LTTE and Tamil People IV : Dedicated Tamils
In the previous essays within this cluster I have dwelt on the dedication to cause displayed by the Tamil Tigers and identified various inspirations or conditioning factors: namely, the Cankam poetry, the…
Author: Michael Roberts
LTTE and People III : Nationalism and Living Religion
The emergence of the LTTE was an outgrowth from Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Tamil nationalism in its turn was an outgrowth from SL Tamil communitarianism in the centuries prior to 1949/50, the…
LTTE and Tamil People II : Interflows
During the halcyon years of the LTTE, besides MÄvÄ«rar NÄl on 27 November, the Tigers conducted nine other mÄvÄ«rar or tiyaki ceremonies every year. These were, on the one hand, subjectively meaningful…
LTTE and Tamil People I : Preamble
This set of essays on “LTTE and Tamil People” submitted to (Black Tigers) after – and this point has to be stressed — these forces had been generated by specific politico-military situations…
The needs of the hour
has raised a critical issue: “what is the most important issue facing the peoples of Sri Lanka in a ‘post-LTTE’ context and how can the State address it?” – an issue that…
DILEMMAS AT WARS END: CLARIFICATIONS & COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
My essay DILEMMAS (note the plural) was also sent to a circle of friends and has appeared in other outlets, viz., http://sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com and the , 11 February 2009. I thank all those…
DILEMMA’S AT WAR’S END: THOUGHTS ON HARD REALITIES
With an uncertain number of Tamil ‘civilians’ trapped within the beleaguered and shrinking LTTE territory, Sri Lankan Tamils in the island as well as across the globe are understandably concerned about the…
The Spectre of Terrorism and Cricketing Fears
Michael Roberts Dept of Anthropology, University of Adelaide Guided by existing evidence from the past two decades, in composing an article on 26 November 2008 I contended that “there [was] no evidence of…
July 1983: Looking back in anger and despair 25 years on
Photo by Chandragupta Amarasinghe ONE What happened in mid-1983 and in the last week of July 1983 was obscene, a monumental atrocity, a disaster for Sri Lanka. In a context marked by…
How does one BECOME Sinhalese or Tamil in Sentiment?
My interpretation of the present impasse in the politics of Sri Lanka, determined as it is by the competitive jostling-cum-conflicts between the three main ethnic groups (where “Muslim” is ‘ethnic’ by virtue…
ISSUES FOR TAMIL NATIONALISM: REVISITING PUBLIUS
Early in February we were treated to a cogent, indeed, masterful, essay by Publius [Editors note – read ETHNOS OR DEMOS? – QUESTIONING TAMIL NATIONALISM]. Locating the debate within the general difficulty…
THE GALLE LITERARY FESTIVAL: FROM THE LEFT FLANK
9 February 2008 2008 saw the second festival at Galle, “Let’s Play with Words.” Those present the previous year remarked that it was more varied and incorporated more Sri Lankan authors, both…
SPLIT ASUNDER: FOUR NATIONS IN SRI LANKA
[Editors note: Scholars and serious readers are encouraged to download the Adobe PDF version of this article that includes all annotations and references in the original.] Sri Lanka today is a fractured…