By Neha Choudhary
History
Ceylon (former name of present-day Sri Lanka) became independent in 1948; the Indian Tamils formed moderately over half of Sri Lanka’s Tamil population. They were considered ‘non-Sri Lankans’ and were not given rights as compared to civilians of Sri Lanka.
Discrimination, chauvinism, divisions, and narrow-mindedness have always been part of Sri Lankan politics and Hindu Tamils living there have always been exploited by them.
There have always been ethnic tensions between the “Buddhist” Sinhalese and the “Hindu” Tamil (Upcountry Tamils) in Sri Lanka. From the early 1980s, the major issues for the conflict between India and Sri Lanka have had been the Sri Lankan Tamil movement for creating a separate Tamil Eelam (homeland) in the northeast quarter of Sri Lanka.
For the longest time, Upcountry Tamils got recognition amidst an assumed binary of Sinhalese-Tamil ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
Mullivaikaal is not just a place in Sri Lanka but has been through one of the bloodshed moments in the history of the Tamil people. The massacre took place during the Sri Lankan civil war and it was at this place when Tamil identity was targeted like never before. The beaches were soaked with the blood of thousands of Tamil people in 2009.
This genocide occurred because the Sri Lankan Army lashed out against the LTTE ignoring the civilian population of the area. The governmental forces used inordinate force and attacked “no-fire zones” even after promising safety and security to the innocent inhabitants of Mullivaikal.
Massacre physically destroyed committed and devoted supporters of the ideals of Tamil nationalism. Sri Lankan state backed by the Sinhala electorate displayed their true intentions toward the Tamil people (Eelam). Their main aim was to destroy the idea of Tamil liberation and disqualifying those who formed the society.
They didn’t like the idea of women being equal to men, women working as freedom fighters, and where they were not afraid of sexual violence anymore. They wanted to eliminate the unprejudiced ideals that Tamil people fought for.
Sri Lankan army and Sinhalese civilians always used rape as a weapon of war against women Tamil fighters and general civilians whereas Tamil Eelam and the state formed by them remained the only place where women were not discriminated against and could walk freely without any fear for sexual violence.
The evil practice of the caste system which was under LTTE’s control was also abolished by them. It was important to understand that the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle was to break down the social barriers on one hand and fighting Sinhala state oppression on the other hand.[1]
In Sri Lanka, Sinhala political group made efforts to raise awareness about ethnic relations by providing state concessions to the Sinhala ethnic nation. The concessions in respect to policies concerned, whether it is “Sinhala only” language policy in 1956, or whether its pro-Sinhala ethnic standardization education policies or religious policy establishing state backing for Buddhism in 1972.
The land policy began the state establishment of the Tamil land which contributed to the growth of Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka. It is important to note here that the Tamils were victims of the Sinhala violence and Tamil moderates were neglected due to Sinhalese chauvinism.
The Sinhalese have always responded violently to the Tamil’s peaceful protests and their aggressive responses to Tamil’s moderate demands encouraged Tamil nationalism for attaining peace and justice.
These were the reasons for the socio-political conditions behind the birth of Tamil violent movements, particularly the LTTE in the 1979s.
India adopted a two-track policy toward Sri Lanka, first during the tenure period of Indira Gandhi and then at the time of Rajiv Gandhi’s premiership. On one hand, it provided training, support, and funding to Tamil militant groups so that they can create pressure on the government, and on the other hand, India tried the rounds of negotiations between the government for compromise, reconciliation, and the recognition of minority ethnic rights.[2]
Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination and the Reason Behind It
In May 1991, the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber Dhanu, allegedly belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudu where he was scheduled to address an election campaign for congress.
The suicide bomber, former Prime Minister along sixteen people was killed in the blast and more than 45 persons were critically injured. LTTE had allegedly arranged the assassination as they were against Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to send the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to intervene in the country during the civil war between 1987 and 1990.
The main aim behind sending the IPKF was to disarm the Tamil rebel groups without being involved in the combat.
When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he signed an Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord with the Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene to resolve the three-decade-long civil war (1983-2009) between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
According to the terms of the peace accord, the Sri Lankan government agreed to decentralization of powers to the provinces, withdrawal of the Sri Lankan army to their stations, and the Tamil rebels surrendered their arms.
However, the Tamil rebels (mainly LTTE) refused to disarm and declared to continue their armed struggle for an independent Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) which followed by attacking IPKF. Rajiv Gandhi lost the election in 1989, and the new PM V P Singh ordered the removal of IPKF as he wanted to do things exactly opposite to what Rajiv Gandhi did.
Prime Minister V P Singh lost the majority after BJP withdrew their support. After losing, he resigned from the position of Prime Minister, and then Chandra Shekhar formed the government with the help of the opposition party of Rajiv Gandhi’s congress.
LTTE was aware of the fact that Rajiv Gandhi would soon come in the power and send IPKF to Sri Lanka to disarm LTTE.
They wanted to prevent Rajiv Gandhi from being in power again and that was when they decided to assassinate him. Dhanu was a member of LTTE and the suicide bomber that killed Rajiv Gandhi and 14 others.[3]
Gandhi’s assassination began with the conflict in Sri Lanka after independence from the British in 1948 and civil war in the 1980s, which ended only in 2009 with the Sri Lankan military wiping out the LTTE. His death changed the politics of Sri Lanka as well as Tamil Nadu when unequivocal Tamil concurrence shifted away from the LTTE from across the Palk Straits.
General Secretary of Tamil National Liberation Movement said “The assassination was a setback for not only pro-Eelam forces but also for Tamil nationalists. Doing away with him was an act of revenge because people were aggrieved with the IPKF. It was a political blunder by whoever did it.”
LTTE which was also known as the Tamil Tigers was founded by Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1976 and led a revolt for independent nations for Tamils.
The LTTE stood against the discrimination that Sri Lankan Tamils were facing by the Sinhalese-ruled government. They stood for political disenfranchisement and anti-Tamil riots in the island nation where Sinhalese-
Buddhists are a majority but to achieve their objective they chose political violence and terror which caused the former prime minister to lose his life.[4] The LTTE was banned as a terrorist organization in 1993 by India and later by other states, including Sri Lanka, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
However, LTTE in their defense claimed that they have no link with the prime minister’s assassination and unverified allegations have been imposed on them. LTTE has claimed itself to be an organization that works ‘for the people by the people and of the people of Tamil Eelam’.
It has also been claimed by LTTE that they have neither intended to annihilate the leadership of India nor developed any action against any national leader of India.
According to them “the pre-planned murder of Rajiv Gandhi is the result of a conspiracy motivated by the purpose of dismantling the strong relationship between the Indian government and the LTTE.“
They even asked for immediate abeyance of this allegation of defamation on the LTTE in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
Current Scenario
Rajiv Gandhi assassination is still in the public sphere, whether it is the movie ‘Madras Café’ which was released in 2013 showcasing the true events that happened during the assassination as well as the conspiracy behind it or whether it is related to the whole debate over the convicts who are serving life imprisonment in Tamil Nadu’ jail.
The brutal assassination is still in the news because of the release of the convicts as has also been pointed out by Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, MK Stalin. The Cheif Minister wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind directing and demanding their immediate release as they have been imprisoned for about three decades.
The seven convicts are Nalini Sriharan, Murugan, Santhan, AG Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, and P Ravichandran who are inside Tamil Nadu prisons. In 2018, the Tamil Nadu cabinet passed a declaration for the release of all seven convicts, and it was sent to Governor Banwarilal Purohit for his approval.
However, in February, Purohit refrained from taking any decision and said that the President was the competent authority to make a decision.
Purohit forwarded the state’s recommendation to the President, “These seven persons have already suffered untold hardship and agony in the past three decades and have paid a heavy price.”
There has been news that Rajiv Gandhi’s family has forgiven the killers, and in March 2008, Priyanka Gandhi went to meet one of the convicts, Nalini Sriharan, in the Vellore jail.
References:
- Mullivaikkal: The Enduring Will to Freedom of the Tamil People available at: tamildiplomat.com/ ↑
- Sri Lanka, Relations with. Available at: encyclopedia.com/ ↑
- Why Was Rajiv Gandhi Assassinated? Available at: thesecondangle.com// ↑
- How Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination changed the politics of Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu available at: msn.com/en-in/ ↑