by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
It was only a few months ago that the world witnessed the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the hands of Sri Lanka’s armed forces.The LTTE popularly known as tigers posed a threat to the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.
The tigers or LTTE espoused the creation of a separate state-Tamil Eelam-comprising the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka and launched an armed struggle to achieve this goal. For several decades the LTTE maintained territorial control over parts of the North and east and ran a parallel administration.
The military debacle of the LTTE is being viewed as the military defeat of Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka.There is an increasing tendency to perceive the rise and fall of the LTTE as a “terrorist” phenomenon alone and turn a blind eye to the underlying political causes which led to the evolution and growth of separatism among the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
Against this backdrop it would be interesting and illuminating into the rise and fall of a related development in neighbouring India. The years immediately before and after Independence from the British saw a Tamil separatist movement emerging in India too.
Unlike in Sri Lanka Tamil separatism in India did not result in organized armed violence against the state. It was basically non-violent and was confined within the parameters of democratic dissent.
Indian Tamil secessionism also did not reach the levels to which its counterpart in Sri Lanka did. The Indian central and state government writ ran at all times in all parts of lands inhabited by Tamils. Also unlike in Sri Lanka very little force and repression was used in India to suppress Tamil secessionism.
More importantly, the roots of Tamil secessionism in India and Sri Lanka were different. In India , the seeds of separatism were sown when a majority hemmed in by a minority sought to empower itself. In Sri Lanka, separatism grew gradually as a minority found itself being restricted and oppreseed by a majority.
ANNIVERSARIES
This column will therefore delve briefly into the decline and fall of Tamil secessionism in India. It would also be appropriate at this juncture as the past week records three significant anniversaries in the Tamil politics of India.
[Periyar E. V. Ramasamy with C. N. Annadurai]
September 15th is the birth centenary of CN Annadurai or Anna the founder of Tamil Nadu’s leading political party the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) or Dravidian progressive Association. September 17th is the 60th anniversary of the DMK.
