{"id":148083,"date":"2015-07-29T10:39:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T05:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=148083"},"modified":"2015-08-05T01:03:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T19:33:45","slug":"remembering-neelans-voice-of-moderation-at-moments-of-political-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/remembering-neelans-voice-of-moderation-at-moments-of-political-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Neelan\u2019s Voice Of Moderation At Moments Of Political Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Michael Roberts<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/a>

Dr Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

Neelan Tiruchelvam<\/span><\/a> was a friend and fellow-researcher with whom I had interacted for many years. Late in 1986 towards the end of my long sabbatical research spell in Sri Lanka when my interests were focused on the data that eventually became the book People Inbetween<\/em> (1989, Sarvodaya Book Publishing), Neelan approached me and asked me to participate in a conference of South Asian scholars scheduled for the Maldives. He wanted me to present a reflective paper on what was widely referred to as \u201cthe riots of 1915\u201d or marakkala kolah\u0101laya<\/em>, an atrocious moment when Sinhalese people attacked the local Muslims residing in the south-western quadrant of the island.<\/p>\n

The Maldives!! Oo la-la!! As an avid snorkeler, for me this was a dreamtime invitation.<\/p>\n

However, it also meant work.<\/p>\n

Neelan\u2019s invitation was clearly guided by three considerations: (A) the theme of the proposed conference, namely, ethnic violence; (B) the fact that I had presented a paper on the \u201criots\u201d before the Ceylon Studies Seminar way back in 1972[1]<\/a> and (C) the pogrom of July 1983 directed at Tamils residing in the Sinhala-majority regions in many parts of the island.<\/p>\n

The latter event was also widely referred to as \u201criots\u201d \u2013 the result of widespread bondage on the part of people (including, initially, myself) within the terminology of the British administrative and legal lexicon. By the mid-1980s, however, I had broken these bonds, guided in part by the horrendous events of July 1983<\/span><\/a> and the innovative reference to these events as a \u201cpogrom\u201d by such scholars as Charles Abeysekera, Shelton Kodikara and Newton Gunasinghe.<\/p>\n

The conference organized by the ICES and Neelan did not take place in the Maldives. Kathmandu was the location where a galaxy of Asian scholars was assembled under ICES auspices in February 1987: no swimming and snorkeling, but plenty of civilizational sites and stunning landscapes as sideline recreational fare amidst the stirring intellectual fare provided via the interactions with several Pakistani and Indian scholars, among them Akmal Hussain, Ashis Nandy, Dipesh Chakrabarty and Veena Das.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was not just stirring. Neelan\u2019s request and the intellectual challenge it posed led me in a new academic direction: focusing on \u201ccommunal violence in southern Asia\u201d and the 1915 pogrom in particular. It was a quest that led me to begin writing a book on the 1915 pogrom, which in turn induced me to spend four months in Delhi in 1995 researching communal violence in the recent Indian past. This book-project then expanded into its wider context \u2013 working up another book on \u201cSinhalese nationalism in the British period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book on the 1915 pogrom was abandoned once I was able to distil the work into two articles in one of my anthologies (Confrontations in Sri Lanka<\/em>, published in 1994 by Harwood Academic Publishing). Three chapters of the work on Sinhalese nationalism were in my drawers by 1998 when my decision to concentrate on what was scheduled to be the baseline chapter, namely, a clarification of what sort of identity prevailed before the transformations effected by the British, snowballed. Yes snowballed and extended like the proverbial Jack\u2019s beanstalk to become Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Kingdom <\/em>(2004, Vijtha Yapa Publications).<\/p>\n

But, alas<\/span>,<\/a> well prior to that, a calamity. Neelan had been killed\u2014assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber<\/a><\/span> at the junction of Rosmead Place and Kynsey Terrace in Colombo on 29th<\/sup> July 1999 as he headed towards his office and the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (BBC 1999). He was assassinated by the LTTE<\/a><\/span> because he was working towards reconciliation of the island\u2019s political divide in conversations informed by a President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose leanings towards the island\u2019s Tamil citizens were conciliatory and a far cry from the standard Sinhala chauvinist firebrands that were (and are) part of the local scene. Assassinated because Velupillai Pirap\u0101haran (and many Tamil intellectuals in Colombo, Jaffna and abroad) had one goal only<\/a><\/span>: complete self-determination in a separate state. While that reading of the Tigers was seeping into the bones (and diary entries) of individuals such as Ben Bavinck in the Jaffna Peninsula (for e. g. Bavinck 2014: 72, 92, 100), it was, alas, not that clearly understood by many \u2013 this author included.<\/p>\n

Some thinkers, however, were alive to the danger faced by Tamil moderates such as Neelan in the political circumstances of Tamil chauvinism under the LTTE facing Sinhala extremism in the south. He had been encouraged to leave the island and take up an academic post in USA (readily available because of his standing and connections). It was a few days before his departure that he was struck down. The moment chosen by the LTTE was symbolic: it was more or less the anniversary of the 1983 July pogrom.<\/p>\n

Neelan\u2019s killing was a tactical killing that had a strategic impact supportive of Pirap\u0101haran\u2019s ultimate goal. It furthered and finalized the conversion of the TULF of yesteryear into the TNA of the 2000s, a pliant and articulate mouthpiece of the LTTE and its project of Thamil\u012blam<\/em>. The mass Pongu Thamil<\/em> gatherings<\/a><\/span> of the ceasefire period 2002-06 were eye-catching and dramatic evidence of this wholesale capitulation.<\/p>\n

Events have moved beyond that moment of the ethnic confrontation. But the chasm, in my speculative reading from abroad, remains as wide. The sad memories associated with the removal of a moderate voice of reconciliation<\/a><\/span> at this juncture underline concerns which he would have been party to. On one occasion on 2nd<\/sup> August 2012 Sinhala extremists even went so far as to deface the epitaph on the road<\/a><\/span> where Neelan was struck down by the Tigers (Groundviews 2012). That such a symbolic blow<\/a><\/span> against a voice of reconciliation should occur at such a promising stage in the island\u2019s history highlights the power of polarity in furthering the ethnic hostilities between (some) Tamil and Sinhalese peoples.<\/p>\n

The common phenomenon of extremisms feeding off each other is aggravated in situations when those at one end of the pole are not a singular bloc, but made up of parties or factions competing for dominance at that chauvinist extreme. Infighting among those of similar ideological disposition<\/a><\/span> hinders any person or parties within the broad band of chauvinism from reaching out towards the \u201cenemy\u201d in some reconciliatory manner (Roberts 2014). Factionalism undermines political compromise. In such contexts and in situations of ethnic polarization the paths of moderate politicians\/intellectuals are fraught with peril.<\/p>\n

So it was for Neelan Tiruchelvam. We Sri Lankans lost a Tamil Sri Lankan committed to pragmatic modus vivendi<\/em> in a difficult situation.<\/p>\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bavinck, Ben<\/strong> 2014 Of Tamils and Tigers, a journey through Sri Lanka\u2019s war years, Part II, <\/em>Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications for Rajani Thiranagama Memorial Committee.<\/p>\n

BBC <\/strong>1999 \u201cSri Lanka: Tamil politician assassinated,\u201d 29 July 1999, http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/south_asia\/406644.stm<\/a><\/p>\n

Das, Veena (ed.) <\/strong>1990 Communities, Riots and Survivors in South Asia<\/em>, Delhi: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

Groundviews 2012 \u201cObliteration of Road Painting Commemorating Neelan Tiruchelvam on Kynsey Road (with photos),\u201d 5 August 2012, http:\/\/groundviews.org\/2012\/08\/05\/obliteration-of-road-painting-commemorating-neelan-tiruchelvam-on-kynsey-road-with-photos\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeyaraj, DBS 2009 \u201cTiruchelvam, Tigers and the Tamil \u201cTraitor\u201d Tragedy,\u201d http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/973<\/strong><\/a> being a reprint of an article in Frontline<\/em> in 1999 [www.frontline.in\/navigation\/?type=static&page=flonnet&rdurl=fl1617\/16170990.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Kanapathipillai, Valli<\/strong> 1990 \u201cJuly 1983: The Survivor\u2019s Experience,\u201d in Veena Das (ed.) Communities, Riots and Survivors in South Asia<\/em>, Delhi: OUP, pp. 321-44.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1981 “Hobgoblins, Low-Country Sinhalese Plotters or Local Elite Chauvinists?: Directions and Patterns in the 1915 Communal Riots,\u201d Sri Lanka Journal of the Social Sciences<\/em>, 4: 83-126\u2026.. orig. as CSS paper, 1972.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1985a “Ethnicity in Riposte at a Cricket Match: The Past for the Present”, Comparative Studies in Society and History<\/em>, 27: 401-429.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1990 \u201cNoise as Cultural Struggle: Tom-Tom Beating, the British and Communal Disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s,” in Veena Das (ed.), Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots, Survivors in South Asia<\/em>, Delhi: O.U. P., pp. 240-85.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1993 “Emotion and the Person in Nationalist Studies” in Japanese in The Shinso<\/em>, Jan. 1993\u2026. special edition on Nationalism Today<\/em> (ed. by T. Aoki), pp. 127-50.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1994a \u201cThe Imperialism of Silence under the British Raj: Arresting the Drum,\u201d in M. Roberts, Exploring Confrontation. Sri Lanka: Politics, Culture and History<\/em>, Reading: Harwwood Academic Publishers, pp.149-82.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1994b \u201cMentalities: Ideologues, Assailants, Historians and the Pogrom against the Moors in 1915,\u201d in M. Roberts, Exploring Confrontation. Sri Lanka: Politics, Culture and History<\/em>, Reading: Harwwood Academic Publishers, pp.182-212.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1996 “Filial Devotion and the Tiger Cult of Suicide,” Contributions to Indian Sociology<\/em>, 30: 245-72.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2003c \u201cThe Agony and Ecstasy of a Pogrom: Southern Lanka, July 1983,\u201d N\u0113thra<\/em>, April-Sept 2003, 6: 199-213.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2004a \u201cNarrating Tamil Nationalism: Subjectivities & Issues,\u201d Review Article, South Asia<\/em>, April 2004, 27: 87-108.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2004d \u201cPrejudice and Hate in Plural Settings: The Kingdom of Kandy,\u201d in AJ Canagaratne (ed.) Neelan Tiruchelvam Commemoration Conference Papers<\/em>, Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, pp.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2005c \u201cSaivite Symbolism, Sacrifice and Tamil Tiger Rites,\u201d Social Analysis<\/em> 49: 67-93.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2006a \u201cPragmatic Action & Enchanted Worlds: A Black Tiger Rite Of Commemoration,\u201d Social Analysis<\/em> 50: 73-102.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2012 \u201cSymbolic Violence Most N\u012bca, Wholly Foul \u2013 the Defacement of the Neelan Tiruchelvam,\u201d 22 August 2012, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2012\/08\/22\/symbolic-violence-most-nica-wholly-foul-the-defacement-of-the-neelan-tiruchelvam-memorial-mural\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 \u201cWhere In-fighting generates Fervour & Power: ISIS Today, LTTE\u00a0Yesterday<\/a>, 21 July 2014, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/21\/where-in-fighting-generates-fervour-power-isis-today-ltte-yesterda\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2015 \u201cTargeting Lanka by Playing Ball with Tamil Extremism:\u00a02008-14,\u201d 24 July 2015, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=17127&action=edit&postpost=v2<\/a><\/p>\n

TamilNet 2005 \u201cRecord crowds throng Jaffna Pongu Thamil rally,\u201d 30 September 2005, https:\/\/www.tamilnet.com\/art.html?catid=13&artid=15986<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> See Roberts, \u201cHobgoblins,\u201d 1981, a review that has subsequently been modified in Roberts 1994a and 1994b.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> See Das (ed.) 1990 for some outcomes. This book includes two articles on Sri Lanka from Valli Kanapathypillai and myself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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