By Paul Newman –

Since the end of the May 18 2009 Tamil Genocide, the community has tried various means and methods to seek justice alive and take it up at different levels, the highest being the UNHRC. As the sufferings from 1983 to 2009 still keeps haunting the victims, the JVP regime which took over the country in 2024 has not really been able to render justice to the Tamil community and bring them towards a path of reconciliation, peace and rebuilding the community. Many Tamil diaspora groups have genuinely tried to help the victimized Tamils to at least stabilize economically.

These efforts have not really borne fruits as there are many hurdles and restrictions the government poses in the form of policies which are very favorable to the people of the South when compared to the North and East which continues to reel under military presence and high security zones.

The Federation of Global Tamils, a new organization of the Eelam Tamils, operating from Toronto, Canada hosted the Global Tamil Research Conference, 2026 at Centennial College, Toronto, Canada. One of the important objectives of the conference was to find ways and means of helping the Tamil victims towards realizing self-reliance through generating employment opportunities.

This conference brought Tamil intellectual from across the world under one Forum. A majority of the invitees were from the Tamil intellectual community including many Professors from the Jaffna University, Vavuniya University and Eastern University Batticaloa.

Apart from tracks that discussed on the preservation and future of Tamil across the globe, the main focus was on finding alternative means to help the war victims. The three days conference, had received 600 papers, the research committee selected only 96 of them selected for presentation.

The steering committee was chaired by Mr. Nimal Vinayagamoorthy and the Vice Chair was Mr. K.S. Kugathasan, the MP from Trincomalee. The broader theme of the conference was on “Tamil and AI” focusing on how Tamil and Tamils could leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as preserve the most ancient spoken language of the world.  The first session of the conference was on small and medium enterprises.

A session was totally dedicated to the promotion of the untapped tourism potential of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. Some interesting themes included Environmental Sustainability and Tourism, Development in Eastern Sri Lanka: A Comparitive study of Tourist willingness to pay at Nilaveli and Pasikuda beaches. Development of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water Resources, and Tourism in the North-East (tourism development Trincomalee, Sri lanka). Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Lagoon-Based Tourism: A Case Study of the Batticaloa Lagoon, Sri Lanka.

In another track the issue of Economic Thought & Tamil Diaspora’s Role was discussed and interesting papers on Changing Role of Women as Income Earners in Post-War Sri Lanka: Case of Oori In Jaffna, another paper was titled “From Remittance to Empowerment: Designing an AI-Assisted Trust Platform Connecting the Global Tamil Diaspora to Verified Development Projects in Sri Lanka’s North-East”

There was also a very interesting session on the Diaspora life and identity. Panel discussions included interesting ones on Eelam Tamil Diaspora women entrepreneurs, Tamil Students and their identity, Young Tamil Achievers from diverse fields.

As Tamil is the world’s oldest living language and the Eelam Tamils have greatly contributed to the development of this rich tradition a session on Heritage & Culture discussed the Cultural Shifts and Digital Nationalism along with Identity Preservation among the Tamil Diaspora in a Technology-Driven Era

The North and East are yet to fully tap the potentials of the available knowledge system a session dedicated to Education and Employment received papers on From Dependency to Self-reliance: A Tamil Nadu-Inspired startup for North-East Sri-Lanka with Global Tamil Diaspora Support

Any society has the tragic divide where some people are left behind and they need to be given a voice, hence the conference had a theme on Marginalized Communities in Sri Lanka dedicated to the voiceless communities.

Sustainability of any community comes with farming so it was apt to have a session on Agriculture where scholars reflected on. The identity of Jaffna, the palymrya tree and its value was discussed in detail especially how it could help the  value chain development and Regional Economic Growth. Sustainable Dairy Farming in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka was also taken up as it could help the rural economy.

There was also an important session on Social and Cultural conditions of Eelam Tamils which discussed pertinent issues on Traditional Food Practices of the Tamils ​​of Eastern Sri Lanka and Their Medicinal Properties. Preserving and Globalizing the Medical Heritage of Tamil Civilization: Palm-Leaf Manuscripts, Herbal Resources of Northeastern Sri Lanka, Disease-Prevention Traditions, and the Role of Artificial Intelligence shed light on the historical preservation of traditional knowledge. There was also an interesting discussion on Tamil feminism and its changing nature.

The last session was on the General Development in the Tamil heartland drawing interest in the below topics. Contemporary challenges faced by the education sector in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka

Overall, the three days conference brought scholars from more than 15 countries who discussed on the Development of Tamil Language with a focus on Tamil Eelam, its people, post war reconstruction and development. The cultural programmes organised in the evenings portrayed the continuity of Tamil culture by its Diaspora across Europe and the Americas. It was a refreshing change to listen to speakers so passionately involved in academic work which could transform the Tamil heartland into a developed region of Sri Lanka leading to peace and prosperity for a community which suffered the brutalities of a bloody civil war for nearly three decades.