Sly Civility and the ‘Wounded’ Tamil Tigers: understanding the political engagement of the Tamil diaspora
Research Essay
Introduction
The Sri Lankan Civil War brought destruction to the Tamil community. As the Tamil community sought to heal from the gaping wounds of the war and the impact it had on their families, protests arose across the Tamil diaspora. These protests campaigned for the justice of the Tamils. This essay seeks to understand the political engagement of the British and Canadian Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. The works of Lee (2014) and Tadem (2012) will provide a textual understanding of how political movements spread beyond the local spheres to global networks. The ideas of Spivak and Bhabha will provide an understanding of how despite epistemic violence being committed, there is a site of potential resistance which subverts the colonisers’ split image and rejects their subalternity.
The protests in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the protests were mostly held in the heart of London. The protests were organised by the British Tamil Forum which is one of the biggest independent Tamil diaspora organisations which pushed the British government under David Cameron to intervene and stop arming the Sri Lankan army.
There was a protest in Downing Street on the 18th of January 2009. These protests were originally planned to be a mass vigil. These protests were different as these protests not only highlighted the violence that was ongoing in Sri Lanka but these protests also platformed the Palestinian cause by calling for an end to the blockade in Gaza (Cousins,2009). There were also protests at Parliament Square, Westminster which gathered around 500 protestors. The protestors blocked the roads to the House of Commons while having signs with more provocative statements than the previous protests. Some of the signs wrote: Sri Lanka is a terrorist state and Sri Lanka’s score 20,000 dead and 300,000 displaced. That sign, in particular, was to protest against the arrival of Sri Lanka in the UK to play a friendly game of cricket.
There were two men: a 21-year-old man named Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and a 28-year-old man named Parameswaran Subramaniyan did a hunger strike on the 7th of April 2009 as a call for Britain to secure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and called to stop the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka (Weaver and Sparrow, 2009). Parameswaran’s reasons for such a drastic measure were articulated simply I will die here, no one can stop me, people are dying from the bombing and shelling (Guardian,2009). Parameswaran also had five family members who were killed in the shelling The Daily Mail accused him of eating at Mcdonalds which he denied and said that this conspiracy was created to defeat the Tamil struggle (Natarajan,2009).
Another notable protest was the mass protests that were in central London. Around 200,000 Tamils of all ages gathered at 1 pm on Saturday, 11th April 2009. The protestors meandered through some of the biggest attractions starting with the bank of the River Thames and proceeding to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Park Lane and Marble Square and the protestors eventually reached Hyde Park at 4:30 pm for a rally (Lakshan,2009). As the protests peacefully made their way through, the protestors carried signs such as ‘End the Ceasefire’ and ‘Stop Killing Tamils’. Several MPs declared their unrelenting support for the protests. Jeremy Corbyn called out how people will take vacations in Sri Lanka while just to the north of Colombo, Tamils are being shelled by the masses. Another Member of Parliament, Andrew Pelling said that what the Sri Lankan government was doing to their people was inhumane and that a ceasefire must be demanded now as well as economic sanctions to be imposed on the Sri Lankan government to stop the sale of arms.
In the city of Liverpool, there was a protest outside the local town hall. There were roughly 2000 attendees and these protests unlike the ones in Westminster and Downing Street were met with police support and the support of the Mayor of Liverpool. However, conflict arose when there were counter-protests where protesters carried signs like ‘F**k the Tamils’ and Sri Lanken Out’.
My relatives can actively recall the protests in the UK. Since many of my relatives are from Manchester, there were no protests. They also mentioned that the protests were something that they chose not to participate in as it would dismiss the struggle. While they are diasporas of trauma and exile, the war did not lead to any casualties in the family hence they felt it was unwarranted for them to participate. Despite their lack of physical participation in the protests, their support for the cause remained unwavering. My Uncle Kumar and Aunty Baba mentioned how the protests gave them some hope of a Jaffna that they can call home.
The Protests in Canada
Canada has one of the biggest Tamil diaspora populations with a population of 200,000 to 300,000 people (Thiranagama, 2014). They are primarily concentrated in major cities like Toronto and Ottowa. The protests in Canada were an attempt to appeal to the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, the President of the United States, Barack Obama and the Canadian Consulate General of Sri Lanka, Bandula Jayasekara to take action in ending the conflict.
The protests in Toronto were organised by students and community centres. These protests were held in the heart of Toronto with some of the biggest turnouts commencing from January 2009 to mid-May 2009 (Goodwin,2015). The early versions of the protests took the form of university sit-ins. On the 30th of January 2009, 45,000 students from the great Toronto Area held a human chain link from Front Street to University Avenue (Taylors,2009).
One of the most famous protests in Toronto was the Gardiner protest in which more than 2,000 Tamils gathered on the Spadina Avenue Gardiner Expressway (Simmons,2019). The protestors yelled with passion, conviction and clarity when they demanded a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and for the Canadian government to hold the Sri Lankan government accountable. The protestors refused to clear the highway until they met with a representative who sought to respond to the genocide in Sri Lanka.
The first protest in Parliament Hill was held on the 4th of February 2009. Politicians were also in attendance like Bev Oda and Jack Layton. These politicians promised to provide aid to the Tamils in Sri Lanka via World Vision and Medicins Sans Frontiers. There was a notable protest that commenced on the 6th of April to the 21st of April which the Canadian Tamil Congress and Tamil Student Associations organised. These protests began in Parliament Square where streets were closed to make way for the demonstrators.
The Significance of these Protests.
The discrimination against the Tamil community stems from colonial legacies. Since their independence in 1948, discriminatory policies have been enacted and eventually, violence ensued with the Black July of 1983 which was a program that encouraged violence to be acted upon the Tamil community. The Tamil Eelam diaspora were victims and as a result, they were treated like such. Since the war escalated, narratives by the government were promoted by Western media and the genocide was initially ignored by multiple parties. This is what Spivak describes as epistemic violence in which she refers to the asymmetrical obliteration of the trace of the ‘Other’ in its precarious Subjectivity (Spivak,1988,pg76).
However, the Sri Lankan Tamils never accepted this ‘subaltern’ label. When the war started, organisations like the Tamil Eelam Society in Canada were advocating and providing Tamils with the voice they needed. Since then, protests were organized not solely in Canada and the United Kingdom but across countries like France, the United States and Australia. These independent protests are a representation of sly civility which Bhabha defines as the acts of disobedience which masquerades itself as a form of civility (1995,pg192). This refutes the permanence of subalternity due to the rejection of their subaltern status.
The majority of the participants in the protests were first-generation and second-generation immigrants who settled in the United Kingdom and Canada respectively since the 1980s. Goodwin (2017) highlights that Tamil diaspora participation did not begin until the crisis escalated. In the UK there was more pressure for the government to take action considering that they take partial responsibility. These protests had two purposes: one was to pressure governments to take action and call for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and the other was for the Tamil nationalist cause. The protest in Downing Street, in particular, is interesting because not only did they promote their cause but platformed the blockade in Gaza. The political opportunity for activists lies in how they frame their issues for public consumption and the targets and goals address both the intersection of structure and meanings, both within and outside the movement (Tadem,2012). By addressing both the issue of their homeland and what’s happening in Palestine, the Sri Lankan Tamils in the UK have created a solidarity network with diasporas of exile like themselves.
Not only were independent protests established through a sense of community but online media platforms and forums were established. In the UK, the British Tamils Forum was established in 2006 and it initially served as an advocacy group but stemmed to become an independent voice for the Tamil community. The Tamil Guardian is also a news channel based in London that platforms influential Tamils and provides news on the happenings of Tamils, not only across the world but in Jaffna as well. In the case of Canada, Goodwin (2012) highlights the importance that Canadian Tamil media forums played in organising the protests. Tamil news sites and Tamil radio were used by the Canadian Tamil Congress to alert its members about protests. On the other hand, young Tamils used social media platforms like Facebook and Myspace to promote the protests.
Both protests used the Tiger Flag which is significant in the Tamil nationalist movement. Bhabha (1995) mentions that acts of sly civility like the adoption of symbols of nationalism inherently subvert the objectives of colonial narratives. The Sri Lankan protests also used victimhood and resistance to further propel their objectives in not only spreading awareness but also as lobbying tactics and persuasion. Feargal (2008) argues that there are similarities between the protests of the Sri Lankan diaspora and the protests in Ireland and Irish America during the 90s as both of these protests transformed diasporas of exile and trauma from lobbyists to partners and their participation is connected to the processes around them.
These protests also brought about an increase in diaspora participation in foreign policy. In the case of Canada and the United Kingdom, this brought about a partial positive change as the involvement of independent protests brought about change albeit not dramatic enough to end the ceasefire (Goodwin, 2017). While the Tamil migrants are adapted to the socio-political environment of their host country, they choose to use these spaces and their knowledge of the host country’s socio-politics as a platform to further advance the movement for Tamil liberation. Tandem (2012) argues that protests of these scales use the boomerang pattern and spiral model which shifts from local to global in response to the local level.
These movements of long-distance nationalist protests also build a multilayered sense of community between the community and the host country (Feargal,2008). These protests have allowed the exchange of ideas, using democratization and mobilizing social movements. These protests have also created a voice that required the Sri Lankan government as well as the Canadian and British governments to acknowledge the violence of Tamils.
Conclusion
This essay has attempted to understand the political engagement of Sri Lankan Tamils across international spheres through independent protests. The connections to home through the sense of community by engaging in their trauma and shared sense of nationalism for a separate Tamil Eelam is the way for diasporas to enact their citizenship as Sri Lankan Tamils legitimately contribute and are invested in the politics of their homeland despite the shortcomings.
This essay was for a Year 3 module: Sites of Asian Interaction which was convened by Dr Sumit K Mandal
