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The Idea of Eelam
14 March 1990, Sri Lanka Island
Sensing perhaps the bitterness and misery that were to tarnish
the Tamil militant movement, a friend once told me that he often
wished that he were dead while the dream of Eelam was still fresh in
him. He was a brave and honorable warrior whose simplicity and
sincerity were such that it never occurred to me to draw him into a
conversation on the concept of Eelam. Many moons later, just before
the LTTE decimated the TELO, I heard that the sea had taken him.
The concept of Eelam has been taken up by two kinds of people. The
one being those who have from the beginning or along the way of the
struggle for Eelam looked beyond it and who have consciously or
otherwise used it as a slogan or a tool in their Machiavellian
perception of means and ends. The other being those like my friend
and many others who saw it as an end in itself a non-negotiable
goal.
Whatever their difference in attitude towards the idea of Eelam it
has confounded the former and consumed the latter. The elder
statesmen among the Tamils may have thought that like its
counterpart the Dravida Nad of the Dravidian movement of Tamil Nad
it may not live beyond the limited purpose of a political threat
factor in a multi ethnic state.
The earliest reference to Eelam is in the earliest Tamil poems in
the sangam authorities. There is a poet by the name of
Eezhathup-puthuthevannar, Puthan- Thevanar of Eelam. It could have
most probably referred to Sri Lanka. The EPRLF could say that the
Eelam in their name denoted Sri Lanka when they applied for
recognition as a political party. There were Tamil texts to prove
their position.
A fundamental distinction between the concept of Thamileelam and
Eelam has subsequently been overlooked. What is generally understood
by Eelam for many of the uninitiated is that the area comprising the
north and east of the island claimed to be the traditional homeland
of the Tamil speaking people. But Eelam for the EROS and EPRLF have
another meaning and geography. It includes along with the north and
east a part of the hill country as well. This was a concept first by
E Ratnasabapathy, the founder of the EROS. In the Tamil militant
movement it is Tamileelam that denotes the Northeastern traditional
homeland.
Curious Map: Therefore, the EROS and EPRLF which was formed form its
student wing GUES had a rather curious map of the state which they
were struggling to establish. (The idealism was such at the time
that there was a minor difference between the EROS and the EPRLF as
to where that part of the hill country which included Badulla
connected with the east.) The two organizations were operating in
the hillcountry.
The Tamileelam groups were the LTTE, TELO, PLOT, TELA, NLFT and a
host of others, which had taken over the idea of Tamileelam denoting
the north east from the TULF. Even though the idea of a separate
state for the Tamils in the North and East had been there for a long
time, it was first put forward as the final solution to the woes of
the Tamils at the crucial Vaddukoddai conference of the TULF. The
general elections in 1977 were taken as a mandate by the Tamil
people in the north and east for a separate state by the Tamileelam
groups.
Be it Tamileelam or Eelam a category mistake which few bothered to
correct was at work behind the political articulation of these
concepts. It was characterized as a liberation struggle and it was
the liberation struggle of the Tamil nation. Therefore it became a
national liberation struggle and the idea was promoted without the
least concern for defining it in its specific context.
The struggle was compared to those of the Cubans, Vietnamese etc,
where nations with already defined, demarcated and internationally
accepted borders had struggled to capture the seat of power from
despots or colonial masters.
There were very few who pointed out the category mistake since their
ideal of national liberation had become overwhelming. Surprising as
it may seem now there was a general reluctance or apathy to define
the struggle as a separatist one akin to those of the Ibo’s in
Nigeria, the Basques in Spain, the Eritreans in Ethiopia etc.
Such a definition would have entailed the corollary about the
establishment of Tamileelam or Eelam which would have upset much of
the political and military romanticism that had developed in
association with the notion of national liberation. The corollary to
the concept of a separatist struggle would have defined the ultimate
goal as holding a certain border until such time that it is accepted
and ratified as such by treaty: a next to impossible situation in
the post world war II international system.
War of attrition: The National liberation concept led to the nation
of engaging of the enemy in a war of attrition; the application of
the ‘FOCO’ theory of Ernesto Che Guevara.
The LTTE was so fascinated by the Latin American revolutionary that
it failed to scrutinize the mass massacre of the Ibo who wanted to
carve out Biafra out of Nigeria.
The Indian connection after 1983 led to a fundamental change in
attitude towards the idea of Eelam. Two organizations revised their
views in the context of the geopolitical reality of Indian
interests. The TELO took up the position that it was India alone
which could create a Separate state. Sri Sabaratnam gave an
interview to this effect in the second of their official publication
Elutchi- which shocked many of the local national liberation
theoreticians. The PLOT on the other hand realized that a separate
state was not possible given India’s concerns in this point of the
region. This in conjunction with the strong left wing influence in
that organization -both internal and external- resulted in a process
of gradual dismantling of the Eelam concept within that
organization.
Even after the imposition of the Indian reality on Eelam the EPRLF
remained quite muddle headed about it despite their submission to
will of Delhi. The LTTE is the only organization that still refuses
to submit the dream of Tamileelam to the dictates of political and
geo-strategic realities. For the LTTE the moral obligation is more
important than political reality. It still feels that it should not
betray those who like my friend laid down their lives for the cause
while the dream was still fresh in them.
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