Sivaram Dharmeratnam: From gun to pen: The story of Sivaram

Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki)

From gun to pen: The story of Sivaram
Sunday Leader - D. B. S. Jeyaraj
8 May 2005

".... I offered him the highest payment made for a free-lance contribution at that time by my paper. He had left it to me to find a nom de plume and since both of us wanted his identity to be kept confidential, I on my own decided on the feminine name of 'Tharakki'. But the best laid plans of editors are blown sky high by sub-editors who want to make their own contributions. When I saw the article in print, the name was Tarraki, the name of the former deposed Afghan dictator! Siva was amused and so we let it be and later it took various forms until the present name of 'Taraki' came to be..."

The mortal remains of Dharmeratnam Puvirajakeerthi Sivaram were laid to rest at the family burial grounds of Aalaiadycholai in Batticaloa on May 2. Though a Hindu by birth Sivaram was not cremated.

Most Batticaloa Tamils unlike their Jaffna counterparts bury and not cremate their dead. The ancient Tamils of India and Sri Lanka did so till Brahamic rituals of Aryanisation replaced Dravidian customs. It is noteworthy that Batticaloa Tamils follow this practice still. It denotes that they are children of that soil with vintage history and roots.

Sivaram loved his home and native land. To him the greatest pleasure in life was to stand atop the Puliyantheevy bridge over the Batticaloa lagoon and enjoy the gentle "thendral" (Southern breeze). It was fitting indeed that his family resisted pressures by the Tigers to bury him elsewhere. It was Sivaram's wish that he should be buried at Aalaiyadicholai. It was only last year that he wrote so publicly.

A large crowd of relatives, friends and admirers bade farewell to this brave warrior of the eastern soil. "Taraki" he may be to the English oriented rest of the world. Here in his native soil he was "Kungi" to his relatives and "Essaar" (SR) to his friends. His militancy and journalism may have caused much controversy elsewhere but he was simply a 'homeboy' in Batticaloa. In his life of 46 years, he had accomplished much in the wider world. But for eternal rest he had to come home.

The incredible saga of this ardent eastern Tamil nationalist who never gave up his visionary zeal for Thamil Eelam is a tale that needs to be told. The story of many self-made captains of commerce is a tale of rags to riches. In Sivaram's case, his political evolution was a 'from gun to pen' story.

He was the scion of a family tracing back its roots to more than three centuries. His grandfather was the legendary S. Dharmaratnam known as "Dharmaratnam Vannianaar." He represented the Batticaloa South constituency in the colonial state council from September 17, 1938 to November 20, 1943. The Batticaloa South constituency consisted of all areas in the present Amparai District and the territory south of Batticaloa town. Areas north of Batticaloa town and the present Trincomalee District comprised another electorate.

Dharmaratnam and his brother Rajaratnam, a lawyer by profession owned extensive tracts of land - from Verugal to Pottuvil in the old Batticaloa District. Dharmaratnam's son, Puvirajakeerthi was Sivaram's father. He was one of the earliest Batticaloa Tamils to be educated at Cambridge University. Dharmaratnam Vannianaar was a well-known hunter. It is said that his political opponents poisoned him on a hunting expedition leading to deteriorating health. It was this that led to his resigning from the state council.

Sivaram's mother was Maheswariamma. Her maiden name too was Dharmaratnam. Both she and her sister, Nageswariamma were married. Siva's father was generally called Keerthy or Dharmakeerthy. Sivaram's mother's people had their roots in Point Pedro. One of her brothers was the lawyer Mailvaganam; another brother was the medical practitioner Velupillai. Both made a name for themselves in Batticaloa. Sivaram's father's sister was married to the famous Tamil scholar Prof. Kanapathipillai.

Sivaram was born on August 11, 1959, the fourth in the family. His siblings are Sooriyakumar, Sooriyakumari and Seshakumar. His step sisters and brother are Meena, Parvathy, Arundathi and Neelakandan. Sivaram's wife is also of Govinthan Road in Batticaloa. Her name is Yogaranjini but is called Bhavani. They have three children, namely Vaishnavi (16) Vaidehi (13) and Seralathan (10). The son was his pride and joy.

Sivaram hailed from an eastern Tamil elitist background. The land reforms of the '70s impoverished the family to some extent. Their family home at Lady Manning Drive was a place where all friends of the children were made welcome. Siva's mother Maheswari was a cultured and gracious lady. She was both modern and progressive while retaining old world values of hospitality and family affiliations.

She was enlightened enough to know that true knowledge and wisdom came not from educational qualifications but through the school of life. Thus she allowed Sivaram to charter his own course in an unconventional way. One thing however was her encouraging him to read widely and voraciously. She would give him money to buy any book he desired. It was this reading that helped Sivaram acquire much learning that was denied many of his contemporaries.

He was eclectic in his intellectual appetite - Marx, Shaw, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Kautilya, Sun Tsu, Clausewitz, Jomini, Omar Khayyam, John Donne, Auvaiyaar, Thirumoolar and the various Sithar Padalgal etc. were devoured and digested at a relatively early age. It was this affinity for reading that led Sivaram to pioneer the Vasagar Vaddam or Readers Circle in 1980. He was scheduled to go on Friday to Batticaloa as chief guest for the silver jubilee ceremony. Fate decreed otherwise.

He was educated at St. Michaels College, Batticaloa and at Pembroke and Aquinas in Colombo. He entered Peradeniya University in 1982. After studying English, Tamil and Philosophy for the GAQ he focused on English thereafter. He never completed his degree. The 1983 July violence saw him being a displaced undergraduate to Jaffna. He dropped out in 1984 and took to full time guerilla warfare. His nom de guerre in the movement too was SR. Even while at Peradeniya he would suddenly disappear from lectures for extended periods to do his 'political' work.

Sivaram's fascination for armed struggle began much earlier. Even during his school days he had a distaste for the non-violent student politics of the day. According to his former schoolmates, Sivaram had felt at a very early age that only force would work with the Sinhala state and that 'ahimsa' tactics were a waste of time. This however did not prevent his volunteering with the Gandhiyam movement and helping resettle refugees in the early '80s.

Sivaram was originally a home-grown militant. A group of young men in Batticaloa town and Kallady formed their own indigenous Batticaloa group. The livewire of this was a lad called Suresh. This was in 1983. This group had no name. Almost at the same time another Batticaloa group called the 'Nagapadai' or 'Cobra force' also emerged in the east. It is erroneously believed that Sivaram belonged to the Cobras because many of its members were subsequently absorbed into the People's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The group to which Sivaram belonged accomplished two operations. It botched up a third bank robbery. Its primary success was the robbery of more than 350 guns from the Batticaloa kachcheri arsenal. The young militant group had one firearm with which they held up the guards. This gun belonged to Sivaram's family. The stolen guns were hoarded at Kalladi and Kaluthawalai. These originally belonged to Batticaloa farmers and had been confiscated by the authorities due to the security situation.

A second operation was the robbery at the Highways Department. A lot of equipment including an exploder were taken. These robberies irked the security apparatus that launched an intensive search. The 11 members belonging to the group scattered and went underground. Sivaram went away from Batticaloa. The LTTE also took note of this indigenous eastern militancy. A Tiger cadre named Ram came to Batticaloa, made contact and recruited seven of the 11 into the LTTE. The Tigers and PLOTE also absorbed most of the cobra force members.

Sivaram being away from Batticaloa was left out. He was extremely disappointed. By this time Sivaram had reached a decision that he should join the LTTE. SR was essentially a man of action. To him the continuous pattern of guerilla attacks by the Tigers was appealing. He also had deep admiration for Velupillai Pirapaharan, a self-made guerilla. His friends say that he went to the Jaffna university to study the militant movements and make his choice. While in Jaffna he also joined groups of undergraduates collecting money for refugees. He travelled extensively in Jaffna and the Wanni.

Sivaram decided that he should join the LTTE. An appointment with Mahendrarajah alias Mahaththaya was arranged through a friend then known as Kandiah Amman. Sivaram had read up well on theory of guerilla warfare and tried to impress Mahaththaya with his knowledge. Siva also said that he would conduct political classes for recruits. Mahaththaya was not receptive. He may have even felt threatened by this eager, young man's earnestness. Mahaththaya refused to take him into the LTTE. Sivaram tried his luck again with Krishnakumar alias Kittu. He too declined asking Sivaram to concentrate on his studies and help them in writing tracts and pamphlets.

A deeply disappointed Sivaram now tried his chances with PLOTE. An eastern Tamil, Yogan Kannamuthu helped him join the PLOTE. Another Tamil from Batticaloa, Ramalingam Vasudeva was also a high ranking member of the PLOTE now. Sivaram had worked closely with him in the Gandhiyam. Subsequently Sivaram was to become a close relative. Vasudeva's wife's sister was proposed in marriage to Siva. He agreed and got engaged. Unfortunately Vasudeva was killed by the LTTE in 1987. Nevertheless Sivaram got married in 1988.

After joining PLOTE, Sivaram underwent military training in Oratha Naadu. But he was used for politics and was very much in demand conducting political and military theory classes for PLOTE recruits. Besides the PLOTE never undertook major military operations. There was a time when the PLOTE had the largest number of cadres.

Sivaram conducted classes in India and the north-east. At one point he was placed in charge of the military section in Batticaloa. It was during this stint that Sivaram ordered the execution of two suspected PLOTE dissidents, Ahilan and Selvan. This led to a disciplinary inquiry in which SR was exonerated. His detractors however continue to rake up this matter to denigrate him. This is happening even after death.

Later on Sivaram supported the Eeswaran faction of the PLOTE, which criticised Umamaheswaran's leadership. This opposition by Eeswaran and the faction led by Paranthan Rajan led to the famous conference after which the PLOTE split. Sivaram however changed his stance in a controversial twist and supported Umamaheswaran. It is said that Vasudeva played a role in shifting his allegiance to Umamaheswaran. Consequently Sivaram was elevated to the PLOTE Central Committee

Sivaram travelled about in the south and Colombo during the 1983-87 period. He made a lot of contacts and friends during that period. Among these were Vijaya Kumaratunga and Ossie Abeygoonesekara. He also established links with the JVP then. Former JVP Secretary, Upatissa Gamanayake and PLOTE Military Commander, Manickam Thasan were first cousins. Their mothers were sisters. This connection was used for political purposes. Interestingly Sivaram was also close to the strongly anti-JVP alternate group 'Vikalpa Kandayama' members.

The Indo-Lanka accord of July 29, 1987 saw the PLOTE accept it with some reservations. The accord paved the way for the PLOTE to relocate officially to the south and make a transition from armed struggle to democratic politics. The PLOTE formed a political party, the Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF). Its first president was Dharmalingam Siddharthan. Its first secretary was none other than Dharmeratnam Sivaram. A new phase in Sivaram's life was beginning. This flirtation with post-accord politics was the forerunner to Sivaram's transition from gun to pen.