Tamils - a Trans State Nation..

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
- Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C 

Sathyam Art Gallery

Tamil Eelam Freedom Struggle - Paintings
தமிழ் ஈழ விடுதலைப் போராட்டம் - ஓவியங்கள்

"War brings with it a particular social reality. Death, destruction and fear may prevail but so too does great courage and determined resistance. In war situations it is doubtful that anyone escapes without some effect on their perceptions of life. For some,  the particular social reality generated in wartime conditions should be captured as a documentary record of the particularity of those times. These records form part of the cultural heritage of humanity, for they seek to tell the world of a particular human condition

Thus, literature, poetry, music, drama, drawings and paintings become the artistic mode for many people to record the various emotional and social aspects of wartime conditions. The medium of art can reflect the horror and agonies of brutal military oppression; works of art can depict courage, strength and the determination of resistance against oppression; works of art can express and inspire many emotions. Throughout Tamil Eelam, poetry has become the dominant mode of literary expression to convey the sentiments of the times. But many young people have used drawings and paintings to express their perception of social reality under conditions of oppression and resistance..." (from the Voice of the Tigers,  the Official Bulletin of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, February 1990)

[see also Indictment Against Sri Lanka: Rape & Murder of Eelam Tamil Women ] 

Is anyone listening?
I have long dried my tears,
And the ashes I heaped upon my head
   I have forgotten -
But this non-ending day and this night that will not dawn,
Sees my baby boy -
Oh, was it only yesterday that he was nursing at my breast?
To-day forced to be a man at thirteen
Dragged, dragged, dragged by men in green
Across the night - to where? To where?
Why will not the dark hide the darkness of my home -
Dark, dark, dark, -
Bereft of my lord, my husband,
Gunned down even as he ran home to feed our nestlings!

Is anyone listening?
I went to see my baby girl today.
The prison walls were not bleak.
No they were not bleak.
But I looked into the eyes of my baby girl.
Were those the eyes of my baby girl,
     Standing in the cell with her mates naked,
Her gentle breasts just beginning to swell -
O Army guard, does my daughter's body please you?
Does she relieve your long night ?
Does she please you
With the shame, the degradation, the stone of pain
That you have thrust into her gentle form?

Is anyone listening?
My womb lies degraded.
My thighs untouched by any but one
Ravaged by a man -or was it men?
    -In mossy jungle green -
Even as my infant girls, themselves women shamed
-Watched an animal litter his roused hate
    Upon a mother accustomed only to love?
Is there a dawn for us?
Is there an end to this ravishment of flesh?
Show me, O woman of the world
Show me a way out of these closing walls
    Of my people's shame!
Is anyone, out there, listening ? 
(from the Collection, Remembering Eelam, TEWO)