestine biowarfare
laboratory].
For those who were in Peradeniya, 1966-1976, there is booklet by me What I have taught and learnt
in Sri Lanka - The musings of a senile teacher. This is what I presented to former students at a
reunion in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. I had lost the floppy disc, but have now found it. I guess
Sangam is not the place to publish this, but I will be glad to send it to anyone by email. It is worth a
read. It will take you back to Kandy. I arrived in Brisbane just in time to start my Medical Clinic – 15
minutes late.
32
Was the effort worthwhile? I do not know, time will tell. The purpose of this article is not to evaluate
success or failure but to thank the many people, some whose names I cannot even remember, for
enabling me to do what I set out to do – “wake up the sleeping Tamils”, and inform those who do
not know, or do not want to know, about the suffering of the Tamil people, now a humanitarian
crisis, and to convince everybody of the absolute need for Tamil Eelam.
The three messages I wanted to leave were:-
1. Don’t be intimidated, don’t be afraid. To make expatriate Tamils fearful, is the name of the game,
in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. It is a carefully crafted strategy between the GOSL and these
governments. If you cave in and become frightened, they win. No one is asking you to do anything
illegal. If helping our people in the North and East, abandoned by their Government, indeed
brutalized by their Government, is illegal, challenge it we should, challenge it we must. No
Government which claims to be democratic and civilized can penalize people for helping civilians
facing decimation at the hands of a brutal and barbaric Government.
Unjust laws should be challenged, even broken. The British Raj declared that Indians should not
make salt. Mahatma Gandhi challenged it, went on his famous ‘salt-march’, and made salt. India got
its Independence and prospered, and the British Empire collapsed.
2. No humanitarian organization e.g. the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has been banned in
any country. The humanitarian needs, including the massive problem of refugees in the North and
East is being addressed by the TRO – a recognized and registered NGO – and the recipient of an
award by ex-President Kumaratunga. The freezing of the TRO bank account in Sri Lanka is illegal and
is being challenged in the Supreme Court [note: TRO was designatd a terrorist-supporting
organization and a conduit for LTTE funds by the US State Department]. With the abysmal level to
which the justice system in Sri Lanka has sunk, it may be necessary to take this to an International
Court since it affects the lives of thousands. The blocking of funds of the TRO will not be upheld in
any Court outside Sri Lanka. It might not even be in Sri Lanka.
3. This is a struggle we cannot lose. In fact, Eelam is already established and functioning well, as
documented by Professor Kristian Stokke, University of Oslo, who worked in the de facto State of
Tamil Eelam. His extensive paper is on the net (eelamnation.org), and has been published in an
international journal. A de facto State will move to a de jure State as surely as day follows night. We
have the overwhelming force of history behind us to point the way to the future. The future will be a
separate Tamil State (and a separate Sinhala State). Of that, let there be no doubt. Thanks to
the Mahavamsa!
Courtesy: TamilCanadian - December 20, 2006

Published on: Dec 20, 2006 11:36:59 GMT
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Comments (2)
Dr Brian Senivirutne Your courage and tireless effort to make the world understand the facts in Sri-
lanka is applaudable. No one could pay back for your selfless effort. We can only pray and hope
more of your kind reincarnate among the Sinhalese to deliver the wishes of the Tamils- Tamil Eelam.
33
You have done a wise thing that I suggested in Tamil Canadian under the heading "The need of the
hour" which is to produce a video giving the bacground of Sri- Lankan history and the path that led
to the present Human Rights violations and the contravention of minority convention of the Un
1992.I suggested that well known personalities such as Michael Palin or Michael Woods or George
Alagiah to narrate
Amirtha from United Kingdom on Dec 20, 2006 15:35:00 GMT
Thank you very much SIR.I hope to hear more from you in the coming years too.
Ravi from Netherlands on Dec 20, 2006 14:50:05 GMT
From Tamil Canadian re: Jaffna University (March 2003)
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/article/1691
University of Jaffna and its vice

chancellors
By: Professor Karthigesu Sivathamby
On 19 March (2003) Professor Balasundarampillai handed over to Professor A. Mohanadas the

reigns of the office of vice chancellorship of the University of Jaffna. Professor Balasundarampillai
served for two full terms and will be remembered for the way he widened the University of Jaffna.
Under him, the Jaffna University saw many changes. Almost, most of which were within the Arts
Faculty. He created new departments of Psychology, Arts and Design and established links for the
University of Jaffna with British universities. Assuming office after the vice chancellorship of
Professor K. Kunaratnam, a great physicist and a man known for his strength of his convictions,
Balasundarampillai had to face the problems that arose with the Armed Forces taking over the
administration of the Peninsula.
But the change over was smooth and Balasundarampillai’s personality helped to smoothen the
change.
This brings me to the point of importance of the Jaffna University and the place it occupies in Jaffna
Society and perhaps Sri Lankan Tamil Society as a whole. University of Jaffna at its beginning in 1974
when Parameshwara College Jaffna and Jaffna College Vaddukoddai were taken over to constitute
the Jaffna campus of the University of Sri Lanka. It was a dream come true for the educationists of
Jaffna for there had been clamoring for a university for quite sometime. Jaffna had the distinction of
having Jaffna College, the higher educational institution run by the American Mission with one of the
best libraries in the country.
In spite of the resentment of the take over of the major Protestant Christian institutions, the campus
was given a firm foundation and a good start by Professor Kailasapathy as its first president. He
34
along with Professor Indrapala provided a firm foundation for the development of Arts and
Humanities. It is important to remember the services of Professor Kanagasabapathy, the first dean
of the Science Faculty who was responsible for recruiting some of the very eminent Tamil scientists
and mathematicians teaching at Peradeniya and Colombo. Thus came Kunaratnam, Maheswaran,
Tharmaratnam and others, under whom the Science faculty met great strives. Kailasapathy and
Indrapala in spite of the criticism they faced built up an Arts faculty with a difference. That soon
earned the reputation of being a respected institution. At the time the Jaffna campus was started,
there was also a Sinhala Stream and even to this day the University of Jaffna has a very good
collection of Sinhala books reminding us of the wide base. Professor Sucharita Gamalath was
professor of Sinhala with such distinguished scholar as Sunil Ariyaratna were teaching Sinhala.
Jaffna University was also given a Medical Faculty and Professor Hoover, a veteran biochemist was
placed in charge of organizing the Medical Faculty [who is Professor Hoover?]. Jaffna University soon
became more than a regional university. It was perhaps more national in spirit than some of the
national Universities.
Equally, if not more, important was the fact that the University of Jaffna and its campus was also the
fertile field in which the seedlings of the Jaffna militant youth movements began to take shape as a
well developed youth organization. The year 1974 is a landmark in the escalation of the violence on
the people by the security forces. 1974 was the year the Fourth International Conference in Tamil
was held in Jaffna and six Tamil youths were electricuted to death. Today after quarter of a century,
one should read Ravi’s “ Kalam Ahi Vantha Kathai” (The story of the aging of Jaffna) referring to how
youth militancy had to become a way of life in Jaffna and in the Tamil Districts. The Jaffna Campus
very much like the Vidyothaya Campus was the centre of youth militancy. If the JVP in its early days
found Vidyothaya and its Gangodawila environs a suitable place for their development, the youth
militants of Jaffna also found the Thirunelvely Campus and its environment a stimulating centre for
developing themselves.
As much as it was in Vidyothaya, in Jaffna too the University Teachers did not know what was
happening. Only from later history we know how Mahinda Wijesekera and other Leaders arose from
within the Vidyothaya. Like wise at Thirunelvely too the Tigers, the PLOTE, EROS and more
importantly the EPRLF had their base. It was not so much of an underground activity hatching plans
secretly against the State and the Security Forces. There were open discussions about the political
future of the Tamils with Sinhala intellectuals like Newton Gunasinghe, Dayan Jayatillake and others
addressing the Tamil students. If I remember right the famous teacher trade unionist, a close relative
of Rohana Wijeweera was also there. It was a hive of intellectual activity and no distinction was
drawn between the Art, the Science and the Medical Faculties – all of them joined together. And
looking back retrospectively the Front Liners for each of the major groups had from within the Jaffna
University. Santhosam and Ravi of the LTTE, Varatharajaperumal and Gunasingam of the EPRLF,
Vasanthy of EROS and Ravi of the NLFT are all from Jaffna University.
The 1977 riots and the change of Government saw many changes in the Jaffna University. The
Sinhala students left under very disappointing conditions. Professor Vidyananthan took over as the
second President and thereafter in 1979 as the first Vice Chancellor. He was a man of very rare
combination. Basically a Tamil Nationalist. He was a product of the Peradeniya days when
Sarachandras, Nadarajahs, Stanley Kalpages, Vidayananthans, Ariyapalas, Sathasivams,
35
Murugesapillais, Hettiarachchis [? Hettiararachchi “Hetti” who worked in BS’s lab in 1970s?] and
Kanapathypillais could live together and interact with each other in spite of their different
intellectual make ups.
The period Vidyananthan was in charge of the University of Jaffna 1978, 79 to 1989 , 90 saw the
Jaffna University developing in a very encouraging manner. Vidyanathan in spite of his widely known
weakness for a good drink was a wonderful Vice Chancellor. He was a senior don, more than that he
was a leader who made every one with him feel that they have a major share to contribute to the
well-being of the institution. It was during this period that especially 1979 to 1983, 84 that Jaffna
Medical Faculty became a well respected institution with Professors Sriharan, Sivasooriyar,
Sivagnanasundaram, Victor Benjamin [close friend of BS] and others of such eminence and
reputation serving on the staff. It was during this time that the Jaffna University Staff, Students and
the Administration came virtually to an unsigned pact that non of their activity should lead to the
closure of the University.
This was not a decision formally arrived at or even publicly discussed. It emerged out of the
experiences the Tamil Community had to face. The writing on the wall was very clear. Universities in
the South were closed for almost 2 ½ years. No sector of the University of Jaffna wanted that to
happen to the University of Jaffna. And in spite of some of the deeply felt situations arising within
the University, the University continued. Vidyananthan very tragically had a distressing end to his
Vice Chancellorship and Professor Thurairajah, the eminent Professor in Engineering from
Peradeniya and the Open University took over the office. Under Thurairajah, the University of Jaffna
continued to strengthen itself. There was a wonderful rapport between the students, the staff and
the administration. The sudden withdrawal of Professor Thurairajah due to ill health coupled with
extremely unsettled security situation created problems for the University and it was during that
time Professor Kunaratnam took over. A firm man with equally firm convictions he did not carry on
for long. It was that stage Balasundarampullai with his experience in administration as Dean Arts
became the Vice Chancellor.
Professor Balasundarampillai’s tenure of office will be remembered for the work he did in the
extension of the university’s buildings and activities. The most important is that he has always been
well informed and deeply interested in the problems of higher education. It was that which enabled
him to widen the base of the University of Jaffna. The challenges facing his successor is to provide
the depth these changes call for. The history of the University of Jaffna seeing along with the history
of the Universities of South especially those of Peradeniya, Colombo, Ruhunu and that of the
University of the Southeast shows that the Universities of Sri Lanka had played a tremendous role in
widening and deepening the base of democracy in this country. The implementation of Free
Education without a truly nationalist foresight has led the Sinhala, the Tamil and the Muslim youth
viewing each other as their enemies.
Let us not blame the products of the Universities for what their architect of education are
responsible for, but there is something worse is happening to undermine all these advantages and
that is the cry to bring English back and worse still privatize higher education.
Let us pray to God that these architects be given the wisdom to correct the mistakes in the edifice
built and not to completely pull it down. Looking at the intensity of their self-adoring conviction, no
human being can succeed in convincing them. Only God can, if He is there.
36
Courtesy: Northeastern
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[http://www.tamilcanadian.com/article/1691]
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About
Jaffna Public Library

Interest
The burning of the Jaffna library (Tamil: யாழ் ப ாது நூலகம் எரி ் பு) was an important
event in the Sri Lankan civil war. An organized mob of Sinhalese origin went on a rampage on the
nights of May 31 to June 1, 1981, burning the Jaffna public library. It was one of the most violent
examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the 20th century. At the time of its destruction, the library was one
of the biggest in Asia, containing over 97,000 books and manuscripts.
Background [edit]
The library was built in many stages starting from 1933, from a modest beginning as a private
collection. Soon, with the help of primarily local citizens, it became a full-fledged library. The library
also became a repository of archival material written in palm leaf manuscripts, original copies of
regionally important historic documents in the contested political history of Sri Lanka and
newspapers that were published hundreds of years ago in the Jaffna peninsula. It thus became a
place of historic and symbolic importance to all Sri Lankans.
Eventually the first major wing of the library was opened in 1959 by then Jaffna mayor Alfred
Duraiappah. [Duraiappa was the first of many prominent rival Tamil leaders who was assassinated by
the Tamil Tigers. He was shot by later LTTE military boss Prabakaran in 1975] The architect of
the Indo-Saracenic style building was one Narasimhan from Madras, India. Prominent
37
Indianlibrarian S.R. Ranganathan served as an advisor to ensure that the library was built to
international standards. The library became the pride of the local people as even researchers from
India and other countries began to use it for their research purposes.
The riot and the burning [edit]
On Sunday May 31, 1981, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), a regionally popular democratic
party, held a rally in which three majority Sinhalese policeman were shot and two killed.
That night police and paramilitaries began a pogrom that lasted for three days. The head office
of TULF party was destroyed. The office of the Eelanaadu, a local newspaper, was also destroyed.
Statues of Tamil cultural and religious figures were destroyed or defaced.
Four people were pulled from their homes and killed at random. Many business establishments and
a local Hindu temple were also deliberately destroyed.
On the night of May 31, according to many eyewitnesses, police and government-sponsored
paramilitias set fire to the Jaffna public library and destroyed it completely. Over 97,000 volumes of
books along with numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts were destroyed.
Among the destroyed items were scrolls of historical value and the works and manuscripts of
philosopher, artist and author Ananda Coomaraswamy and prominent intellectual Prof. Dr. Isaac
Thambiah. The destroyed articles included memoirs and works of writers and dramatists who made
a significant contribution toward the sustenance of the Tamil culture and those of locally reputed
physicians and politicians.
Nancy Murray wrote in a journal article in 1984 that several high-ranking security officers and
two cabinet ministers were present in the town of Jaffna, when uniformed security men
and plainclothes mob carried out organized acts of destruction. After 20 years the government-
owned Daily News newspaper, in an editorial in 2001, termed the 1981 event as an act by goon
squads let loose by the then government.
Reaction [edit]
Two Cabinet ministers who saw the destruction of government and private properties on
the verandah of the Jaffna Rest House (a government owned hotel) claimed that the incident was
"an unfortunate event, where [a] few policeman got drunk and went on a looting spree all on their
own"
The national newspapers did not carry information about the incident and in subsequent
parliamentary debates some majority Sinhalese members told minority Tamil politicians that if
Tamils were unhappy in Sri Lanka, they should leave for their 'homeland' in India. A direct quote
from a United National Party member is
"If there is discrimination in this land which is not their (Tamil) homeland, then why try to stay here.
Why not go back home (India) where there would be no discrimination. There are
your kovils and Gods. There you have your culture, education, universities etc. There you are
masters of your own fate"
38
- Mr. W.J.M. Lokubandara, M.P. in Sri Lanka's Parliament, July 1981.
Of all the destruction in Jaffna city it was the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library that was the
incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna. Twenty years later, the
mayor of Jaffna Nadarajah Raviraj still grieved at the recollection of the flames he saw as a University
student. He was later killed by unknown gunmen in the capital Colombo in 2006.
Damaged dome with holes made by shelling
For Tamils the devastated library became a symbol of "physical and imaginative violence". The attack
was seen as an assault on their aspirations, the value of learning and traditions of academic
achievement. The attack also became the rallying point for Tamil radicals to convince the Tamil
populace that their race was targeted for annihilation.
President Ranasinghe Premadasa [edit]
In 1991 the then president of Sri Lanka Ranasinghe Premadasa publicly proclaimed that
"During the District Development Council elections in 1981, some of our party members took many
people from other parts of the country to the North, created havoc and disrupted the conduct of
elections in the North. It is this same group of people who are causing trouble now also. If you wish
to find out who burnt the priceless collection of books at the Jaffna Library, you have only to look at
the faces of those opposing us"
He was accusing his political opponents within his UNP party, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini
Dissanayake, who had just brought an impeachment motion against him, as directly involved in the
burning of the library in 1981.
President Mahinda Rajapakse [edit]
In 2006 the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse was quoted as saying,
"The UNP is responsible for mass scale riots and massacres against the Tamils in 1983, vote rigging in
the Northern Development Council elections and [the] burning of the Jaffna library"
He was also further quoted as saying in reference to a prominent local Tamil poet, reminding the
audience that
"Burning the Library sacred to the people of Jaffna was similar to shooting down Lord Buddha"
He concluded in that speech that as a cumulative effect of all these atrocities, the peaceful voice of
the Tamils is now drowned in the echo of the gun; referring to the rebel LTTE's terrorism.
39
Government investigation [edit]
According to Orville H. Schell, Chairman of the Americas Watch Committee, and Head of Amnesty
International's 1982 fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka, the UNP government at that time did not
institute an independent investigation to establish responsibility for these killings in May and June
1981 and take measures against those responsible. But since 1991 all governments have taken
responsibility for the destruction of the library although no one has been indicted for the crimes yet.
Reopening of the Library [edit]
Jaffna Public Library being rebuilt, with partly burned right wing. At the front is a statue
of Goddess Saraswati the Hindu goddess of learning
In 1982, one year after the initial destruction, the community sponsored Jaffna Public Library Week
and collected thousands of books. Repairs on parts of the building were in progress when the Black
July pogrom-induced civil conflict began in 1983. The library building was damaged by bullets and
bombs. In 1985 after an attack on a nearby police station by Tamil rebels, soldiers entered the
partially restored building and set off bombs that shredded thousands of books yet again. The library
was abandoned with its shell and bullet pocked walls, blackened with the smoke of burnt books.
As an effort to win back the confidence of the Tamil people and also to mollify international opinion,
in 1998 under president Chandrika Kumaratunga, the government began the process to rebuild it
with contributions from all Sri Lankans and foreign governments. Approximately US $1 million
dollars was spent and over 25,000 books were collected. By 2001 the replacement building was
complete but the 2003 reopening of the rebuilt library was opposed by the rebel LTTE leading to all
twenty-one members of the Jaffna municipal council led by Mayor Sellan Kandian to tender their
resignation as a protest to the pressure exerted on them to postpone the reopening of the library.
Eventually the library was opened to the public. (See photo here)
See also [edit]
Sri Lanka portal
Fire portal
1980s portal
 Book burning
 Cultural genocide
40
 Destruction of Library of Alexandria
 Burning of books and burying of scholars
Notes [edit]
 ^ Term: Biblioclasm, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as the deliberate
destruction of books, a cultural offence of the first magnitude. Some of the ancient
calamities are destruction of the Alexandria library in Egypt. A well-known historic event was
the destruction of thousands of books made from the bark of trees and bearing the wisdom
of Mayan culture, which were burnt in 1562 in Mexico, because a Spanish friar wanted to
"cleanse" the natives of "devilish" thoughts. The late 20th century China's Red Guard wiped
out artifacts and books in the takeover of Tibet in the 1960s. Pol Pot destroyed many books
in the genocide of Cambodia in the 1970s. On August 25, 1992, the Serbs extended "ethnic
cleansing" to the National and University Library ofBosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo,
resulting in 1.5 million books and manuscripts being incinerated in one night.
 ^ Contest: In the post-colonial era the history of immigration patterns of various ethnic
communities from India to Sri Lanka has become a dimension that fuels the ethnic conflict.
Sinhala nationalists maintain that as they descend from the original “Yaksha” clans of Sri
Lanka (later mixed with immigrants from India about 2600 years ago), they have special
rights to scarce resources, jobs and other opportunities. Government policies that have
favored this interpretation has run into opposition from the minority Tamils who during the
colonial period enjoyed an un-proportionately greater share of available opportunities. As a
response, Tamils too began to emphasize their history of earlier immigration from India. The
library held the only original copy of Yalpana Vaipava Malai that documented the rise and
fall of the Tamil and Hindu dominated Jaffna kingdom in the north of the island nation.
 ^ Nancy Murray: Director, Bill of Rights Education Project with American Civil Liberties
Union.
 ^ Political situation: Sri Lanka’s nation-building program became intimately linked with
a Sinhalisation of the state directive. It was expected that the minorities would be
assimilated into this new Sinhalese Buddhistnation-state. Moreover, the 1956 election
marked the beginning of an era of ethnically based party politics. One form of extremism
and violence led to the other and by 1981 there were some minority radical Tamil youth
who were legitimizing terrorist attacks against the state as a response to alleged state
violence.
 ^ Reaction: Some majority Sinhalese politicians expressed no regrets and used subsequent
parliamentary discussion to drive home the message sent by the library’s destruction: if the
Tamils were unhappy, they should leave Sri Lanka and return to their homeland, India. Thus
the attack on the library was used to send a message of point of no return for negotiations
and indicated a willingness to engage the political process with further violence. Thus radical
elements within both the communities took over the direction of further conflict
management and marginalizing those moderates who wanted to resolve the conflict
peacefully.
41
References [edit]
1. ^ "Destroying a symbol". IFLA. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
2. ^ "Fire at Kandy public library". BBC. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
3. ^ Wilson, A.J. Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth
and Twentieth Centuries, p.125
4. ^ "History of the Public Librray". Dailynews. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
5. ^ "The reconstruction of the Jaffna library by Dr. Jayantha Seneviratne". PRIU. Retrieved
2006-04-17.
6. ^ "Chronology of events in Sri lanka". BBC. 2009-11-05. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
7. ^ Nancy Murray (1984), Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian State, Issue no. 1, Race &
Class, vol. 26 (Summer 1984)
8. ^ "EDITORIAL, DAILY NEWS". Daily News. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
9. ^ "Over two decades after the burning down of the Jaffna library in Sri Lanka". The
Independent. Retrieved 2006-03-15.
10. ^ Peebles, Patrick (2006) [2006]. "chapter 10". The History of Sri Lanka. The Greenwood
Histories of the Modern Nations. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 133 &
134. ISBN 0-313-33205-3.
11. ^ Ponnambalam, Satchi (1983) [1983]. Sri Lanka: The National Question and the Tamil
Liberation Struggle. London: Zed Books Ltd. pp. 207 & 261. ISBN 0-86232-198-0.
12. ^ "Mahinda promises compensation for high security zone". BBC. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
13. ^ "Burning of the Jaffna Library". Amnesty International's 1982 fact finding mission to Sri
Lanka. Tamilnation.org.
14. ^ "Building a bridge of peace with bricks and books". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2006-03-
15.
15. ^ "French government donates books to the Jaffna library". Museum Security. Retrieved
2007-05-03.
16. ^ "Jaffna library opening put off as Mayor, councilors resign". Tamilnet. Retrieved 2006-03-
14.
17. ^ "Story of Jaffna Library". The Hindu. Retrieved 2006-03-15.
18. ^ "Fragile Guardians of Culture By Nicholas A. Basbanes". Los Angeles Times. Archived
from the original on 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
19. ^ "History from the LTTE". Frontline. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
42
20. ^ "Nancy Murray: Hyper-Nationalism and Our Civil Liberties". Democracy Now. Retrieved
2006-03-15.
21. ^ The Failure of State Formation, Identity Conflict and Civil Society Responses - The Case of Sri
Lanka. Brad.edu. 1999. Retrieved 2006-04-16.
22. ^ "How it Came to This – Learning from Sri Lanka’s Civil Wars By Professor John
Richardson".paradisepoisoned.com. Retrieved 2006-03-30.
Further reading [edit]
 Rebecca Knuth (2003), Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in
the Twentieth Century. New York: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-98088-X
 Rebecca Knuth (2006), Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural
Destruction. New York: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-99007-9
 Nicholas A. Basbanes (2003), A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an

Impermanent World. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-008287-9
External links [edit]
 About Jaffna Library in Tamil
 Official website of the Jaffna library
 Jaffna library vandalized 2010
 Documentary on the burning of the library by Someetharan
 History of the Jaffna public library
 Burning Books - Reported by Kevin Sites
Alfred Duraiappah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfred Duraiappah
Born Sri Lanka
Died 27 July 1975

Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Occupation Member of Parliament and

Mayor of Jaffna
43
Religion Christian
Alfred Thambirajah Duraiappah (died 27 July 1975) was an MP and mayor of Jaffna, Sri Lanka who
was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.
Contents
[hide]
 1 First political murder
 2 His tenure and Jaffna prosperity
 3 References
 4 External links
[edit]First political murder
A member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Alfred Duraiappah was an MP and mayor of Jaffna. His
assassination by the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in July 1975 is considered a seminal
event marking the onset the Sri Lankan civil war. Duraiappah was killed on his way to a Hindu temple
for prayers, although he himself was a Christian.[1]
[edit]His tenure and Jaffna prosperity
His tenure as the mayor of a long neglected city saw it endowed with funds for development from
the government in Colombo. Roads were paved, stadiums built and jobs were created. His period of
office also saw an increase in the prosperity of the Jaffna farmers as the prices of agricultural
produce rose, possibly due to government policies enacted at the time.
[edit]References
1. ^ Tamil Tiger chief in SEA? New Straits Times - January 21, 2009
Appoint a Commission to inquire into the killings of Parliamentarians
[edit]External links
 First Military Operation - Pirapaharan Returns
 The Murder of Alfred Duraiappah
 SRI LANKA: NO WAR NO PEACE
 Claims and Dilemmas: 25 years after Duraiappah
 Alfred Duriappah - A Tamil Article
 Inside Story into the murder of Alfred Duraiappah - UTHR(J) report
44
 Asian Tribune’s smoking gun revelation: Interpol expert R. Suntha substantiates AT’s
revelation on the shooting of Jaffna mayor, Asian Tribune, September 28, 2010
Pirapaharan
By: T. Sabaratnam
8. First Military Operation
Pirapaharan Returns
Pirapaharan did what Sivakumaran failed to do. He killed Alfred

Duraiappah. Sivakumaran’s death was one of the factors that induced
Pirapaharan to return to Jaffna, the scene of action. With the death of
Sivakumaran, the resistance movement had slackened. Pirapaharan
wanted that whipped up again.
By that time, he had teamed up with Chetti, who was with him when
he founded the Tamil New Tigers (TNT). Chetti was arrested, but in
mid-1973 he escaped from the Anuradhapura prison and went to
Chennai. Periya Sothi, with whom Pirapaharan was living at
Kodampakkam, objected to Pirapaharan rejoining Chetti and got
Thangathurai and Kuttimani to intervene. Pirapaharan refused to
listen. His concern at that time was to resume the resistance
movement and he found in Chetti the man of action he required.
Pirapaharan returned to Jaffna in July 1974, one and a half months

after Sivakumaran’s death. He had a hard time. He had to find new
hideouts, since the earlier places were known to the police. He had no
money. His earlier friends had been arrested. Those who remained
45
outside were scared to help him. Police hunts for militants had
peaked. Tamil policemen in charge of that chase were relentless.
Inspectors Bastiampillai, Pathmanathan and Thamotharampillai had
earned kudos for intelligence work. "They would catch the boys
somehow," was the reputation they had built for themselves. The
government had told them to be hard on the Tamil militants.
Kumarasuriyar, in particular, was out to nip Tamil militancy in the bud.
The militants stood in his path of winning the Tamils over to
the government side.
The government, facing the surge in popularity of the J. R.

Jayewardene-led UNP opposition, was anxious to keep the TUF on its
side. Sirimavo Bandaranaike announced her government’s decision to
open a university campus in Jaffna, to appease the Tamils who
wanted a Tamil university to be set up in Trincomalee. She announced
that she would personally open the campus.
It was a tactical political announcement. The youths saw through it.

They said the government’s real objective was to kill the Tamil
demand for a university in Trincomalee and to drive a wedge between
northern and eastern Tamils. The University authorities acted in a
hurry. They appointed Prof. K. Kailasapathy as the president of the
Jaffna Campus and selected Parameswara College founded by Sir
Ponnampalam Ramanathan as its premises. Srimavo Bandaranaike
went on an official visit to Jaffna on 6 October 1974, to declare Jaffna
University Campus open. Militant youths called upon the public to
boycott the opening ceremony and all other functions organized by
government supporters to welcome the prime minister. They
organized a black flag demonstration. TUF members and its
parliamentarians obeyed the decision taken by the militant youths.
The decision making power of the Tamil people thus passed into the
hands of the Tamil militants.
With Sivakumaran’s death and Satyaseelan’s arrest two of the four

Tamil armed groups ceased to function. With Thangathurai and
Kuttimani living in Salem in Tamil Nadu, TELO was practically dormant.
With the return of Pirapaharan, the TNT, popularly known as
Pirapaharan's group, was the only active resistance group in Jaffna.
People obeyed the 20-year-old Pirapaharan’s decree and moderate
TUF leaders reluctantly followed suit.
46
Pirapaharan gave Sirimavo Bandaranaike a hot welcome. The TNT

exploded over half dozen bombs in different parts of the Jaffna
peninsula including Jaffna market, a railway station,
Kankesanthurai police station, Communist Party politbureau member
V. Ponnambalam’s residence. Ponnambalam was the prime minister’s
interpreter. The explosions did not cause any death or severe damage
to property, but created an atmosphere of panic. Several buses were
also stoned and torched.
Kumarasuriyar’s and Duraiappah’s effort to gather a crowd for the

official reception the Jaffna branch of the SLFP accorded to the prime
minister also failed. Duraiappah made the maximum effort to collect a
respectable crowd by transporting his supporters in his car.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Jaffna visit was a flop and the government
was annoyed with the TUF for toeing the line set by the militant
youths.
The government was not in a position to show a stiff face to the TUF.
The opposition pressure on the government had grown enormously.
The government announced the Kankesanthurai by-election and
released some of the Tamil youths, both TUF demands. It also took
steps to soften the effect of the standardization of marks for
university admission by introducing the district quota system. It was
introduced on the recommendation of the Pieter Keuneman
committee, set up to inquire the Sinhalese charges that Tamil
examiners over-marked Tamil answer scripts. The Keuneman
committee reported: "Organized manipulation of marks in one whole
medium in a deceptive manner is neither possible nor probable," and
added media-wise standardization had "contributed to deepening and
indeed institutionalizing suspicions between communities
and promoting distrust in the fairness or impartiality of public
examinations."
The district quota system that came into effect by the end of 1974
introduced the scheme whereby 30 percent of the students were
admitted to the university on the basis of merit and 55 percent on the
basis of district quota, with the balance 15 percent of the places
reserved for backward districts.
47
The district quota system, though detrimental to the students from

the Jaffna district, benefited Tamils living in other Tamil districts. In
1974 Jaffna’s share of university admission shrank to 7 percent,
roughly equal to its population ratio. This system benefited students
from Vanni, Batticoloa, Trincomalee, and Ampara. It was under the
district quota systems that the first student from Kilinochchi entered
the university.
The Mandate
The announcement of the Kankesanthurai by-election placed the

government in a difficult situation. It found that picking a candidate
to oppose Thanthai Chelva was a thorny task. The matter was taken
up by Sirimavo Bandaranaike at a weekly cabinet meeting. She said it
was certain that the government would lose, but it should lose in a
respectful manner. For that it should nominate a common candidate
to prevent the split of anti-TUF votes. The cabinet agreed to nominate
a Communist Party candidate since the party had a base in
Kankesanthurai. The Communist Party had difficulty in persuading V.
Ponnambalam to contest. He was reluctant. He told the
party politbureau that he should be able to present an alternate
political solution to the ethnic problem to be able to counter Thanthai
Chelva’s demand for a separate state. He was at that time
pressing the Communist Party to accept regional autonomy as a
solution to the Tamil problem. He was given permission by the party
to unofficially place the establishment of autonomous regions in
the north and east as an alternative before the people.
Thanthai Chelva asked the electorate of 41,227 voters to give him a

mandate to declare two matters:
· that the Tamil people had rejected the unitary 1972 constitution,
and
· that the Tamil people had decided to establish a separate state for
themselves.
Militant youths joined Thanthai Chelva’s campaign band. Pirapaharan
48
and his colleagues campaigned very hard. So did Eelaventhan and

Uma Maheswaran, president and secretary of the Colombo branch of
the TYF. They visited almost every house in the electorate and told
inmates to vote for Tamil Eelam. Eelaventhan says that that was
during this campaign Pirapaharan and Uma Maheswaran met for the
first time.
The Kankesanthurai by-election was held on 6 February 1975.

Thanthai Chelva won with a thumping majority. The percentage polled
was 87.09, the highest in any parliamentary election in that
electorate. Thanthai Chelva collected 25,927 as against V.
Ponnambalam’s 9,457 votes. The majority was 16,470 votes. It was
said militant youths bodily carried invalids to the polling station.
In his victory speech Thanthai Chelva declared;
Throughout the ages, the Sinhalese and the Tamils in this country
lived as distinct sovereign people, till they were brought under the
foreign domination. We have for the last 25 years, made every effort
to secure our political rights on the basis of equality with the
Sinhalese in a united Ceylon.
It is a regrettable fact that the successive Sinhalese governments

have used the power, that flows from independence, to deny us our
fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject
people. These, the governments have been able to do, only by using
its discriminatory authority against the Tamils.
I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider

the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation
should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people
and become free. On behalf of the Tamil United Front, I give you my
solemn assurance that, we will carry out this mandate.
Youths raised the victory cry;
Thamil Eelam is our

Motherland.
Thamil Eelam is our aspiration
Many rushed to him, slashed their index fingers and put on his
forehead Iratha Thilakam. (Iratha: blood; Thilakam: red dot worn on
49
the forehead)
From that day until his death on 5 April 1977, Thanthai Chelva never
wavered. In his speeches, he justified the demand for a separate
state. To the critics who said that Tamil Eelam would be small in size
and population he answered at Kokuvil on May 1975;
Nations much smaller than that of the size and population Tamil
Eelam claimed by the Tamils of Sri Lanka are governing and
functioning as separate, independent states. As such, why should
the Tamils of Sri Lanka not agitate for a separate state where we can
govern themselves?
On 2 October 1975 at Kollankadu in Tellipallai Chelvanayagam

answered the critics who advocated futher talks with the Sinhala
governments;
We have talked enough. We have tried our best peacefully for the
past 25 years with our Sinhalese brothers to win our legitimate
rights. We have had numerous talks with the Sinhalese leaders and
several pacts. But when all our efforts proved futile we decided to
say "Goodbye" to them and set up a separate state for ourselves.
Armed Groups
While the moderate Tamil leadership, frustrated by the failure of their

non-violent political negotiations, shifted their position from a federal
solution of an autonomous state within the united Sri Lanka to a
separate state, youths who believed in armed struggle started
organizing and strengthening themselves. By the beginning of 1975
there were two underground groups in Jaffna and a third was formed
in London.
TNT, known as the Pirapaharan Group, was the foremost. It had

increased its cadre strength to about 30 able and dedicated youths. It
had collected two old and rusted revolvers and a few home-made
hand bombs. With those crude bombs TNT had frustrated
Kumarasuriya’s and Duraiappah’s effort to give the prime minister a
warm welcome. Chetti was the main man behind that feat. The faith
50
Pirapaharan placed on Chetti seemed fruitful.
Periya Sothi’s fear about Chetti was also not unfounded. Chetti
robbed Rs. 69,000 from the Tellipallai Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Store and kept the money himself. He bought an old car and gave
conflicting explanations when his colleagues questioned him about
the marked change in his living style. He was arrested in the latter
part of 1974.
Chetti’s arrest created a difficult situation for Pirapaharan. He had to

change his hideouts for he knew that Chetti would ‘vomit’ everything
under appropriate police ‘treatment’. Even Pirapaharan did not
anticipate the "treatment" police detective Pathmanathan gave, a
‘friend’ of Chetti later told me. Pathmanathan succeeded in turning
Chetti into a police informant.
After Chetti’s arrest Pirapaharan was also short of cash. He survived

on fruits and the meals his colleagues provided. He would walk in
unannounced into the houses of his colleagues, tired and hungry.
They would take him to their kitchen and serve him whatever was
available. He would eat, sleep in the kitchen for a few hours and walk
away. M. N. Narayan Swamy records in his book; Tigers of Lanka (Page
54) this incident: "Once he suffered an attack of jaundice, but he
would not go to a doctor; miraculously, and to his friends' surprise, he
recovered."
Whenever he was desperate for money, he would send a colleague to

his mother or close relatives. His mother, Parvathi, would send
whatever cash she could spare, with the comment: "Why is he
suffering like this? We brought him up in comfort. He got all he
wanted. If he cannot live here ask him to go back and live in Thamil
Nadu. We will look after him." When the colleague repeated his
mother’s comments Pirapaharan smiled.
The other underground group was the Thangathurai group. By this

time, Kuttimani was under arrest.
51
Kuttimani
He was arrested in Tamil Nadu in 1973 following the seizure of his

boat filled with detonators by the Sri Lankan navy. He was charged
under the Explosive Act and the Passport Act of India and extradited
to Colombo. The Dravida Munnetta Kalazha leader Karunanidhi, the
chief minister, agreed to the Sri Lankan request for deportation on the
charge Kuttimani had master-minded 'retaliatory operations' in Sri
Lanka. Kuttimani was brought to Sri Lanka and kept under custody for
some time. Thangathurai slipped back to Jaffna and reactivated his
group.
In January 1975, a third group was formed after a series of discussions

in the London flat of Eliyathamby Ratnasabapaty. K. D.
Arudpiragasam, known as Arular, was the other founder. The group's
main contribution in 1975 was to make the Tamil problem known
worldwide. A group of Tamils demonstrated during the 1975 World
Cup at Oval and Manchester grounds, some of them running across
the ground holding aloft placards condemning the Sri Lankan
government for its atrocities against the Tamil people. Its branch was
formed in Jaffna and a military training camp was set up in the
Kannati farm in Vavuniya in late 1976.
Yet another armed group was established in mid-1975. The Tamil

Youth Forum, founded in 1973, was an organization of about 40 active
youths of varied political beliefs. The majority of them were under the
52
control of Amirthalingam. A section of left-oriented youths in the

Forum detested taking orders from TUF leaders whom they regarded
as half-hearted, tea-cup politicians who were after the power and
prestige parliament membership conferred. They wanted the TYF to
take up a more active, social reformist character. They accused the
TUF of paying lip service to the abolition of the caste system. Their
quarrel resulted in the split of the TYF in June 1975, the section led by
Mavai Senathirajah, Kasi Aananthan and Vannai Ananthan aligning
with the TUF and the other section led by Muthukumaraswamy and
Varatharaja Perumal branching away and forming a new organization
called Eelam Liberation Organization (ELO).
Destroying Traitors
Pirapaharan decided to take over Sivakumaran’s mission of destroying

the network of Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s collaborators whom they
considered traitors. The decision, TNT insiders told me later, was
taken in early 1975 soon after Thanthai Chelva obtained the mandate
for a separate state. The same source told me that Pirapaharan held a
special discussion with the TNT members for this purpose.
At that discussion Pirapaharan waxed eloquently on the history of Sri

Lankan Tamils, the glory of the Jaffna kingdom, its fall to the
Portuguese, the failure of the Tamil leaders to claim for the Tamils the
sovereignty which they lost when the British gave independence to
Ceylon and how through the Kankesanthurai by-election they had
obtained the mandate to ask for the lost sovereign right to rule
themselves. He had vowed, my source said,
That noble task has fallen on our shoulders. It is not an easy task. It’s
going to be a difficult, lengthy struggle. We will take on that task.
Pirapaharan was then 20 years old. He had in his command a small

band of about 30 cadres. His armoury consisted of two revolvers, one
of foreign make and the other locally turned out. He had just started
the training camp, Poonthoddam, in Vavuniya and was teaching his
men to shoot straight.
53
At that midnight discussion, they chose the target for their first
military operation: Mayor Alfred Duraiappah.
The decision was collective. Pirapaharan named the target and spelt
out the reasons. The main charge was Duraiappah's destructive role
during the Fourth Tamil Research Conference. Next was his effort to
accord Sirimavo Bandaranaike a civic welcome soon after the Tamil
Conference deaths. Third was his role in building for the government a
support base among the Tamil people.
Pirapaharan took charge of the preparatory work. He selected three

others to assist him. They were: Kalapathy, Kirupaharan and
Patkunarajah. Pirapaharan took upon himself the task of preparing
the weapon and shooting Duraiappah. Others were told to track
Duraiappah’s movements. They found that Duraiappah, a Christian,
worshiped Friday mornings at the Varatharajah Perumal Temple at
Ponnalai. Duraiappah had talked about his selecting the Ponnalai
temple with some of his trusted friends. He had told Rajasuriyar, SLFP
organizer of Jaffna town, that that temple was lonely, serene and
tranquil. He had told Rajasuriayar that he got peace of mind once he
was inside that temple.
On 26 July 1975, the night before the assassination of Alfred

Duraiappah, Pirapaharan dropped into a friend’s house in Ponnalai,
ate the dinner his friend’s mother served, and went to bed chatting as
usual. The friend observed Pirapaharan pulling out an unloaded
revolver and placing it under his pillow. He also kept beside him two
or three boxes.
The friend mocked, "Can you shoot even a crow with this?"
Pirapaharan smiled and said, "Keep quiet. See what happens

tomorrow."
The friend later said that Pirapaharan slept sound and left the house
before dawn. He went to the tea boutique opposite the temple.
Kalapathy, Kirupaharan and Patkunarajah were there. The shop owner
told the inquest that the four had their breakfast in his shop and
waited outside the temple as if awaiting the arrival of some one.
54
Duraiappah’s car stopped a few meters past the temple entrance.

Duraiappah opened the door and stepped out. The boys
said, "Vannakam Ayiah" ("Greetings, Sir").
Duraiappah, always friendly, replied, "Vanakkam Thambigal"

("Greetings, Younger Brothers").
Pirapaharan pulled out his revolver and fired. Shots pierced his chest.
Blood sprayed. Duraiappah collapsed and died on the spot.
The boys walked to the car, pushed out the driver from the driving
seat, and drove away.
The first political murder of the ethnic conflict had been committed. It
shocked the Tamils. It shocked the Sinhalese. It shocked Sirimavo
Bandaranaike. The armed revolt had begun.
Next:
Chapter 9. TNT matures to into the LTTE
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
Chapter 1: Why didn’t he hit back?
Chapter 2: Going in for a revolver
Chapter 3: The Unexpected Explosion
Chapter 4: Tamil Mood Toughens
Chapter 5: Tamil Youths Turn Assertive
Chapter 6: Birth of Tamil New Tigers
Chapter 7: The Cyanide Suicide
55
http://sangam.org/Sabaratnam/PirapaharanChap8.htm
Pirapaharan
By: T. Sabaratnam
8. First Military Operation
Pirapaharan Returns
Pirapaharan [Vellupillai Prabakaran] did what Sivakumaran failed to do. He killed Alfred
Duraiappah. Sivakumaran’s death was one of the factors that induced Pirapaharan to return to
Jaffna, the scene of action. With the death of Sivakumaran, the resistance movement had slackened.
Pirapaharan wanted that whipped up again.
By that time, he had teamed up with Chetti, who was with him when he founded the Tamil New
Tigers (TNT). Chetti was arrested, but in mid-1973 he escaped from the Anuradhapura prison and
went to Chennai. Periya Sothi, with whom Pirapaharan was living at Kodampakkam, objected to
Pirapaharan rejoining Chetti and got Thangathurai and Kuttimani to intervene. Pirapaharan refused
to listen. His concern at that time was to resume the resistance movement and he found in Chetti
the man of action he required.
Pirapaharan returned to Jaffna in July 1974, one and a half months after Sivakumaran’s death. He
had a hard time. He had to find new hideouts, since the earlier places were known to the police. He
had no money. His earlier friends had been arrested. Those who remained outside were scared to
help him. Police hunts for militants had peaked. Tamil policemen in charge of that chase were
relentless. Inspectors Bastiampillai, Pathmanathan and Thamotharampillai had earned kudos for
intelligence work. "They would catch the boys somehow," was the reputation they had built for
themselves. The government had told them to be hard on the Tamil militants. Kumarasuriyar, in
56
particular, was out to nip Tamil militancy in the bud. The militants stood in his path of winning the
Tamils over to the government side.
The government, facing the surge in popularity of the J. R. Jayewardene-led UNP opposition, was
anxious to keep the TUF on its side. Sirimavo Bandaranaike announced her government’s decision
to open a university campus in Jaffna, to appease the Tamils who wanted a Tamil university to be
set up in Trincomalee. She announced that she would personally open the campus.
It was a tactical political announcement. The youths saw through it. They said the government’s real
objective was to kill the Tamil demand for a university in Trincomalee and to drive a wedge between
northern and eastern Tamils. The University authorities acted in a hurry. They appointed Prof. K.
Kailasapathy as the president of the Jaffna Campus and selected Parameswara College founded by
Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan as its premises. Srimavo Bandaranaike went on an official visit to
Jaffna on 6 October 1974, to declare Jaffna University Campus open. Militant youths called upon
the public to boycott the opening ceremony and all other functions organized by government
supporters to welcome the prime minister. They organized a black flag demonstration. TUF
members and its parliamentarians obeyed the decision taken by the militant youths. The decision
making power of the Tamil people thus passed into the hands of the Tamil militants.
With Sivakumaran’s death and Satyaseelan’s arrest two of the four Tamil armed groups ceased to
function. With Thangathurai and Kuttimani living in Salem in Tamil Nadu, TELO [Tamil Eelam
Liberation Organization] was practically dormant. With the return of Pirapaharan, the TNT,
popularly known as Pirapaharan's group, was the only active resistance group in Jaffna. People
obeyed the 20-year-old Pirapaharan’s decree and moderate TUF leaders reluctantly followed suit.
Pirapaharan gave Sirimavo Bandaranaike a hot welcome. The TNT exploded over half dozen
bombs in different parts of the Jaffna peninsula including Jaffna market, a railway station,
Kankesanthurai police station, Communist Party politbureau member V. Ponnambalam’s
residence. Ponnambalam was the prime minister’s interpreter. The explosions did not cause any
death or severe damage to property, but created an atmosphere of panic. Several buses were also
stoned and torched.
Kumarasuriyar’s and Duraiappah’s effort to gather a crowd for the official reception the Jaffna
branch of the SLFP accorded to the prime minister also failed. Duraiappah made the maximum effort
to collect a respectable crowd by transporting his supporters in his car. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s
Jaffna visit was a flop and the government was annoyed with the TUF for toeing the line set by the
militant youths.
57
The government was not in a position to show a stiff face to the TUF. The opposition pressure on the
government had grown enormously. The government announced the Kankesanthurai by-election
and released some of the Tamil youths, both TUF demands. It also took steps to soften the effect of
the standardization of marks for university admission by introducing the district quota system. It was
introduced on the recommendation of the Pieter Keuneman committee, set up to inquire the
Sinhalese charges that Tamil examiners over-marked Tamil answer scripts. The Keuneman
committee reported: "Organized manipulation of marks in one whole medium in a deceptive
manner is neither possible nor probable," and added media-wise standardization had "contributed
to deepening and indeed institutionalizing suspicions between communities and promoting distrust
in the fairness or impartiality of public examinations."
The district quota system that came into effect by the end of 1974 introduced the scheme whereby
30 percent of the students were admitted to the university on the basis of merit and 55 percent on
the basis of district quota, with the balance 15 percent of the places reserved for backward districts.
The district quota system, though detrimental to the students from the Jaffna district, benefited
Tamils living in other Tamil districts. In 1974 Jaffna’s share of university admission shrank to 7
percent, roughly equal to its population ratio. This system benefited students from Vanni, Batticoloa,
Trincomalee, and Ampara. It was under the district quota systems that the first student from
Kilinochchi entered the university.
The Mandate
The announcement of the Kankesanthurai by-election placed the government in a difficult situation.
It found that picking a candidate to oppose Thanthai Chelva [S V Chelvanayagam] was a thorny
task. The matter was taken up by Sirimavo Bandaranaike at a weekly cabinet meeting. She said it
was certain that the government would lose, but it should lose in a respectful manner. For that it
should nominate a common candidate to prevent the split of anti-TUF votes. The cabinet agreed to
nominate a Communist Party candidate since the party had a base in Kankesanthurai. The
Communist Party had difficulty in persuading V. Ponnambalam to contest. He was reluctant. He told
the party politbureau that he should be able to present an alternate political solution to the ethnic
problem to be able to counter Thanthai Chelva’s demand for a separate state. He was at that time
pressing the Communist Party to accept regional autonomy as a solution to the Tamil problem. He
was given permission by the party to unofficially place the establishment of autonomous regions in
the north and east as an alternative before the people.
Thanthai Chelva asked the electorate of 41,227 voters to give him a mandate to declare two
matters:
58
· that the Tamil people had rejected the unitary 1972 constitution, and
· that the Tamil people had decided to establish a separate state for themselves.
Militant youths joined Thanthai Chelva’s campaign band. Pirapaharan and his colleagues
campaigned very hard. So did Eelaventhan and Uma Maheswaran, president and secretary of the
Colombo branch of the TYF. They visited almost every house in the electorate and told inmates to
vote for Tamil Eelam. Eelaventhan says that that was during this campaign Pirapaharan and Uma
Maheswaran met for the first time.
The Kankesanthurai by-election was held on 6 February 1975. Thanthai Chelva won with a
thumping majority. The percentage polled was 87.09, the highest in any parliamentary election in
that electorate. Thanthai Chelva collected 25,927 as against V. Ponnambalam’s 9,457 votes. The
majority was 16,470 votes. It was said militant youths bodily carried invalids to the polling station
[? People they’d injured themselves?].
In his victory speech Thanthai Chelva declared;
Throughout the ages, the Sinhalese and the Tamils in this country lived as distinct sovereign people,
till they were brought under the foreign domination. We have for the last 25 years, made every
effort to secure our political rights on the basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united Ceylon.
It is a regrettable fact that the successive Sinhalese governments have used the power, that flows
from independence, to deny us our fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject
people. These, the governments have been able to do, only by using its discriminatory authority
against the Tamils.
I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a
mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil
people and become free. On behalf of the Tamil United Front, I give you my solemn assurance that,
we will carry out this mandate.
Youths raised the victory cry;
Thamil Eelam is our Motherland.
Thamil Eelam is our aspiration
Many rushed to him, slashed their index fingers and put on his forehead Iratha Thilakam. (Iratha:
blood; Thilakam: red dot worn on the forehead)
59
From that day until his death on 5 April 1977, Thanthai Chelva never wavered. In his speeches, he
justified the demand for a separate state. To the critics who said that Tamil Eelam would be small in
size and population he answered at Kokuvil on May 1975;
Nations much smaller than that of the size and population Tamil Eelam claimed by the Tamils of Sri
Lanka are governing and functioning as separate, independent states. As such, why should the
Tamils of Sri Lanka not agitate for a separate state where we can govern themselves?
On 2 October 1975 at Kollankadu in Tellipallai Chelvanayagam answered the critics who advocated
futher talks with the Sinhala governments;
We have talked enough. We have tried our best peacefully for the past 25 years with our Sinhalese
brothers to win our legitimate rights. We have had numerous talks with the Sinhalese leaders and
several pacts. But when all our efforts proved futile we decided to say "Goodbye" to them and set up
a separate state for ourselves.
Armed Groups
While the moderate Tamil leadership, frustrated by the failure of their non-violent political
negotiations, shifted their position from a federal solution of an autonomous state within the united
Sri Lanka to a separate state, youths who believed in armed struggle started organizing and
strengthening themselves. By the beginning of 1975 there were two underground groups in Jaffna
and a third was formed in London.
TNT, known as the Pirapaharan Group, was the foremost. It had increased its cadre strength to
about 30 able and dedicated youths. It had collected two old and rusted revolvers and a few home-
made hand bombs. With those crude bombs TNT had frustrated Kumarasuriya’s and Duraiappah’s
effort to give the prime minister a warm welcome. Chetti was the main man behind that feat. The
faith Pirapaharan placed on Chetti seemed fruitful.
Periya Sothi’s fear about Chetti was also not unfounded. Chetti robbed Rs. 69,000 from the
Tellipallai Multi-Purpose Cooperative Store and kept the money himself. He bought an old car and
gave conflicting explanations when his colleagues questioned him about the marked change in his
living style. He was arrested in the latter part of 1974.
60
Chetti’s arrest created a difficult situation for Pirapaharan. He had to change his hideouts for he
knew that Chetti would ‘vomit’ everything under appropriate police ‘treatment’. Even Pirapaharan
did not anticipate the "treatment" police detective Pathmanathan gave, a ‘friend’ of Chetti later told
me. Pathmanathan succeeded in turning Chetti into a police informant.
After Chetti’s arrest Pirapaharan was also short of cash. He survived on fruits and the meals his
colleagues provided. He would walk in unannounced into the houses of his colleagues, tired and
hungry. They would take him to their kitchen and serve him whatever was available. He would eat,
sleep in the kitchen for a few hours and walk away. M. N. Narayan Swamy records in his book;
Tigers of Lanka (Page 54) this incident: "Once he suffered an attack of jaundice, but he would not go
to a doctor; miraculously, and to his friends' surprise, he recovered."
Whenever he was desperate for money, he would send a colleague to his mother or close
relatives. His mother, Parvathi, would send whatever cash she could spare, with the comment:
"Why is he suffering like this? We brought him up in comfort. He got all he wanted. If he cannot live
here ask him to go back and live in Thamil Nadu. We will look after him." When the colleague
repeated his mother’s comments Pirapaharan smiled.
The other underground group was the Thangathurai group. By this time, Kuttimani was under
arrest.
Kuttimani
He was arrested in Tamil Nadu in 1973 following the seizure of his boat filled with detonators by the
Sri Lankan navy. He was charged under the Explosive Act and the Passport Act of India and
extradited to Colombo. The Dravida Munnetta Kalazha leader Karunanidhi, the chief minister, agreed
to the Sri Lankan request for deportation on the charge Kuttimani had master-minded 'retaliatory
operations' in Sri Lanka. Kuttimani was brought to Sri Lanka and kept under custody for some time.
Thangathurai slipped back to Jaffna and reactivated his group.
In January 1975, a third group was formed after a series of discussions in the London flat of
Eliyathamby Ratnasabapaty. K. D. Arudpiragasam, known as Arular, was the other founder. The
group's main contribution in 1975 was to make the Tamil problem known worldwide. A group of
Tamils demonstrated during the 1975 World Cup at Oval and Manchester grounds, some of them
running across the ground holding aloft placards condemning the Sri Lankan government for its
61
atrocities against the Tamil people. Its branch was formed in Jaffna and a military training camp
was set up in the Kannati farm in Vavuniya in late 1976.
Yet another armed group was established in mid-1975. The Tamil Youth Forum, founded in 1973,
was an organization of about 40 active youths of varied political beliefs. The majority of them were
under the control of Amirthalingam. A section of left-oriented youths in the Forum detested taking
orders from TUF leaders whom they regarded as half-hearted, tea-cup politicians who were after the
power and prestige parliament membership conferred. They wanted the TYF to take up a more
active, social reformist character. They accused the TUF of paying lip service to the abolition of the
caste system. Their quarrel resulted in the split of the TYF in June 1975, the section led by Mavai
Senathirajah, Kasi Aananthan and Vannai Ananthan aligning with the TUF and the other section led
by Muthukumaraswamy and Varatharaja Perumal branching away and forming a new organization
called Eelam Liberation Organization (ELO).
Destroying Traitors
Pirapaharan decided to take over Sivakumaran’s mission of destroying the network of Sirimavo
Bandaranaike’s collaborators whom they considered traitors. The decision, TNT insiders told me
later, was taken in early 1975 soon after Thanthai Chelva obtained the mandate for a separate state.
The same source told me that Pirapaharan held a special discussion with the TNT members for this
purpose.
At that discussion Pirapaharan waxed eloquently on the history of Sri Lankan Tamils, the glory of
the Jaffna kingdom, its fall to the Portuguese, the failure of the Tamil leaders to claim for the Tamils
the sovereignty which they lost when the British gave independence to Ceylon and how through the
Kankesanthurai by-election they had obtained the mandate to ask for the lost sovereign right to rule
themselves. He had vowed, my source said,
That noble task has fallen on our shoulders. It is not an easy task. It’s going to be a difficult, lengthy
struggle. We will take on that task.
Pirapaharan was then 20 years old. He had in his command a small band of about 30 cadres [armed
gang of 30 monolingually-Tamil youths]. His armoury consisted of two revolvers, one of foreign
make and the other locally turned out. He had just started the training camp, Poonthoddam, in
Vavuniya and was teaching his men to shoot straight.
At that midnight discussion, they chose the target for their first military operation: Mayor Alfred
Duraiappah.
62
The decision was collective. Pirapaharan named the target and spelt out the reasons. The main
charge was Duraiappah's destructive role during the Fourth Tamil Research Conference. Next was
his effort to accord Sirimavo Bandaranaike a civic welcome soon after the Tamil Conference deaths.
Third was his role in building for the government a support base among the Tamil people.
Pirapaharan took charge of the preparatory work. He selected three others to assist him. They
were: Kalapathy, Kirupaharan and Patkunarajah. Pirapaharan took upon himself the task of
preparing the weapon and shooting Duraiappah. Others were told to track Duraiappah’s
movements. They found that Duraiappah, a Christian, worshiped Friday mornings at the
Varatharajah Perumal Temple at Ponnalai. Duraiappah had talked about his selecting the Ponnalai
temple with some of his trusted friends. He had told Rajasuriyar, SLFP organizer of Jaffna town,
that that temple was lonely, serene and tranquil. He had told Rajasuriayar that he got peace of
mind once he was inside that temple.
On 26 July 1975, the night before the assassination of Alfred Duraiappah, Pirapaharan dropped into
a friend’s house in Ponnalai, ate the dinner his friend’s mother served, and went to bed chatting as
usual. The friend observed Pirapaharan pulling out an unloaded revolver and placing it under his
pillow. He also kept beside him two or three boxes.
The friend mocked, "Can you shoot even a crow with this?"
Pirapaharan smiled and said, "Keep quiet. See what happens tomorrow."
The friend later said that Pirapaharan slept sound and left the house before dawn. He went to the
tea boutique opposite the temple. Kalapathy, Kirupaharan and Patkunarajah were there. The shop
owner told the inquest that the four had their breakfast in his shop and waited outside the temple
as if awaiting the arrival of some one.
Duraiappah’s car stopped a few meters past the temple entrance. Duraiappah opened the door and
stepped out. The boys said, "Vannakam Ayiah" ("Greetings, Sir").
Duraiappah, always friendly, replied, "Vanakkam Thambigal" ("Greetings, Younger Brothers").
Pirapaharan pulled out his revolver and fired. Shots pierced his chest. Blood sprayed. Duraiappah
collapsed and died on the spot.
63
The boys walked to the car, pushed out the driver from the driving seat, and drove away.
The first political murder of the ethnic conflict had been committed. It shocked the Tamils. It
shocked the Sinhalese. It shocked Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The armed revolt had begun.
Next:
Chapter 9. TNT matures to into the LTTE
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
64
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branchial chamber
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65
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Home Sri Lankan Tamil Scientists:

Archives
An Inventory of Their Productivity
by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 4, 2009
For convenience I have used the four discipline-based categories: biomedical

sciences, chemical, physical and mathematical sciences, engineering sciences and
social sciences. And within each discipline I have clustered the scientists into three
groups: (1) pioneers (born before 1920), (2) first generation (born between 1920
and 1939), (3) second generation (born between 1940 and 1958).
Scientific Productivity Record of Sri Lankan Tamil Scientists [pdf file]
Dedication
This essay is dedicated to the memories of two Tamil scientists and institution builders,
Lieut. Col. Appaiah Annai [I. Rasiah from Manipay] and Prof. S. Raveendranath, who were
abducted by para-militaries affiliated to the Sri Lankan army and put to death. For the
record, Appaiah Annai, abducted on Dec. 24, 1997, was a home-grown weapon systems-
tinkerer and improviser, whose professional qualification is tagged as garage mechanic.
Prof. Raveendranath, abducted on Dec.15, 2005, was an agricultural pest entomologist.
Prelude
67
More than ten years ago, I

Lt. Col. Appaiah Annai
contributed five short essays to
the multi-volumeBiographical
Encyclopedia of Scientists (edited by Richard Olson, Marshall Cavendish Corp., New York,
1998). This was a five volume compilation profiling 472 representative figures in the
history of scientific investigation. Among its 182 contributors, I was commissioned to
cover five, four of whom were Nobelists in science (namely Kenichi Fukui, Shibasaburo
Kitasato, Karl Landsteiner, Shinichiro Tomonaga and Hideki Yukawa). As I was residing in
Japan, the editor offered me to cover the lives of four well known Japanese scientists.
Prior to that, I had studied and published on the scientific productivity of Einstein,
Landsteiner and Freud (Sri Kantha, 1996). I also studied eight prolific, prominent scientists
who had published over 1,000 papers and whom I humorously tagged
kilo-base goliaths
(KBGs), and three among these eight were chemistry Nobelists. (Sri
Kantha, 1992a, 1992b). This study also attracted notice by a peer
physiology columnist (Tenney, 1993).
These interests led me to the idea that I should endeavor to collect

publication details of notable Sri Lankan Tamil scientists, which
remain dispersed and inaccessible. This essay is a front runner of this
project, and is not meant to be all inclusive. I have identified 90
Doctor Siva Tamil/Muslim scientists, who were born between 1895 and 1958. If
Chinnatamby the achievements of other published Tamil/Muslim scientistshave
(1923-2000) – been omitted or slighted, it is mainly due to my ignorance and lack
pioneer of access to their published record.
woman
scientist Introduction
This essay has been in preparation for the past two years. I have had
the benefit of input from physician Nages Nagaratnam (born 1926, currently residing in
Australia) and another Tamil scientist who wishes to remain anonymous. I note that these
two have added valuable details to this essay on themes that I am not familiar with. First I
begin with an email correspondence I had with Dr. Nagaratnam. I provide excerpts of an
e-mail I sent to him on February 24, 2007.
“Last month when I searched the net, I came across the National Academy of Sciences of
Sri Lanka site. I had heard about it, but didn’t take much interest in the past. When I read
through the ‘Academicians’ list, I was pleasantly surprised to find your name. Sure you
deserve to be among the elites. You have been inducted 30 years ago. Can you provide
some information about this National Academy for me?
1. When was this Academy established?
2. How many were the original ‘founder members’? And on what basis, did these original
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‘founder members’ constitute themselves for the Academy? I find a few names listed
with the tag as ‘founder members’?
3. How does the selection process operate? [I’m just curious. Does every member of the
Academy vote for the initiation of new member? And does this election occur annually
like the American National Academy of Sciences?]
4. Can you provide me a list of Tamil/Muslim scientists (from your memory) who have
been elected to this Academy?
I should mention why I request this information. As you know, I have been one interested
in chronicling our history. And as such, I have been collecting bio-data and publication
records of Eelam Tamil (and a few Muslims) academics for a survey study, and if possible,
for a book project on Eelam Tamil scientists.”
The very next day, I heard from Dr. Nagaratnam. His e-mail response dated Feb. 25, 2007
was as follows. Relevant excerpts:
“The National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka [NAScSL] was established in 1976. The Act
relating to the NAScSL was passed in parliament only in 1988. I do not know who the
founder members were. Only living founder member is Dr. A.S. Kunasingham, BS,
MS(Hawaii), PhD (Hawaii)/ agriculture economics – development economics. The first
President was Prof. Milroy Paul. I was elected the following year 1977, and was the first
clinician and non-academic to be made a Fellow. My name was proposed by Prof. K.N.
Seneviratne, then professor of physiology and supported by Prof. C.C. de Silva, Prof.
Milroy Paul.
There is an election every year by the General Assembly of new Fellows not exceeding 15
in a given year. Each nominee shall be proposed and recommended by a certificate in the
form prescribed by the Council, signed by three Fellows one of whom shall be the
proposer, one seconder and the third supporter.
When the Act was passed in 1988, the schedule had 52 Fellows. The 13 Tamils were Prof.
K.D. Arudpragasam, Prof. K. Balasubramaniam, Dr. S. Gnanalingam, Mr. E.E. Jeyaraj,
Dr.A.S. Kunasingham, Prof. A.W. Mailvaganam, Dr.N.Nagaratnam, Dr.W.R.N. Nathaniel,
Prof.M.A. Paul, Prof.R.S. Ramakrishna, Dr.S. Sentheshanmuganathan, Prof.G.G.R.
Thambyahpillai, Dr.A. Thurairajah. Upto 2002, the Tamil past Presidents were Prof. Milroy
Paul and Dr.K.D. Arudpragasam. The living Tamil Fellows, as in the Directory of Fellows
(2002) election are: Prof. K.D. Arudpragasam, Prof. K. Balasubramaniam, Prof. W.R.
Breckenridge, Prof. M.A. Careem, Prof. U. Coomarasamy, Prof. M.M. Ismail, Prof. M.T.
Jiffry, Prof. N.S. Kumar, Dr.A.S. Kunasingham (founder fellow), Prof.W.D. Lakshman, Dr.N.
Nagaratnam and Dr.P. Sivapalan. The Directory of Fellows (2002) had listed 108 Fellows.”
Cut-off Criteria used for this Compilation
Three cut-off criteria were adopted for inclusion in this survey. First, it is limited to only
those who were born either by the end of 1958 or with a research career span (~25-30
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years). Secondly, it is also limited to those who completed their education at a high
school/university in Sri Lanka. Thirdly, only those scientists who have published in the
journals indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science have been
included. I am aware that there are numerous computer scientists/engineers/physicians
who work in industries and for-profit Institutes who have admirable research credentials,
including patents. Due to difficulties gathering their information, these scientists have
been excluded here.
A synopsis on the origin of ‘Scientist’ category at global and ‘local’ levels
Here is a version on the origin of the English word ‘scientist’. According to John Heilbron,
a historian of western science, "‘scientist’ also is a word of the 19th century, coined in the
1830s to designate the type of people who attended the meetings of the newly
established British Association for the Advancement of Science. The name did not catch
on: it sounded too professional, too much like ‘dentist’. The preferred term continued to
be ‘men of science’ or ‘scientific men’ until well after the First World War. ‘Scientist’
came into common use in the 1930s, just as big science was taking its first toddler’s steps
in Ernest Lawrence’s Radiation Laboratory.”
Heilbron continues further:
“The timing of this usage is significant. The phrase ‘a scientist’s creativity’ could not have
been composed before the late 19th century, even then something like ‘the creativity of a
scientific man’ would have been preferred, to keep the individual’s genius from
disappearing into the professional expertise. By the 1930s scientists had lost this scruple
and accepted their name.”
One would suggest some additional reasons for the elevation of scientist in the lexicon:
call it the ‘Einstein effect’ and or ‘Nobel effect’. The Nobel prizes established in 1901, as
well as the popularity of Einstein’s relativity theory that captured popular imagination in
1919, contributed much to the prominence of scientists in society. Heilbron also records
that when the first edition of the reference work American Men of Science appeared in
1904, there were 4,000 entries. By 1930, the number of entries had increased to 20,000.
At the local level, a chronological record of institutionalization of science in colonial and

independent Ceylon is given below. Scientists who were affiliated to any one of these
institutions – other than the CAAS – became what I tag the pioneers (born before 1920),
first generation (born between 1920 and 1939) and second generation (born between
1940 and 1958) scientists on the island.
1870 – Founding of a medical school in Colombo.
1876 – Establishment of the Colombo Museum.
1900 – De Soyza Bacteriological Institute established in Colombo, which later morphed

into Medical Research Institute (MRI) in 1946.
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1910 – Rubber Research Institute (RRI) set up at Agalawatte.
1912 – Department of Agriculture (DOA) established.
1918 – Tea Research Institute (TRI) established at Talawakelle.
1921 – Ceylon University College organized.
1928 – Coconut Research Institute (CRI) set up at Lunuwila.
1942 – University of Ceylon came into existence, following the proclamation of Ceylon
University Ordinance No. 20 of 1942. This act incorporated the Ceylon Medical College
and Ceylon University College into a single institution.
1944 – Establishment of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science (CAAS),
which later changed its name into the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of
Science.
1952 – The main campus of the University of Ceylon established in Peradeniya (Faculty of
Engineering set up in 1950; Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Science set up in 1953;
the Medical School set up in 1961)
1955 – Establishment of the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISIR).
1958 – Elevation of Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya Buddhist Colleges to university status.

For a long time, Tamil natural scientists were excluded in the hiring process of these two
universities.
1972 – University of Sri Lanka constituted under the one university scheme, according to
the University of Sri Lanka Act (No.1) of 1972. Katubedda Technical College converted to a
campus of this single university.
1974 – The Jaffna Campus set up as a wing of University of Sri Lanka.
1981 – Batticaloa University College established, which morphed into Eastern University,
Sri Lanka in 1986.
Parameters of Scientific Productivity
A proper definition of science consists of three interlinked objectives: a study of the

physical and/or natural world based on empiricism, communication (open exchange of
data and ideas) and criticism (devotion to an attitude of skepticism) (Holden, 1998).
Simply stated, the primary function of scientists is to conduct research and place their
findings in the public record for acceptance and criticism by peers through
communication via appropriate academic journals.
More than 8 years ago I received a reprint of a beautiful essay by Harvard University’s
bacteriologist Bernard Davis (1916-1994), published posthumously in 2000, from his wife
Elizabeth Davis. In this 13-page essay entitled ‘The Scientist’s World’, Davis touched on
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the multiple facets of a scientist’s life. I reproduce two paragraphs on scientific writing
from this essay for their relevance and to illustrate how a scientist’s stereotyped writing
differs from those of others (fiction writers, journalists, lexicographers, musicians, poets
and playwrights) who practice writing.
“A scientific paper is an unusual art form. It has to be as compact as possible, while giving
the reader all the information needed to repeat the experiments. Because the literature
is vast, the format of a paper is standardized so the reader can quickly find the parts that
interest him; readers skim most of the papers that they look at, except those very close to
their interests. The aim is efficient, impersonal transmission of the essentials, rather than
a narrative account of the steps along the way. The personal aspects of the process of
discovery are therefore usually left out, though they may appear when the material is
presented in a lecture.
Writing a scientific paper well is difficult, though the problems are different from those of
belles letters. It is a challenge to present the material compactly but without ambiguity
and to organize a complex argument coherently. Yet despite the stereotyped form, some
intellectual leaders, such as Francis Crick or Jacques Monod, convey an elegant, personal
style.” (Davis, 2000)
Thus, the research productivity of a scientist in terms of published papers is currently

measured by the four major parameters (indicated below), each of which has merits and
demerits. These parameters are annotated as follows, and the merits and demerits have
been adopted from Hirsch (2005, 2007):
Total publications = The number of research publications that have appeared in the
journals which are indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), currently
operated by Thomson Associates. Merit: Total publications measures productivity.
Demerit: it does not measure importance or impact of publications.
Total citations = The number of citations by other researchers, to a published paper,

review, commentary or letter, that have appeared in the journals indexed. The underlying
assumption here is that a publication that fetches higher number of citations deserves
respect, and indicates the ‘popularity’ of this publication. ‘Popularity’ is a fluid indicator
at best that may reflect factors such as importance of findings, dissemination mechanism,
‘crowdedness’ of a particular research field, visibility and prestige of the journal that
carried the particular publication. Merit: Total citations measures total impact. Demerit:
this parameter may be inflated by a small number of ‘big hits’ that may not be
representative of the researcher if he or she is a coauthor with many others on those
papers.
h-index = A relatively recent index proposed by Jorge E. Hirsch, that quantifies a

scientist’s research output. (Ball, 2005, 2007; Hirsch, 2005, 2007). The h-index combines
the total publications and total citations of an individual author. According to Hirsch, “A
scientist has index h if h of his or her number of papers (Np) have at least h citations each
and the other (Np-h) papers have (<h) citations each. Some notable limitations, identified
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by Hirsch for this parameter are, (1) ‘a high h is a reliable indicator of high
accomplishment, the converse is not necessarily always true.’ (2) ‘Different disciplines
have different citation patterns’. As such, inter-disciplinary comparison of h-index among
researchers is questionable. (3) ‘A scientist with a high h achieved mostly through papers
with many coauthors would be treated overly kindly by his or her h.
Citations per paper = Its merit is that this parameter allows comparison of scientists of
different eras. One demerit is that it rewards low productivity and penalizes high
productivity.
A caveat about these various bibliometric indicators on citations by Philip Siekevitz (1991)
is in order. “It again bothers me that we rely on anonymous people in anonymous offices
to list correctly all the authors and their papers on a particular subject. How good are
these listings, computerized or not?” And these “anonymous people” or the ‘computer
programs’ crunching such numbers are not even specialists or experts in all the disciplines
they set out to assess the quality of scientific productivity. Early this year, 55 editors of
scientific journals have voiced their opposition to the faulty use of numbers by the
administrative agencies in evaluating scientific productivity as follows: “We live in an age
of metrics. All around us, things are being standardized, quantified, measured. Scholars
concerned with the work of science and technology must regard this as a fascinating and
crucial practical, cultural and intellectual phenomenon…We now confront a situation in
which our own research work is being subjected to putatively precise accountancy by
arbitrary and unaccountable agencies…This initiative is entirely defective in conception
and execution….” (Cook et al., 2009)
At best, the quantified numbers representing the four bibliometric indicators indicated
above are two dimensional at best, like a photograph of a person. For the elusive third
dimension, one needs to evaluate the entire career of each scientist.
Pioneers, First Generation and Second Generation
For convenience I have used the four discipline-based categories: biomedical sciences,
chemical, physical and mathematical sciences, engineering sciences and social sciences.
And within each discipline I have clustered the scientists into three groups: (1) pioneers
(born before 1920), (2) first generation (born between 1920 and 1939), (3) second
generation (born between 1940 and 1958).
Pioneers (born before 1920)
I recognize seven pioneers among Eelam Tamil scientists. These are, Chellappah
Suntheralingam (1895-1985), Samuel Victor Ousmond Somanader (1897-1978),
Chellappah Amirthalingam (1903-1982), Arumugam Wisvalingam Mailvaganam (1906-
1987), Velupillai Appapillai (1913-2001), Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer (1918-2001) and
Albert Arthur Hoover. All except Somanader were founding professors (or lecturers) at
the University of Ceylon in their respective disciplines. Unfortunately, at the moment, I
lack the birth year-death year details of Prof. Hoover, a teacher of mine during 1973-74,
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who also then functioned as the honorary patron of the University of Sri Lanka (Colombo
Campus) Tamil Society, during my tenure as its president (1974-75). I wish that I had
asked him for more details about his early reminiscences.
Somanader, I recognize, as one of the two Sri Lankan Tamil scientists born in the 19th
century. He had been an amateur naturalist in the traditions of Charles Darwin and Alfred
Wallace. Apart from his interests in nature observations, Somanader had varied interests
like journalism and photography. For over 30 years he earned his living as a school
teacher at the Batticaloa Central (Methodist) College and functioned as its principal in the
last decade of his teaching career. As such, all of Somanader’s solitary publications
appeared in local journals, and are not catalogued in the ISI Web of Science.
C. Suntheralingam, the other Sri Lankan Tamil scientist born in the 19th century, had a
colorful and controversial career as a politician, MP for Vavuniya, cabinet minister in the
first parliament of post-independent Ceylon, pamphleteer and rabble-rouser. It should
not be forgotten that Suntheralingam was a mathematician by training and was the first
professor of mathematics at the Ceylon University College from 1921 to 1940.
C. Amirthalingam, a younger sibling of Suntheralingam, was one of the first scientists (if
not the first!) from colonial Ceylon to publish in the Nature journal. After a short career as
the Director of Fisheries in the island, Amirthalingam moved to Sudan and was affiliated
to the University of Khartoum for long.
It is also notable that three among the seven pioneers identified here had the fortune to
have Nobel laureates in science as their mentors during their higher degree studies in UK.
Mailvaganam trained under C.T.R. Wilson and the great Ernest Rutherford. While
Appapillai worked with P.M.S. Blackett, Eliezer had Paul Dirac as his mentor. The scientific
productivity of these seven pioneers (except that of Somanader) was numerically lower.
This is understandable because all of them had to exert their energy in functioning as
institution builders, administrators, teachers and cultural icons of their community in
social service.
First Generation (born between 1920 and 1939)
25 scientists are identified in the first generation category. Lower productivity of many
can be attributed to the same non-research functions identified for the pioneers. It
should be noted that atmospheric physicist S. Gnanalingam was a son of pioneer C.
Suntheralingam.
Biomedical sciences: Siva Chinnatamby, N. Nagaratnam, Shan S. Ratnam, S.

Sentheshanmuganathan, R. Kanagasuntheram, K.D. Arudpragasam, K. Balasubramaniam,
S. Balasubramaniam, K. Sivapalan, M.R. Jainudeen, S. Sotheeswaran, A.H. Sathananthan,
P. Sivapalan, V.K. Ganesalingam, Navam Hettiarachchy.
Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences: M.U.S. Sultan Bawa, S. Gnanalingam,

M.A.V. Devanathan, M. Sundaralingam, R.S. Ramakrishna.
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Engineering Sciences: K. Arulanandan, S.T. Ariaratnam.
Social Sciences: S.J. Tambiah, S. Arasaratnam, S. Thananjayarajasingham.
Second Generation (born between 1940 and 1958)
58 scientists are identified in the second generation category. While the pioneers and the
first generation types have predominantly restricted their main research location to Sri
Lanka and the UK, the second generation became more international and expanded their
research territorial range to other English speaking countries (the USA, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, and Singapore), as well as non-English speaking European and Asian
countries.
Biomedical sciences: R.R. Selvendran, C. Santiapillai, R. Rudran, K. Sivasithamparam, N.

Sreeharan, K. Kailasapathy, S. Arulkumaran, R. Rajamahendran, P. Gopalakrishnakone, R.
Sivakanesan, K. Ranjadayalan, K. Arumuganathan, V. Rasiah, R. Ramasamy, S.
Raveendranath, S.V. Rajakulendran, A. Balasubramaniam, S. Sri Kantha, Rajani
Thiranagama, W.T. Vigneswaran
Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences: M. Singham, P. Kathirgamanathan, S.

Surendrakumar, G.C.J. Fernandez, S. Hariharan, V.S. Manoranjan, S.S. Sritharan, A.
Thavaneswaran, V. Jeyakumar, S. Sivananthan.
Engineering Sciences: S. Naguleswaran, A. Kumar David, A.S. Balasbramaniam, D.J.

Gunaratnam, S. Sivasegaram, A.P. S. Selvadurai, S. Selvalingam, V. Thevendran, R.
Srikanthan, J.G. Shantikumar, Indira V. Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam), S.
Vigneswaran, T. Sritharan, S.R.H. Hoole, S. Parameswaran, R. SriRanjan, M. Sivapalan, C.
Sriskandarajah, A. Anandarajah, K.S. Sivakumaran, R. Siddharthan, N. Sri Namachchivaya,
C. Vipulanandan, M. Mahendran.
Social Sciences: Radhika Coomaraswamy, N. Shanmugaratnam, A. E. Selvanathan, S.

Selvanathan.
Bibliometric Indicators; some notable records
For each of the 87 scientists identified in this essay (excluding three pioneers:
Suntheralingam, Somanader and Appapillai), I provide four personal parameters (year of
birth and year of death [if known] within parenthesis following the name: productivity
span (PS): research specialty (RS) and main research location (MRL). For quite a number
of scientists even the year of birth (YOB) is tentatively guessed and noted with a question
mark(?). Personal details of scientists are hard to assemble and had been gathered from
my personal knowledge, collections and recorded memories. Even a simple statistic
relating to YOB (and year of death/YOD) has been left unfilled, if not known for sure. A
few to whom I have corresponded, failed to respond to my query and one or two were
reluctant to divulge their YOB. The four parameters of scientific productivity included are:
total publications (TP), total citations (TC), h-index and citations per publications (C/P).
These four bibliometric indicators are valid as of Dec.31, 2008, according to the
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publications indexed in the ISI Web of Science database.
From Archimedes to Einstein, scientists have been born-travelers and peregrination is

one of their traita; this has been so for the Tamil scientists in the 20th and the 21st
centuries – fleeing from persecution, discrimination and looking for work opportunities at
research centers that have been willing to accept them for their merits. As such, the most
recent work site of each scientist is provided adjacent to MRL, as far as these can be
ascertained from their place of publications, Google-based information and personal
knowledge. The names of scientists are arranged tentatively according to the YOB, within
each of the four main categorical divisions.
I apologize that I have not included the bibliometric details of a few scientists whom I
have known individually for technical reasons. These include, Prof. C.
Sivagnanasunderam, Prof. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Prof. A. Thurairajah, Prof. Mano
Sabaratnam, and Dr. Velmurugu Ravindran. Common surnames like Balasubramaniam,
Ravindran, Sivapalan and even Srikantha(!) are shared by Tamils living in India, Sri Lanka
and elsewhere. These Hindu names having the same single letter initials become
homonyms and get pooled together in the scientific databases programmed with a
Christian naming pattern having multiple letter initials in mind by the indexers and
cataloguers. Lately in the correspondence pages of the Nature journal, Hindu scientists
(from India and Singapore), Buddhist scientists (from Japan) and even Muslim scientists
have complained about the vagaries of such Christian based name programming in
databases. Unless one is sure about research specialty and work location of each
scientist, it becomes a tussle to loosen the knots of individual achievements.
The bibliometric indicators of two deceased scientists are of noticeable grade.

Gynecologist-obstetrician Shan S. Ratnam (1928-2001) has the highest number of
research publications, amounting to 554, with 4,226 total citations and an h-index ranking
of 30. Biochemist-crystallographer M. Sundaralingam (1931-2004) has the best all-round
indicators, with 364 publications, 14,743 total citations and the h-index ranking of 61.
While visiting his homeland, Sundaralingam lost his life prematurely on Dec. 26, 2004 to
the Big Tsunami that struck Trincomalee.
The total publication numbers achieved by Ratnam and Sundaralingam are of some
significance. In an obituary note on Cyril Ponnamperuma (Sri Lanka’s most recognized
Sinhalese scientist) I contributed to the Lanka Guardianjournal, I had annotated as
follows: “Ponnamperuma published over 300 research papers in the field of chemistry
and chemical evolution, edited 16 books and authored a couple of books (vide, The
International Who’s Who 1994-95, Europa Publications) in his professional career which
spanned almost 35 years. I believe that among the Sri Lankan scientists, only P.E.P.
Deraniyagala, the former director of the National Museums of Ceylon, could match this
prolific record. According to a count published in the Spolia Zeylanica(1960, vol.29),
Deraniyagala had published 323 papers between 1923 and 1960. But it should be noted
that Deraniyagala edited Spolia Zeylanica and the majority of his publications appeared in
this journal, and probably without peer review. Ponnamperuma did not have this luxury.”
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(Sri Kantha, 1995)
Though the current list is dominated by male scientists, mention should be made about a
few female scientists who have raised their status against parochialist interests such as
sexism, racism and casteism. I recognize Dr. Siva Chinnatamby (1920-2001) as the
foremost woman pioneer among Sri Lankan Tamil scientists. The track records of Navam
Hettiarachchy (nee Mylvaganam) and Indira Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam) currently
active in North America do have meritorious status. Professor Indira Samarasekara is
currently serving as President of the University of Alberta, Canada, a feat never before
achieved by a Sri Lankan scientist, male or female.
[Country abbreviations used: SL=Sri Lanka, UK=United Kingdom, USA=United States of

America.]
Bibliometric Inventory of Biomedical Scientists
Amirthalingam, Chellappah (1903-1982) - PS: 1927-32, RS: marine biology, MRL: UK, SL,
Sudan. [formerly at University of Khartoum] TP=5, TC=5, h-index=1, C/P= 1.0
Hoover, Albert Arthur - PS: 1937-73, RS: biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL. [formerly at
University of Jaffna] TP=5, TC=41, h-index=4, C/P=8.2
Chinnatamby, Siva (1923-2000) – PS: 1965-71, RS: medicine/gynecology-obstetrics. MRL:

UK, SL. TP=2, TC=15, h-index=1, C/P=7.5
Nagaratnam, Nages (1926- ) – PS: 1958-current, RS: medicine/internal medicine,

geriatrics, MRL: SL, UK, Australia. [University of Sydney] TP=90, TC=356, h-index=10,
C/P=4.0
Ratnam, Shan S. (1928-2001) – PS: 1971-2004, RS: medicine/gynecology-obstetrics, MRL:

SL, Singapore [formerly at, National University of Singapore] TP=554, TC=4,226, h-
index=30, C/P=7.6
Sentheshanmuganathan, S. – PS: 1956-76, RS: biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL [formerly at,

Medical Research Institute] TP=9, TC=132, h-index=6, C/P=14.7
Kanagasuntheram, R. (1930s- ) – PS: 1957-86, RS: medicine/anatomy. MRL: Singapore.

[formerly at, National University of Singapore] TP=57, TC=484, h-index=13, C/P=8.5
Arudpragasam, Kandiah David (1932-2003) – PS: 1964-66, RS: zoology/marine biology,

MRL: UK, SL. [formerly at, University of Colombo] TP=3, TC=134, h-index=3, C/P=44.7
Balasubramaniam, Kandiah (1932- ) – PS: 1964-2001, RS: biochemistry, MRL: USA, UK, SL,
Sweden. [formerly at, University of Jaffna] TP=36, TC=283, h-index=10, C/P=7.9
Balasubramaniam, S. (1930s - 1992) – PS: 1968-1995, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL
[formerly at, University of Peradeniya] TP=48, TC=489, h-index=13, C/P=10.2
Sivapalan, Karthigesu (1932-1985) – PS: 1971-85, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: India, SL
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[formerly at, Tea Research Institute]. TP=8, TC=46, h-index=4, C/P=5.8
Jainudeen, M.R. (1930s - ) – PS: 1965-2005, RS: Veterinary Science/mammalogy, MRL: SL,
Malaysia, Indonesia [formerly at, Universiti Putra Malaysia] TP=40, TC=384, h-index=11,
C/P=9.6
Sotheeswaran, Subramaniam (1930s - ) – PS: 1965-current, RS: organic chemistry, MRL:

UK, SL, Fiji [at University of the South Pacific]. TP=85, TC=951, h-index=17, C/P=11.5
Sathananthan, A. Henry (1934- ) – PS: 1960-current, RS: zoology/embryology, MRL: SL,

Australia [at Monash University] TP=51, TC=1,120, h-index=20, C/P=22.0
Sivapalan, P. (1936- ) – PS: 1964-80, RS: zoology/entomology, MRL: USA, SL [formerly at,
Tea Research Institute] TP=17, TC=67, h-index=4, C/P=3.9
Ganesalingam, V.K. (1936?- ) – PS: 1970-74, RS: zoology/entomology, MRL: UK, SL

[formerly at, University of Jaffna] TP=3, TC=78, h-index=3, C/P=26.0
Hettiarachchy (nee Mylvaganam), Navam (1939- ) – PS: 1974-current, RS: food

biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL, USA [at University of Arkansas]. TP=80, TC=1,007, h-index=19,
C/P=12.6
Selvendran, Robert Rasiah (1940? - ) – PS: 1967-99, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: SL, UK
[at Institute of Food Research, Norwich]. TP=91, TC=3,585, h-index=32, C/P=39.4
Rudran, R (1940s - ) – PS: 1972-2003, RS: zoology/primatology, MRL: USA [at National
Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution]. TP=13, TC=566, h-index=9, C/P=43.5
Sivasithamparam, Krishnapillai (1940s - ) – PS: 1979-current, RS: plant biology, MRL: SL,
Australia [at University of Western Australia]. TP=287, TC=2,487, h-index=22: C/P=8.7
Sriharan, Nadarajah (1940s - ) – PS: 1979-94, RS: medicine, MRL: UK [University of

Surrey]. TP=24, TC=1,650, h-index=9, C/P=68.8
Santiapillai, Charles (1944 - ) – PS: 1982-current: RS: zoology/mammalogy, MRL: UK, SL [at
University of Peradeniya]. TP=24, TC=24, h-index=2, C/P=1.0
Kailasapathy, Kasipathy (1947 - ) – PS: 1991-current, RS: food science, MRL: SL, USA,
Australia [at University of Western Sydney]. TP=81, TC=691, h-index=12, C/P=8.5
Arulkumaran, Sabaratnam (1948 - ) – PS: 1982-current, RS: medicine/ gynecology-

obstretrics, MRL: Singapore, UK [at St. George’s University of London]. TP=282, TC=2,129,
h-index=24, C/P=7.5
Rajamahendran, Rajadurai (1949? - ) – PS: 1976-current, RS: Veterinary

Science/Endocrinology, MRL: SL, Canada [at University of British Columbia]. TP=104,
TC=1,016, h-index=18, C/P=9.8
Gopalakrishnakone, P (1949? - ) – PS: 1978-current, RS: medicine/ anatomy-toxicology,
78
MRL: UK, SL, Singapore [at National University of Singapore]. TP=172, TC=1,382, h-
index=20, C/P=8.0
Sivakanesan, Ramaiah (1950? - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: Veterinary Science/Biochemistry,

MRL: UK, SL [at University of Peradeniya]. TP=11, TC=35, h-index=4, C/P=3.2
Rasiah, Velu (1949? -) – PS: 1989-curent, RS: soil science, MRL: USA, Canada, Australia. [at
Queensland Department of Primary Industries]. TP=55, TC=487, h-index=12, C/P=8.9
Ramasamy, Ranjan (1950? -) – PS: 1974-current, RS: medicine/immunology, MRL: UK, SL,
Brunei [at University of Brunei Darussalam]. TP=52, TC=473 H=14 C/P=9.1
Raveendranath, Sivasubramaniam (1951 -) – PS: 1980-2008, RS: entomology, MRL: UK, SL.
[formerly at, Eastern University]. TP=1, TC=14, h-index=1, C/P=14.0
Rajakulendran, S. Victor (1951? - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: entomology, MRL=USA,

Australia. TP=3, TC=52, h-index=3, C/P=17.3
Ranjadayalan, Kulasegarum (1951? - ) – PS: 1990-current, RS: medicine, MRL: UK. [at
Newham University Hospital] TP=84, TC=1,130, h-index=17, C/P=13.5
Arumuganathan, K. (1951? - ) – PS: 1991-current, RS: plant molecular biology, MRL: UK,
USA. [at Virginia Mason University] TP=40, TC=649, h-index=17, C/P=16.2
Balasubramaniam, Ambihaipahan (1952? - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: biochemistry, MRL:

USA. [at University of Cincinnatti] TP=155, TC=2,727, h-index=28, C/P=17.6
Kantha, Sachi Sri (1953 - ) – PS: 1983-current, RS: zoology/behavioral biology, MRL: SL,
USA, Japan. [at Gifu Pharmaceutical University] TP=79, TC=339, h-index=8, C/P=4.3
Thiranagama (nee Rajasingham), Rajani (1954-1989) – PS: 1986-91, RS:

medicine/anatomy, MRL: UK [formerly at, University of Jaffna] TP=5, TC=26, h-index=2,
C/P=5.2
Vigneswaran, Wickii Thambiah (1957? - ) – PS: 1978-curent, RS: medicine/anatomy, MRL:

USA. [at University of Chicago Medical School] TP=76, TC=408, h-index=10, C/P=5.4
Bibliometric Inventory of Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Scientists
Mailvaganam, Arumugam Wisvalingam (1906-1987) – PS: 1945-54, RS: atmospheric

physics, MRL: UK, SL [formerly at, University of Colombo]. TP=6, TC=17, h-index=3,
C/P=2.8
Eliezer, Christie Jayaratnam (1918-2001) – PS: 1943-2000, RS: applied mathematics,

physics, MRL: UK, SL, Malaysia, Australia [formerly at, La Trobe University] TP=30,
TC=388, h-index=8, C/P=12.9
Sultan Bawa, Muhammad Uvais Sideek (1921-1999) – PS: 1949-1989, RS: organic
chemistry, MRL: UK, SL [formerly at, University of Peradeniya] TP=89, TC=1,281, h-
79
index=20, C/P=14.4
Gnanalingam, Suntheralingam (1924 - ) – PS: 1952-95, RS: atmospheric physics, MRL: UK,
SL, USA. [formerly at, CISIR, SL] TP=7, TC=68, h-index=6, C/P=9.7
Devanathan, Malcolm A.V. (1925? – 1977) – PS: 1953-81, RS: physical chemistry, MRL: UK,
USA, SL, India [formerly at, Tea Research Institute, SL] TP=41, TC=2,281, h-index=16,
C/P=55.6
Sundaralingam, Muttiah (1931-2004) – PS: 1960-2006, RS: biochemistry/crystallography,

MRL: USA. [formerly at, Ohio State University] TP=364, TC=14,743, h-index=61, C/P=40.5
Ramakrishna, R.S. (1932-2003) – PS: 1960-89, RS: inorganic chemistry, MRL: UK, SL.
[formerly at, University of Colombo] TP=29, TC=163, h-index=8, C/P=5.6
Singham, Mano (1940s - ) – PS: 1989-2003, RS: physics, MRL: SL, USA. [at Case Western
Reserve University] TP=19, TC=19, h-index=2, C/P=1.0
Kathirgamanathan, P. (1951? - ) – PS: 1979-2004, RS: inorganic chemistry, MRL: UK. [at
South Bank University] TP=64, TC=741, h-index=14, C/P=11.6
Surendrakumar, S. (1951 - ) – PS: 1980-99, RS: organic chemistry, MRL: SL, UK. [at South
Bank University] TP=31, TC=863, h-index=20, C/P=27.8
Hariharan, Subramania Iyer, (1952? -) – PS: 1980-current, RS: mathematics, MRL: USA. [at
University of Akron] TP=38, TC=198, h-index=7, C/P=5.2
Fernandez, George C. J., (1952? -), - PS: 1980-current, RS: applied statistics, MRL: USA. [at
University of Nevada, Reno] TP=45, TC=296, h-index=11, C/P=6.58
Manoranjan, Vallipuram S., (1953? -) – PS: 1982-current, RS: mathematics, MRL: UK, USA.
[at Washington State University] TP=39, TC=534, h-index=10, C/P=13.7
Sritharan, S.S., (1954? -) – PS: 1984-current, RS: applied mathematics, MRL: USA. [at
Naval Postgraduate School] TP=32, TC=290, h-index=10, C/P=9.1
Thavaneswaran, A. – PS: 1986-current, RS: statistics, MRL: USA, Canada. [at University of
Manitoba]. TP=45, TC=128, h-index=6, C/P=2.8
Jeyakumar, Vaithilingam – PS: 1985-current, RS: applied mathematics, MRL: Australia. [at
University of New South Wales] TP=84, TC=804, h-index=17, C/P=9.6
Sivananthan, Sivalingam – PS: 1988-current, RS: applied physics, MRL: USA. [at University
of Illinois, Chicago] TP=175, TC=2,497, h-index=28, C/P=14.3
Bibliometric Inventory of Engineering Scientists
Arulanandam, Kandiah (1925-2004) – PS: 1960-2004, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, USA.
[formerly at University of California, Davis] TP=39, TC=374, h-index=9, C/P=9.6
80
Ariaratnam, Samuel T. – PS: 1960-2001, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, Canada. [formerly
at University of Waterloo] TP=52, TC=527, h-index=14, C/P=10.1
Naguleswaran, Sivapatham – PS: 1970-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL: UK, SL,
New Zealand [at University of Canterbury] TP=39, TC=298, h-index=11, C/P=7.6
Kumar, David A. – PS: 1968-current, RS: electrical engineering, MRL: SL, Hongkong. [at
University of Hong Kong] TP=83, TC=752, h-index=15, C/P=9.1
Balasubramaniam, A.S. – PS: 1968-2004, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Thailand.
[formerly at Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok] TP=30, TC=234, h-index=10, C/P=7.8
Sivasegaram, S. – PS: 1969-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL: SL, UK. [at
University of Peradeniya]. TP=18, TC=148, h-index=7, C/P=8.22
Gunaratnam, David J. – PS: 1969-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Australia. [at
University of Sydney] TP=11, TC=17, h-index=2, C/P=1.6
Selvalingam, Selvadore – PS: 1970-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Thailand,
Singapore, Australia. [at Deakin University] TP=10, TC=21, h-index=3, C/P=2.1
Selvadurai, A. Patrick S. – PS: 1971-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, Canada. [at
McGill University] TP=211, TC=918, h-index=13, C/P=4.4
Thevendran, V. – PS: 1972-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, SL, Singapore. [at
National University of Singapore] TP=41, TC=159, h-index=8, C/P=3.88
Srikanthan, Ratnasingham, (1949? -) – PS: 1982-current, RS: civil environmental

engineering, MRL: Australia [at Bureau of Meteorology] TP=39, TC=197, h-index=8,
C/P=5.1
Shanthikumar, J. George, (1950? -) – PS: 1979-current, RS: industrial engineering, MRL:

Canada, USA [at University of California, Berkeley] TP=168, TC=2,301, h-index=26,
C/P=13.7
Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam), Indira (1952 - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: mechanical

engineering, MRL: USA, Canada [at University of Alberta] TP=97, TC=1,183, h-index=22,
C/P=12.2
Vigneswaran, Saravanamuthu, (1951?-) – PS: 1980-current, RS: environmental

engineering, MRL: France, Thailand, Australia [at University of Technology, Sydney]
TP=143, TC=936, h-index=15, C/P=6.5
Sritharan, Thirumany, (1952? - ) – PS: 1981-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK,
Australia, Singapore [at Nanyang Technological University] TP=60, TC=379, h-index=11,
C/P=6.3
Hoole, S. Ratnajeevan H. (1952 - ) – PS: 1983-current, RS: electrical engineering, MRL:

USA, SL [at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hartfort] TP=80, TC=413, h-index=12,
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C/P=5.2
Parameswaran, Sivapathasuntharam, (1952 - ) – PS: 1985-current, RS: mechanical

engineering, MRL: UK, USA [at Texas Tech University] TP=16, TC=30, h-index=3, C/P=1.9
Sivapalan, Murugesu (1953 - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: civil and environmental

engineering, MRL: Australia, USA [at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign] TP=118,
TC=2,497, h-index=30, C/P=21.2
Sriskandarajah, Chelliah – PS: 1986-current, RS: industrial engineering, MRL: USA. [at
University of Texas at Dallas] TP=75, TC=1,014, h-index=17, C/P=13.5
Anandarajah, Annalingam, (1954? -) – PS: 1983-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: USA.
[at Johns Hopkins University] TP=40, TC=292, h-index=10, C/P=7.3
Sivakumaran, K.S., (1954? - ) – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: Canada. [at
University of Calgary] TP=26, TC=148, h-index=8, C/P=5.7
Siddharthan, Raj, (1954? -) – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: Canada, USA [at
University of Nevada, Reno] TP=34, TC=212, h-index=9, C/P=6.2
Sri Namachchivaya, Navaratnam – PS: 1984-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL:

Canada, USA [at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] TP=76, TC=603, h-index=13,
C/P=7.9
Vipulanandan, Coomaraswamy – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: USA. [at
University of Houston] TP=77, TC=390, h-index=11, C/P=5.1
Mahendran, Mahen – PS: 1985-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL:Australia. At

Queensland University of Technology] TP=32, TC=118, h-index=7, C/P=3.7
SriRanjan, Ranjan (1952? -) – PS: 1989-current, RS: agricultural engineering, MRL: Canada.
[at North Carolina State University] TP=7, TC=24, h-index=2, C/P=3.4
Bibliometric Inventory for Social Scientists
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyarajah (1929 - ) – PS: 1957-2005, RS: anthropology, MRL: UK, SL,
USA. [formerly at Harvard University] TP=25, TC=254, h-index=6, C/P=10.2
Arasaratnam, Sinnappah (1930-1998) – PS: 1966-98, RS: history, politics, MRL: SL,
Malaysia, Australia. [formerly at University of New England] TP=24, TC=12, h-index=2,
C/P=0.5
Thananjayarajasingham, Sabaratnasinghe (1933-1977) – PS: 1973-76, RS: Tamil linguistics,

MRL: SL.[formerly at University of Kelaniya/Vidyalankara] TP=6, TC=1, h-index=1, C/P=0.2
Coomaraswamy, Radhika (1940s - ) – PS: 1978-2004, RS: law. MRL: USA, SL. [affiliated to
the United Nations Organization] TP=6, TC=2, h-index=1, C/P=0.4
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Shanmugaratnam, Nadarajah (1940s - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: agricultural economics.

MRL: SL, Norway. [at Norwegian University of Life Sciences] TP=19, TC=87, h-index=5,
C/P=4.6
Selvanathan, Antony E. (1955 - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: business economics. MRL:

Australia. [at Griffith University] TP=30, TC=165, h-index=8, C/P=5.5
Selvanathan, Saroja (1954 - ) – PS: 1987-current, RS: business economics. MRL: Australia.
[at Griffith University] TP=24, TC=78, h-index=4, C/P=3.3
A table prepared to present the details in scientific productivity of these 87 scientists in a

comparative fashion is provided in a pdf file format. Pioneers Suntheralingam,
Somanader and Appapillai have been excluded in this listing. One may be tempted to ask,
what is the meaning of these numbers for Tamil scientists? Do they serve any societal
need in this time of crisis? As answers, I concur with a few inferences derived by clinical
psychologist Anne Roe (1953), from her study of 64 leading American scientists. These
are,
(1) “Scientists are people, not rational automatons. They differ from other people in
terms of what they do, in the things that give them satisfaction, more than in terms of
completely special capacities.”
(2) “One of the first things one notes about scientists is the fact that a large part of their
time is spent in thinking about things, in a question-answering way.”
(3) “Make no mistake, an extreme degree of concentration is needed. There is so much to

learn, so much to master of what is already known, before further steps can be taken,
and there are few shortcuts. In this sense, this driveness is a help to professional
accomplishment.”
These inferences appear in the final chapter [‘What does it mean for You?’] of Anne Roe’s
book. The numbers provide a measure of each individual scientist’s “driveness” and
“professional accomplishment.”, whether one is decorated with a Nobel prize or a
Fellowship in any of the Academy of Sciences. But wisdom also dictates that one
shouldn’t be a slave to numbers! In this aspect, what was presented in the first chapter
[‘How this Research Study Developed] by Anne Roe also deserves attention. She
emphasizes that scientists are ‘free people’ and they care for much for this freedom. To
quote, “Research scientists usually are in a position to control their own work and this is
one of the reasons, I think, why they derive such tremendous gratification from it.” This
issue of freedom also explains the peregrination issue of why such a number of pioneers
(such as Amirthalingam and Eliezer), first generation and second generation scientists
belonging to Tamil ethnics from Sri Lanka, have bothered to escape from the manacles of
state oppression, restriction and discrimination.
Four sentences of Anne Roe that appear in the same paragraph also are symbolic of the
situation faced by Lieut. Col. Appaiah Annai in the 1980s. To reproduce these: “In the
83
special circumstances of mobilization of scientists for war, again the problem is set for
them, although some of them, at least, must have considerable freedom in working out
the methods of approach. Any diminution of a scientist’s accustomed freedom to control
his own work and what he says about it is a major frustrating experience to him and one
for which he naturally has very little tolerance. All of his professional activities are
predicated, in a sense, upon the possession of this freedom. Normally, however, the
scientist is his own boss as far as his research is concerned, and he is limited only by the
time at his disposal (his primary job may be college teaching, for example) and the
equipment available to him (although this is less often a serious limitation than one might
think).”
Appaiah Annai’s primary job was not “college teaching”, but vehicle repair. Nevertheless,
he was a teacher in weapon systems-tinkering and improvising to his young cadets.
Appaiah Annai didn’t have a Ph.D, but neither did Thomas Edison nor the Wright
Brothers. Those who read the short sketch of Appaiah Annai’s career that appeared in
the Oru Paper (London) of Dec. 27, 2008 can be impressed by his ‘never give-up spirit’ of
a scientist.
One final note: In the absence of any other comparative scale similar to that of the ISI-
Web of Science database, this has been used here for inventory. It should not be
forgotten that the total publications (TP) counted in the ISI-Web of Science database has
to be taken as optimal productivity of each scientist, as the journal selection criteria for
this database has an exclusivity bias. But, the maximal productivity of each scientist
included here is higher than that of the TP counted in the ISI-Web of Science database. To
illustrate this issue, I present my case as a representative example. I have 14 published
papers in peer reviewed journals (5 in Ceylon Medical Journal, 2 in the Journal of National
Science Council of Sri Lanka, 1 in Jaffna Medical Journal, 3 in Asian Medical Journal/Japan,
1 in Connective Tissue Research/Japan and 2 inNutrisyon/Philippines), none of which has
been included in the ISI Web of Science database. Technically, none of the scientific
journals published in Sri Lanka are included in the ISI-Web of Science database. As such,
the TP scores of the pioneers and many of the first generation scientists included in this
list do suffer from this exclusion bias. For instance, S. Raveendranath’s optimal
productivity in terms of TP is only one. But I’m aware that his maximal productivity is
more than one.
Conclusion
On being reproached that his formula of gravitation was longer and more cumbersome
than Newton’s, the great Einstein responded with a quip, ‘If you are out to describe the
truth, leave elegance to the tailor.’ [Mackay, 1992]. In the spirit of Einstein, I infer that
the details presented on the productivity of Sri Lankan Tamil scientists, born between
1895 and 1958, as measured by the currently accepted yardsticks, present the apparent
truth, and elegance has been left out for tailors [such as the National Academy of
Sciences of Sri Lanka] who promote parochial interests and politics. Though some of the
Tamil scientists included in this survey had been elected as Fellows of the National
84
Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in the past, based on evidence of scientific productivity,
it is a given that - as it has been constituted now - entry into this Academy appears
doomed for the majority of the other Tamil scientists who were born in post-independent
Sri Lanka and have been laboring on the island or elsewhere.
To conclude in a lighter vein, here is a quip about the plight of a most prolific Creator and
discoverer, recorded two decades ago. “If God applied for a research grant to develop
heaven and an earth, He would be turned down nowadays on the following grounds: (1)
His project is too ambitious. (2) He has no previous track record. (3) His only publication is
a book, not a paper in a refereed journal. (4) He refuses to collaborate with his biggest
competitor. (5) His proposal is all up in the air.” [Anon, 1989]. The punchline of this joke is
that even God is bound to get rejections from the gatekeepers of science. Like in other
competitive fields, the life of a harried and harassed Tamil scientist is filled with
rejections, disappointments, competition for shrinking research budget and lack of
adequate recognition in one’s home country or adopted country. Despite these
handicaps, the souls who endeavor to chase their dreams and show leadership skills to
the younger generations deserve some recognition, and this essay is a tribute to the spirit
of such trendsetters.
It will indeed be a fruitful exercise, if an attempt is made subsequently to prepare an

inventory of scientific productivity of younger Tamil scientists (born since 1958) who are
currently making their grade in research.
Reference Sources
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Sri Lanka. Science Technology Society, 2001: 6(1): 179-201.
Amarasuriya NR: Scientific journals of Sri Lanka. Information Development: 1991: 7(4):
204-207.
Anon: The powers that be. Chemistry in Britain, 1989: 25: 663.
Ball P: Index aims for fair ranking of scientists. Nature, 2005: 436: 900.
Ball P: Achievement index climbs the ranks. Nature, 2007: 448: 737.
Cook, H et al. Journals under threat: a joint response from History of Science, Technology
and Medicine editors. Medical History, 2009; 53: 1-4.
Davis, BD: The Scientist’s World. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 2000; 64:
1-12.
Heilbron JL: Creativity and big science. Physics Today, 1992 Nov.: 42-47.
Hirsch JE: An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proc. National
Acad. Sci. USA, 2005: 102: 16569-16572.
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Hirsch JE: Does the h index have predictive power? Proc. National Acad. Sci. USA, 2007:
104: 19193-19198.
Holden C: Defining ‘Science’ for the People. Science, 1998; 280: 663.
Mackay AL: A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol,

1992, p.81.
Roe A: The Making of Scientist, Dodd, Mead and Co, New York, 1953, pp. 1-17 and 230-
244.
Siekevitz P: Low citation rates – who is to blame? FASEB Journal, 1991: 5: 2217.
Sri Kantha S: Productivity drive. Nature, 1992a; 356: 738.
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Hypotheses, 1992b; 39: 159-163.
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Hypotheses, 1996; 46: 467-470.
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*****
Published: March 12, 2009
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86
© 1996-2013 Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, Inc.
Pirapaharan
By: T. Sabaratnam
9. TNT matures into the LTTE
The need for a Veeran
The Duraiappah murder delivered the message Pirapaharan wanted to convey: a new force prepared
to hit back had entered the Tamil scene.
That created a tremendous impact among the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Among the Tamils, the need
for a Subash Chandra Bose had been felt for some time. Thanthai Chelva, adored as Eelathu Gandhi,
who provided the father-figure Tamils required, had failed. His path of non-violent struggle had
failed to win for the Tamils their freedoms and rights and had brought among them a sense of
insecurity. Their resistance was suppressed by the use of Sinhala mob and state violence. The moral
force of non-violence had been spurned.
Tamils needed a stronger, fiercer force that could hit back, a Strongman or a Veeran [warrior hero].
Duraiappah's murder provided the Tamil people that stronger force, a group of boys willing to hit
back at the risk of their lives. The manner in which Tamil people reacted to the Duraiappah murder
showed their feeling clearly. They were sad that a people-friendly mayor was killed. They were, at
the same time, happy that a traitor who helped Sirimavo Bandaranaike - who enacted a constitution
that enslaved the Tamil people - was killed. Their hatred of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, whom they
considered
Srimavo Bandaranaike
87
the Queen of Sinhala extremism, was so intense they were prepared to sacrifice a popular politician.
The immediate reaction of the conservative Jaffna man to the Duraiappah slaying was one of
adoration. 'Boys have done it. Our boys have taught the necessary lesson. We have a new force that
can hit back.' They were proud of what the boys had done.
Weakening the Brake
The Sinhala reaction was one of anger. They attacked the moderate Tamil leadership and accused
them of being the "brains behind the boys." Intelligence reports sent by the Tamil United Front (TUF)
desk of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) blamed the TUF, particularly Amirthalingam, for
the violence. One report read: "Amirthalingam is the brain behind all the violent groups. Leaders of
all groups meet him regularly."
The report was not completely false. During the Tamil Youth Forum (TYF) days Pirapaharan,
Thangathurai, Kuttimani, Sri Sabaratnam, Satyaseelan, Muthukumaraswamy and Varatharajah
Perumal used to meet Amirthalingam regularly. They exhibited special affection for Amirthalingam.
Thanthai Chelva deputed Amirthalingam to be in touch with the revolting youths. He used
Amirthalingam as a break. Sinhala journalists and politicians, some of them rabid communalists,
failed to realize that. They attacked Amirthalingam and weakened the hold he had on the violent
youth.
The Duraiappah murder was a profound shock for Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
She ordered a police crack-down on Tamil militants. Police was told to arrest the murderers before
Duraiappah’s funeral. Police swept all the known members of the TYF into jail. With a week, July 28
to August 4, they arrested:
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K Sivanandan, A Mahendra, Namasivayam Anandavinayagam, Somasundaram Senathirajah, M

Sinniah Kuventhirarajah, A Mylvaganam Rajakulasuriar, Ananda Poopathy Balavadivetkaran,
Sivaramalingam Chandrakumar, Sivaramalingam Suriakumar, Thambithurai Muthukuarasamy,
Aseervatham Thasan, K Sundarampellai Sabaratnam, Annamalai Varathararajah, S Appathurai
Nithianandan, Sithamparam Pushparajah, Ramalingam Calendaran, Ponnuthurai Satkunaligam,
Kurululesingam, T Jeevarajah, M Balaratnam, P Veeravagu, K Utharsen, K Sivajeyam, Thambipillai
Santhathiar, Amithalingam Anandakumar, Vaithulingam Sritharan and some others. None of them
knew about the murder. None of them was aware of the existence of the Tamil New Tigers (TNT).
However, the Sinhala-controlled media boasted that the murders had been caught.
Those connected with the murder were arrested during late August and September. That was during
the search for lower-ranked members of the TYF. These were some who were taken in: V Sathasivam
Sathanandasivan, Somu Kulasingam, Selvaratnam Selvakumar, Ratnapala, Joga Chandran, Rajendram
Jeyarajah, Visvajothy Ratnam, P Kalapathy, S Loganathan, Arumugam Kirubakaran, Ranjan,
Varithamby Sivarajah, Muthuthamby Vasanthakumar, Mary Alphorns.
Of these, Arumugam Kirubakaran was arrested on 21 August 1975 and Kalapathy was arrested on 19
September 1975. They spilled the beans. It was through them that the existence of the TNT and its
leader came to be known.
Kirubakaran and Kalapathy fell into the hands of the police as they had ignored Pirapaharan’s
instructions: not to sleep in their homes and to be constantly armed. They were caught when police
raided their homes. They did not have any weapon with them. Their explanation for this failure was
that they had no arms to carry. There were only two revolvers with the TNT at that time and they
were taken by Pirapaharan and Patkunarajah. Pirapaharan carried with him the rusty revolver he
used to shoot Duraiappah. Pirapaharan had taught them the use of kitchen knives and chillie powder
for self-defence. He had told them to carry at least a kitchen knife with them.
Pirapaharan and his colleagues drove away in Duraiappah’s car after the murder to Neerveli,
abandoned the car there and walked in different directions. Pirapaharan walked to the house of a
trusted contact and told him he wanted to sleep in his home. His contact was not aware of the
Duraiappah shooting. Pirapaharan did not drop even a hint about the murder. He took the revolver
out, placed it under his pillow and dozed off. When the contact woke up in the morning, Pirapaharan
was gone. A little later the village was talking about the assassination, the first political murder in
recent Tamil history, an event that also altered the course of Sri Lankan history.
It is Pirapaharan’s habit not to talk about his plans or actions. He refrains from even dropping hints.
He is also careful about his security. After the murder, he avoided the hideouts known to his three
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accomplices. He did not want to take the risk of being caught through the information drawn out of
his three colleagues if they were caught. Pirapaharan was advised by his friends to flee to Tamil
Nadu. He declined. He told his friends that was not the time to run away. He should be in Jaffna to
capitalize on the impact the Duraiappah murder had created.
Jaffna youths had heard Pirapaharan’s name before. Now, the halo of Duraiappah's murder had
made him a hero. His group, the TNT, had earned a name for itelf. Some youths wanted to join him.
One such youth was S. Subramaniam. Known as 'Baby,' he was operating on his own.
(L-R) V.Balakumaran, Baby Subramaniam and Mr.Thangan (TamilNet, 2003)
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The Duraiappah murder had converted him into a Pirapaharan fan. He still is. He is his Education
Porupalar (minister) in the Vanni administration.
While Pirapaharan was consolidating himself in Jaffna, Jayewardene was building himself in the
south. He resigned his Colombo South parliamentary seat on 22 May 1975, the third anniversary of
the Republican constitution. The issue was the term of office of the National State Assembly. The
1972 constitution laid the term as five years from the date the constitution came into operation.
Jayewardene challenged it. He said people elected the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government for a
period of five years at the 1970 election. He resigned his seat at the end of five years and challenged
the government to test public opinion. The by-election was held on 18 July and Thondaman, one of
the TUF presidents, openly supported Jayewardene. The Federal Party and the Tamil Congress, the
other constituents of the TUF canvassed for Jayewardene in secret. Jayewardene won by a majority
of 25,801 votes.
Thondamon
While Pirapaharan and Jayewardene were consolidating their positions, the Sirimavo Bandaranaike
government was writhing with internal bickering. Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike, who opposed the LSSP-
CP nationalization program, manipulated the ouster of the LSSP from the government, which
subsequently led to the withdrawal of the Communist Party from the government.
Bank Robberies
The sacked LSSP reacted with anger and vengeance. It moved a vote of no-confidence against the
prime minister, charging her with misuse of power for personal financial benefit. LSSP leaders
alleged that the prime minister had sold a portion of her coconut estate during the period the Land
Reform Law was enacted, beating the very purpose of the law. The motion, though defeated,
damaged her reputation. The LSSP supported another no-confidence motion against Justice Minister
Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike, accusing him of misuse of power to harass opposition opponents.
While this destructive match was consuming the time of the Sinhala leader,s Pirapaharan quietly
went to Vanni, which he built later into his stronghold, and set up his training camps in Vavuniya.
Pirapaharan, who had roamed widely the wild woods of Vanni during his boyhood where his father
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Velupillai was a land officer, knew that territory of thick forest would be his fall back when the
armed might of the state struck back.
Pirapaharan established his first training camp in an out-of-the-way place two miles (three
kilometers) from Vavuniya town. He named it 'Poonthoddam' meaning Flower Garden. It was a 40-
acre farm with well- laid flower gardens, vegetable plots, paddy fields and thick jungle in the rear. In
the bosom of the jungle, he built huts where militants were taught martial arts and were given
shooting practice.
New recruits taken to Poonthodam were made to work in the vegetable plots and in the paddy fields
which provided the ice and vegetables the camp required. The cadres received military training in
the mornings and evenings. Pirapaharan was very particular that they learn to shoot accurately.
Cutouts of men and marked spots on trees served as targets. Pirapaharan visited the shooting
grounds very often and supervised the training.
One of his former trainers, now with EROS, described to me one of Pirapaharan’s revolver shooting
demonstrations. "He walked up slowly; revolver tucked into his waist belt, took a sudden u-turn,
whipped out the revolver in a flash and fired at the red spot marked on the tree. He smiled with
satisfaction as the bullet hit the target," he said. He added that Pirapaharan was a hard taskmaster.
"He gets angry if you miss the target. 'If you miss your shot the enemy will shoot you,' he shouts," he
said.
Pirapaharan needed money to run the training camp. He initiated an internal discussion about ways
of raising money. They could not do it openly because police was constantly on the lookout for them
and the people were scared to fund them. They decided to follow the JVP example and rob banks.
'Was it not immoral' was the main objection raised by some in the central committee. Banks deal
with people’s money. Can a militant movement fighting for the rights of the people rob people’s
money? Pirapaharan, it is said, suggested the way out of this dilemma. "Let’s rob a state bank," he
said. The additional reason he gave to support his suggestion to rob a state bank was: The Sri Lankan
government, which collected taxes from all the people, neglected the Tamil areas in national
development schemes. Therefore, it is not immoral to rob the government to finance the Tamil
liberation struggle.
Pirapaharan then planned the robbery meticulously. He detailed some cadres to plan the robbery.
He discussed with that group all aspects of the plan. They were asked to watch the time of the
opening of the bank, when business started, the rush and lean times, where cash and jewelry were
kept, the number of men who should take part in the operation, the mode of travel to the bank and
the get-away. Every detail was observed, discussed and incorporated into the plan and practiced.
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On 5 March 1976, Pirapaharan led a selected group into the People's Bank branch at Puttur after it
commenced business, waved the pistols and ordered all employees to gather in the manager’s
cubicle. The awe-struck employees obeyed. They were ordered to stand with their hands raised. Two
groups went to the cashier and the strong room. They gathered the cash and jewelry in two separate
gunny bags and left saying: Sorry for the inconvenience. They carried away Rs.500,000 in notes and
Rs. 200,000 worth of jewels. Jaffna’s first robbery was over in just five minutes.
The bank robbery shook the government and the police and the government ordered the wiping out
of the TNT. The police headquarters in Colombo set up a special intelligence squad in Jaffna to deal
with armed groups. The intelligence experts, who hitherto recorded the speeches of Tamil politicians
and their activities, were told to collect information about the militants. Inspectors Bastiampillai and
Pathmanathan were two of the officers who handled that job. They started to build a network of
informants.
Enthused by TNT’s success in robbing the Puttur bank, the Eelam Liberation Organization (ELO)
robbed the Rural Bank of the Puloly Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society. Unlike the People’s Bank,
Rural Banks are not state banks, They provide credit for farmers. ELO, which talked about social
reformation, robbed poor people’s money. The gang, led by Varatharaja Perumal, was arrested and
the loot, cash and jewellery, recovered. Others arrested were Hens Mohan, Chandra Mohan, and
Thanga Mahendran. The Bank manager, Velupillai Balakumar, was also arrested and charged with
connivance. Inspector Pathmanathan made the arrests. ELO was decimated and the group
automatically disappeared, the only instance in the history of Tamil militancy in which leaders
deserted en masse their organization.
The Founding of the LTTE
Emboldened by the success of the Duraiappah murder and the Puttur bank robbery, Pirapaharan
decided to put his long time dream of setting up an urban guerilla outfit into operation. He had
prepared for it from the time he was in Tamil Nadu. He decided on a name. It should have the name
‘Tamil Eelam’, the land of his dream. It was not the Eelam Suntharalingam proposed in 1960. Eelam
in Tamil literature denoted Sri Lanka, the entire country. Pirapaharan was not concerned about the
entirety of the country. He was only concerned about the northern and eastern portion, the region
that was historically under Tamil control, the Tamil homeland.
The word ‘Tiger’ should be in the name, he decided. Tiger was the insignia of the ancient Tamil Chola
kingdom. It was under the Cholas that Tamils reached the height of their civilization and power.
Then the word ‘Liberation’ should also be in it. His movement is going to be a liberation struggle, a
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struggle to liberate the Tamils from Sinhala oppression. The name finally evolved was Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE in brief.
Pirapaharan had already prepared a logo. While in Madurai he got an Indian artist to draw it. He told
him his idea: the head of a roaring Tiger, paws outstretched, with two rifles and .33 bullets set
against a circle ringing the tiger’s head. When the artist showed him the sketch Pirapaharan was
thrilled.
He had also prepared the draft of the constitution. The objectives he formulated were;
· Total independence of Tamil Eelam.
· The establishment of a sovereign, socialist democratic people's government.
· Abolition of all forms of exploitation, the caste system in particular.
· Establishment of a socialist mode of production.
· Uphold armed revolutionary struggle; an extension of the political struggle for liberation.
· Guerrilla warfare will be gradually and systematically transformed into a genuine people's war of
liberation
The organization was to be headed by a 5-member Central Committee. It was to have both a political
and a military wing. It laid down a strict code of conduct for its members which included a ban on
tobacco, alcohol, sex, family connections and joining other organizations or forming new ones after
leaving the organization.
The constitution was adopted by the new Central Committee elected on 5 May 1976, thus
transforming the TNT into LTTE from that day. Pirapaharan was elected the political leader and
military commander. The other members of the first central committee were: Nagarajah, Sellakili,
Iyer and Vichchveswaran.
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Pirapaharan divided the military activities of the LTTE into three main divisions. They were;
· Elimination of the police intelligence network and traitors,
· Crippling the administrative structure Sri Lanka Government, and
· Destroying army camps and bringing the areas under their control under the LTTE control and
setting up administrative structures which would lay the foundation for the self-rule of Tamil Eelam.
Pirapaharan foresaw a long-drawn out struggle and organized the LTTE as an urban guerilla
movement, which he said was best suited to a numerically smaller community and the best method
to mobilize the masses.
In an interview he explained:
Guerrilla warfare is really mass struggle. It is not in conflict with mass struggle. Guerrilla warfare is
the highest form of mass struggle. When it takes root in the hearts of the entire populace and
reflects their aspirations, it becomes a mass struggle. My object is to achieve this purpose of making
all take
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Annex: The Struggle for Tamil Eelam and the Liberation Tigers
This political pamphlet attempts to sketch a brief outline of the Tamil National Independence
struggle in Sri Lanka and the revolutionary armed struggle advanced for that cause by the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam. As a liberation movement the Tigers constitute themselves as the authentic
revolutionary vanguard of the struggling masses, who, by their deep dedication and commitment to
the revolutionary tasks of national emancipation and socialist revolution have earned the name of
freedom fighters of the people.
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The movement emerged at the peak of national oppression as the militant expression of the
determined will of our people to fight the oppressive bourgeois state machinery with armed
struggle, which Lenin taught us, is the highest expression of revolutionary political practice. We wish
to introduce our revolutionary organization with its historical genesis, its militant struggles and its
aims and objectives with a brief historical note on the national struggle of the masses of Tamil
Eelam.
Historical background
The Tamil national question in Sri Lanka is the burning political issue and the most crucial national
problem confronted by the present dictatorship in that country. The Tamil nation as a whole is
agitating for political independence on the basis of a universal democratic principle, on the basis of a
nation's sacred right, that is, the right to self-determination, the right to secede and form an
independent sovereign state. The Tamil speaking nation was forced into this inevitable political
choice as a consequence of nearly 30 years of violent and brutal oppression practiced by the
successive chauvinists ruling classes of the Sinhala nation. Years of peaceful struggle to gain the very
basic human rights were met with vicious forms of suppression and the national friction between
two nations became the major contradiction leading to the demand for secession by the oppressed.
The island, formerly called Ceylon is the traditional homeland of two nations: Tamil Eelam and Sri
Lanka: two distinct social formations with distinct culture and language; having their own unique
historical past. The Tamils have been living in the island from pre-historic times long before the
arrival of the Sinhalese people from Northern India in the 6th century BC. The Sinhalese historical
chronicles, 'Mahawamsa' and 'Culavamsa' record the turbulent historical past of the island, of
centuries of violent power struggles ands wars between Tamil and Sinhalese kings for political
hegemony. The island was ruled by both Tamil and Sinhalese kings.
From the 13th century onwards, until the penetration of Portuguese colonialism, Tamil Eelam lived
as a stable national entity ruled by its own kings. The Portuguese annexed the Tamil Kingdom yet
ruled it as a separate national formation, as the traditional homelands of the Tamil speaking people.
Dutch colonialism too, did not violate the territorial integrity of the Tamil Kingdom until British
imperialism in the 19th century brought about a unified state structure amalgamating the two
kingdoms irrespective of ethnic differences laying the foundation for the present national conflict.
National oppression and demand for secession
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The Sinhala chauvinist oppression against the Tamil nation began to unfold in its devious forms soon
after the so-called national independence in 1948 when the state power was transferred to the
Sinhala national bourgeoisie. The first major assault of the notorious racialist program was directed
at the Tamil plantation workers through a legislation in 1949 which disenfranchised more than a
million people, reduced them to statelessness and debased them without any civic rights. This
infamous act of inhumanity marked the beginning of a 30-year history of national oppression, a
planned systematic oppression, that seriously undermined the very foundation of the social,
political, economic and cultural life of Tamil speaking masses.
The oppression penetrated into various spheres of the conditions of social existence of our people
and threatened the very survival of our nation. The gradual annexation of the traditional Tamil lands
by Sinhala colonization aided by the state; the forceful imposition of the Sinhala language on the
Tamil speaking people; blatant discrimination and injustice practiced against the Tamil youth in the
sphere of education and employment; planned economic strangulation of Tamil areas-all these
vicious forms of national oppression practiced by all successive governments aggravated the
national conflict.
The worst of all is the state inspired racial conflagrations, which unleashed its terror against the
Tamil speaking masses (particularly in 1958 and 1977) with mass murder, looting, arson and rape,
with abominable crimes of genocide in which the State police openly colluded with the vandals. Such
racial holocaust aimed at the annihilation of our national identity made unitary existence a political
and social impossibility.
At the height of national oppression, when the struggle for political independence became the
inevitable alternative, the Tamil political parties converged into a single national movement with the
formation of the Tamil Untied Liberation Front in 1976. Confronted with steadily mounting national
oppression, frustrated with the failure of political agitations demanding basic human rights, the
Tamil nationalist movement resolved to fight for political independence on the basis of the nation's
right to self-determination. It was primarily a decision to secede and form an independent sovereign
state over which the 1977 elections were fought and endorsed overwhelmingly by the Tamil
speaking masses. Thus, it was the intolerable national oppression and the emergence of national
conflict as the major contradiction that led to this inevitable political demand to secede which
opened a new era in Tamil politics, a new historical epoch to launch a revolutionary struggle for
national independence.
The birth of the Tamil Tigers
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The Tamil Liberation Tigers are the historical product of the Sinhala chauvinist oppression. They
were the product of a revolutionary situation generated by the contradictions of national conflict.
Caught up at the peak of national oppression, constantly victimized by the police brutality for
political actions, the revolutionary ardor of the militant Tamil youth sought concrete political
expression to register their protest. Disenchantment with the political strategy of the nonviolence,
confronted with the demand for revolutionary political practice, the Tiger Movement gave its
historical birth in 1972, as the armed resistance movement of the people. Structured as an urban
guerrilla force, disciplined with an iron will to fight for the cause of national freedom, the Tigers
launched a series of attacks against the armed forces of the oppressive regime.
The Government became alarmed at the growth and strength of the movement, angered at the
success of its military operations on the Government property and personnel, and above all,
horrified of its growing support among the wider sections of the Tamil masses. On April this year
(1978), when the Liberation Tigers launched a tactical attack of self-defense and destroyed a party of
police personnel which was in hot pursuit to track them down, the ruling bourgeois dictatorship
utilized the situation to intensify its policy of national suppression. A repressive legislation was
rushed through the Parliament which proscribed the Tiger Movement. At the same time, the
Government dispatched large contingents of Military personnel to Tamil areas to keep Tamil Eelam
under constant military surveillance and domination. Even with the intensification of the military
and the tight screen of surveillance the Freedom Fighters continue with their armed struggle, launch
occasional strikes at chosen targets and evade all possible tactics to hunt them down. Though
confronted with all odds, and obstacles, the Tiger Movement grows in its strength as the armed
vanguard of the mass struggle, grows as the authentic national liberation movement to advance the
cause of national freedom through armed struggle.
Aims and objectives
The revolutionary political objectives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam express the profound
aspirations for the Tamil speaking masses to gain political independence from the autocratic
domination and oppression of the Sinhala chauvinist regime. As a liberation movement we are
pledged to the tasks of national emancipation and socialist revolution. Our fundamental objectives
are:
Total independence of Tamil Eelam. The establishment of a sovereign, socialist democratic people's
government.
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Abolition of all forms of exploitation of man by man and the establishment of a socialist mode of
production ensuring that the means of production and exchange of our country becomes the
ownership of our people.
To achieve these revolutionary tasks we firmly uphold that armed revolutionary struggle is the only
viable and effective path open to us to liberate our homeland. The armed revolutionary struggle
advanced by our movement is the extension of the political struggle for liberation. Our guerrilla
warfare, which is the mode of armed revolutionary struggle suited our situation, will be gradually
and systematically transformed into a genuine people's war of liberation. To this end, our liberation
movement is working persistently to mobilize and organize the broad masses to actively participate
in the national struggle.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has resolved to work in solidarity with the world national
liberation movements, socialists states, international working class parties. We uphold an anti-
imperialist policy and therefore, we pledge our militant solidarity with the oppressed humankind in
the Third World in their struggle against imperialism, neo-colonialists, Zionism, racism and other
forces of reaction.
Note: This document was released by the political committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
in November 1978 and was published in "Towards Liberation", which also contained other selected
political documents of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Next:
Chapter 10. The Mandate Affirmed
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
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Chapter 8: First Military Operation
17th Year on the Web
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
Home
Archives
Sri Lankan Tamil Scientists:
An Inventory of Their Productivity
by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 4, 2009
For convenience I have used the four discipline-based categories: biomedical sciences, chemical,
physical and mathematical sciences, engineering sciences and social sciences. And within each
discipline I have clustered the scientists into three groups: (1) pioneers (born before 1920), (2) first
generation (born between 1920 and 1939), (3) second generation (born between 1940 and 1958).
Scientific Productivity Record of Sri Lankan Tamil Scientists [pdf file]
Dedication
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This essay is dedicated to the memories of two Tamil scientists and institution builders, Lieut. Col.
Appaiah Annai [I. Rasiah from Manipay] and Prof. S. Raveendranath, who were abducted by para-
militaries affiliated to the Sri Lankan army and put to death. For the record, Appaiah Annai, abducted
on Dec. 24, 1997, was a home-grown weapon systems-tinkerer and improviser, whose professional
qualification is tagged as garage mechanic. Prof. Raveendranath, abducted on Dec.15, 2005, was an
agricultural pest entomologist.
Prelude
Lt. Col. Appaiah Annai
More than ten years ago, I contributed five short essays to the multi-volume Biographical
Encyclopedia of Scientists (edited by Richard Olson, Marshall Cavendish Corp., New York, 1998). This
was a five volume compilation profiling 472 representative figures in the history of scientific
investigation. Among its 182 contributors, I was commissioned to cover five, four of whom were
Nobelists in science (namely Kenichi Fukui, Shibasaburo Kitasato, Karl Landsteiner, Shinichiro
Tomonaga and Hideki Yukawa). As I was residing in Japan, the editor offered me to cover the lives of
four well known Japanese scientists.
Prior to that, I had studied and published on the scientific productivity of Einstein, Landsteiner and
Freud (Sri Kantha, 1996). I also studied eight prolific, prominent scientists who had published over
1,000 papers and whom I humorously tagged kilo-base goliaths
Doctor Siva Chinnatamby (1923-2000) – pioneer woman scientist
(KBGs), and three among these eight were chemistry Nobelists. (Sri Kantha, 1992a, 1992b). This
study also attracted notice by a peer physiology columnist (Tenney, 1993).
These interests led me to the idea that I should endeavor to collect publication details of notable Sri
Lankan Tamil scientists, which remain dispersed and inaccessible. This essay is a front runner of this
project, and is not meant to be all inclusive. I have identified 90 Tamil/Muslim scientists, who were
born between 1895 and 1958. If the achievements of other published Tamil/Muslim scientists have
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been omitted or slighted, it is mainly due to my ignorance and lack of access to their published
record.
Introduction
This essay has been in preparation for the past two years. I have had the benefit of input from
physician Nages Nagaratnam (born 1926, currently residing in Australia) and another Tamil scientist
who wishes to remain anonymous. I note that these two have added valuable details to this essay on
themes that I am not familiar with. First I begin with an email correspondence I had with Dr.
Nagaratnam. I provide excerpts of an e-mail I sent to him on February 24, 2007.
“Last month when I searched the net, I came across the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka
site. I had heard about it, but didn’t take much interest in the past. When I read through the
‘Academicians’ list, I was pleasantly surprised to find your name. Sure you deserve to be among the
elites. You have been inducted 30 years ago. Can you provide some information about this National
Academy for me?
1. When was this Academy established?
2. How many were the original ‘founder members’? And on what basis, did these original ‘founder
members’ constitute themselves for the Academy? I find a few names listed with the tag as ‘founder
members’?
3. How does the selection process operate? [I’m just curious. Does every member of the Academy
vote for the initiation of new member? And does this election occur annually like the American
National Academy of Sciences?]
4. Can you provide me a list of Tamil/Muslim scientists (from your memory) who have been elected
to this Academy?
I should mention why I request this information. As you know, I have been one interested in
chronicling our history. And as such, I have been collecting bio-data and publication records of Eelam
Tamil (and a few Muslims) academics for a survey study, and if possible, for a book project on Eelam
Tamil scientists.”
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The very next day, I heard from Dr. Nagaratnam. His e-mail response dated Feb. 25, 2007 was as
follows. Relevant excerpts:
“The National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka [NAScSL] was established in 1976. The Act relating to
the NAScSL was passed in parliament only in 1988. I do not know who the founder members were.
Only living founder member is Dr. A.S. Kunasingham, BS, MS(Hawaii), PhD (Hawaii)/ agriculture
economics – development economics. The first President was Prof. Milroy Paul. I was elected the
following year 1977, and was the first clinician and non-academic to be made a Fellow. My name
was proposed by Prof. K.N. Seneviratne, then professor of physiology and supported by Prof. C.C. de
Silva, Prof. Milroy Paul.
There is an election every year by the General Assembly of new Fellows not exceeding 15 in a given
year. Each nominee shall be proposed and recommended by a certificate in the form prescribed by
the Council, signed by three Fellows one of whom shall be the proposer, one seconder and the third
supporter.
When the Act was passed in 1988, the schedule had 52 Fellows. The 13 Tamils were Prof. K.D.
Arudpragasam, Prof. K. Balasubramaniam, Dr. S. Gnanalingam, Mr. E.E. Jeyaraj, Dr.A.S. Kunasingham,
Prof. A.W. Mailvaganam, Dr.N.Nagaratnam, Dr.W.R.N. Nathaniel, Prof.M.A. Paul, Prof.R.S.
Ramakrishna, Dr.S. Sentheshanmuganathan, Prof.G.G.R. Thambyahpillai, Dr.A. Thurairajah. Upto
2002, the Tamil past Presidents were Prof. Milroy Paul and Dr.K.D. Arudpragasam. The living Tamil
Fellows, as in the Directory of Fellows (2002) election are: Prof. K.D. Arudpragasam, Prof. K.
Balasubramaniam, Prof. W.R. Breckenridge, Prof. M.A. Careem, Prof. U. Coomarasamy, Prof. M.M.
Ismail, Prof. M.T. Jiffry, Prof. N.S. Kumar, Dr.A.S. Kunasingham (founder fellow), Prof.W.D. Lakshman,
Dr.N. Nagaratnam and Dr.P. Sivapalan. The Directory of Fellows (2002) had listed 108 Fellows.”
Cut-off Criteria used for this Compilation
Three cut-off criteria were adopted for inclusion in this survey. First, it is limited to only those who
were born either by the end of 1958 or with a research career span (~25-30 years). Secondly, it is
also limited to those who completed their education at a high school/university in Sri Lanka. Thirdly,
only those scientists who have published in the journals indexed by the Institute for Scientific
Information (ISI) Web of Science have been included. I am aware that there are numerous computer
scientists/engineers/physicians who work in industries and for-profit Institutes who have admirable
research credentials, including patents. Due to difficulties gathering their information, these
scientists have been excluded here.
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A synopsis on the origin of ‘Scientist’ category at global and ‘local’ levels
Here is a version on the origin of the English word ‘scientist’. According to John Heilbron, a historian
of western science, "‘scientist’ also is a word of the 19th century, coined in the 1830s to designate
the type of people who attended the meetings of the newly established British Association for the
Advancement of Science. The name did not catch on: it sounded too professional, too much like
‘dentist’. The preferred term continued to be ‘men of science’ or ‘scientific men’ until well after the
First World War. ‘Scientist’ came into common use in the 1930s, just as big science was taking its
first toddler’s steps in Ernest Lawrence’s Radiation Laboratory.”
Heilbron continues further:
“The timing of this usage is significant. The phrase ‘a scientist’s creativity’ could not have been
composed before the late 19th century, even then something like ‘the creativity of a scientific man’
would have been preferred, to keep the individual’s genius from disappearing into the professional
expertise. By the 1930s scientists had lost this scruple and accepted their name.”
One would suggest some additional reasons for the elevation of scientist in the lexicon: call it the
‘Einstein effect’ and or ‘Nobel effect’. The Nobel prizes established in 1901, as well as the popularity
of Einstein’s relativity theory that captured popular imagination in 1919, contributed much to the
prominence of scientists in society. Heilbron also records that when the first edition of the reference
work American Men of Science appeared in 1904, there were 4,000 entries. By 1930, the number of
entries had increased to 20,000.
At the local level, a chronological record of institutionalization of science in colonial and

independent Ceylon is given below. Scientists who were affiliated to any one of these institutions –
other than the CAAS – became what I tag the pioneers (born before 1920), first generation (born
between 1920 and 1939) and second generation (born between 1940 and 1958) scientists on the
island.
1870 – Founding of a medical school in Colombo.
1876 – Establishment of the Colombo Museum.
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1900 – De Soyza Bacteriological Institute established in Colombo, which later morphed into Medical
Research Institute (MRI) in 1946.
1910 – Rubber Research Institute (RRI) set up at Agalawatte.
1912 – Department of Agriculture (DOA) established.
1918 – Tea Research Institute (TRI) established at Talawakelle.
1921 – Ceylon University College organized.
1928 – Coconut Research Institute (CRI) set up at Lunuwila.
1942 – University of Ceylon came into existence, following the proclamation of Ceylon University
Ordinance No. 20 of 1942. This act incorporated the Ceylon Medical College and Ceylon University
College into a single institution.
1944 – Establishment of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science (CAAS), which later
changed its name into the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science.
1952 – The main campus of the University of Ceylon established in Peradeniya (Faculty of
Engineering set up in 1950; Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Science set up in 1953; the Medical
School set up in 1961)
1955 – Establishment of the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISIR).
1958 – Elevation of Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya Buddhist Colleges to university status. For a long
time, Tamil natural scientists were excluded in the hiring process of these two universities.
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1972 – University of Sri Lanka constituted under the one university scheme, according to the
University of Sri Lanka Act (No.1) of 1972. Katubedda Technical College converted to a campus of
this single university.
1974 – The Jaffna Campus set up as a wing of University of Sri Lanka.
1981 – Batticaloa University College established, which morphed into Eastern University, Sri Lanka in
1986.
Parameters of Scientific Productivity
A proper definition of science consists of three interlinked objectives: a study of the physical and/or
natural world based on empiricism, communication (open exchange of data and ideas) and criticism
(devotion to an attitude of skepticism) (Holden, 1998). Simply stated, the primary function of
scientists is to conduct research and place their findings in the public record for acceptance and
criticism by peers through communication via appropriate academic journals.
More than 8 years ago I received a reprint of a beautiful essay by Harvard University’s bacteriologist
Bernard Davis (1916-1994), published posthumously in 2000, from his wife Elizabeth Davis. In this
13-page essay entitled ‘The Scientist’s World’, Davis touched on the multiple facets of a scientist’s
life. I reproduce two paragraphs on scientific writing from this essay for their relevance and to
illustrate how a scientist’s stereotyped writing differs from those of others (fiction writers,
journalists, lexicographers, musicians, poets and playwrights) who practice writing.
“A scientific paper is an unusual art form. It has to be as compact as possible, while giving the reader
all the information needed to repeat the experiments. Because the literature is vast, the format of a
paper is standardized so the reader can quickly find the parts that interest him; readers skim most of
the papers that they look at, except those very close to their interests. The aim is efficient,
impersonal transmission of the essentials, rather than a narrative account of the steps along the
way. The personal aspects of the process of discovery are therefore usually left out, though they
may appear when the material is presented in a lecture.
Writing a scientific paper well is difficult, though the problems are different from those of belles
letters. It is a challenge to present the material compactly but without ambiguity and to organize a
complex argument coherently. Yet despite the stereotyped form, some intellectual leaders, such as
Francis Crick or Jacques Monod, convey an elegant, personal style.” (Davis, 2000)
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Thus, the research productivity of a scientist in terms of published papers is currently measured by
the four major parameters (indicated below), each of which has merits and demerits. These
parameters are annotated as follows, and the merits and demerits have been adopted from Hirsch
(2005, 2007):
Total publications = The number of research publications that have appeared in the journals which
are indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), currently operated by Thomson
Associates. Merit: Total publications measures productivity. Demerit: it does not measure
importance or impact of publications.
Total citations = The number of citations by other researchers, to a published paper, review,
commentary or letter, that have appeared in the journals indexed. The underlying assumption here
is that a publication that fetches higher number of citations deserves respect, and indicates the
‘popularity’ of this publication. ‘Popularity’ is a fluid indicator at best that may reflect factors such as
importance of findings, dissemination mechanism, ‘crowdedness’ of a particular research field,
visibility and prestige of the journal that carried the particular publication. Merit: Total citations
measures total impact. Demerit: this parameter may be inflated by a small number of ‘big hits’ that
may not be representative of the researcher if he or she is a coauthor with many others on those
papers.
h-index = A relatively recent index proposed by Jorge E. Hirsch, that quantifies a scientist’s research
output. (Ball, 2005, 2007; Hirsch, 2005, 2007). The h-index combines the total publications and total
citations of an individual author. According to Hirsch, “A scientist has index h if h of his or her
number of papers (Np) have at least h citations each and the other (Np-h) papers have (<h) citations
each. Some notable limitations, identified by Hirsch for this parameter are, (1) ‘a high h is a reliable
indicator of high accomplishment, the converse is not necessarily always true.’ (2) ‘Different
disciplines have different citation patterns’. As such, inter-disciplinary comparison of h-index among
researchers is questionable. (3) ‘A scientist with a high h achieved mostly through papers with many
coauthors would be treated overly kindly by his or her h.
Citations per paper = Its merit is that this parameter allows comparison of scientists of different eras.
One demerit is that it rewards low productivity and penalizes high productivity.
A caveat about these various bibliometric indicators on citations by Philip Siekevitz (1991) is in order.
“It again bothers me that we rely on anonymous people in anonymous offices to list correctly all the
authors and their papers on a particular subject. How good are these listings, computerized or not?”
And these “anonymous people” or the ‘computer programs’ crunching such numbers are not even
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specialists or experts in all the disciplines they set out to assess the quality of scientific productivity.
Early this year, 55 editors of scientific journals have voiced their opposition to the faulty use of
numbers by the administrative agencies in evaluating scientific productivity as follows: “We live in an
age of metrics. All around us, things are being standardized, quantified, measured. Scholars
concerned with the work of science and technology must regard this as a fascinating and crucial
practical, cultural and intellectual phenomenon…We now confront a situation in which our own
research work is being subjected to putatively precise accountancy by arbitrary and unaccountable
agencies…This initiative is entirely defective in conception and execution….” (Cook et al., 2009)
At best, the quantified numbers representing the four bibliometric indicators indicated above are
two dimensional at best, like a photograph of a person. For the elusive third dimension, one needs
to evaluate the entire career of each scientist.
Pioneers, First Generation and Second Generation
For convenience I have used the four discipline-based categories: biomedical sciences, chemical,
physical and mathematical sciences, engineering sciences and social sciences. And within each
discipline I have clustered the scientists into three groups: (1) pioneers (born before 1920), (2) first
generation (born between 1920 and 1939), (3) second generation (born between 1940 and 1958).
Pioneers (born before 1920)
I recognize seven pioneers among Eelam Tamil scientists. These are, Chellappah Suntheralingam
(1895-1985), Samuel Victor Ousmond Somanader (1897-1978), Chellappah Amirthalingam (1903-
1982), Arumugam Wisvalingam Mailvaganam (1906-1987), Velupillai Appapillai (1913-2001), Christie
Jayaratnam Eliezer (1918-2001) and Albert Arthur Hoover. All except Somanader were founding
professors (or lecturers) at the University of Ceylon in their respective disciplines. Unfortunately, at
the moment, I lack the birth year-death year details of Prof. Hoover, a teacher of mine during 1973-
74, who also then functioned as the honorary patron of the University of Sri Lanka (Colombo
Campus) Tamil Society, during my tenure as its president (1974-75). I wish that I had asked him for
more details about his early reminiscences.
Somanader, I recognize, as one of the two Sri Lankan Tamil scientists born in the 19th century. He
had been an amateur naturalist in the traditions of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. Apart from
his interests in nature observations, Somanader had varied interests like journalism and
photography. For over 30 years he earned his living as a school teacher at the Batticaloa Central
(Methodist) College and functioned as its principal in the last decade of his teaching career. As such,
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all of Somanader’s solitary publications appeared in local journals, and are not catalogued in the ISI
Web of Science.
C. Suntheralingam, the other Sri Lankan Tamil scientist born in the 19th century, had a colorful and
controversial career as a politician, MP for Vavuniya, cabinet minister in the first parliament of post-
independent Ceylon, pamphleteer and rabble-rouser. It should not be forgotten that Suntheralingam
was a mathematician by training and was the first professor of mathematics at the Ceylon University
College from 1921 to 1940.
C. Amirthalingam, a younger sibling of Suntheralingam, was one of the first scientists (if not the
first!) from colonial Ceylon to publish in the Nature journal. After a short career as the Director of
Fisheries in the island, Amirthalingam moved to Sudan and was affiliated to the University of
Khartoum for long.
It is also notable that three among the seven pioneers identified here had the fortune to have Nobel
laureates in science as their mentors during their higher degree studies in UK. Mailvaganam trained
under C.T.R. Wilson and the great Ernest Rutherford. While Appapillai worked with P.M.S. Blackett,
Eliezer had Paul Dirac as his mentor. The scientific productivity of these seven pioneers (except that
of Somanader) was numerically lower. This is understandable because all of them had to exert their
energy in functioning as institution builders, administrators, teachers and cultural icons of their
community in social service.
First Generation (born between 1920 and 1939)
25 scientists are identified in the first generation category. Lower productivity of many can be
attributed to the same non-research functions identified for the pioneers. It should be noted that
atmospheric physicist S. Gnanalingam was a son of pioneer C. Suntheralingam.
Biomedical sciences: Siva Chinnatamby, N. Nagaratnam, Shan S. Ratnam, S. Sentheshanmuganathan,

R. Kanagasuntheram, K.D. Arudpragasam, K. Balasubramaniam, S. Balasubramaniam, K. Sivapalan,
M.R. Jainudeen, S. Sotheeswaran, A.H. Sathananthan, P. Sivapalan, V.K. Ganesalingam, Navam
Hettiarachchy.
Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences: M.U.S. Sultan Bawa, S. Gnanalingam, M.A.V.
Devanathan, M. Sundaralingam, R.S. Ramakrishna.
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Engineering Sciences: K. Arulanandan, S.T. Ariaratnam.
Social Sciences: S.J. Tambiah, S. Arasaratnam, S. Thananjayarajasingham.
Second Generation (born between 1940 and 1958)
58 scientists are identified in the second generation category. While the pioneers and the first
generation types have predominantly restricted their main research location to Sri Lanka and the UK,
the second generation became more international and expanded their research territorial range to
other English speaking countries (the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore), as well
as non-English speaking European and Asian countries.
Biomedical sciences: R.R. Selvendran, C. Santiapillai, R. Rudran, K. Sivasithamparam, N. Sreeharan, K.

Kailasapathy, S. Arulkumaran, R. Rajamahendran, P. Gopalakrishnakone, R. Sivakanesan, K.
Ranjadayalan, K. Arumuganathan, V. Rasiah, R. Ramasamy, S. Raveendranath, S.V. Rajakulendran, A.
Balasubramaniam, S. Sri Kantha, Rajani Thiranagama, W.T. Vigneswaran
Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences: M. Singham, P. Kathirgamanathan, S.

Surendrakumar, G.C.J. Fernandez, S. Hariharan, V.S. Manoranjan, S.S. Sritharan, A. Thavaneswaran,
V. Jeyakumar, S. Sivananthan.
Engineering Sciences: S. Naguleswaran, A. Kumar David, A.S. Balasbramaniam, D.J. Gunaratnam, S.

Sivasegaram, A.P. S. Selvadurai, S. Selvalingam, V. Thevendran, R. Srikanthan, J.G. Shantikumar,
Indira V. Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam), S. Vigneswaran, T. Sritharan, S.R.H. Hoole, S.
Parameswaran, R. SriRanjan, M. Sivapalan, C. Sriskandarajah, A. Anandarajah, K.S. Sivakumaran, R.
Siddharthan, N. Sri Namachchivaya, C. Vipulanandan, M. Mahendran.
Social Sciences: Radhika Coomaraswamy, N. Shanmugaratnam, A. E. Selvanathan, S. Selvanathan.
Bibliometric Indicators; some notable records
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For each of the 87 scientists identified in this essay (excluding three pioneers: Suntheralingam,
Somanader and Appapillai), I provide four personal parameters (year of birth and year of death [if
known] within parenthesis following the name: productivity span (PS): research specialty (RS) and
main research location (MRL). For quite a number of scientists even the year of birth (YOB) is
tentatively guessed and noted with a question mark(?). Personal details of scientists are hard to
assemble and had been gathered from my personal knowledge, collections and recorded memories.
Even a simple statistic relating to YOB (and year of death/YOD) has been left unfilled, if not known
for sure. A few to whom I have corresponded, failed to respond to my query and one or two were
reluctant to divulge their YOB. The four parameters of scientific productivity included are: total
publications (TP), total citations (TC), h-index and citations per publications (C/P). These four
bibliometric indicators are valid as of Dec.31, 2008, according to the publications indexed in the ISI
Web of Science database.
From Archimedes to Einstein, scientists have been born-travelers and peregrination is one of their
traita; this has been so for the Tamil scientists in the 20th and the 21st centuries – fleeing from
persecution, discrimination and looking for work opportunities at research centers that have been
willing to accept them for their merits. As such, the most recent work site of each scientist is
provided adjacent to MRL, as far as these can be ascertained from their place of publications,
Google-based information and personal knowledge. The names of scientists are arranged tentatively
according to the YOB, within each of the four main categorical divisions.
I apologize that I have not included the bibliometric details of a few scientists whom I have known
individually for technical reasons. These include, Prof. C. Sivagnanasunderam, Prof. A. Jeyaratnam
Wilson, Prof. A. Thurairajah, Prof. Mano Sabaratnam, and Dr. Velmurugu Ravindran. Common
surnames like Balasubramaniam, Ravindran, Sivapalan and even Srikantha(!) are shared by Tamils
living in India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. These Hindu names having the same single letter initials
become homonyms and get pooled together in the scientific databases programmed with a Christian
naming pattern having multiple letter initials in mind by the indexers and cataloguers. Lately in the
correspondence pages of the Nature journal, Hindu scientists (from India and Singapore), Buddhist
scientists (from Japan) and even Muslim scientists have complained about the vagaries of such
Christian based name programming in databases. Unless one is sure about research specialty and
work location of each scientist, it becomes a tussle to loosen the knots of individual achievements.
The bibliometric indicators of two deceased scientists are of noticeable grade. Gynecologist-
obstetrician Shan S. Ratnam (1928-2001) has the highest number of research publications,
amounting to 554, with 4,226 total citations and an h-index ranking of 30. Biochemist-
crystallographer M. Sundaralingam (1931-2004) has the best all-round indicators, with 364
publications, 14,743 total citations and the h-index ranking of 61. While visiting his homeland,
Sundaralingam lost his life prematurely on Dec. 26, 2004 to the Big Tsunami that struck Trincomalee.
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The total publication numbers achieved by Ratnam and Sundaralingam are of some significance. In
an obituary note on Cyril Ponnamperuma (Sri Lanka’s most recognized Sinhalese scientist) I
contributed to the Lanka Guardian journal, I had annotated as follows: “Ponnamperuma published
over 300 research papers in the field of chemistry and chemical evolution, edited 16 books and
authored a couple of books (vide, The International Who’s Who 1994-95, Europa Publications) in his
professional career which spanned almost 35 years. I believe that among the Sri Lankan scientists,
only P.E.P. Deraniyagala, the former director of the National Museums of Ceylon, could match this
prolific record. According to a count published in the Spolia Zeylanica (1960, vol.29), Deraniyagala
had published 323 papers between 1923 and 1960. But it should be noted that Deraniyagala edited
Spolia Zeylanica and the majority of his publications appeared in this journal, and probably without
peer review. Ponnamperuma did not have this luxury.” (Sri Kantha, 1995)
Though the current list is dominated by male scientists, mention should be made about a few female
scientists who have raised their status against parochialist interests such as sexism, racism and
casteism. I recognize Dr. Siva Chinnatamby (1920-2001) as the foremost woman pioneer among Sri
Lankan Tamil scientists. The track records of Navam Hettiarachchy (nee Mylvaganam) and Indira
Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam) currently active in North America do have meritorious status.
Professor Indira Samarasekara is currently serving as President of the University of Alberta, Canada,
a feat never before achieved by a Sri Lankan scientist, male or female.
[Country abbreviations used: SL=Sri Lanka, UK=United Kingdom, USA=United States of America.]
Bibliometric Inventory of Biomedical Scientists
Amirthalingam, Chellappah (1903-1982) - PS: 1927-32, RS: marine biology, MRL: UK, SL, Sudan.
[formerly at University of Khartoum] TP=5, TC=5, h-index=1, C/P= 1.0
Hoover, Albert Arthur - PS: 1937-73, RS: biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL. [formerly at University of Jaffna]
TP=5, TC=41, h-index=4, C/P=8.2
Chinnatamby, Siva (1923-2000) – PS: 1965-71, RS: medicine/gynecology-obstetrics. MRL: UK, SL.
TP=2, TC=15, h-index=1, C/P=7.5
Nagaratnam, Nages (1926- ) – PS: 1958-current, RS: medicine/internal medicine, geriatrics, MRL: SL,
UK, Australia. [University of Sydney] TP=90, TC=356, h-index=10, C/P=4.0
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Ratnam, Shan S. (1928-2001) – PS: 1971-2004, RS: medicine/gynecology-obstetrics, MRL: SL,

Singapore [formerly at, National University of Singapore] TP=554, TC=4,226, h-index=30, C/P=7.6
Sentheshanmuganathan, S. – PS: 1956-76, RS: biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL [formerly at, Medical
Research Institute] TP=9, TC=132, h-index=6, C/P=14.7
Kanagasuntheram, R. (1930s- ) – PS: 1957-86, RS: medicine/anatomy. MRL: Singapore. [formerly at,
National University of Singapore] TP=57, TC=484, h-index=13, C/P=8.5
Arudpragasam, Kandiah David (1932-2003) – PS: 1964-66, RS: zoology/marine biology, MRL: UK, SL.
[formerly at, University of Colombo] TP=3, TC=134, h-index=3, C/P=44.7
Balasubramaniam, Kandiah (1932- ) – PS: 1964-2001, RS: biochemistry, MRL: USA, UK, SL, Sweden.
Balasubramaniam, S. (1930s - 1992) – PS: 1968-1995, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: UK, SL [formerly
at, University of Peradeniya] TP=48, TC=489, h-index=13, C/P=10.2
Sivapalan, Karthigesu (1932-1985) – PS: 1971-85, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: India, SL [formerly at,
Tea Research Institute]. TP=8, TC=46, h-index=4, C/P=5.8
Jainudeen, M.R. (1930s - ) – PS: 1965-2005, RS: Veterinary Science/mammalogy, MRL: SL, Malaysia,
Indonesia [formerly at, Universiti Putra Malaysia] TP=40, TC=384, h-index=11, C/P=9.6
Sotheeswaran, Subramaniam (1930s - ) – PS: 1965-current, RS: organic chemistry, MRL: UK, SL, Fiji
[at University of the South Pacific]. TP=85, TC=951, h-index=17, C/P=11.5
Sathananthan, A. Henry (1934- ) – PS: 1960-current, RS: zoology/embryology, MRL: SL, Australia [at
Monash University] TP=51, TC=1,120, h-index=20, C/P=22.0
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Sivapalan, P. (1936- ) – PS: 1964-80, RS: zoology/entomology, MRL: USA, SL [formerly at, Tea
Research Institute] TP=17, TC=67, h-index=4, C/P=3.9
Ganesalingam, V.K. (1936?- ) – PS: 1970-74, RS: zoology/entomology, MRL: UK, SL [formerly at,
University of Jaffna] TP=3, TC=78, h-index=3, C/P=26.0
Hettiarachchy (nee Mylvaganam), Navam (1939- ) – PS: 1974-current, RS: food biochemistry, MRL:
UK, SL, USA [at University of Arkansas]. TP=80, TC=1,007, h-index=19, C/P=12.6
Selvendran, Robert Rasiah (1940? - ) – PS: 1967-99, RS: plant biochemistry, MRL: SL, UK [at Institute
of Food Research, Norwich]. TP=91, TC=3,585, h-index=32, C/P=39.4
Rudran, R (1940s - ) – PS: 1972-2003, RS: zoology/primatology, MRL: USA [at National Zoological
Park, Smithsonian Institution]. TP=13, TC=566, h-index=9, C/P=43.5
Sivasithamparam, Krishnapillai (1940s - ) – PS: 1979-current, RS: plant biology, MRL: SL, Australia [at
University of Western Australia]. TP=287, TC=2,487, h-index=22: C/P=8.7
Sriharan, Nadarajah (1940s - ) – PS: 1979-94, RS: medicine, MRL: UK [University of Surrey]. TP=24,
TC=1,650, h-index=9, C/P=68.8
Santiapillai, Charles (1944 - ) – PS: 1982-current: RS: zoology/mammalogy, MRL: UK, SL [at University
of Peradeniya]. TP=24, TC=24, h-index=2, C/P=1.0
Kailasapathy, Kasipathy (1947 - ) – PS: 1991-current, RS: food science, MRL: SL, USA, Australia [at
University of Western Sydney]. TP=81, TC=691, h-index=12, C/P=8.5
Arulkumaran, Sabaratnam (1948 - ) – PS: 1982-current, RS: medicine/ gynecology-obstretrics, MRL:

Singapore, UK [at St. George’s University of London]. TP=282, TC=2,129, h-index=24, C/P=7.5
Rajamahendran, Rajadurai (1949? - ) – PS: 1976-current, RS: Veterinary Science/Endocrinology, MRL:

SL, Canada [at University of British Columbia]. TP=104, TC=1,016, h-index=18, C/P=9.8
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Gopalakrishnakone, P (1949? - ) – PS: 1978-current, RS: medicine/ anatomy-toxicology, MRL: UK, SL,
Singapore [at National University of Singapore]. TP=172, TC=1,382, h-index=20, C/P=8.0
Sivakanesan, Ramaiah (1950? - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: Veterinary Science/Biochemistry, MRL: UK,
SL [at University of Peradeniya]. TP=11, TC=35, h-index=4, C/P=3.2
Rasiah, Velu (1949? -) – PS: 1989-curent, RS: soil science, MRL: USA, Canada, Australia. [at
Queensland Department of Primary Industries]. TP=55, TC=487, h-index=12, C/P=8.9
Ramasamy, Ranjan (1950? -) – PS: 1974-current, RS: medicine/immunology, MRL: UK, SL, Brunei [at
University of Brunei Darussalam]. TP=52, TC=473 H=14 C/P=9.1
Raveendranath, Sivasubramaniam (1951 -) – PS: 1980-2008, RS: entomology, MRL: UK, SL. [formerly
at, Eastern University]. TP=1, TC=14, h-index=1, C/P=14.0
Rajakulendran, S. Victor (1951? - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: entomology, MRL=USA, Australia. TP=3,
TC=52, h-index=3, C/P=17.3
Ranjadayalan, Kulasegarum (1951? - ) – PS: 1990-current, RS: medicine, MRL: UK. [at Newham
University Hospital] TP=84, TC=1,130, h-index=17, C/P=13.5
Arumuganathan, K. (1951? - ) – PS: 1991-current, RS: plant molecular biology, MRL: UK, USA. [at
Virginia Mason University] TP=40, TC=649, h-index=17, C/P=16.2
Balasubramaniam, Ambihaipahan (1952? - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: biochemistry, MRL: USA. [at
University of Cincinnatti] TP=155, TC=2,727, h-index=28, C/P=17.6
Kantha, Sachi Sri (1953 - ) – PS: 1983-current, RS: zoology/behavioral biology, MRL: SL, USA, Japan.
[at Gifu Pharmaceutical University] TP=79, TC=339, h-index=8, C/P=4.3
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Thiranagama (nee Rajasingham), Rajani (1954-1989) – PS: 1986-91, RS: medicine/anatomy, MRL: UK
Vigneswaran, Wickii Thambiah (1957? - ) – PS: 1978-curent, RS: medicine/anatomy, MRL: USA. [at
University of Chicago Medical School] TP=76, TC=408, h-index=10, C/P=5.4
Bibliometric Inventory of Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Scientists
Mailvaganam, Arumugam Wisvalingam (1906-1987) – PS: 1945-54, RS: atmospheric physics, MRL:
UK, SL [formerly at, University of Colombo]. TP=6, TC=17, h-index=3, C/P=2.8
Eliezer, Christie Jayaratnam (1918-2001) – PS: 1943-2000, RS: applied mathematics, physics, MRL:
UK, SL, Malaysia, Australia [formerly at, La Trobe University] TP=30, TC=388, h-index=8, C/P=12.9
Sultan Bawa, Muhammad Uvais Sideek (1921-1999) – PS: 1949-1989, RS: organic chemistry, MRL:
UK, SL [formerly at, University of Peradeniya] TP=89, TC=1,281, h-index=20, C/P=14.4
Gnanalingam, Suntheralingam (1924 - ) – PS: 1952-95, RS: atmospheric physics, MRL: UK, SL, USA.
[formerly at, CISIR, SL] TP=7, TC=68, h-index=6, C/P=9.7
Devanathan, Malcolm A.V. (1925? – 1977) – PS: 1953-81, RS: physical chemistry, MRL: UK, USA, SL,
India [formerly at, Tea Research Institute, SL] TP=41, TC=2,281, h-index=16, C/P=55.6
Sundaralingam, Muttiah (1931-2004) – PS: 1960-2006, RS: biochemistry/crystallography, MRL: USA.

[formerly at, Ohio State University] TP=364, TC=14,743, h-index=61, C/P=40.5
Ramakrishna, R.S. (1932-2003) – PS: 1960-89, RS: inorganic chemistry, MRL: UK, SL. [formerly at,
University of Colombo] TP=29, TC=163, h-index=8, C/P=5.6
Singham, Mano (1940s - ) – PS: 1989-2003, RS: physics, MRL: SL, USA. [at Case Western Reserve
University] TP=19, TC=19, h-index=2, C/P=1.0
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Kathirgamanathan, P. (1951? - ) – PS: 1979-2004, RS: inorganic chemistry, MRL: UK. [at South Bank
Surendrakumar, S. (1951 - ) – PS: 1980-99, RS: organic chemistry, MRL: SL, UK. [at South Bank
Hariharan, Subramania Iyer, (1952? -) – PS: 1980-current, RS: mathematics, MRL: USA. [at University
of Akron] TP=38, TC=198, h-index=7, C/P=5.2
Fernandez, George C. J., (1952? -), - PS: 1980-current, RS: applied statistics, MRL: USA. [at University
of Nevada, Reno] TP=45, TC=296, h-index=11, C/P=6.58
Manoranjan, Vallipuram S., (1953? -) – PS: 1982-current, RS: mathematics, MRL: UK, USA. [at
Washington State University] TP=39, TC=534, h-index=10, C/P=13.7
Sritharan, S.S., (1954? -) – PS: 1984-current, RS: applied mathematics, MRL: USA. [at Naval
Postgraduate School] TP=32, TC=290, h-index=10, C/P=9.1
Thavaneswaran, A. – PS: 1986-current, RS: statistics, MRL: USA, Canada. [at University of Manitoba].
TP=45, TC=128, h-index=6, C/P=2.8
Jeyakumar, Vaithilingam – PS: 1985-current, RS: applied mathematics, MRL: Australia. [at University
of New South Wales] TP=84, TC=804, h-index=17, C/P=9.6
Sivananthan, Sivalingam – PS: 1988-current, RS: applied physics, MRL: USA. [at University of Illinois,
Chicago] TP=175, TC=2,497, h-index=28, C/P=14.3
Bibliometric Inventory of Engineering Scientists
117
Arulanandam, Kandiah (1925-2004) – PS: 1960-2004, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, USA. [formerly
at University of California, Davis] TP=39, TC=374, h-index=9, C/P=9.6
Ariaratnam, Samuel T. – PS: 1960-2001, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, Canada. [formerly at
University of Waterloo] TP=52, TC=527, h-index=14, C/P=10.1
Naguleswaran, Sivapatham – PS: 1970-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL: UK, SL, New
Zealand [at University of Canterbury] TP=39, TC=298, h-index=11, C/P=7.6
Kumar, David A. – PS: 1968-current, RS: electrical engineering, MRL: SL, Hongkong. [at University of
Hong Kong] TP=83, TC=752, h-index=15, C/P=9.1
Balasubramaniam, A.S. – PS: 1968-2004, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Thailand. [formerly at Asian
Institute of Technology, Bangkok] TP=30, TC=234, h-index=10, C/P=7.8
Sivasegaram, S. – PS: 1969-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL: SL, UK. [at University of
Peradeniya]. TP=18, TC=148, h-index=7, C/P=8.22
Gunaratnam, David J. – PS: 1969-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Australia. [at University of
Sydney] TP=11, TC=17, h-index=2, C/P=1.6
Selvalingam, Selvadore – PS: 1970-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: SL, Thailand, Singapore,
Australia. [at Deakin University] TP=10, TC=21, h-index=3, C/P=2.1
Selvadurai, A. Patrick S. – PS: 1971-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, Canada. [at McGill
Thevendran, V. – PS: 1972-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, SL, Singapore. [at National
University of Singapore] TP=41, TC=159, h-index=8, C/P=3.88
Srikanthan, Ratnasingham, (1949? -) – PS: 1982-current, RS: civil environmental engineering, MRL:
Australia [at Bureau of Meteorology] TP=39, TC=197, h-index=8, C/P=5.1
118
Shanthikumar, J. George, (1950? -) – PS: 1979-current, RS: industrial engineering, MRL: Canada, USA
[at University of California, Berkeley] TP=168, TC=2,301, h-index=26, C/P=13.7
Samarasekara (nee Arulpragasam), Indira (1952 - ) – PS: 1980-current, RS: mechanical engineering,
MRL: USA, Canada [at University of Alberta] TP=97, TC=1,183, h-index=22, C/P=12.2
Vigneswaran, Saravanamuthu, (1951?-) – PS: 1980-current, RS: environmental engineering, MRL:

France, Thailand, Australia [at University of Technology, Sydney] TP=143, TC=936, h-index=15,
C/P=6.5
Sritharan, Thirumany, (1952? - ) – PS: 1981-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: UK, Australia,
Singapore [at Nanyang Technological University] TP=60, TC=379, h-index=11, C/P=6.3
Hoole, S. Ratnajeevan H. (1952 - ) – PS: 1983-current, RS: electrical engineering, MRL: USA, SL [at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hartfort] TP=80, TC=413, h-index=12, C/P=5.2
Parameswaran, Sivapathasuntharam, (1952 - ) – PS: 1985-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL:

UK, USA [at Texas Tech University] TP=16, TC=30, h-index=3, C/P=1.9
Sivapalan, Murugesu (1953 - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: civil and environmental engineering, MRL:
Australia, USA [at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign] TP=118, TC=2,497, h-index=30, C/P=21.2
Sriskandarajah, Chelliah – PS: 1986-current, RS: industrial engineering, MRL: USA. [at University of
Texas at Dallas] TP=75, TC=1,014, h-index=17, C/P=13.5
Anandarajah, Annalingam, (1954? -) – PS: 1983-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: USA. [at Johns
Hopkins University] TP=40, TC=292, h-index=10, C/P=7.3
Sivakumaran, K.S., (1954? - ) – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: Canada. [at University of
Calgary] TP=26, TC=148, h-index=8, C/P=5.7
119
Siddharthan, Raj, (1954? -) – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: Canada, USA [at University
of Nevada, Reno] TP=34, TC=212, h-index=9, C/P=6.2
Sri Namachchivaya, Navaratnam – PS: 1984-current, RS: mechanical engineering, MRL: Canada, USA
[at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] TP=76, TC=603, h-index=13, C/P=7.9
Vipulanandan, Coomaraswamy – PS: 1984-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL: USA. [at University of
Houston] TP=77, TC=390, h-index=11, C/P=5.1
Mahendran, Mahen – PS: 1985-current, RS: civil engineering, MRL:Australia. At Queensland

University of Technology] TP=32, TC=118, h-index=7, C/P=3.7
SriRanjan, Ranjan (1952? -) – PS: 1989-current, RS: agricultural engineering, MRL: Canada. [at North
Carolina State University] TP=7, TC=24, h-index=2, C/P=3.4
Bibliometric Inventory for Social Scientists
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyarajah (1929 - ) – PS: 1957-2005, RS: anthropology, MRL: UK, SL, USA. [formerly
at Harvard University] TP=25, TC=254, h-index=6, C/P=10.2
Arasaratnam, Sinnappah (1930-1998) – PS: 1966-98, RS: history, politics, MRL: SL, Malaysia,
Australia. [formerly at University of New England] TP=24, TC=12, h-index=2, C/P=0.5
Thananjayarajasingham, Sabaratnasinghe (1933-1977) – PS: 1973-76, RS: Tamil linguistics, MRL:

SL.[formerly at University of Kelaniya/Vidyalankara] TP=6, TC=1, h-index=1, C/P=0.2
Coomaraswamy, Radhika (1940s - ) – PS: 1978-2004, RS: law. MRL: USA, SL. [affiliated to the United
Nations Organization] TP=6, TC=2, h-index=1, C/P=0.4
Shanmugaratnam, Nadarajah (1940s - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: agricultural economics. MRL: SL,
Norway. [at Norwegian University of Life Sciences] TP=19, TC=87, h-index=5, C/P=4.6
120
Selvanathan, Antony E. (1955 - ) – PS: 1986-current, RS: business economics. MRL: Australia. [at
Griffith University] TP=30, TC=165, h-index=8, C/P=5.5
Selvanathan, Saroja (1954 - ) – PS: 1987-current, RS: business economics. MRL: Australia. [at Griffith
A table prepared to present the details in scientific productivity of these 87 scientists in a

comparative fashion is provided in a pdf file format. Pioneers Suntheralingam, Somanader and
Appapillai have been excluded in this listing. One may be tempted to ask, what is the meaning of
these numbers for Tamil scientists? Do they serve any societal need in this time of crisis? As
answers, I concur with a few inferences derived by clinical psychologist Anne Roe (1953), from her
study of 64 leading American scientists. These are,
(1) “Scientists are people, not rational automatons. They differ from other people in terms of what
they do, in the things that give them satisfaction, more than in terms of completely special
capacities.”
(2) “One of the first things one notes about scientists is the fact that a large part of their time is
spent in thinking about things, in a question-answering way.”
(3) “Make no mistake, an extreme degree of concentration is needed. There is so much to learn, so
much to master of what is already known, before further steps can be taken, and there are few
shortcuts. In this sense, this driveness is a help to professional accomplishment.”
These inferences appear in the final chapter [‘What does it mean for You?’] of Anne Roe’s book. The
numbers provide a measure of each individual scientist’s “driveness” and “professional
accomplishment.”, whether one is decorated with a Nobel prize or a Fellowship in any of the
Academy of Sciences. But wisdom also dictates that one shouldn’t be a slave to numbers! In this
aspect, what was presented in the first chapter [‘How this Research Study Developed] by Anne Roe
also deserves attention. She emphasizes that scientists are ‘free people’ and they care for much for
this freedom. To quote, “Research scientists usually are in a position to control their own work and
this is one of the reasons, I think, why they derive such tremendous gratification from it.” This issue
of freedom also explains the peregrination issue of why such a number of pioneers (such as
Amirthalingam and Eliezer), first generation and second generation scientists belonging to Tamil
121
ethnics from Sri Lanka, have bothered to escape from the manacles of state oppression, restriction
and discrimination.
Four sentences of Anne Roe that appear in the same paragraph also are symbolic of the situation
faced by Lieut. Col. Appaiah Annai in the 1980s. To reproduce these: “In the special circumstances of
mobilization of scientists for war, again the problem is set for them, although some of them, at least,
must have considerable freedom in working out the methods of approach. Any diminution of a
scientist’s accustomed freedom to control his own work and what he says about it is a major
frustrating experience to him and one for which he naturally has very little tolerance. All of his
professional activities are predicated, in a sense, upon the possession of this freedom. Normally,
however, the scientist is his own boss as far as his research is concerned, and he is limited only by
the time at his disposal (his primary job may be college teaching, for example) and the equipment
available to him (although this is less often a serious limitation than one might think).”
Appaiah Annai’s primary job was not “college teaching”, but vehicle repair. Nevertheless, he was a
teacher in weapon systems-tinkering and improvising to his young cadets. Appaiah Annai didn’t have
a Ph.D, but neither did Thomas Edison nor the Wright Brothers. Those who read the short sketch of
Appaiah Annai’s career that appeared in the Oru Paper (London) of Dec. 27, 2008 can be impressed
by his ‘never give-up spirit’ of a scientist.
One final note: In the absence of any other comparative scale similar to that of the ISI-Web of
Science database, this has been used here for inventory. It should not be forgotten that the total
publications (TP) counted in the ISI-Web of Science database has to be taken as optimal productivity
of each scientist, as the journal selection criteria for this database has an exclusivity bias. But, the
maximal productivity of each scientist included here is higher than that of the TP counted in the ISI-
Web of Science database. To illustrate this issue, I present my case as a representative example. I
have 14 published papers in peer reviewed journals (5 in Ceylon Medical Journal, 2 in the Journal of
National Science Council of Sri Lanka, 1 in Jaffna Medical Journal, 3 in Asian Medical Journal/Japan, 1
in Connective Tissue Research/Japan and 2 in Nutrisyon/Philippines), none of which has been
included in the ISI Web of Science database. Technically, none of the scientific journals published in
Sri Lanka are included in the ISI-Web of Science database. As such, the TP scores of the pioneers and
many of the first generation scientists included in this list do suffer from this exclusion bias. For
instance, S. Raveendranath’s optimal productivity in terms of TP is only one. But I’m aware that his
maximal productivity is more than one.
Conclusion
122
On being reproached that his formula of gravitation was longer and more cumbersome than
Newton’s, the great Einstein responded with a quip, ‘If you are out to describe the truth, leave
elegance to the tailor.’ [Mackay, 1992]. In the spirit of Einstein, I infer that the details presented on
the productivity of Sri Lankan Tamil scientists, born between 1895 and 1958, as measured by the
currently accepted yardsticks, present the apparent truth, and elegance has been left out for tailors
[such as the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka] who promote parochial interests and
politics. Though some of the Tamil scientists included in this survey had been elected as Fellows of
the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in the past, based on evidence of scientific
productivity, it is a given that - as it has been constituted now - entry into this Academy appears
doomed for the majority of the other Tamil scientists who were born in post-independent Sri Lanka
and have been laboring on the island or elsewhere.
To conclude in a lighter vein, here is a quip about the plight of a most prolific Creator and discoverer,
recorded two decades ago. “If God applied for a research grant to develop heaven and an earth, He
would be turned down nowadays on the following grounds: (1) His project is too ambitious. (2) He
has no previous track record. (3) His only publication is a book, not a paper in a refereed journal. (4)
He refuses to collaborate with his biggest competitor. (5) His proposal is all up in the air.” [Anon,
1989]. The punchline of this joke is that even God is bound to get rejections from the gatekeepers of
science. Like in other competitive fields, the life of a harried and harassed Tamil scientist is filled with
rejections, disappointments, competition for shrinking research budget and lack of adequate
recognition in one’s home country or adopted country. Despite these handicaps, the souls who
endeavor to chase their dreams and show leadership skills to the younger generations deserve some
recognition, and this essay is a tribute to the spirit of such trendsetters.
It will indeed be a fruitful exercise, if an attempt is made subsequently to prepare an inventory of

scientific productivity of younger Tamil scientists (born since 1958) who are currently making their
grade in research.
Reference Sources
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Science Technology Society, 2001: 6(1): 179-201.
Amarasuriya NR: Scientific journals of Sri Lanka. Information Development: 1991: 7(4): 204-207.
Anon: The powers that be. Chemistry in Britain, 1989: 25: 663.
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Ball P: Index aims for fair ranking of scientists. Nature, 2005: 436: 900.
Ball P: Achievement index climbs the ranks. Nature, 2007: 448: 737.
Cook, H et al. Journals under threat: a joint response from History of Science, Technology and
Medicine editors. Medical History, 2009; 53: 1-4.
Davis, BD: The Scientist’s World. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 2000; 64: 1-12.
Heilbron JL: Creativity and big science. Physics Today, 1992 Nov.: 42-47.
Hirsch JE: An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proc. National Acad. Sci.
USA, 2005: 102: 16569-16572.
Hirsch JE: Does the h index have predictive power? Proc. National Acad. Sci. USA, 2007: 104: 19193-
19198.
Holden C: Defining ‘Science’ for the People. Science, 1998; 280: 663.
Mackay AL: A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, 1992, p.81.
Roe A: The Making of Scientist, Dodd, Mead and Co, New York, 1953, pp. 1-17 and 230-244.
Siekevitz P: Low citation rates – who is to blame? FASEB Journal, 1991: 5: 2217.
Sri Kantha S: Productivity drive. Nature, 1992a; 356: 738.
124
Medical Hypotheses
Volume 46, Issue 5, May 1996, Pages 467–470
Scientific productivity of Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner

 S. Sri Kantha
 5-16-305 Tsukimicho, Fukuroi City, Shizuoka 437-01, Japan. Tel & Fax. +81-538-49-2274
 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0306-9877(96)90027-4, How to Cite or Link Using DOI
 Permissions & Reprints
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Abstract
The scientific productivity of Albert Einstein was compared to that of designated controls Karl
Landsteiner (an experimental scientist) and Sigmund Freud (an eminent theorist). Three assumptions
made for this comparison were (1) that Einstein and his designated controls had equal scientific
125
stature; (2) that their publications were produced in a similar, if not identical, sociocultural milieu;
and (3) the number of publications is directly proportional to scientific productivity. At the end of
their illustrious careers, Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner accumulated 315, 320 and 345 scientific
publications respectively. Einstein was the sole author in 88% of his publications, which validates the
third assumption. Thus, one can conclude that quantitative comparison of Einstein's total scientific
publications with that of appropriate controls such as Landsteiner and Freud shows that Einstein's
chronic ill health did not influence his scientific productivity.
There are no figures or tables for this document.
Copyright © 1996 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Sri Kantha S: Clues to prolific productivity among prominent scientists. Medical Hypotheses, 1992b;
39: 159-163.
Sri Kantha S: Scientific productivity of Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner. Medical Hypotheses, 1996;
46: 467-470.
Sri Kantha S: Cyril Ponnamperuma – scientist extraordinary. Lanka Guardian, July 15, 1995, p. 19.
Tenney M: Kilo-base Goliaths. News in Physiological Sciences, 1993; 8: 186.
*****
Published: March 12, 2009
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NO MORE HIROSHIMAS Sachi Sri Kantha 16 December The Lancet Vol. 334, Issue 8
1989 Page 1457
Centenarian scientists Sachi Sri Kantha Correspondence 26 June 1999 The Lancet Vol. 353, Issue 9
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Paramyosin as helminth vaccine candidate Sachi Sri Kantha 4 August 1990 The Lancet Vol. 336, Issue 8
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127
Prostaglandin D synthase (β-trace S. Sri Kantha Full-length May 1997 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 48
protein): a molecular clock to trace the article Issue 5, Pages 411-412
origin of REM sleep?
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Einstein's medical friends and their S. Sri Kantha Full-length March 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46
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Could nitroglycerine poisoning be the S. Sri Kantha Full-length October 1997 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 49
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Scientific productivity of Einstein, Freud S. Sri Kantha Full-length May 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46
and Landsteiner article Issue 5, Pages 467-470
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Is Karl Landsteiner the Einstein of the S. Sri Kantha Full-length April 1995 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 44
biomedical sciences? article Issue 4, Pages 254-256
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Centenarian scientists: an unusual cluster S. Sri Kantha Full-length December Medical Hypotheses Vol. 57
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Pros and cons in the search for S. Sri Kantha Full-length March 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46
extraterrestrial intelligence article Issue 3, Pages 183-187
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Effects of prostaglandin D2, lipoxins and S. Sri Kantha, H. Full-length August 1994 Prostaglandins, Leukotriene
leukotrienes on sleep and brain Matsumura, E. Kubo, article Essential Fatty Acids Vol. 5
temperature of rats K. Kawase, et al. Issue 2, Pages 87-93
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Seasonal variation in levels of R. Takahata, H. Full-length January 1996 Prostaglandins, Leukotriene

prostaglandins D2, E2and F2α in the brain Matsumura, N. Eguchi, article Essential Fatty Acids Vol. 5
of a mammalian hibernator, the Asian S. Sri Kantha, et al. Issue 1, Pages 77-81
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NO MORE HIROSHIMAS
Sachi Sri Kantha
16 December 1989 The Lancet Vol. 334, Issue 8677, Page 1457
Centenarian scientists
Preview Full Text PDF (53 KB)
129
Cited in Scopus: 1
Sachi Sri Kantha Correspondence

26 June 1999 The Lancet Vol. 353, Issue 9171, Page 2250
Paramyosin as helminth vaccine candidate
Abstract + References
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Sachi Sri Kantha

4 August 1990 The Lancet Vol. 336, Issue 8710, Page 320
Prostaglandin D synthase (β-trace protein): a molecular clock to trace the origin of REM sleep?
Preview Abstract Abstract + References PDF (167 KB)
Cited in Scopus: 1
S. Sri Kantha Full-length article

May 1997 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 48, Issue 5, Pages 411-412
Einstein's medical friends and their influence on his life
Cited in Scopus: 3

March 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46, Issue 3, Pages 257-260
Could nitroglycerine poisoning be the cause of Alfred Nobel's anginal pains and premature death?
Cited in Scopus: 5

October 1997 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 49, Issue 4, Pages 303-306
Scientific productivity of Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner
Cited in Scopus: 5

May 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46, Issue 5, Pages 467-470
Is Karl Landsteiner the Einstein of the biomedical sciences?
Cited in Scopus: 3

April 1995 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 44, Issue 4, Pages 254-256
Centenarian scientists: an unusual cluster newly formedin the 20th century
Cited in Scopus: 0

December 2001 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 57, Issue 6, Pages 750-753
Pros and cons in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
March 1996 Medical Hypotheses Vol. 46, Issue 3, Pages 183-187
Effects of prostaglandin D2, lipoxins and leukotrienes on sleep and brain temperature of rats
Cited in Scopus: 24
S. Sri Kantha, H. Matsumura, E. Kubo, K. Kawase, et al. Full-length article

August 1994 Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes & Essential Fatty Acids Vol. 51, Issue 2, Pages 87-93
Seasonal variation in levels of prostaglandins D2, E2 and F2α in the brain of a mammalian hibernator, the Asian
chipmunk
Cited in Scopus: 5
R. Takahata, H. Matsumura, N. Eguchi, S. Sri Kantha, et al. Full-length article

January 1996 Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes & Essential Fatty Acids Vol. 54, Issue 1, Pages 77-81
130
Tamil Sangam (USA):
Pirapaharan (continued)
By: T. Sabaratnam
10. Mandate Affirmed
Vaddukoddai Resolution
Nine days after Pirapaharan founded the LTTE, the Tamil United Front held its first national
convention at Pannakam in Vaddukoddai in the Jaffna Peninsula. It passed the historic 'Vaddukoddai
Resolution' affirming the mandate that the voters of Kankesanthurai gave overwhelmingly in the 6
February 1975 by- election for the establishment of a separate state for the Tamils.
The Convention resolved:
This convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular,
Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation,
has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.
The exhaustive, 21-paragraph resolution declared that the Tamils had the right to reconstitute
themselves into a separate state because they satisfied the elements required to be considered a
separate nation. The resolution stated that in clear terms before resolving to set up a separate state:
The first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam
(Vaddukoddai Constituency) on the 14th day of May 1976, hereby declares that the Tamils of Ceylon
by virtue of their great language, their religions, their separate culture and heritage, their history of
independent existence as a separate state over a distinct territory for several centuries till they were
conquered by the armed might of the European invaders and above all by their will to exist as a
separate entity ruling themselves in their own territory, are a nation distinct and apart from
131
Sinhalese and this Convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has
made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the Sinhalese ,who are using the
power they have wrongly usurped to deprive the Tamil Nation of its territory, language, citizenship,
economic life, opportunities of employment and education, thereby destroying all the attributes of
nationhood of the Tamil people.
Thanthai Chelva proposed the resolution and M. Sivasithamparam of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress
seconded it. Thanthai Chelva told the convention that he considered himself the fit person to
propose the resolution because he had tried to work out a reasonable formula to accommodate the
Tamil-speaking people within the constitutional fabric of united Sri Lanka. He confessed:
I am sorry to admit I have failed. From 1948 until recently, I placed before the Sinhala leaders what I
perceived as the only possible, workable solution for the problem of the Tamil speaking people- the
formation of a federal region in a united Sri Lanka. They rejected it. Through two pacts and a series
of agreements, I tried to lay the foundation for a decentralized administrative structure. That effort
failed. Now we are left with no other option but to part company and establish for ourselves a
separate state.
Thanthai Chelva spoke in this emotional speech about the two pacts he signed with two Prime
Ministers. The first was with Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1957. The pact contained
three important arrangements that provided safeguards for the Tamil-speaking people. They were:
· Recognizing Tamil as a National Language without disturbing the position enjoyed by Sinhala as
the official language and using Tamil as the language of administration of the northern and eastern
provinces.
· Setting up a regional council for the north and two or more regional councils for the east and
permitting two or more regional councils to amalgamate even beyond provincial limit.
· Bringing colonization schemes under the subjects reserved for the regional councils and giving
the councils the power to select allottees and the personnel employed to work in those schemes.
This pact, known as the 'Bandaranaike–Chelvanayagam Pact,' was torn up by Bandaranaike due to
the pressure exerted by the Buddhist priests and politicians.
The second pact, known as the 'Senanayake–Chelvanayagam Pact,' was with Prime Minister Dudley
Senanayake in 1965. Elements of the pact with Bandaranaike were the basis for this pact. Thanthai
Chelva made use of this pact to make two matters explicit. They concerned the use of Tamil as the
132
language of administration of the north and the east and the procedure to be followed when
allocating land under colonization schemes. They are:
· Tamil would be the language of administration and record in the northern and eastern
provinces. Legal proceedings would be conducted and recorded in Tamil in those provinces.
· Priorities that should be observed in allocating land under colonization schemes in the
northern and eastern provinces was laid down as follows; (a) In the first instance it should be
granted to the landless persons in each district; (b) Secondly, to the Tamil-speaking persons residing
in the district; (c) Thirdly, to other citizens in Ceylon, preference being given to Tamil citizens in the
rest of the island.
Thanthai Chelva, in his speech at Vaddukoddai, also admitted the failure of his policy of cooperating
with one or the other section of Sinhala leaders to help form governments in return for the
implementation of the fundamental arrangements embodied in the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam
Pact. In March 1960, he helped the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to defeat the UNP government of
Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake on the undertaking that when the SLFP returned to power it
would implement the Bandaranaike –Chelvanayakam Pact. The SLFP government that came to
power following the July 1960 election did not honour that understanding. Instead, Prime Minister
Sirimavo Bandaranaike pursued a Sinhala chauvinistic policy and implemented the Sinhala Only
policy vigourously. Then in 1965, Chelvanayagam switched sides and helped Dudley Senanayake to
form the national government on the basis of the pact he signed with him. Senanayake too let the
Tamils down.
Acts of Discrimination
Sivasithamparam told the convention the nine major acts of discrimination successive Sinhalese
governments had perpetrated on the Tamils since independence. They were included in the
resolution as:
Depriving one half of the Tamil people of their citizenship and franchise rights, thereby reducing
Tamil representation in Parliament,
Planned and state-aided Sinhalese colonization and large scale regularizated Sinhalese
encroachments, calculated to make the Tamils a minority in their own homeland,
133
Making Sinhala the only official language throughout Ceylon, thereby placing the stamp of inferiority
on the Tamils and the Tamil Language,
Giving the foremost place to Buddhism under the Republican constitution, thereby reducing the
Hindus, Christians, and Muslims to second class status in this Country,
Denying to the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of employment, education, land
alienation and economic life in general and starving Tamil areas of large scale industries and
development schemes, thereby seriously endangering their very existence in Ceylon,
Systematically cutting them off from the main-stream of Tamil cultures in South India while denying
them opportunities of developing their language and culture in Ceylon, thereby working inexorably
towards the cultural genocide of the Tamils,
Permitting and unleashing communal violence and intimidation against the Tamil-speaking people as
happened in Amparai and Colombo in 1956; all over the country in 1958; army reign of terror in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces in 1961; police violence at the International Tamil Research
Conference in 1974 resulting in the death of nine persons in Jaffna; police and communal violence
against Tamil- speaking Muslims at Puttalam and various other parts of Ceylon in 1976 - all these
calculated to instill terror in the minds of the Tamil speaking people, thereby breaking their spirit
and the will to resist injustices heaped on them,
By terrorizing, torturing, and imprisoning Tamil youths without trial for long periods on the flimsiest
grounds,
Capping it all by imposing on the Tamil Nation a constitution drafted, under conditions of emergency
without opportunities for free discussion, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of the
Soulbury Constitution distorted by the Citizenship laws resulting in increased weightage in
representation to the Sinhalese majority, thereby depriving the Tamils of even the remnants of
safeguards they had under the earlier constitution.
Amirthalingam’s was the most provocative speech. He structured it in a manner that it would rouse
the youth. In the first part, he reminded them of the past glory of the Tamils. He told them that
Tamils lived as an independent nation in the north-eastern portion of Sri Lanka. Since the dawn of
history, he said, the Sinhalese and Tamil nations had divided Sri Lanka between themselves, the
Sinhalese living in the Southern and Western parts of the island and Tamils inhabiting the northern
134
and eastern regions. Tamils had resisted Sinhala invasions and intrusions and had driven them away
whenever they tried to impose their rule on them.
Tamils lived as an independent nation when the Portuguese landed in the island in 1505. The Jaffna
Kingdom was in control of the north-eastern parts regions of Sri Lanka. The western and southern
regions were under the Kotte Kingdom and the central hills were ruled by the Kandyan Kingdom. The
Portuguese conquered the Jaffna Kingdom in 1619 and Kotte before that. They did not capture the
Kandyan Kingdom. The Portuguese ruled their Tamil and Sinhala possessions separately, thus
maintaining their separate identity.
The Dutch captured the Portuguese possessions and the British who ousted the Dutch also ruled the
Tamil regions and Sinhala regions separately. The British joined the territories of the Sinhalese and
the Tamil kingdoms in 1833 on the recommendation of the Colebrook Commission. It was done for
administrative convenience.
The British, when they granted independence to Sri Lanka in 1948, should have handed over to the
Sinhalese and the Tamils their respective territories. They did not do it. They handed over the entire
country to the Sinhalese and they, using their numerical majority, reduced the Tamil nation to the
position of subject people.
Amirthalingam
Amirthalingam devoted the second part of his speech to sketching the nature and shape of the Tamil
Eelam they proposed to establish. Its territory would be Northern and Eastern provinces. Tamil-
speaking people living in the northern and eastern provinces would be the citizens of Tamil Eelam.
Tamils living in any part of Sri Lanka and Tamils of Eelam origin living in any part of the world could
opt for citizenship of Tamil Eelam.
He said Tamil Eelam would be a democratic state with decentralized administration where religious
or territorial communities would be free of domination by others. It would be a secular, socialist
state. Tamil would be the official language and the rights of the Sinhalese would be protected on a
reciprocal basis with the Tamil-speaking minorities in the Sinhala State.
He vowed that an action plan to launch a struggle to win the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil
nation would be formulated soon and exhorted the youth to be ready for the freedom struggle.
135
Youths, who had gathered in great numbers, gave a full-throated response:
You are our commander,
Announce the date of the freedom struggle.
We are ready to sacrifice our lives.
Emotion-chocked youths ran to the dais and carried Amirthalingam on their shoulders chanting,
You are our commander. Give us the order.
Pirapaharan, Uma Maheswaran and most of the leaders of the militant movements were present at
the Vaddukoddai Convention. It was intended as a delegates conference of the TUF, but large
crowds gathered. Processions went from many villages shouting slogans calling for Tamil Eelam.
Guards placed at the gates were powerless to prevent the processions from entering the convention
ground. They went round the grounds shouting, “We want Tamil Eelam. We are ready to sacrifice
our lives to achieve it.” There was euphoria in the air. Jaffna had never witnessed such a scene
before.
Amirthalingam announced that, in keeping with the resolution which had authorized the launching
of the freedom struggle, the name of the party, Tamil United Front, would be changed to Tamil
United Liberation Front (TULF). “We are now a liberation organization," Thalapathy Amirthalingam
thundered. Youths, in an emotional upsurge, shouted back, “We are ready for the struggle. Launch it
now.”
Youths expected the Action Committee to meet immediately and work out a plan to launch the
freedom struggle. The Action Committee did meet and after a lengthy discussion decided to issue a
leaflet explaining the Vaddukoddai Resolution and called upon the people to boycott the Republic
Day celebrations. Youths were not pleased. Some youths went in a delegation and asked
Amirthalingam: Is this the freedom struggle you promised?
“Be patient,” Amirthalingam told them. “We must first prepare the people.”
136
To prepare the people, Amirthalingam and four other Members of Parliament - V. N. Navaratnam, K.
P. Ratnam. K. Thurairatnam and M. Sivasithamparam - distributed in Jaffna bus station on May 21
the leaflet calling the people to boycott the next day’s Republic Day celebrations. Police arrested
them. Amirthalingam was taken to his home in Pannalai and his house searched.
The prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and her government made the Vaddukoddai Resolution
a national issue by accusing the TULF of trying to establish a separate state. The prime minister told
a public meeting at Dambulla Maha Vidyalaya on May 23: The Federal Party has been campaigning
for quite a long time for a separate state and on that pretext, they have been attempting to create
disharmony in the country. I had to take the stern action to protect the Republican Constitution and
maintain peace and harmony in the country.”
In an effort to divide the Tamils, the government released Sivasithamparam, a member of the All
Ceylon Tamil Congress, and indicted the rest of those arrested before the High Court. The
government also decided to try the four leaders at bar before three High Court judges instead of
before a jury. This gave the TULF leaders an opportunity to exhibit the solidarity of the Tamil
community and to challenge the legality of the Republican Constitution. A record 61 lawyers, led by
Queen’s Counsel G. G. Ponnambalam, appeared for the defendants.
By way of preliminary objection, the lawyers challenged the Emergency Regulations under which the
four leaders were arrested and the Republican Constitution under which the court inquiring the case
was constituted. They refused to plead to the charge and made a statement from the dock;
This court is constituted under a constitution which is not valid. I am not pleading guilty or not guilty
to the charges.
Ponnambalam argued the first part of the preliminary objection he raised which said the Emergency
Regulations under which the arrests were made were invalid. The argument was based on a
technical error in the declaration of the state of emergency. Under the Soulbury Constitution, which
was in effect until May 22, the decision whether the state of emergency existed in the country was
to be made by the Governor General. Under the Republican Constitution which came into effect on
May 22 the decision was the responsibility of the Prime Minister. Hence, the Emergency that was in
force before May 22 lapsed on May 22 when the Republican Constitution was promulgated. All
arrested under the Emergency Regulations declared before May 22 had to be released.
Tiruchelvam argued the second part of the preliminary objection which said the constitution under
which the court was constituted was invalid. He based his arguments on two grounds. The first was
137
that the Soulbury Constitution provided for amendments and not wholesale replacements. Attorney
General Siva Pasupathy submitted that the government party, the United Front, had obtained a
mandate from the people for the enactment of a new constitution. Tiruchelvam countered this by
submitting that the replacement of the constitution was not a major campaign issue.
The second ground Tiruchelvam urged was more important. He said, even if the government had
obtained a mandate from the people to replace the constitution, the mandate was from the Sinhala
people and not from the Tamils. He submitted that the Tamil people constituted a separate nation
and, since 1956, they had voted for a federal constitution.
The court held with Ponnambalam on the first objection. It ordered that the emergency regulations
ceased to be in force on May 22 and the accused should be released. It made use of that order to
wriggle out of the second objection concerning the validity of the constitution. It said since the
emergency regulations under which the court was constituted was invalid, the court had no
authority to make a ruling on the validity of the constitution.
This ‘wriggling out’ demonstrated the unwillingness of the judiciary to take bold decisions to
safeguard the interests of the Tamil people. The decision by the 5-member bench of the Supreme
Court headed by Chief Justice Victor Tennekoon on the appeal Attorney General filed against the
High Court order on the emergency regulations added to the disillusion of the Tamil people about
the judiciary. The Attorney General told the Supreme Court that that the High Court order would
have far-reaching consequences as the security forces had taken action on the belief that the
emergency regulations were valid. The Supreme Court overturned the High Court order to help the
government.
The Trial at Bar and the appeal lasted until February 1977 and TULF leaders forgot about the
freedom struggle. Not the militants. They were serious about the mandate. They were determined
to launch the freedom struggle. They were making their own preparations; collecting money and
arms, recruiting cadres and training them.
By the end of 1976, police searches for the militants had intensified. Kumarasuriyar was constantly
nudging the police to root out the militants. He had secret planning sessions with Bastiampillai and
Pathmanathan in his Wellawatte home. Militant groups found their movements restricted and
Pirapaharan had to change his hideouts very often. The militants were thus forced to destroy the
police network.
138
Pirapaharan was also keen to launch the freedom struggle. Though he was meeting Amirthalingam
and V. N. Navaratnam and urging them to launch the freedom struggle, he was convinced that the
TULF was not taking matters seriously. He readied the LTTE to take on the task. As an initial effort,
he decided to undertake two efforts:
· To destroy the network of informants Inspectors Bastiampillai and Pathmanathan had

assiduously built.
· To kill the police officers investigating the Duraiappah murder and collecting information about
militants.
He built an intelligence wing in the LTTE to collect information about police informants and
investigators. He also incorporated intelligence-gathering as part of the training program for cadres.
Fresh recruits were used to gather intelligence before they were given their place in attack groups.
The first police informant Pirapaharan picked to kill was N. Nadarajah, owner of the Petrol station in
Urumpirai and SLFP organizer. He was picked because he had passed information to the police about
Sivakumaran. That was the first murder committed by the LTTE. Pirapaharan did not take part, but
two of his colleagues went to Nadarajah’s house, called him out and gunned him down.
That set the scene for the year 1977, the year Tamil people ratified the Vaddukoddai Resolution and
gave the TULF the people’s support to establish the separate state of Tamil Eelam.
Next:
Chapter 11: The Mandate Ratified
Will be posted on: Monday, September 29
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
139
Chapter 9. TNT matures to LTTE
Pirapaharan
By: T. Sabaratnam
10. Mandate Affirmed
Vaddukoddai Resolution
Nine days after Pirapaharan founded the LTTE, the Tamil United Front
held its first national convention at Pannakam in Vaddukoddai in the
Jaffna Peninsula. It passed the historic 'Vaddukoddai Resolution'
affirming the mandate that the voters of Kankesanthurai gave
overwhelmingly in the 6 February 1975 by- election for the
establishment of a separate state for the Tamils.
140
The Convention resolved:
This convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution

of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of TAMIL
EELAM, based on the right of self determination inherent to
every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the
very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.
The exhaustive, 21-paragraph resolution declared that the Tamils

had the right to reconstitute themselves into a separate state
because they satisfied the elements required to be considered a
separate nation. The resolution stated that in clear terms before
resolving to set up a separate state:
The first National Convention of the Tamil United

Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai
Constituency) on the 14th day of May 1976, hereby declares
that the Tamils of Ceylon by virtue of their great language,
their religions, their separate culture and heritage, their
history of independent existence as a separate state over a
distinct territory for several centuries till they were
conquered by the armed might of the European invaders and
above all by their will to exist as a separate entity ruling
themselves in their own territory, are a nation distinct and
apart from Sinhalese and this Convention announces to the
world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has made the
Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the
Sinhalese ,who are using the power they have wrongly
usurped to deprive the Tamil Nation of its territory,
language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of
employment and education, thereby destroying all the
attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people.
Thanthai Chelva proposed the resolution and M.

Sivasithamparam of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress seconded it.
Thanthai Chelva told the convention that he considered himself
the fit person to propose the resolution because he had tried to
work out a reasonable formula to accommodate the Tamil-
speaking people within the constitutional fabric of united Sri
Lanka. He confessed:
I am sorry to admit I have failed. From 1948 until recently, I

placed before the Sinhala leaders what I perceived as the
only possible, workable solution for the problem of the Tamil
speaking people- the formation of a federal region in a
united Sri Lanka. They rejected it. Through two pacts and a
series of agreements, I tried to lay the foundation for a
decentralized administrative structure. That effort failed.
Now we are left with no other option but to part company
and establish for ourselves a separate state.
141
Thanthai Chelva spoke in this emotional speech about the two

pacts he signed with two Prime Ministers. The first was with
Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1957. The pact
contained three important arrangements that provided safeguards
for the Tamil-speaking people. They were:
 Recognizing Tamil as a National Language without
disturbing the position enjoyed by Sinhala as the
official language and using Tamil as the language of
administration of the northern and eastern provinces.
 Setting up a regional council for the north and two or
more regional councils for the east and permitting two
or more regional councils to amalgamate even beyond
provincial limit.
 Bringing colonization schemes under the subjects
reserved for the regional councils and giving the
councils the power to select allottees and the
personnel employed to work in those schemes.
This pact, known as the 'Bandaranaike–Chelvanayagam Pact,'
was torn up by Bandaranaike due to the pressure exerted by the
Buddhist priests and politicians.
The second pact, known as the 'Senanayake–Chelvanayagam

Pact,' was with Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake in 1965.
Elements of the pact with Bandaranaike were the basis for this
pact. Thanthai Chelva made use of this pact to make two matters
explicit. They concerned the use of Tamil as the language of
administration of the north and the east and the procedure to be
followed when allocating land under colonization schemes. They
are:
 Tamil would be the language of administration and
record in the northern and eastern provinces. Legal
proceedings would be conducted and recorded in Tamil
in those provinces.
 Priorities that should be observed in allocating land
under colonization schemes in the northern and eastern
provinces was laid down as follows; (a) In the first
instance it should be granted to the landless persons in
142
each district; (b) Secondly, to the Tamil-speaking

persons residing in the district; (c) Thirdly, to other
citizens in Ceylon, preference being given to Tamil
citizens in the rest of the island.
Thanthai Chelva, in his speech at Vaddukoddai, also admitted the

failure of his policy of cooperating with one or the other section of
Sinhala leaders to help form governments in return for the
implementation of the fundamental arrangements embodied in the
Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact. In March 1960, he helped the Sri
Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to defeat the UNP government of Prime
Minister Dudley Senanayake on the undertaking that when the SLFP
returned to power it would implement the Bandaranaike –
Chelvanayakam Pact. The SLFP government that came to power
following the July 1960 election did not honour that understanding.
Instead, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike pursued a Sinhala
chauvinistic policy and implemented the Sinhala Only policy
vigourously. Then in 1965, Chelvanayagam switched sides and helped
Dudley Senanayake to form the national government on the basis of
the pact he signed with him. Senanayake too let the Tamils down.
Acts of Discrimination
Sivasithamparam told the convention the nine major acts of

discrimination successive Sinhalese governments had perpetrated on
the Tamils since independence. They were included in the resolution
as:
Depriving one half of the Tamil people of their citizenship and
franchise rights, thereby reducing Tamil representation in
Parliament,
Planned and state-aided Sinhalese colonization and large scale
regularizated Sinhalese encroachments, calculated to make the
Tamils a minority in their own homeland,
Making Sinhala the only official language throughout Ceylon,
thereby placing the stamp of inferiority on the Tamils and the Tamil
Language,
Giving the foremost place to Buddhism under the Republican
143
constitution, thereby reducing the Hindus, Christians, and Muslims

to second class status in this Country,
Denying to the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of
employment, education, land alienation and economic life in
general and starving Tamil areas of large scale industries and
development schemes, thereby seriously endangering their very
existence in Ceylon,
Systematically cutting them off from the main-stream of Tamil
cultures in South India while denying them opportunities of
developing their language and culture in Ceylon, thereby working
inexorably towards the cultural genocide of the Tamils,
Permitting and unleashing communal violence and intimidation
against the Tamil-speaking people as happened in Amparai and
Colombo in 1956; all over the country in 1958; army reign of terror
in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in 1961; police violence at
the International Tamil Research Conference in 1974 resulting in
the death of nine persons in Jaffna; police and communal violence
against Tamil- speaking Muslims at Puttalam and various other
parts of Ceylon in 1976 - all these calculated to instill terror in the
minds of the Tamil speaking people, thereby breaking their spirit
and the will to resist injustices heaped on them,
By terrorizing, torturing, and imprisoning Tamil youths without
trial for long periods on the flimsiest grounds,
Capping it all by imposing on the Tamil Nation a constitution
drafted, under conditions of emergency without opportunities for
free discussion, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of
the Soulbury Constitution distorted by the Citizenship laws
resulting in increased weightage in representation to the Sinhalese
majority, thereby depriving the Tamils of even the remnants of
safeguards they had under the earlier constitution.
Amirthalingam’s was the most provocative speech. He structured it in

a manner that it would rouse the youth. In the first part, he reminded
them of the past glory of the Tamils. He told them that Tamils lived as
an independent nation in the north-eastern portion of Sri Lanka. Since
the dawn of history, he said, the Sinhalese and Tamil nations had
divided Sri Lanka between themselves, the Sinhalese living in the
Southern and Western parts of the island and Tamils inhabiting the
northern and eastern regions. Tamils had resisted Sinhala invasions and
intrusions and had driven them away whenever they tried to impose
their rule on them.
Tamils lived as an independent nation when the Portuguese landed in

the island in 1505. The Jaffna Kingdom was in control of the north-
eastern parts regions of Sri Lanka. The western and southern regions
were under the Kotte Kingdom and the central hills were ruled by the
Kandyan Kingdom. The Portuguese conquered the Jaffna Kingdom in
1619 and Kotte before that. They did not capture the Kandyan
Kingdom. The Portuguese ruled their Tamil and Sinhala possessions
separately, thus maintaining their separate identity.
The Dutch captured the Portuguese possessions and the British who
ousted the Dutch also ruled the Tamil regions and Sinhala regions
separately. The British joined the territories of the Sinhalese and the
Tamil kingdoms in 1833 on the recommendation of the Colebrook
144
Commission. It was done for administrative convenience.
The British, when they granted independence to Sri Lanka in 1948,

should have handed over to the Sinhalese and the Tamils their
respective territories. They did not do it. They handed over the entire
country to the Sinhalese and they, using their numerical majority,
reduced the Tamil nation to the position of subject people.
Amirthalingam
Amirthalingam devoted the second part of his speech to sketching the

nature and shape of the Tamil Eelam they proposed to establish. Its
territory would be Northern and Eastern provinces. Tamil-speaking
people living in the northern and eastern provinces would be the
citizens of Tamil Eelam. Tamils living in any part of Sri Lanka and
Tamils of Eelam origin living in any part of the world could opt for
citizenship of Tamil Eelam.
He said Tamil Eelam would be a democratic state with decentralized

administration where religious or territorial communities would be free
of domination by others. It would be a secular, socialist state. Tamil
would be the official language and the rights of the Sinhalese would be
protected on a reciprocal basis with the Tamil-speaking minorities in
the Sinhala State.
He vowed that an action plan to launch a struggle to win the

sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil nation would be formulated soon
and exhorted the youth to be ready for the freedom struggle.
Youths, who had gathered in great numbers, gave a full-throated

response:
You are our commander,

Announce the date of the freedom struggle.
We are ready to sacrifice our lives.
Emotion-chocked youths ran to the dais and carried Amirthalingam

on their shoulders chanting,
You are our commander. Give us the order.
Pirapaharan, Uma Maheswaran and most of the leaders of the militant

movements were present at the Vaddukoddai Convention. It was
intended as a delegates conference of the TUF, but large crowds
gathered. Processions went from many villages shouting slogans
calling for Tamil Eelam. Guards placed at the gates were powerless to
145
prevent the processions from entering the convention ground. They

went round the grounds shouting, “We want Tamil Eelam. We are
ready to sacrifice our lives to achieve it.” There was euphoria in the air.
Jaffna had never witnessed such a scene before.
Amirthalingam announced that, in keeping with the resolution which

had authorized the launching of the freedom struggle, the name of the
party, Tamil United Front, would be changed to Tamil United
Liberation Front (TULF). “We are now a liberation organization,"
Thalapathy Amirthalingam thundered. Youths, in an emotional
upsurge, shouted back, “We are ready for the struggle. Launch it now.”
Youths expected the Action Committee to meet immediately and work

out a plan to launch the freedom struggle. The Action Committee did
meet and after a lengthy discussion decided to issue a leaflet explaining
the Vaddukoddai Resolution and called upon the people to boycott the
Republic Day celebrations. Youths were not pleased. Some youths
went in a delegation and asked Amirthalingam: Is this the freedom
struggle you promised?
“Be patient,” Amirthalingam told them. “We must first prepare the
people.”
To prepare the people, Amirthalingam and four other Members of

Parliament - V. N. Navaratnam, K. P. Ratnam. K. Thurairatnam and M.
Sivasithamparam - distributed in Jaffna bus station on May 21 the
leaflet calling the people to boycott the next day’s Republic Day
celebrations. Police arrested them. Amirthalingam was taken to his
home in Pannalai and his house searched.
The prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and her government made

the Vaddukoddai Resolution a national issue by accusing the TULF of
trying to establish a separate state. The prime minister told a public
meeting at Dambulla Maha Vidyalaya on May 23: The Federal Party
has been campaigning for quite a long time for a separate state and on
that pretext, they have been attempting to create disharmony in the
country. I had to take the stern action to protect the Republican
Constitution and maintain peace and harmony in the country.”
In an effort to divide the Tamils, the government released

Sivasithamparam, a member of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, and
indicted the rest of those arrested before the High Court. The
government also decided to try the four leaders at bar before three
High Court judges instead of before a jury. This gave the TULF leaders
an opportunity to exhibit the solidarity of the Tamil community and to
challenge the legality of the Republican Constitution. A record 61
lawyers, led by Queen’s Counsel G. G. Ponnambalam, appeared for the
defendants.
By way of preliminary objection, the lawyers challenged the

Emergency Regulations under which the four leaders were arrested and
the Republican Constitution under which the court inquiring the case
was constituted. They refused to plead to the charge and made a
statement from the dock;
146
This court is constituted under a constitution which is not

valid. I am not pleading guilty or not guilty to the charges.
Ponnambalam argued the first part of the preliminary objection he

raised which said the Emergency Regulations under which the
arrests were made were invalid. The argument was based on a
technical error in the declaration of the state of emergency. Under
the Soulbury Constitution, which was in effect until May 22, the
decision whether the state of emergency existed in the country was
to be made by the Governor General. Under the Republican
Constitution which came into effect on May 22 the decision was
the responsibility of the Prime Minister. Hence, the Emergency
that was in force before May 22 lapsed on May 22 when the
Republican Constitution was promulgated. All arrested under the
Emergency Regulations declared before May 22 had to be
released.
Tiruchelvam argued the second part of the preliminary objection

which said the constitution under which the court was constituted
was invalid. He based his arguments on two grounds. The first was
that the Soulbury Constitution provided for amendments and not
wholesale replacements. Attorney General Siva Pasupathy
submitted that the government party, the United Front, had
obtained a mandate from the people for the enactment of a new
constitution. Tiruchelvam countered this by submitting that the
replacement of the constitution was not a major campaign issue.
The second ground Tiruchelvam urged was more important. He

said, even if the government had obtained a mandate from the
people to replace the constitution, the mandate was from the
Sinhala people and not from the Tamils. He submitted that the
Tamil people constituted a separate nation and, since 1956, they
had voted for a federal constitution.
The court held with Ponnambalam on the first objection. It ordered

that the emergency regulations ceased to be in force on May 22
and the accused should be released. It made use of that order to
wriggle out of the second objection concerning the validity of the
constitution. It said since the emergency regulations under which
the court was constituted was invalid, the court had no authority to
make a ruling on the validity of the constitution.
This ‘wriggling out’ demonstrated the unwillingness of the

judiciary to take bold decisions to safeguard the interests of the
Tamil people. The decision by the 5-member bench of the
Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Victor Tennekoon on the
appeal Attorney General filed against the High Court order on the
emergency regulations added to the disillusion of the Tamil people
about the judiciary. The Attorney General told the Supreme Court
that that the High Court order would have far-reaching
consequences as the security forces had taken action on the belief
that the emergency regulations were valid. The Supreme Court
overturned the High Court order to help the government.
147
The Trial at Bar and the appeal lasted until February 1977 and
TULF leaders forgot about the freedom struggle. Not the militants.
They were serious about the mandate. They were determined to
launch the freedom struggle. They were making their own
preparations; collecting money and arms, recruiting cadres and
training them.
By the end of 1976, police searches for the militants had intensified.
Kumarasuriyar was constantly nudging the police to root out the
militants. He had secret planning sessions with Bastiampillai and
Pathmanathan in his Wellawatte home. Militant groups found their
movements restricted and Pirapaharan had to change his hideouts very
often. The militants were thus forced to destroy the police network.
Pirapaharan was also keen to launch the freedom struggle. Though he

was meeting Amirthalingam and V. N. Navaratnam and urging them to
launch the freedom struggle, he was convinced that the TULF was not
taking matters seriously. He readied the LTTE to take on the task. As
an initial effort, he decided to undertake two efforts:
 To destroy the network of informants Inspectors

Bastiampillai and Pathmanathan had assiduously built.
 To kill the police officers investigating the Duraiappah
murder and collecting information about militants.
He built an intelligence wing in the LTTE to collect information about

police informants and investigators. He also incorporated intelligence-
gathering as part of the training program for cadres. Fresh recruits
were used to gather intelligence before they were given their place in
attack groups.
The first police informant Pirapaharan picked to kill was N. Nadarajah,

owner of the Petrol station in Urumpirai and SLFP organizer. He was
picked because he had passed information to the police about
Sivakumaran. That was the first murder committed by the LTTE.
Pirapaharan did not take part, but two of his colleagues went to
Nadarajah’s house, called him out and gunned him down.
That set the scene for the year 1977, the year Tamil people ratified the
Vaddukoddai Resolution and gave the TULF the people’s support to
establish the separate state of Tamil Eelam.
Next:
Chapter 11: The Mandate Ratified
Will be posted on: Monday, September 29
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
148

Chapter 9. TNT matures to LTTE
1974 Tamil conference incident
1974 Tamil conference incident
Memorial for those who died in the 1974 Tamil

conference incident
149
Location Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Coordinates 9°40′N 80°00′ECoordinates:

9°40′N 80°00′E
Date January 10, 1974 (+6 GMT)
Target Sri Lankan Tamils
Attack type Electrocution
Weapon(s) Guns
Deaths 9
Injured (non- 50
fatal)
Perpetrators Sri Lankan Police
The 1974 Tamil conference incident occurred during the fourth World Tamil Research Conference,
which was held in the city of Jaffna between January 3 and 9, 1974. Police action resulted in the loss
of nine lives, the loss of civilian property and more than 50 civilians sustaining severe injuries.[1]
150
Contents
[hide]
 1 Early conflict
 2 The incident
 3 The government response
 4 Legacy
 5 See also
 6 References
Early conflict [edit]
The SLFP-dominated government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike had requested that the conference be
held in the capital Colombo but the conference organizers held it in the Tamil-dominant city of
Jaffna.[1]
On January 10, the organizers decided to hold a public meeting to distribute awards to those who
had participated in the cultural program. The audience, more than 10,000 in number, spanned the
road and overflowed into open expanses.[1]
The incident [edit]
Assistant Superintendent of Police Chandrasekera, a Sinhalese commissioned officer, led a truckload

of anti-riot police of more than 40 to the scene. Their unheralded arrival ended in the chaotic
disruption of the ceremony.[1]
The police had been advancing slowly through the crowd in jeep and truck wearing steel helmets,
ordering the crowd to move. At the time Professor Naina Mohamed, a distinguished Tamil scholar
from India, was speaking and the crowd was heavily packed, such that the police could proceed no
further. Then the policemen who were armed with rifles, tear-gas bombs, batons and wicker shields
started attacking those who stood in their way. The result was a stampede to escape the police
attack, as policemen fanned out in all directions assaulting all and sundry. Some even jumped into
the moat beside the Fort to escape the attack.[2]
The overhead electric wires were brought down by gun-shots. A policeman was seen throwing a
tear-gas bomb which did not explode, and then firing at the electric wire, resulting in a burning coil
falling on him. The foreign delegates who attended the conference had also confirmed that the
Police had fired into the air.[2]
Seven civilians died of electrocution. Several others sustained severe injuries due to the police
charging at them.[1]
The government response [edit]
151
The police officers involved were subsequently promoted instead of being reprimanded by the
government.[1]
The report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Tragedy of January Tenth 1974 published on 18
February 1974 said,
“ "The irresistible conclusion we come to is that the police on this night (10 January 1974)
was guilty of a violent and quite an unnecessary attack on unarmed citizens.
"We are gravely concerned that they lacked the judgment which we expected of policemen
in a civilian police force whose duties call for tactful handling even in the most difficult
situation.” ”
[3]
Legacy [edit]
Appapillai Amirthalingam stated
“ "the refusal of the government to appoint a Presidential Commission to inquire into the
seven deaths and the conduct of the Police which led to those deaths, was a prime cause of
the demand for a separate state." ”
[2]
This incident was the precursor to the revenge killing of the SLFP mayor of Jaffna, Alfred
Duraiappah by the LTTE which began the era of Tamil militancy amongst the youth leading up to
the Sri Lankan civil war.[1]
See also [edit]
 List of attacks attributed to Sri Lankan government forces
 List of attacks attributed to the LTTE
 List of massacres in Sri Lanka
References [edit]
1. ^ a b c d e f g 1974 World Tamil research conference incident
2. ^ a b c [1]
3. ^ [2]
Categories:
 Political repression
 Politics of Sri Lanka
152
 1974 in Sri Lanka
 Mass murder in 1974
 Sri Lanka Police
A. Amirthalingam
Honourable
A. Amirthalingam
MP
Leader of the Opposition, Sri Lanka
In office
4 August 1977 – 24 October 1983
Preceded by J. R. Jayewardene, UNP
Succeeded A. Bandaranaike, SLFP

by
Leader, Tamil United Liberation Front
153
In office
1977–1989
Preceded by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam
Succeeded M. Sivasithamparam
by
Member of the Ceylonese Parliament

for Vaddukoddai
In office
1956–1970
Preceded by V. Veerasingam, ACTC
Succeeded A. Thiagarajah, ACTC

by
Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament

for Kankesanthurai
In office
1977–1983
Preceded by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, ITAK
Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament

for Nationa List
In office
1989–1989
Succeeded Mavai Senathirajah, TULF

by
Personal details
Born August 26, 1927

Pannagam, Vaddukoddai,British Ceylon
Died July 13, 1989 (aged 61)

342/2 Baudhaloka Mawatha,Colombo, Sri
154
Lanka
Nationality Sri Lankan
Political Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi

party
Other Tamil United Liberation Front

political
affiliations
Alma mater Ceylon Law College
Profession Lawyer
Religion Hindu
Ethnicity Sri Lankan Tamil
Website amirthalingam.com
Appapillai Amirthalingam (Tamil: அ ் ா ் பிள் ளள அமிர்தலிங் கம் ) was a leading Sri

Lankan Tamil politician, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition. Amirthalingam was
assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.[1][2]
Contents
[hide]
 1 Early life
 2 Political career
 3 Assassination
 4 See also
 5 References
 6 External links
[edit]Early life
Amirthalingam was born 26 August 1927 in Pannagam near Vaddukoddai in northern province
of Ceylon. He was the son of S. Appapillai, a retired station master, and Valliammai. He had three
155
brothers (Sockalingam, Vasu Thevalingam and Thigamparalingam). He was educated at Meihandan

Tamil School, Pannakam and Victoria College, Chulipuram. He later studied at Ceylon University
College. After graduation he joined the legal profession, becoming an advocate.
Amirthalingam married Mangaiyarkarasi, daughter of Vallipuram. They had two sons - Kandeepan
and Baheerathan.
[edit]Political career
Amirthalingam joined the newly formed Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party) in 1949 and
became leader of its Youth Front. He was ITAK's candidate for Vaddukoddai at the 1952
parliamentary election but failed to get elected.[3] He stood again at the 1956 parliamentary election.
He was won this time and entered Parliament.[4] He was re-elected at the March 1960, July
1960 and 1965 parliamentary elections.[5][6][7] He stood for re-election in Vaddukoddai at the 1970
parliamentary election but was defeated by the All Ceylon Tamil Congress candidate.[8]
In 1972 the ITAK, ACTC and others formed the Tamil United Front (later renamed Tamil United
Liberation Front). Amirthalingam was delivering leaflets along with other leading Tamil politicians
(M. Sivasithamparam, V. N. Navaratnam, K. P. Ratnamand K. Thurairatnam) in 1976 when they were
all arrested on government orders. Sivasithamparam was released but the others were taken to
Colombo and tried for sedition. All the defendants were acquitted after a famous trial at bar case in
which 72 Tamil lawyers including S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and G. G. Ponnambalam acted for the
defence. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, leader of the TULF and ITAK, died in April 1977. Amirthalingam
took on the leadership of both organisations.
Amirthalingam was the TULF's candidate for Kankesanthurai at the 1977 parliamentary election. He
won the election and re-entered Parliament.[9] The TULF became the largest opposition party in
Parliament and Amirthalingam became Leader of the Opposition.[10]
Amirthalingam and all other TULF MPs boycotted Parliament from the middle of 1983 for a
number of reasons: they were under pressure from Sri Lankan Tamil militants not to stay in
Parliament beyond their normal six-year term; the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri
Lanka required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and
the Black July riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were murdered by Sinhalese mobs. After three
months of absence, Amirthalingam forfeited his seat in Parliament on 22 October 1983.[11]
Amirthalingam and his family, like many families of leading Tamil politicians, fled to Madras (now
Chennai), Tamil Nadu. Whilst in India Amirthalingam took part in numerous peace talks. After the
signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987 Amirthalingam returned to Sri Lanka. Amirthalingam
and his wife moved into a house in Bullers Road (Baudhaloka Mawatha) in the Cinnamon
Gardens area of Colombo. The house was shared with other leading TULF politicians (M.
Sivasithamparam, V. Yogeswaran and Mavai Senathirajah) and their families.
Amirthalingam was one of the TULF's candidates in Batticaloa District at the 1989 parliamentary
election but failed to get elected. He was however appointed as a National List Member of
Parliament for the TULF after the election.
[edit]
156
Assassination
In effort to bring about unity amongst the Tamils, Yogeswaran made contact with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam and met with them several times. He arranged a meeting between the Tamil
Tigers and the TULF leaders at their Bullers Road residence. On the evening of 13 July 1989 three
men, Peter Aloysius Leon, Visu (Rasiah Aravindarajah) and Sivakumar (Vignan/Arivu), arrived at
the residence. Aloysius and Visu went inside the house whilst Sivakumar remained outside. The two
men met with Yogeswaran, Amirthalingam and Sivasithamparam in Yogeswaran's apartment on the
first floor. The meeting seemed to be going well when suddenly Visu pulled out a gun and shot
Amirthalingam in the head and chest. Yogeswaran stood up but was shot by Aloysius and Visu.
Security guards heard the shots and rushed in, shooting the assailants who were injured. The
assailants shot Sivasithamparam in the shoulder before running downstairs. They were chased and
shot dead by the security guards. Sivakumar was also shot and died later of his injuries.
Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran were killed but Sivasithamparam survived. The Tamil Tigers initially
denied responsibility for the assassinations but later accepted responsibility.
[edit]See also
 List of assassinations of the Sri Lankan Civil War
[edit]References
 Arumugam, S. (1997). Dictionary of Biography of the Tamils of Ceylon. pp. 5–6.
 "Brief History". A. Amirthalingam: Life and Struggle.
1. ^ D. B. S. Jeyaraj (16 March 2008). "Assassinating Tamil Parliamentarians: The

unceasing waves". The Nation, Sri Lanka.
2. ^ Rajasingham, K. T. "Chapter 39: Amirthalingham eliminated". SRI LANKA: THE

UNTOLD STORY.
3. ^ "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1952". Department of Elections, Sri

Lanka.

Lanka.
5. ^ "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-03-19". Department of Elections,

Sri Lanka.
6. ^ "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-07-20". Department of Elections,

Sri Lanka.

Lanka.

Lanka.
157

Lanka.
10. ^ "Leaders of the Opposition". Handbook of Parliament. Parliament of Sri Lanka.
11. ^ Wickramasinghe, Wimal (18 January 2008). "Saga of crossovers, expulsions and
resignations etc. Referendum for extention of Parliament". The Island, Sri Lanka.
[edit]External links
 A. Amirthalingam: Life and Struggle
http://www.nation.lk/2008/03/16/newsfe1.htm
Assassinating Tamil Parliamentarians:

The unceasing waves
by D B S Jeyaraj © 2008
Fifty-one-year-old Kiddinan Sivanesan was the latest in the long line of Tamil Parliamentarians and
ex-Parliamentarians to suffer death through assassination.
Sivanesan, a former Cooperative Society Store Manager and trade unionist, was returning home to
Mallavi after attending Parliament when a claymore mine exploded. Both the Tamil National Alliance
(TNA) MP and his driver were killed.
158
It is widely believed that Sivanesan was killed by an assassination squad of the armed forces known
as the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP). Defenders of the state have stoutly denied the
charge.
The funeral, held in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-controlled region of the northern
mainland known as Wanni, was attended by 15 TNA Parliamentarians. A grand funeral ceremony
was held.
Paying homage
LTTE Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who sustained minor injuries in a bombing incident in the
Kilinochchi suburb of Jeyanthinagar on November 28, 2007, made a rare appearance and paid his
respects.
The Tigers also held a number of meetings at different places to pay homage to Sivanesan.
The LTTE and supporters/propagandists have utilised the killing to engage in anti-government
propaganda as well as whip up emotions among the Tamil diaspora. Many memorial meetings were
held in diverse international locations.
Tiger media organs are continuing to give much prominence to the killing of Sivanesan. The Tigers
are trying very hard to create mass frenzy among Tamil expatriates over the killing.
Pro - LTTE groups are also lobbying intensively by citing the killing as one more brownie point in
support of the argument that separation is necessary.
The LTTE honours its dead cadres as Maaveerar or Great Heroes. Non-combatant supporters are
awarded two types of posthumous honours.
The lesser honour is Naatrupatraalar or patriot. The greater honour is Maamanithar or great person.
Sivanesan was given Maamanithar status by the Tiger Supremo.
Prabhakaran’s statement
Here are some excerpts from Prabhakaran’s statement about Sivanesan:
159
He is a sincere politician who possessed high ideals. He laboured tirelessly for the advancement and
welfare of the workers.
He yearned for a free and honourable life for the Tamil people in their land without the torments
that have afflicted them.
He took up the responsibility of representing the people of Jaffna and roamed the world seeking
justice for the Tamils.
He raised awareness among our people and gathered their support.
He exposed the atrocities of the Sinhala state and its occupying military to the world.
He was courageous even in the midst of repeated harassments and threats of the Sinhala military.
His service for the liberation of Tamil Eelam through his hard work and exemplary skills are
immeasurable.
All the above lines refer to Sivanesan but strange as it may seem, they are more applicable to
another Tamil political leader who was brutally assassinated more than 18 years ago.
He was none other than Appapillai Amirthalingam, the former secretary general of the Tamil United
Liberation Front (TULF) and ex-leader of the opposition.
Indeed, Amirthalingam was a man who yearned for a free and honorable life for the Tamil people in
their land without the torments that have afflicted them, and in his time roamed the world seeking
justice for the Tamils, and in his own way exposed the atrocities of the Sinhala state and its
occupying military to the world.
Tiger acolyte
More importantly, when Amirthalingam made a statement or levelled a charge, it carried weight and
credibility. It was taken seriously at international levels. His complaints could not be dismissed lightly
as Tiger propaganda.
This was not the case with Sivanesan, a Tiger acolyte, whose propaganda was limited mainly to pro-
Tiger Tamil media.
160
Against this backdrop, the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan state had more to fear from a man like
Amirthalingam than a man like Sivanesan. But who killed Amirthalingam?
It was not the Sinhala state but the self-styled saviours of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. It was the
Tigers who murdered Amirthalingam in cold blood!
When news of Amirthalingam’s death was conveyed to then Opposition Leader Sirima Bandaranaike,
her immediate reaction was, Who did it? On being told it was the LTTE, she spontaneously
exclaimed, Thank God, no Sinhalese did it!
The point behind invoking the Amirthalingam assassination in this context is to illustrate three
related points.
Hypocrisy
Firstly, the so-called Sinhala state or government is not the only agency killing Tamil MPs or ex-MPs.
This has been going on for a long time and Sivanesan was not the first Tamil Parliamentarian victim.
Secondly, more Tamil Parliamentarians have been killed by Tamil and not Sinhala assassins. Even in
the case of Sivanesan, there is reason to believe that the actual LRRP perpetrators were Tamil
operatives.
Of course, the state bears a moral responsibility in killings done by paramilitary dogs of war. Yet, the
fact remains that Tamil hands have shed more Tamil Parliamentarian blood than Sinhala hands.
Thirdly, many Tamil groups and organisations were involved at various stages and levels in this
bloodshed. Yet the LTTE is responsible for killing more Tamil MPs, ex-MPs and other major Tamil
political leaders than any other Tamil organisation.
In fact, this pattern of assassinating Tamil political leaders was pioneered and developed by the very
same LTTE that is hypocritically mourning and condemning Sivanesan’s killing now.
January 1 this year saw UNP Colombo District MP Thiagarajah Maheswaran being killed on the
premises of Shree Ponnambalavaneswarar Sivan Temple in Kotahena. Maheswaran was about to
return home after worshipping when he was shot dead.
161
The first assassination
However, when the ongoing saga of Tamil political assassinations first began on July 25, 1975, it was
a man on his way to worship at the Varadarajapperumaal Vishu Temple at Ponnalai who was shot
outside the Kovil.
This was Jaffna Mayor Alfred Durayappa, who though a Christian by birth, became a sort of
theosophist in later life and used to worship at Hindu temples also.
Durayappa was the independent MP for Jaffna in 1960 March and July. He contested as an SLFP-
backed independent in 1970 and lost by a tiny margin of 56 to C.X. Martyn of the Federal Party.
Durayappa was the uncrowned king of Jaffna Municipal politics and had been mayor many times or
installed his supporters as mayor.
He disavowed communal politics and steered clear of both the FP and Tamil Congress. These parties
called Durayappa a thurogi, or traitor.
The killing of Durayappa was the first time a Tamil ex-MP or mayor was assassinated. Seven Tamil
youths were charged in court and later acquitted.
Prabhakaran was not one among them but his name transpired during court proceedings. Later in a
media interview Prabhakaran was to boast of the Durayappa assassination as his first military
operation.
Tamil militant mood

The 1970-77 period saw many amateurish assassination attempts of Tamil MPs supportive of Sirima
Bandaranaike’s government, but none of them were successful.
It was the Tamil ultranationalist poet Kathamuthu Sivananthan, known as Kasi Ananthan, who
articulated the Tamil militant mood by declaring publicly, The six traitors who voted for the
Republican Constitution of 1972 must not have natural deaths.
The six Tamil MPs referred to by Kasi Ananthan were C. Arulambalam, A. Thiyagarajah, C.X. Martyn,
C. Kumarasuriar, M.C. Subramaniam and Rajan Selvanayagam.
162
The 1977 elections saw 18 TULF members in Parliament. All of them were elected on a mandate for
Tamil Eelam.
One of them was M. Canagaretnam, the second MP for Pottuvil, who had worked in Singapore as a
civilian employee of the Indian National Army of Netaji Subash Chandrabose.
Much was made of this Netaji connection during the TULF election campaign. But Canagaretnam
crossed over to the UNP during the budget period of 1977.
In a heated atmosphere, Amirthalingam burst out in Parliament that a thunderbolt would fall on
Canagaretnam.
On February 4, 1978, Junius Richard Jayewardene became executive president by way of the Second
Amendment to the Republican Constitution.
On the same day an assassination attempt was made on Canagaretnam in Colombo. He survived but
his health deteriorated and he died after some months. The LTTE (undivided then) was blamed.
LTTE split
The 1981 elections to the District Development Councils (DDC) saw former Karainagar Hindu College
Principal Dr. A. Thiyagarajah contesting on the UNP ticket.
He was the Vaddukkoddai MP elected on the Tamil Congress ticket in 1970, who later crossed over
to government ranks.
Thiyagarajah was killed at Moolai while addressing an election meeting. The People’s Liberation
Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was responsible.
The LTTE had split and a strong Tiger contingent had come together as the PLOTE, under
Umamaheswaran. The PLOTE wanted to disrupt the DDC polls.
The July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom saw the political situation transformed. The Sixth Amendment to
the Constitution saw secessionism being disavowed. This resulted in many TULF Parliamentarians
going abroad.
163
Among those who remained in Sri Lanka were former MPs for Manipay, Point Pedro, Udupiddy and
Kopay V. Dharmalingam, K. Thurairatnam. S. Rasalingam and M. Aalaalasundaram in Jaffna, and
Mannar MP P. Soosaidasan and Vaddukkoddai MP Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam in Colombo.
The India-sponsored talks between the government and Tamil representatives were held at the
Bhutanese capital of Thimphu in 1985. The talks broke down.
Subsequently there was some disagreement among Tamil representatives with the TULF, supported
by PLOTE, taking up one stance and the rest another.
Double killing
The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) led by Sri Sabaratnam wanted to teach a lesson to
the TULF. The TELO decided to target the affable, left-leaning Dharmalingam.
Dharmar was not only from the TULF but also the father of current PLOTE Chief Siddharthan, who
was then the PLOTE representative at Thimphu talks.
In order to avoid suspicion, the TELO also decided to dump (euphemism for kill) Aalaalasundaram.
Aalaal as he was called was a relative of Sri Sabaratnam and regarded as being close to the TELO.
Therefore, if Aalaal was killed along with Dharmar, suspicion would not fall on the TELO, it was
believed.
So Aalaal was taken away from his house at gunpoint and compelled to call out to an unsuspecting
Dharmar. Later both were killed.
This double killing indicated the depths to which the Tamil militant movement had sunk. Also, the
very same TULF that flayed its political rivals as treacherous weeds needing to be weeded out was
now at the receiving end of Tamil militant violence.
The Indo-Lanka Accord and consequent developments resulted in the political situation transforming
again. There was a sharp intra-Tamil divide, causing bitter polarisation. The LTTE regarded those
being supportive of India as collaborators.
164
The LTTE used the opportunity provided by the Ranasinghe Premadasa regime, which began talks
with the Tigers in Colombo. The LTTE began spreading its tentacles in Colombo.
Amirthalingam assassination
The Tigers identified Amirthalingam, who was once again in Parliament, as the pivotal force of the
TULF and mainstay of Tamil moderate politics.
Initially, the LTTE tried to lure Amirthalingam to the Wanni under the guise of peace talks and make
him disappear there. But Amir would not swallow the bait.
Then the LTTE tricked the lovable but naive former Jaffna MP Vettrivelu Yogeswaran into promoting
a TULF-LTTE dialogue in Colombo.
Three Tiger operatives went to the TULF Bullers Lane residence on July 13, 1989 and met with
Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran and TULF President and ex-Nallur MP Murugesu Sivasithamparam.
After eating biscuits and drinking tea, the Tigers pulled out their guns and fired.
A startled Sivasithamparam rose up suddenly from his seat. The bullets aimed at the head hit the six-
footer in the chest. Thus, the TULF President survived with injuries. But Amir and Yoges were dead.
The bodyguards at the residence managed to shoot dead all three assassins. Visu and Aloysius were
killed upstairs and Arivu downstairs.
Tragically, the bodyguards had been forced to allow the Tigers inside with weapons because of a
request made by Yogeswaran himself.
Apparently, Yogeswaran had said that the Tigers were feeling insulted over being searched and
asked the security to refrain from doing so.
This was how LTTE assassins broke all cultural norms of Tamil hospitality (virunthombal) and
assassinated Amir and Yoges.
The very same LTTE is now shedding copious tears over the killing of TNA Parliamentarians.
165
Spate of killings
In 1990 June the LTTE struck in Madras (now Chennai). The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation
Front (EPRLF) was having a meeting at Zackaria Colony in Kodambakkam. A Tiger hit squad invaded
and sprayed bullets.
Among those killed were EPRLF Leader Padmanabha, North-East Provincial Minister Kirubaharan
and Parliamentarian Yogasangari.
Current EPRLF leader and MP Suresh Premachandran had a miraculous escape as he had left the
place a few minutes with another to smoke a cigarette outside.
The EPRLF had contested Parliament under the TULF umbrella in 1989. Yogasangari was elected
from Jaffna District. He was the nephew (brother’s son) of present TULF President Veerasingham
Anandasangaree.
Some weeks later the LTTE struck again in Colombo. Batticaloa District MP Sam Thambimuttu and
wife Kala were on their way to the Canadian High Commission to get a visa when a Tiger assassin on
a motorcycle fired and killed them both.
Sam Tambimuttu was a long-standing member of the FP and then the TULF but was now with the
EPRLF. His wife Kala was the daughter of former FP senator Manickam. Their Tamil nationalist
credentials were impeccable, but were perceived as traitors by the LTTE.
The next TULF MP to be killed by the LTTE was former Trincomalee District MP Arunasalam
Thangathurai in 1997. He was killed while returning from a school function. An explosive device was
flung and some teachers and government officials were also killed.
Tiruchelvam assassination
Then Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam was assassinated on July 29, 1999 in Colombo while on his way to his
office in Kynsey Terrace when a suicide killer blew himself up.
166
Dr. Tiruchelvam had played a key role in maintaining TULF independence and also in attempting to
reform the Constitution into accommodating Tamil rights.
After Dr. Tiruchelvam’s death, the soul went out of the TULF. The bulk of what was left of the TULF
simply prostrated itself before the LTTE and accepted Tiger hegemony.
Only Anandasangaree, elected TULF president after Sivasithamparam’s demise, rebelled against
Tiger overlordship. He remains virtually a solitary TULF figure unbowed and unafraid, against the
LTTE.
Another Tamil MP from the PLOTE was also killed by the LTTE during the 90s of the 20th Century.
This was Shanmuganathan, alias Vasanthan, who was elected in 1994 from the Wanni electoral
district. The vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a Tiger landmine in Vavuniya.
Meanwhile, the EPRLF breakaway faction led by Kathiravelu Devananda alias Douglas had formed
itself into the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP).
Using the captive votes of the islands of Jaffna, the EPDP, with about 10,000 votes, got nine seats
from Jaffna District. The rest of the voters lived in LTTE-controlled areas and were not allowed to
vote by the Tigers.
One of those elected on the EPDP ticket was Nadarajah Atputharajah, alias Ramesh, who edited the
Thinamurasu weekly.
EPDP killing
Serious differences arose between Douglas and Ramesh with the latter gradually following a pro-
Tiger line in the Thinamurasu tabloid. Douglas found it increasingly difficult to control Ramesh.
Then Ramesh and his brother-in-law were shot dead at Wellawatte. With that killing, Douglas re-
established control over the paper. Though the LTTE was blamed by Douglas, it was widely
suspected that it was an internal EPDP killing.
167
Ramesh’s death triggered off an exodus of EPDP Parliamentarians to foreign countries. Today
Devananda is the lone EPDP MP in Parliament.
None of those elected as MPs from the EPDP are in the party today except for Devananda’s uncle
Sivathasan and Batticaloa’s Rasamanickam.
Most of the EPDP ex-Parliamentarians are abroad and many of them, in their refugee claims, have
blamed the Ramesh killing on Douglas. This speaks volumes about the inner democracy within the
EPDP.
Another MP from the TULF was killed in the east in 2000. Nimalanayagam Soundaranayagam was
elected from Batticaloa District. He was regarded as being close to the LTTE. He was shot dead near
Kiran.
Initially, most people including this writer thought the LTTE was not responsible as Nimalan was
perceived as pro-Tiger. The story behind the killing came to light gradually.
The LTTE Eastern Regional Commander of the time, Col. Karuna had asked Nimalan to smuggle in
two Tiger suicide killers to Parliament. This was refused.
This defiance was strongly resented by the LTTE. Suspecting perhaps that Nimalan may leak out the
matter, Karuna ordered his killing.
Tiger Nominated Agents
The 21 Century saw the TULF, Tamil Congress, sections of the TELO and EPRLF submitting to LTTE
authority. The newly-formed TNA consisted of all four entities and became a Tiger lackey.
As the EPDP’s Devananda is fond of saying, the TNA began to mean Tiger Nominated Agents.
Surrendering to the LTTE ensured TNA safety at the hands of the Tigers, but made it vulnerable in
another sense.
Also complicating matters was the split in the LTTE where a sizeable section of the eastern Tigers
revolted under the leadership of Karuna and formed the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP).
168
During the Parliamentary elections of 2004, TNA candidate Rajan Sathiyamoorthy and his brother-
in-law were shot dead by the mainstream LTTE at their home.
Sathiyamoorthy was close to Karuna who staged a grand funeral for him and buried him with
honours. In the night the LTTE dug his body up and threw it elsewhere in a half-burnt state.
The Tigers also forced another elected MP from Batticaloa, Kingsley Rajanayagam, to resign his seat.
Kingsley was perceived as a Karuna loyalist.
After a while, when the Tigers suspected that the Karuna faction would take on a political role with
Rajanayagam’s help, they assassinated him in Batticaloa.
Killing continues
Roles were reversed as the TMVP and EPDP, with state backing, began to adopt an aggressive
approach. However, the killing of Tamil Parliamentarians and ex-MPs continued.
Former Ampara District TNA Parliamentarian Chandranehru Ariyanayagam, along with LTTE Political
Commissar for Batticaloa Kausalyan and some others, were killed at Welikanda on the Batticaloa-
Polonnaruwa border.
This was done by the Karuna faction led in the field by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias
Pillaiyan. The armed forces were accused of aiding and abetting the killing.
Veteran eastern Tamil politician and TNA National List MP Joseph Pararajasingham was shot dead at
the St. Mary’s Cathedral in Batticaloa.
It was on Christmas Eve and Joseph and his wife Sugunam had received Holy Communion from
Batticaloa Catholic Bishop Kingsley Swampillai and were returning to their pews.
The TMVP’s Sitha, alias Pradeep, and another, entered the church and shot them. Again, security
force collaboration was visible.
Later Trincomalee TNA stalwart Vickneswaran was to be appointed in Pararajasingham’s place.

Vickneswaran was assassinated in his office just 24 hours before he was to be nominated. The TMVP
169
was responsible. Subsequently Chandranehru’s son Chandrakanth was nominated as National List
MP.
Raviraj assassination
Jaffna District TNA Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj was the next TNA victim. He was shot dead in
broad daylight in Colombo just as he left home with his bodyguard.
The EPDP was implicated in this killing. The killers are suspected of having hidden in a place of
worship before taking on their target. The slow progress of the investigation makes many suspect
high-level connivance in the killing.
The EPDP also struck in Jaffna when former TULF Jaffna District Parliamentarian Sivamaharajah was
killed. Since Sivamaharajah was also running a newspaper, his killing was seen as being a media-
related one.
His political background was overlooked. Incidentally Sivamaharajah and Devananda share a
common caste constituency.
The next Tamil Parliamentarian to be assassinated was the UNP’s Thiagarajah Maheswaran. He was
killed at the Sivan Temple premises.
The EPDP was suspected because of business rivalry between Devananda and Maheswaran and also
because the Colombo District MP had threatened to expose alleged EPDP killings in Jaffna.
Since the LTTE had tried to kill him in 2004 through an underworld killer, the LTTE was also
suspected.
The brazen attempt by Police Chief Victor Perera to influence investigations and point the finger at
the Tigers seems to suggest that the state-backed EPDP was responsible. A massive cover-up may be
in progress.
Selective amnesia
It is against this backdrop of a very long list of Tamil Parliamentarian assassinations that the killing of
Sivanesan has to be viewed. The LRRP Deep Penetration Unit is suspected of being responsible.
170
If recent history is any indication, this certainly will not be the last assassination as far as Tamil
Parliamentarians are concerned.
Today the LTTE and its supporters are lamenting loudly about elected Tamil Parliamentarians being
assassinated. True!
At the same time, the LTTE is being selective in this and does not mention anything about the Tamil
Parliamentarians and ex-MPs killed by the Tigers themselves.
This article is confined to only the assassinations of Tamil MPs and Tamil ex-MPs. Many Sinhala
political leaders have also been killed by the LTTE and the JVP.
Likewise, the LTTE has killed at least one Muslim MP and a Muslim ex-MP. The Tigers have also killed
a number of Tamil politicians who were not Parliamentarians or ex-Parliamentarians.
Former DDC Chairmen S. Nadarajah and R. Sambandamoorthy and Mayors like Sarojini Yogeswaran
and Pon Sivapalan are but a few of these.
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Afro-American radical Leader Malcolm X said, �The
chickens have come home to roost.� Yet, within months, Malcolm X too was assassinated.
When the LTTE commenced killing Tamil politicians with different views after dubbing them as
traitors, the moderate Tamil nationalists did not protest.
Soon the guns turned against them. The cancer infected other groups and also breakaway factions.
Surrendering to the LTTE removed one danger for Tamil Parliamentarians but rendered them
vulnerable to other assassins.
Violence continues
What goes around comes around!
The violence continues. The cream of Tamil Parliamentarians was wiped out by the LTTE. The
flotsam and the jetsam are being eradicated by state-backed Tamil groups.
Tamil Parliamentarians may come and go, but the violence against them continues like unceasing
waves.
171
What is required now is not selective condemnation of one or the other side, but a genuine,
wholesale rejection of political violence.
Tamils who thought that violence was the way to redress grievances and achieve aspirations began
the armed struggle. Today the dream has become a nightmare and the very same violence is
reducing the community to a sad plight.
The assassinations of Tamil MPs and Tamil ex-MPs are but a microcosm of the violent destruction
enveloping Tamil society.
What Tamils society needs today is freedom from the ecology of the gun and liberation from an
environment of political violence.
(D.B.S. Jeyaraj can be reached at djeyaraj@federalidea.com)
****
172
http://sangam.org/Sabaratnam/PirapaharanChap7.htm
Pirabaharan [Prabakaran] cont:

7. The Cyanide Suicide
By Sivakumaran
The death of nine spectators during the closing ceremony of the Fourth International Tamil Research
Conference ended all the efforts Sirimavo Bandaranaike government had been making in 1973 to
pacify the Tamil United Front. The deaths pained the hearts and wounded the feelings of the Tamil
people, youths the most.
Militant youths decided to take revenge and they selected Jaffna Mayor and SLFP Jaffna Organizer
Alfred Duraiappah as the target. Duraiappah was close to Posts and Telecommunications Minister
Chelliah Kumarasuriyar who had played a role in hindering the holding of the conference in Jaffna.
Duraiappah aided him and was responsible for the non-availability of the Duraiappah Stadium for
the closing ceremony of the conference.
Two militant group leaders, independent of each other, decided to assassinate Duraiappah. One of
them was Sivakumaran, son of Ponnuthurai and Annalechuni of Urumpirai, a village famed for Tamil
militancy. The other was Pirapaharan, then 19. Sivakumaran considered the police firing at the
conference a personal affront. He was a leading member of the Volunteer Force, raised to assist the
conduct of the conference of reputed Tamil scholars worldwide. For Pirapaharan, who was in Tamil
Nadu when the conference took place, the ugly disruption of the conference and its ill-fated ending
was an outrage of the Tamil culture, Tamil pride.
Sivakumaran, born into the family of a passionate Federal Party supporters, had his early schooling
at Urumpirai Hindu College and his GCE Advanced Level studies at Jaffna Hindu College. He joined
Kokkuvil Junior Technical College for his professional education, but dropped out in two months due
to his militant activities. He joined the Tamil Students Union (TSU) in 1971, a year after its formation,
but had taken to political violence the previous year when he placed a time bomb in Deputy Minister
Somaweera Chandrasiri’s car. Then in 1971 he threw a hand bomb at Duraiappah’s car.
His colleagues and acquaintances speak of him with affection. Says Mavai Senathirajah;
173
He was a very sensitive person. He always spoke about armed struggle. He argued that Federal
Party should play the role of an independence movement and it should form an armed wing to carry
on an armed struggle.
Sivakumaran's model for the independence struggle was Bangladesh. There, Mujibur Rehman’s
Awamy League took forward the independence struggle and armed groups the armed struggle.
Rudhramoorthy Cheran says;
He would discuss all night the need for an armed struggle, how it should be conducted and the
relationship that needed to be built between the political and armed wings.
Sivakumaran teamed up with the Thangathurai- Kuttimani group for some time, but broke away and
set up his own group, known as the Sivakumaran group. He was arrested in February 1972 for
throwing the hand bomb at Duraiappah’s car parked along First Cross Street. Duraiappah had
walked up to the Jaffna Rest House and was having tea with Jaffna Magistrate Colin Mendis when
Sivakumaran threw the bomb. The car was extensively damaged.
Sivakumaran was charged before the Jaffna magistrate, but C. Suntharalingam, his lawyer, objected
to the case being heard by the Jaffna magistrate, a friend of Duraiappah. The case was transferred to
the Mallakam magistrate who turned down the bail application ruling saying he had no authority to
grant bail in such cases. Sivakumaran was released after some months due to lack of evidence. He
was tortured during the investigation. It was unbearable, he later told his colleagues. He told them
that he had decided not to get caught by the police again.
I would rather die than get caught. It is better to die than betray your colleagues or movement to
the police.
Mavai Senathirajah, arrested in 1973, confirmed the severity of the torture. He said;
Torture was very severe, unbearable. One night I was taken to an open ground and was beaten till I
fainted. The torture team thought I was dead and left me there and went away. I was picked up by
an army patrol.
174
Sivakumaran found a way to escape police torture. He decided that it was better to commit suicide.
He decided to carry with him a capsule of instant-killing poison cyanide. Sivakumaran thus
originated the cyanide suicide culture.
Sivakumaran played a leading role in the Tamil Research Conference Volunteer Corps. He helped
decorate Jaffna city and turn it into a cultural park in just three days. His contemporaries say he was
sullen after Tamil Research Conference killings. He was itching for revenge. He told his friends that
he would take revenge on two persons- Duraiappah and police officer Chandrasekera. His friends
recall him vowing;
These rascals who caused the death of nine innocent people should not go unpunished.
Police Killing
The Sirimavo Bandaranaike government, instigated by Kumarasuriyar, had interfered with the
holding of the Fourth Tamil Research Conference from the beginning. Kumarasuriyar wanted to turn
the prestigious international conference into a government show and earn for the government the
good name of looking after the Tamils. He wanted Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to open
the conference in keeping with the precedent set in Malaysia and Tamil Nadu.
The inaugural conference was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1966. Tunku Abdul Rehman, prime minister of
Malaysia, opened the conference. The second was held in Tamil Nadu, India, on 2 January 1968
which Indian president Zahir Hussain inaugurated. The third was held in Paris and was opened by the
Secretary General of UNESCO. Sri Lanka offered to host the fourth conference.
The Sri Lanka branch of The International Association for Tamil Research held a meeting in April
1973 in Colombo to elect the Conference Organizing Committee. The Sri Lanka branch president, Dr.
H. W. Thambiah, presided. He moved from the Chair that, in keeping with the precedent set earlier,
the prime minister should inaugurate the conference. He was supported by the members of the
Mutpokku Eluthalar sangam (Progressive Writers Society), the group controlled by the Communist
Party. The majority of the participants preferred to hold the conference in Jaffna, the cultural capital
of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Kumarasuriyar loyalists, aware of the anti-government mood then
prevailing in Jaffna, walked out accusing the organizers of trying to make the conference a Tamil
United Front affair. After that Kumarasuriyar induced the government machinery to put road blocks
in the way of the organizers, including refusal to grant visas to some Indian researchers. Permission
to use the Veerasingham Hall and for the use of loudspeakers were granted only three days before
the beginning of the conference.
175
The government’s opposition, especially Kumarasuriyar’s efforts to block it from being held in Jaffna,
was taken by the Jaffna youths as a challenge to them. They rose in unison to make the conference
a success. They decorated the whole of Jaffna in the traditional Tamil style. Banana trees were tied
to every electric lamp post and between them were strung mavilai thoranam (mango and tender
coconut leaves). Welcome banners were strung at every road junction. Jaffna town wore a festive
look.
Indian and foreign researchers were thrilled by the festive atmosphere. Professor Naina
Mohammed, a Tamil scholar from Trichi, Janarthanam and some others who called on Thanthai
Chelva at his Kankesanthurai home to pay their respects commented:
Sir, we did not witness such enthusiasm in Tamil Nadu. People of Jaffna, we feel, are more
enthusiastic.
Thanthai Chelva replied;
Jaffna people are more emotional about their language and culture. That is because, I feel, they feel
threatened.
The conference commenced on January 3 and concluded on January 9. It was a highly intellectual
exercise and entry to the various sessions held mainly at the Veerasingham Hall and Timmer Hall was
limited to researchers and academics. The concluding ceremony on January 10 was open to the
public. The organizers booked the Duraiappah Stadium for the function. Crowd gathered from the
afternoon, but the organizers found the gates of the stadium locked. Guards said the doors were
locked on the orders of the mayor, Alfred Duraiappah, and they would open the doors only if the
mayor instructed them to do so. All efforts to trace Duraiappah failed. He had gone into hiding.
In desperation the organizers decided to hold the meeting opposite the Veerasingham Hall. A stage
was hurriedly erected in front of the hall and the crowd asked to sit on the ground opposite, leaving
the Kankesanthurai road free. The milling crowd of over 10,000 overflowed onto the road. Jaffna
Traffic Inspector Senathirajah who came along that road from Jaffna town was stopped by the
volunteers who requested him to turn back and use the Clock Tower Road. They told him politely
that it would not be proper for a vehicle to pass that way when foreign guests were addressing the
audience. Inspector Senathirajah turned back and went to the police station through the alternate
route.
176
A while later Sergeant Walter Perera of Jaffna Traffic Police came on his mobile rounds from Jaffna
town and was told the same thing. He went back and reported the matter to his superior, Inspector
Nanayakkara, who complained to Assistant Superintendent of Police Chandrasekera. The time was
about 8.30pm.
Chandrasekera went to the Veerasingham with a truck-load of riot squad police who carried cane
wicker shields and batons. Professor Naina Mohammed of Trichi Jameel Mohammed College, an
erudite Tamil scholar, was then delivering his address. The people were spell-bound by his chaste
Tamil and flawless oratory. Pin drop silence prevailed. Every thing was orderly and disciplined.
Chandrasekera, through a loud hailer, asked the people to disperse. Then he ordered the heavy
booted policemen to get off the truck. They jumped onto the road and took up attacking positions
behind the truck. Chandrasekera ordered the truck to drive forward and the policemen to march
behind the truck. Volunteers begged the police not to disrupt the meeting. Police replied with a
fierce attack with their batons.
Police fired tear gas shells and most of them fell among the crowd. One fell near the stage. Prof
S.Vithiananthan, the president of the conference, fell unconscious. Speakers on the platform were
blinded by the tear gas. Policemen then fired into the air using live bullets. One struck an electric
wire, snapping it. The live wire fell on the fleeing crowd. Seven persons were electrocuted. They
died on the spot. Two of the several people injured died later. The Fourth Tamil Research
Conference ended in confusion, a tragedy which the Tamils never forgave.
They would also never forgive the manner in which the government acted after the tragedy. The
Prime Minister declined to condemn the police action. She justified the police action saying that the
crowd started the attack. Chandrasekera, the officer, and his men were promoted. When pressure
mounted, the government ordered a magisterial investigation. It was conducted by K. Palakiddnar,
the magistrate of Jaffna, but the government failed to implement Palakidnar’s recommendations.
Tamils lost their faith in the police and the judiciary. The Citizen Committee of Jaffna, a non-
governmental organization, arranged for an impartial inquiry. [lol!] The three-member committee
comprised retired Supreme Court Judges O. L. de Krester and V. Manickavasagar and former Bishop
Rev. Sabapathy Kulendran. In their report released in March 1974 the committee blamed the police
for the attack.
Youths writhed with anger. They vowed revenge. Sivakumaran in Jaffna and Pirapaharan in
Chennai violently advocated vengeance. They argued that the Tamil Research Conference disruption
proved again the need for an armed resistance. They identified three men as their targets-
177
Kumarasuriyar, Duraiappah and Chandasekera, in that order. Contemporaries say Sivakumaran had
told them that he would kill Chandrasekera first as he caused the death of nine innocent civilians.
The Thamil Youth Forum (TYF) organized protests against the police. It declared February 4,
Independence Day, as the Day of Prayer and Remembrance. It organized a fast at Muniappar
Temple, close to the scene of the killing and appealed to the people to hold memorial services in all
Hindu temples and Christian churches. It called on the students to boycott classes the previous day,
February 3, as independence day was a public holiday.
Students boycotted schools on February 3 despite the threats by the police. On independence day,
Jaffna was decked with black flags. Youths had hoisted one on the top of Jaffna Clock Tower. Police
were annoyed by it. They assaulted passersby and got it removed. They went to the Jaffna market,
attacked shop owners and tore the black flags they had hoisted. A nasty situation developed.
From then, shopkeepers and members of the general public in Jaffna were forced to obey conflicting
orders from the boys, as the militants were called, and the police. Boys would order the closing of
shops and armed police would go round ordering them to open them. A shopkeeper, Mylvaganam,
encapsulated the situation thus: We loved the boys and we obeyed their orders willingly. Then the
police comes and orders that we open the shops. We hated the police.” The stage has thus been
set for duel administration. Confrontation between the youths and the police was developing.
Sivakumaran made two assassination attempts after the Tamil Research conference tragedy. His first
attempt was to shoot [Superintendent] Chandrasekera. Sivakumaran and a few of his group
ambushed Chandrasekera near Kailasanathar Temple. They blocked his jeep. Sivakumaran opened
the door and fired at Chandrasekera. The revolver refused to fire. It was locally made.
Chandrasekera jumped out, but Sivakumaran and his friends had bolted. In his second attempt
Sivakumaran waylaid Duraiappah’s car at Ponnalai Bridge. It was also a failure.
Collective Pledge
The police went all out to arrest Sivakumaran. He found his movement restricted; his activities
curbed. He decided to escape to Tamil Nadu for some time. He needed cash. He asked two leading
Tamil politicians for assistance. They promised but failed to deliver. Sivakumaran was frustrated.
He told his colleagues: These people know only to talk. They do not act.
Sivakumaran decided to act. He planned to rob the Kopay branch of the People’s Bank. On 5 June
1974 Sivakumaran and his men went to the bank soon after it commenced business. Their plan was
178
to shoot the police on guard outside the bank, force their way in, herd the officials into a room and
rob the cash. Sivakumaran fired two shots at the police. He erred. His bullets went astray. The
police gave chase. Sivakumaran ran through the red-earthed farm, but the police almost caught
him. He plucked the cyanide capsule hanging from his neck and swallowed it. .
Police took the unconscious boy to Jaffna hospital. News spread instantaneously. This is how a GCE
Advanced Level student at Urmpirai Hindu College described the situation:
We were in our class when the news reached us. We were excited. An old boy of our college had
sacrificed his life for the sake of Mother Tamil. We sped in our bicycles to the Jaffna Hospital when
school closed. A huge crowd had already gathered there. Most of them were students. We were told
in the evening that he was dead. We cried.
Jaffna cried. The entire Jaffna peninsula cried. All Sri Lankan Tamils cried. It was a supreme
sacrifice. An emotional wave swelled among the Tamil community.
Many houses in the peninsula hoisted black flags, shops pulled their shutters and pamphlets were
issued eulogizing Sivakumaran’s heroism. The funeral was held on 7 June. An unprecedented crowd
queued up in his house to pay their homage. Seven youths sliced their fingers and placed iraththa
thilagam (pottu of blood) on the deceased's forehead and vowed to sacrifice their lives for Mother
Tamil. Hundreds of youths followed. Sivakumaran had created an environment of ‘uyir
thiyagam (life-sacrifice).
Students took control of the funeral. They wanted to take the body to Jaffna Hindu College where
Sivakumaran did his GCE Advanced Level to enable the student community to pay its last respects.
Police refused permission and students became boisterous and wanted to defy the police ban. Elders
intervened and avoided a clash between the police and the students.
Independent estimates place the crowd at around 15,000, the biggest at a funeral in Jaffna.
179
Amirthalingam, the leader of the Federal Party, delivered an emotional and

stirring oration. Said he:
Thamby Sivakumaran had made the supreme sacrifice for the sake of the Tamil people. His is a
heroic act. Though I differ with him in the violent method he advocated and practiced to achieve the
objective of getting for the Tamil people their birthright, I bow my head to him for his commitment
and dedication.
Youths were worked up. They lined up before Sivakumaran’s body when it was laid on the funeral
pyre and took the collective pledge;
In the name of Sivakumaran, in the name of his soul and body we undertake to continue the
struggle to gain independence for Tamils, and until we gain that we will not retreat or rest.
Tamils eulogize Sivakumaran as the most loved and respected freedom fighter and call him Eelam’s
Bhagat Singh. The LTTE, in its Diary of Combat (1984) describes Sivakumaran as;
An outstanding freedom fighter and a forerunner of armed resistance.
Tamils have accepted Sivakumaran as the first martyr in the armed struggle. His death anniversary
is observed by the Tamils as Manavar Eluchchi Nal - Students' Day of Uprising. It was organized by
the LTTE on the orders of Pirapaharan, who is keen in acknowledging the contribution of others to
the Tamil Freedom Struggle. At the start it was observed on Sivakumaran's death anniversary day,
June 5. Since 1996 Students' Day has been shifted to June 6 as June 5 is the World Environment
Day. It has been observed since 1993 in a restricted manner in the areas under LTTE control. In 2003
it was observed in the entire north-eastern province.
A bronze statute, a defiant youth with his clinched fist outstretched and dangling a broken chain,
was erected in Sivakumaran's honor in 1975 in his birthplace, Urumpirai. It was declared open by
180
one of the founder members of the Tamil Students Union, Muthukumaraswamy. The army
destroyed the statue in 1977, but another was erected again a year later. The army destroyed it
again in 1981. Saturday Review of 27 February 1982 has recorded an interesting conversation about
the statue.
More than 50 soldiers broke into the house of Sivakumaran’s parents on 28 January 1982 saying
they were looking for the militants hiding in the house.
They only found a broken piece of Sivakumaran’s statue.
“Whose statue is this?’ the commanding officer asked Sivakumaran’s mother, Annalechumy.
“It’s the piece of the statue of my son, Sivakumaran,” she replied.
“Who brought it here?”
“Common people.”
“Where is he now?”
“He died on 5 June 1974”
Eight years after his death it was no wonder the military officer was ignorant about Sivakumaran. It
is no wonder because even Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, members of her government and
the police were insensitive to the feelings of the Tamil people.
This is the copy of the secret report Jaffna police sent Bandaranaike and on which she based her
judgments. It was about Amirthalingam’s funeral oration. It said:
We have a record of his speech at Sivakumaran’s funeral. In that he called that criminal a hero.
Next instalment [in the TALL TALES of the TAMIL TIGERS!]:
Will be posted on: September 1
181
Earlier Chapters:
Introduction Part 1
Introduction Part 2
Tendered as evidence against the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and Asoka Brian Senewiratne
by Dr Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti
HUB Legal Department
Holistic University of Brisbane (HUB)
76 Fegen Drive
Moorooka
Australia 4105
Email: romeshsenewiratne@gmail.com
182
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Evidence Against Asoka Brian Senewiratne and The Tamil Tigers (LTTE)

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Evidence Against Brian Senewiratne of 292 Pine Mountain Road, Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia.

EVIDENCE AGAINST THE TAMIL

CALL TO TELSTRA 20 September

The TALL TALES of the TAMIL TIGERS:

So who were, or are, the Tigers?

Queen Mary Hospital [incorrect – Princess Alexandra Hospital]

History of the Organisation

Mission and statement of purpose

4. As responsible members of an academic institution and citizens of our community, we would

- Dr.Rajani Thiranagama, The Broken Palmyra

Dr. Rajani Thiranagama

RAJANI : Three Years After

The Importance of Keeping Rajani's Feminism Alive - 12 Ocober 1990

15 Years After Rajani:The Continuing Cost of Dissent :21st September 2004

No More Tears Sister - Film 2005

National Film Board Canada- No More Tears Sister

Release of a Film on Rajani: No more Tears Sister:21st May 2005

Film - Press Kit

PBS- Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal

A Tribute and Reflections by the UTHR(J) - 18th September 2009

Rajini: 20th Death Anniversary of a True Tamil Heroine

Rajani Thiranagama: Making of a new revolutionary -25th September 2009

The Legacy of A Courageous Woman- 03rd October 2009

| name = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama

| caption = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama

| birth_date = {{birth date|1954|2|23|mf=y}}

| birth_place = [[Jaffna]], Sri Lanka

| death_date = {{death date and age|1989|9|21|1954|2|23|mf=y}}

| death_place = Jaffna, Sri Lanka

| occupation = University Lecturer

| spouse = Dayapala Thiranagama

| children = Narmada Thiranagama, [[Sharika Thiranagama]]

===Early life and education===

===Marriage and children===

===Links with the LTTE===

the international campaigns of other liberation groups.<ref name="no_more_tears">{{cite

===As a human rights activist===

http://www.uthr.org/BP/A%20FOREWORD.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra

==Legacy and memorials==

*[[Sri Lankan Civil War]]

*[http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume2/AppendixIII.htm Dr. Rajani Thiranagama: Her contribution to

*[http://samudaya.org/articles/archives/2005/06/no_more_tears_s.php No More Tears Sister -

*[http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/rajini.html For Rajini 23rd February 1954 * 21st September

{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}

|NAME=Thiranagama, Rajini Rajasingham, Dr.

|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Rajini Rajasingham

|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Human rights activist

|DATE OF BIRTH=February 23, 1954

|DATE OF DEATH=September 21, 1989

[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka]]

[[Category:Sri Lankan Tamil academics]]

[[Category:Minority rights activists]]

[[Category:Assassinated Sri Lankan activists]]

[[Category:Sri Lankan human rights activists]]

[[Category:Sri Lankan Christians]]

[[Category:People murdered in Sri Lanka]]

[[Category:Alumni of the University of Colombo]]

Who was Rajini Rajasingham-Thiranagama? And why should we remember her

Brian Seneviratne had been reviled by Sinhala Nationalists as a ‘Tamil loving’

went back to her beloved university and almost single-handedly opened up

A New Standard for Human Rights Work

Whenever reports reached her of atrocities committed against women she

send it off together their learned comment, to interested present and

Just and Enduring Peace and Rajini

There is no difference in the ferocity of Sinhala on Sinhala and Tamil on Tamil

[http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/rajini.html For Rajini 23rd February 1954 21st September