Girls and Ragging (And what people choose to ignore)

I am writing this post because a variety of current media reports in Tamil Nadu suggest that ragging is something that only senior male students subject the first-year/fresher students to. Senior female students (especially in hostels) harassing the first year hostel girl students is a reality that is never taken up seriously or discussed. I am a hardcore feminist, but that does not mean that I am going to proclaim that all women are incapable of being mean.

I have no personal experience of staying in a hostel, or being a first-year student in a professional engineering or medical college. But I have heard friends share their experience. And two-three weeks back, a cousin of mine who’s joined her first year MBBS at the Mohan Kumaramangalam Government Medical College Salem narrated  her experiences of pain and humiliation. Third-year medical college girl students staying in the hostel would come to the rooms of first year students at nine in the night, and begin ragging which would go on up to midnight. Sessions involved simple name calling,being ordered to catch a mosquito, walk like ducks, wear weird clothes to college (black pants, yellow top, red duppatta), to the utterly revolting exercises of asking girls to name their sexual organs, or to hug a pillar and make love to it as if it were their lover.

On my cousin’s behalf, we made complaints even with the anti-ragging cell, we sent follow-up emails. Few boys were suspended for similar ragging in the same university, but no action was taken against the girls. There was no inquiry. And filing actual complaints with the police is difficult, because students fear to expose themselves, and also because they don’t know the names of the senior girls as yet. My cousin was strong enough to have us there for her, she was strong enough to resist some of the bullying. I am just scared for girls who would succumb. Entering a professional course involves so much of hard-work and talent, and there can be no greater tragedy than getting tortured and traumatized in a place where one spends the best years of their life. There is so much of promise on paper, but such little implementation.

Day Two and Three: Shillong

Since I love this dictum of Show-rather-than-tell, I am going to simply upload my Cherrapunji/Sohra pictures on facebook and not write about it.

Waterfalls at Cherrapunji, Meghalaya

The awful part of the trip was realizing how fragile my health is. First I was complaining of giddiness because of my low blood sugar, then I started feeling breathless because of the heights, then I said I was cold, and then, I refused to enter the caves there saying I was claustrophobic and on the way back, I broke out into rashes because of msg allergy. Wow! Nobody complained really, but trust me, I wasn’t overdoing anything. And this is the first time I’ve felt so weak in all my life. I just pray that such a lot of symptoms don’t rush in the next time I plan a trip to anywhere. On the way back that was the only appeal on my lips–God, please, please, please let me live. I am so far away from family should I die now.

We were back by round 1pm (we had started around 5am), and that was the evening of my reading. I skipped lunch, took avil and eno and lots and lots of water. That helped. That, and the fact that I love my life the best when i am actually reading before an audience. The NEHU girls were just brilliant and their reactions were spontaneous and everyone loved everything I read and that sort of cured me. That’s another kind of elation, really.

Enough abt me. Of those who read with me, I loved the poetry of  Nabaneeta Konungo, S.Joseph and Ravi Dravida. I hope Google directs you to some of their best poems.

Got back to the guesthouse, where I slept for a long time. Then, joined in a conversation about migrants in India, and Indian perceptions of the northeast, and integration and so on. Some insights were startling, as were some stereotypes. Will write on that later, in this blog.

Day Three: Said goodbye to all everyone around. I was leaving because otherwise the next available flight was only on June 6th and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. So I and Joseph reach the Shillong airport two hours in advance, and begin waiting for our ATR flight to Kolkata that should supposedly take off at 1335 hours. It comes at 1835 hours. I already know that my connecting flight to Chennai has left. I reach Kolkata late at night, and begin begging the Air India guys to do something about me. I am joined by a bunch of Tamil men who threaten to sue the company, stage an agitation, and so on, if they are not sent back to Chennai immediately. The last flights to Chennai have left Kolkata, so we are told to leave the next day, by the late evening flight. No one agrees. The men seek a total refund. The men want to be booked on other airlines. I lack all energy to fight. The men give up on me. They leave me alone, make inquiries and realize there’s a Jet Airways flight early the next day to Chennai. There are 6 vacant seats and 4 of them manage to book themselves on it. Air India agrees to pay their fare. They come to me and boast about their victories, and say that if I had spoken up they would have done me the favour of booking me in with them. Honestly, I have no mood to fight. Besides, I can never act like that bunch of men: “We have an urgent meeting tomorrow. Our presence is highly important. What do you think you are doing? We want damages”

I find another non-confrontational soul. An Anupam Kher lookalike who missed his flight to Mumbai. Air India decides to put us both together to Mumbai, and then books me on a Mumbai-Chennai flight. I think my friends who fought arrived about 15 minutes earlier than me, that’s all.

Thanks to Air India, I get an All India flight. Shillong-Jorhat-Kolkata-Mumbai-Chennai.

On the plus side, Mumbai was the only airport I hadn’t seen so far, and thanks to all this drama, I am there. It is love at first sight with that airport. I want to visit that city just for the sake of that airport  : )

On the down side, this delay means that I keep sitting for 35 hours or longer. No stretching my legs, no sleeping. That kind of wrecked me even more, but I am not going to complain.

Handsome Men, Harems and Hate Propaganda: The Indian Imagination of Love Jihad

I was recently interviewed by Noushad, a journalist from Kerala and over the course of our conversation, he spoke to me about the creation of a clever propaganda around love jihad/ romeo jihad — accusations of Muslim men allegedly targeting Hindu / Christian women and converting them to Islam. He blamed both the media and the judiciary for creating this monster-myth. I would not go so far as to say that conversions take place to and from religious owing to marriages, but this particular instance clearly looked like Islamophobia to me.

After I was done talking to Noushad, and I heard about the various aspects of the case, I wondered, “Why is it that neither the Hindu-right, or the judiciary even address the question of men converting to Islam?” That must be happening too, wouldn’t it? If the conversion of women to Islam has “national ramifications” as the Karnataka High Court bench put it, doesn’t the conversion of men have the same ramifications? Why is there a silence when it comes to men, and why this gendered understanding of religion/ religious conversion? Or, does this arise from the idea that only women are to be controlled?

Another thing that perplexed me, was that the lobby which was talking about love jihad was being opposed and criticized mainly by Muslim organizations. As feminists, shouldn’t we be the first ones to take offence since such a campaign insults our intelligence, our ability to choose for ourselves? Doesn’t this interfere with our freedom and doesn’t this amount to state-control of sexuality (since these probes essentially look at inter-religious marriages), if not the state-control of a spiritual quest?

To cut a long story short, I wrote a few lines about it. Especially because I have this fear that after Kerala and Karnataka, Hindutva will talk about ‘love jihad’ in Tamil Nadu too.

~~~~ my article, first published in Offbeat, The Alternative ~~~~

To write about the religious identity of women, especially in the context of their apparent marginalisation within society, is an emotive issue. I could write about the burden of culture that is allocated to women, the moral policing that takes place in the name of tradition and God in order to control women’s choices, or the shoddy labeling and criticism that accompanies every instance of female empowerment. The patriarchal nature of religion has always turned away free-spirited women, so much so that it is automatically assumed that every feminist is anti-God. Breaking from convention, this article is about women who consciously choose to embrace a/another faith, adopt a different God, and the amusing reactions that follow. Since I am governed by word-counts, deadlines, and a tendency towards disturbing silenced spaces, this essay shall not touch upon anything other than “love jihad.”

Following habeas corpus petitions filed by their parents, two girls (Hindu, Christian) appeared before the High Court of Kerala in September 2009 along with their Muslim partners and declared that they had converted to Islam on their free will. Judge KT Shankaran—going against the tenets of the Indian Constitution which enshrines an individual’s freedom to practice religion- reverted the women (both of them majors) to the custody of their parents.

After three weeks, the same girls told the court that they had converted forcefully. Jacob Punnose, the Director General of Police filed an ambiguous report, which categorically denied the existence of love jihad, noting that no particular organisation “was actively involved in religious conversions” . The Union Home ministry’s report to the Kerala High Court also confirmed these findings. Justice Shankaran however was not convinced even then, and he suggested that the state government should consider framing special laws to counter romantic conversions. (another link)

Since paranoia never exists in singularity and bad examples are rigorously emulated, a Karnataka High Court Bench constituting Justice Sreedhar Rao and Justice Ravi Malimath followed in these footsteps when a distraught Selvaraj filed a petition seeking custody of his daughter Selja. She was made to stay with her parents and asked to prove that her conversion was voluntary and her marriage, a bonafide love-match. Although Selja Raj said in open court that she had chosen Islam out of her own choice and not out of any kind of coercion, the Karnataka HC Bench displayed its ability to think independently. The court raised “serious suspicion regarding the statements of the petitioner’s daughter” and observed that “the case has ramifications for national security.” The court ordered the police to investigate this since it believed that such religious conversions “raised questions of unlawful trafficking of girls and women in the state.”

Court-speak in India has come to resemble its monosyllable cousin, Hindutva hate-speech. Both of them fail to
respect women as rational beings capable of decision-making. Not only are women objectified as preys and victims in need of “saving”, but they are also infantilized. By linking religious identity with sexual politics, they succeed in making a strong argument against conversion.

Here are excerpts from two Hindutva websites:

The “Love Jihad” organisation provides their members with mobile phones, motor cycles, good clothing, etc. for more effective alluring of girls. This organisation makes use of boys belonging to a particular religious faith. They are taught how to lure girls coming from different religious persuasions. They have been ordered to leave those girls who do not fall into their “love trap” within two weeks. Further, the organisation orders their followers to marry within a short period of six months and have at least four children.

The same website links this with the pub attacks in Mangalore:

“Several Hindu “modern” college-going girls were found in a compromising position and dancing suggestively with Muslim boys. The Ram Sena people saved these stupid girls from becoming the breeding cows of Islam and joining some Muslim harem.”

Another excerpt from the Hindu Jagruti site:

Jihadi Romeos promise to marry unsuspecting young girls within 6 months if they convert to Islam and then dump these girls in conversion centers. These Romeos then go for their next prey. These girls are subject to various forms of torture for weeks in these centers. There is information that these girls are shipped to foreign countries after drugging them.

If the site is to be believed, not only the police but the CBI, RAW and Navy and Narcotics Bureau and every other department of the Indian Government must be working on this case. Within a single baseless paragraph, we see the disgraceful fall of the “unsuspecting” Hindu woman who has been loved, converted, dumped, tortured, drugged, shipped to Indian cities, shipped to foreign countries, and forced into prostitution.

Hindutva paranoia alone cannot be blamed—after all, such a demand does curry favour with sections who are wary of inter-religious unions because it prevents consolidation along caste and religious lines. The first organisations to launch a tirade against love jihad—Nair Service Society and Sri Narayana Dharmaparipalana Yogam—were caste-based in character. In November 2009, the Kerala Catholic Bishop Council’s Committee on Social Harmony and Vigilance also joined hands with Hindu extremist organizations to counter such an ‘Islamic threat.’ (another link) Its secretary Johny Kochuparambil, citing “reliable sources”, said that 4000 women had been converted in the last decade alone. This provided the necessary impetus for the Sree Ram Sena to launch a poster campaign against love jihad in Thiruvananthapuram.

Islamic organizations decry it as misinformation, but the long-term impact of such calculated propaganda could be disastrous. As a precursor to the genocidal, state sponsored pogroms in Gujarat 2002, Durga Vahini pamphlets detailed how “the Sita on the street was going to become an Ayesha or Fatima or Julia” and how she would be “seduced”, taken to “foreign nations and then killed.” Clearly, the purpose of such pamphlets goes beyond its brief. Durga Vahini, like most of religion forgets that irrespective of whether a woman chooses to call herself Sita or Ayesha or Fatima or Julia, she is at the receiving end of male domination.

Tamil investigative magazine Nakkheeran recently reported (4 May 2010) a story of two young Hindu women Satya and Sundari from the Chinna Avudayarkovil village converting to Islam. In spite of the girls’ version that they converted because they liked the religion, their Muslim employer Shiauddin was blamed for ‘brainwashing’ them. Though there is no love spin-off to the story, the local BJP leader blamed Muslim employers for systematically ‘targeting’ Hindu girls from economically weaker families. Expressing his ‘concern’ that such conversion logically leads to inter-religious marriages, he offers a simple solution – prevent Hindu girls from seeking employment and let them stay at home.

Women are the worst-hit in any case, having to endure greater repression, losing the right to earn, to make friends, to choose their life-partners. When they change their religion, they are perceived not merely as traitors to their families, but also terrorists to the nation.

As if the existing witch-hunting was not enough, this just adds another insensible, hate-filled dimension.

Another Interview

(An edited version of this interview appeared in the Indian Express North American. Sujeet Rajan interviewed me for the weekly. This came out about a month ago, but only today I was suitably lazy to do this job)

You write candidly of love and love-making; leaving windows open to the bedroom sometimes. If it is autobiographical, how difficult is it to tabulate emotions of love and love-making through poetry?

I am not sure it is always the bedroom window I leave open, for love, after all, happens everywhere. And again, I am going to keep the suspense and not own up or disown the possibility of my poems being autobiographical! I think poetry is best equipped to enclose some emotions and exhibit others, because writing of love/ love-making in prose would simply call for too many excruciating details, and in the most cautious of cases, it would require a great deal of aesthetic and choreography to get the damn scene right. And only rarely can such elaborate construction capture spontaneity, which is what love is all about.

From an artistic medium, what is best to express love: the written word, the spoken word, brush on the canvas, silence? Why?

I have done everything but paint. And well, you have left out something which I see as central to love: movement. As in dance, as in theater, and also as in all of language.

3. Is anything taboo for you to write about?

No. Except of course if someone asked me to write a poem of praise, that tends to make me nasty.

5. You were displaced from home, from Chennai, for more than three months, having been invited to a writing residence program in Iowa. What has been the experience like?

I loved the time I spent in Iowa, and I also got to travel widely across the USA. The best part of the program was getting to meet these fabulous writers from other countries. The next best was the University library and the second-hand bookstores. My novel is about the Kilvenmani massacre, and surprisingly I completed most of the research while I was here, in a foreign nation. And lastly, I did write like crazy. I wrote the 50-odd poems that go into my second collection of poetry (Six Hours of Chastity).

6. How has the West influenced your writing during these last three months?

Nothing radical happened. And the subtle changes, if any, will have to be picked out by scholars or theorists, and even in that case, one never knows how accurate it is! I am always in a state of flux, so I do believe that coming here, and being footloose and fancy-free, would have changed me in some ways, and which would change the poetry in a sense.

7. If you were to write a poem based on the experience of your last three months, what would you write about?

I am too involved with the experience to verbalize it right away. There will be a diary at some point, and trust me, there will be love poems too.

8. You are an intrinsic part of the Dalit movement; an indelible, vociferous voice for the underprivileged in India. How do you reconcile yourself to a situation where you yourself live in a metropolitan city which is removed from the caste predicament for the most part, and now are in a developed world which has only academic interest in the problem?

I don’t think the Dalit movement is a rural movement, or that untouchability/ casteism does not exist in cities. The migration to the city does erase some identities even as it allows the scope for anonymity, but the Dalit remains a Dalit for the most part. The metropolitan cities are better suited for the Dalit movement’s growth and establishment because they allow for the Dalits to carry out democratic/ public agitations/ demonstrations without fear of a backlash, of being targetted and done-to-death and crushed by oppressor castes whose violent diktat operates much more freely in the villages. Coming to the second part of your question, yes, the developed world only has a superficial interest in these issues, which is quite disappointing. However, the struggle against caste should be waged only by those who have suffered because of it, and it should be supported by those who don’t believe in discrimination. I guess here the curiousity of the West could help since it actually brings things to the world’s attention. There’s another way of looking at it: the militant and political Dalit struggle (or even literature) has hardly been effectively theorized, or documented, so the academic interest emanating from this is certainly beneficial.

9. You write, commiserate with Tamils in Sri Lanka; is it emotional baggage for you now that crisis in Sri Lanka is no longer in the news with the Tamil Tigers gone?

The Sri Lanka crisis is now in the news in a way in which it has never been before. The US State Department’s report of what happened earlier this year in the war zone in which tens of thousands of Tamils were mercilessly bombed to death by the SL Govt., the Tamil Diaspora re-mandating their right to a homeland in the North-east, people all over the world being concerned about the three hundred thousand Tamils caught in concentration camps, Sri Lanka being the second-most unsafe country for journalists all over the world–these are issues of prime importance, irrespective of whether the media in the US, or India decides to highlight it or not. I take up a cause because I am involved with it, or I empathize for it, and not on the basis of the amount of media spotlight that it accrues. I guess the Tamil issue will always be an emotional baggage until we receive the right to a life of safety and security and self-determination. I trust that now is the time for humanitarian people all over the world to actually support the Tamil cause because things have never been worse.

10. Race, religion and caste come to play the most when elections are around the corner. In that respect the United States might not be much different from India. Emancipation apart, what needs to be done in India to remove barriers for equalization?

Yes, what you describe is the typical vote-bank scenario. I believe that equalization can come about only when the oppressors also decide that it is time for them to change, it is time for them to mend their ways. There is a possibility that such a change can come about through self-directed/ self-initiated efforts, but there are not enough pointers from history which lets us reinforce this belief. Those who seek to maintain the status quo, those who work against equalization and democratization, are known to change only when their own power is questioned and challenged. So, much of the responsibility for bringing about change lies in the hands of the oppressed people, since they have to continue their resilient struggle against oppression. If they resist the subjugation successfully, and if they manage to break out of it, then equalization will come about. It can never be beyond reach. What needs to be done in India is to encourage the freedom of the press, to bring out more stories of victimization and resistance to light, and to empower women without resorting to any cultural dogma. Anyone can observe that all systems of oppression ideally go hand-in-hand, so none of us can be free until all of us are free. For instance, I would like the feminist movement in India to really take up the ideology of annihilating the caste system not just because it is discriminatory and inhuman, but also because it is based on the control of a women’s sexuality (in order to keep the caste pedigree pure).

11. Do you agree with the quota system for the backward classes in government and educational institutions in India?

It is not for anyone to agree/disagree with the quota system, what people need to concentrate on is to ensure that all sections of society achieve real growth, and that no one is left behind and marginalized. I think the decision to extend the quota system for the backward classes (here i make a distinction from the Dalits) was taken because of their abysmal presence in both state-run educational and employment enterprises. We have to become a more tolerance and more inclusive society, and affirmative action is just one way of getting there.

12. Kamala Das backed your poetry; wrote a foreword to your debut collection of poems. Why does that mean so much to you? What do you like most about her poetry?

What Kamala Das said about my poetry meant so much to me because she is a woman who calls a spade a spade, she’s forthright and outspoken and doesn’t say things that she doesn’t mean. So, when such an authentic and genuine (not to mention accomplished and fiery) poet like her encourages your work, you just gain confidence in yourself, and you channel more efforts towards writing more, representing people more. I love her poetry, because she broke the barriers against Indian woman writing on troublesome/ taboo topics; at the core of everything, she was truth-seeking. Personally, I also adore her flamboyance, her fire.

13. How do you reconcile poetry with reality? Does imagination triumph?

My poetry is rooted in my reality: the reality of the Dalits fighting against caste-atrocities and violence of the oppressive forces who want to subjugate them, the reality of women who still have to fight to assert their equality and their rights, the reality of Tamils who have to express themselves in spite of the worst kind of threat to the freedom of expression, who have to struggle against systematic genocide in their own homeland. My poetry is a product of all my multiple, coexisting realities–right now, I don’t think I outsource my poetry to imagination.

Markers of Marriage (Cross-posted from Ultra Violet)

This is what happens when you are stuck with thesis-writing!
Articles that have been pending for ages write themselves..

RECENTLY, I PARTICIPATED in the launch function of a documentary film Pottu about the hardships and social humiliation faced by widows and deserted women in Tamil Nadu. Produced by the Kalangarai Trust which works among the widows in the southern district of Nagappattinam (particularly in Vedaranyam, Sirkaali and Poompuhaar), the 50-minute documentary attempts to describe the torture that widows are forced to undergo in the name of tradition. The documentary started off with a young girl’s story: the gaudy ceremony surrounding puberty, her early marriage (to prevent the chance of the family name getting “spoiled” if she were to be left “free”), the dowry that her parents are forced to pay, the hard work that she is forced to do in her husband’s home, his alcoholism and domestic violence, his death and finally, her enforced widowhood. Although Pottu seemed to make of every cinematic cliché, some issues highlighted by the documentary deserve to be taken up for debate.

Bangle-breaking ceremonies (where all the symbols of marriage: the red kumkum mark (pottu), the thaali (mangalsutra) are removed) are notoriously common in Tamil Nadu’s southern villages. In fact, these ceremonies are conducted before dawn, when even the gods are supposedly sleeping, because such a merciless sight is capable of disturbing even them.

Not only is a woman forced to undergo emotional agony because of her husband’s absence, but she is also forced to face social humiliation. The things that society puts forward as symbols of femininity and desirability are snatched away overnight. Widows are systematically kept out of social functions (celebration of menarche or marriage), they are stigmatized and heaped with abuse and they are denied all decision making at the family level. They are also denied civil rights–commonly-held beliefs discriminate widows by virtue of their being considered “inauspicious”. Tamil proverbs say that to see a widow early in the morning effectively ruins a day, and so on.

Yesterday, the women who were the driving force behind the documentary Pottu, got together and announced that soon they would be hosting the first international conference of widows, destitute and deserted women. They have two demands: laws to prosecute people who abuse widows in degrading terms and social, economic, legal rehabilitation for the widows.

There are several reasons why such a project has emerged from Tamil Nadu. According to a statistics by the Kalangarai Trust approximately 10% of the households in the state are headed by widows, and that 24% of the widows live alone. Majority of the widows are mothers of the head of the household. Their study also shows that the highest concentration of widows (8.06% of the general population) in Tamil Nadu arises from two categories of widows particular to the southern-coastal districts of the state: Tsunami widows and widows of men who have succumbed to HIV/AIDS. A large number of them work as daily wage labourers.

Tamil widows face a particular problem because of the manner in which their language subjugates them. The English word widow has an equivalent masculine form widower (which might carry fewer negative connotations may be, but at least a word exists). There’s no equivalent masculine form for the word vidhavai (widow) in Tamil. On the other hand, in popular practice, a just-widowed man is humorously referred to as the pudhu maapillai (new bridegroom)–perhaps enshrining the fact that he would soon be married to someone.

Widowhood is also becoming a problem that cuts across cultures. No longer are Hindu widows alone subjected to such torment. Even a religion like Islam, where there’s no bar on widow remarriage, is being influenced by local practices. At the documentary release function, a Muslim woman lamented how her own community was now following these meaningless practices which has historically plagued the Hindu religion.

The efforts of William Benetick and Raja Rammohun Roy put an end to the Sati system in 1829. The Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856. Another hundred years later, the Child Marriage Restraint Act came into place. Every reformer and every revolutionary on the Indian soil has voiced about the condition of widows: Phule opened a home for widows and abandoned children, Dr. Ambedkar traced the roots of the sati system in the necessity to maintain/preserve the endogamous caste structure, Periyar argued for widow remarriage. Even a middle-of-the-road traditionalist reformer like Gandhi condemned the practice of widowhood in no uncertain terms. Pandita Ramabai became an icon by speaking out against the heinous nature of imposed widowhood.

Today, as women fight against gender injustice and social indignity, they are forced to confront several challenges: how to oppose cultural facets that alienate widows, how to create alternative cultural symbols that don’t differentiate between women, how to develop a policy framework not only for widows but also for single women in India and especially how to fight against a hypocritical system where the oppressor is not someone from the outside, but one’s own blood, one’s own family? Perhaps this is one area where there is no dearth of Hindi/Tamil films that describe the plight, but there is a paucity of public debate and discussion.

(p.s.: Women members of this organization demanded (rightfully of course) that they should be allowed to wear bangles, wear flowers, and above all, wear the pottu. However, every ‘invited’ speaker pointed out that all women should unite to throw away the markers of marriage and/or femininity such as the bangles/flowers/pottu/thaali and so on? All of us might agree that these are decisions which women should take as individuals, and not just as a category, but then, what’s your take on this?)

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

Reproduced from Tehelka.com

MEENA KANDASWAMY has an electric effect on rooms when she reads her poetry. The erotic content quite apart, the juxtaposition of her highly femme persona and the tartness of her observations always charges the atmosphere.

The late Kamala Das wrote the foreword to Touch, the collection of poetry Kandaswamy published at age 23. ‘Love and its politics inform my poetry. Caste atrocities happen most frequently because of intercaste love affairs.” A happy denizen of the Internet, 25-year-old Kandaswamy’s first short story The Suicide’s Inbox was the perverse unfolding of a correspondence between two women.

The daughter of a Tamil professor and a Maths professor at IIT, Meena has been always aware that even PhDs are not invincible armour. She chose to pursue a degree privately. “I knew I would not rest quietly if I had to suffer the usual caste slurs in college. Such a waste of time.”

Kandaswamy pins her dalit identity on the act of rebelling against any kind of oppression. She describes what it is like to live in a state with powerful dalit movements going back to the legendary Nandanar, who died claiming his right to worship Shiva: “Discrimination is sophisticated. Once a day — I’m not exaggerating — once a day someone will ask me whether I am vegetarian to figure out whether I am Brahmin.”

She avidly follows the media’s handling of dalit public figures. ‘People say dalits smell but when dalits stand for elections people say that suchand- such dalit’s perfume was expensive.” She has funny stories about the liberals left as well. “People exoticise our ‘sexual freedom’ as if dalits live in a nudist colony. I once met the editor of a left-leaning national newspaper. He told someone to verify if I was a dalit since I spoke English well.”

Kandaswamy says she wrestles daily with the biases of language in her writing, her PhD thesis and her rapacious translation of Tamil literature. She teaches English in a college. She blogs about local politics but is writing a novel set far from Tamil Nadu. Is this the life she dreamt of? “I dream of too many lives,” she replies.

NISHA SUSAN

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 24, Dated Jun 20, 2009

Translation as murder

As someone who has translated a dozen books, and who also holds a research degree in translation studies, I know a lot about the difficulties of translating. I know about equivalences, about cultural problems, about syntax troubles, the whole damn lot. What I learnt right now, is that someone can merely use your name, and the title of an article you published in an English newspaper and write up their own stuff.

I don’t read a lot of Tamil newspapers (at least the fringe, party-organ variety), so this slipped my eye. Until someone typed this whole stuff out and sent it to me.

Regular readers of this blog, will remember that I wrote this opinion piece for the Deccan Chronicle. It’s right there if you scroll down this blog. Now, this is a so-called translation that has been carried in the JANASAKTI, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of India.

Names that I have mentioned are missing. Facts that I mentioned are missing. My arguments are missing. I can understand the omissions. But they have added facts and names and arguments of their own. Why should this be done? Why should my words be subjected to so many twists and turns and glaring things that I never wrote of.

Anybody who can read English and Tamil will know that the Tamil version has nothing to do with the original. It is totally interpolated, taken out of context, and so much that I will never accept as my political views have been added. In that case, why did they have to do this my article? If they wanted to extend the case of the ADMK-Left combine, they have all the 6 pages of their daily newspaper to do that. Why claim that these points are “taken” from someone else’s piece?

I have seen several types of translation, but never before have I witnessed something that is so damaging. This is really murder in a sense, to attribute things I never said (or things that I will never say) to me.

I always, always respected the CPI, so it’s very difficult for me to come to terms with this.

(If you can read Tamil please do check out this section and compare it with the original. This appeared in the Janasakti of 17 April 2009)

இலங்கைத் தமிழர் பிரச்சனை தமிழகத் தேர்தலை நிர்ணயிக்கும்

நடைபெற உள்ள நாடளுமன்றத் தேர்தலில் இலங்கைத் தமிழர் பிரச்சனை மய்யப் பிரச்சனியாயாக உர்வாகிவருகிறது. இதனாலேயே இந்திய அரசு இலங்கை அரசையும் எல்.டி. டி. ஈ. ஐயும் யுத்தத்தை நிறுத்தும்படி வலியுறுத்தியது என்று அமைச்சர் ப. சிதம்பரம் கூறினார்.

இந்திய வெளியுறவுத்துறைச் செயலர் சிவ சங்கரர் மேனன் இலங்கைத் தமிழ் தேசியக் கட்சி (டி. என். ஏ.) எம். பிக்களை சந்தித்துப் பேசியுள்ளனர். தி.மு.க – காங்கிரஸ் கட்சி கூட்டணி, மதிய, மாநில அரசுகளின் சாதனைகளைக் கூறி ஓட்டுக்களைக் கேட்டு வருகிறது. ஆனால், அ.இ.அ.தி.மு.க. இடதுசாரிக் கட்சியின் கூட்டணி, இலங்கைத் தமிழர் பிரச்சனைகளைப் பிரசாரத்தில் கொண்டு செல்ல உள்ளன.

இந்திய கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சியின் தமிழ் மாநிலச் செயலாளர் தா. பாண்டியனும், பா.ம.க. தலைவர் டாக்டர் ராமதாசும் அ.தி.மு.க. பொதுச் செயலாளர் ஜெயலலிதாவும் இப்பிரச்சனை கலையும் தமிழரின் படுகொலையையும் பார்த்துக்கொண்டு மத்திய அரசு மௌனமாயிருப்பதையும், மாநில அரசு மதிய அரசினை வலியுருத்தாததையும் தேர்தல் பிரசாரத்தின் போது வலியுறுத்திப் பிரச்சாரம் செய்ய உள்ளனர். ம.தி.மு.க. பொதுச் செயலாளர் வைகோ வின் ரத்த ஆறு ஓடும் என்ற பேச்சு, தேர்தல் காலத்தைச் சூடேற்றியுள்ளது. இவை தி.மு.க. காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணியைக் கலக்க முயற்சி செய்துள்ளது.

தமிழ் தேசியக் குழுக்கள் “இனி என்ன செய்யப்போகிறாய்?” என்ற தலைப்பிட்ட ஒளிப் பேழைகளை (சி.டி.க்கள்) தமிழக மக்களிடையே விநியோகித்து வருகின்றனர். பெரியார் திராவிடர் கழகம் இது குறித்து பிரச்சாரங்களைச் செய்துவருகிறது.

இலங்கை தமிழர் படுகொலைகள்தமிழர்கள் செத்து மடிவது, பிணக்குவியல் போன்றவை படங்கலாக்கப்பட்டு சி. டி. மூலம் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. மன்மோகன் சிங்க், சோனியா காந்தி ஆகியோர் இலங்கை அதிபர் ராஜபக்சே வுடன் கைக்குளுகுவது போன்றவையும் அதில் படமாகப்பட்டுளது. இவர்களுக்க உங்கள் ஓட்டு? என மக்களிடம் கேள்வி கேட்கப் பட்டுள்ளது.

கடந்த 3 மாதங்களில் தமிழகத்தில் இப்ப்ரச்சனைக்காக 16 பேர் தீக்குளித்து மாண்டுள்ளன்னர். இலங்கைப் பிரச்னை மக்களிடையே ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ள எழுச்சியினால், அ.இ.அ.தி.மு.க. பொதுச் செயலாளர் ஜெயலலிதா உண்ணாவிரதம் மேற்கொண்டார். இதனாலேயே, மத்தியில் உள்ள காங்கிரஸ் அரசும், வன்னிப்பகுதிக்கு நிவாரணப் பொருட்களை அனுப்பியது. வன்னியில் கொள்ளப்படும் தமிழர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை தினந்தோறும் கூடிவருகிறது. இப்போரில் விடுதலைப் புலிகள் இயக்கத் தலைவர் பிரபாகரனுக்கு ஏதேனும் நேர்ந்தால் தி.மு.க.-காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணிக்கு இத்தேர்தல் சவாலாக இருக்கும் என்பது மட்டுமல்ல, முழு தோல்வியை இக்கூட்டணி சந்திக்க நேரிடும். இத்தேர்தலின் வெற்றி தோல்வி இலங்கையில் மே 13 க்கு முன்பு நடக்கின்ற விளையுவகளைப் பொறுத்தே அமையும்.

குறிப்பு: டெக்கான் கிரானிக்கல் ஆங்கில நாளேட்டிற்கு, அண்ணா பல்கலைக்கழக ஆசிரியர் மீனா கந்தசாமி எழுதிய கட்டுரையிலிருந்து.

Some poetry news in an otherwise impossible world

What’s happening in the Vanni is becoming more atrocious by the day: we earlier mourned for the hundreds dead each day, now it is into the thousands. Reading any news simply sends me spiralling into depression. Wanted to sort of take stock of what is going on with my life. Blog posts here shall become fewer each progressing day, and here’s why

1. Come Oct ’09 I will be finishing the third year in my Ph.D. I can’t do it any longer than that, and I already feel that three oh-so-precious years of my life have gone into something that I will not remember with much fondness later in life (If you cannot be happy about somethign when you are old, you better don’t do it: my motto so far). So, since the beginning of this year, I have been working damn hard at finishing off my degree and dissertation. Attended two workshops on ELT, presented papers at two national conferences, sent a paper for publication. Spent most of April preparing a 6-page, 250+-questions questionnaire for the Engineering students in the city. Have been getting it filled up FRANTICALLY. And students are a bit angry too, having to answer so many questions… That, I can understand. I plan to take off in May-June and sit and write my dissertation… And once this Ph.D. is done, I am thinking of giving up this job (my contract stipulates that I work till 2012, and that is dreary)…

2. Talking of job, things here are as messed up as they can be. Some inefficient people run the goddamn show and so I get the salary for March only on April 20. And this is a Government educational institution. A university in fact. (And did I forget to mention to that inefficient could also mean male-chauvinist). More on this later, and when I quit this job. 

3. Since most of this sounds like bad news, let me continue on that vein. My publisher’s decided not to go ahead with the anthology of urban poetry by Indian women (Sheher), and has asked me to look out for other publications. The recession’s hit him, he says. Now, if you have good suggestions about whom I can approach, please tell me. It should be a lovely book going by the quality of poems that have gone into it. Hope it gets a publisher!

4. My poem REVERENCE: NUISANCE has appeared in 3quarksdaily, a blog that is read by the likes of Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins. I nearly fainted from the surprise, and thanks to Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta for pointing it out to me in the first place. Go, read the poem on 3QD. It is one of my earliest poems, so please read with the eyes of a seventeen year old.

5. If I have a crush on any one of my poems, it’s this one. And it’s got me some good news too. MULLIGATAWNY DREAMS has been anthologized in the National Book Trust anthology Both Sides of the Sky. Edited by Eunice de Souza, this anthology has been released fairly recently. I haven’t yet seen the book/cover anywhere on the web, and if I receive it sometime soon, I will upload the covers. I am thrilled, because I am really the last person who believes that what I write will finds its way into state-sponsored anthologies… Just guess life is full of surprises. I am also smiling to myself all the time, thinking of the fact that I am in an anthology of Post-independence English poetry. That sounds like a great category, except that I am not entirely comfortable with a word like independence. It has eluded a great many of us, I think. 

6. Back to some non-poetry news. My article has been quoted extensively in Green Left Weekly’s take on the genocide of Tamils in the Vanni.  

Which takes us back to square one right. I am not a believer, but right now  I pray every minute. To some one, somewhere. I reall want this massacre to stop. The civilian death toll since Jan 2009 could have easily crossed the 5000-mark. How many more Tamils should die before the world decides to do something?

Opinion piece in today’s Deccan Chronicle

STATE PARTIES TO GAIN POLL MILEAGE FROM LANKAN ISSUE

WITH ELECTIONS in Tamil Nadu just a month away, the Central government seems to have realised that it can no longer keep up its pretence that the Lankan Tamils problem does not exist. Home minister P.Chidambaram said on Sunday that India had pressurised the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE for a ceasefire. Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is set to meet MPs of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on April 15.

Apart from all this ‘tokenism’, the DMK-Congress combine plans to canvass by projecting Manmohan Singh’s candidature for the nation’s top post and highlighting the DMK government’s achievements. The importance that will be accorded to the Lankan Tamils problem therefore depends on the manner in which the opposition is going to handle its election campaign.

The pro-LTTE PMK banished the Eelam Tamil issue to the 38th point in its manifesto released last month in order to cozy up to its new ally Ms Jayalalithaa, but now, it is bending over backwards to highlight the issue. In a press meet Sunday, PMK chief Dr Ramadoss declared that the Eelam Tamils problem would be the primary focus of his party’s campaign. Vaiko’s fiery pro-LTTE rhetoric, as evidenced by his recent ‘bloodbath speech’, threatens to further hurt the DMK-Congress combine.

The AIADMK-led alliance may also gain from the propaganda of Tamil nationalist groups. Already, several thousand copies of the VCD, Ini enna seyya pogiraai (What are you going to do now?), allegedly released by the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, are doing the rounds in the southern districts. It contains disturbing visuals of death and destruction in the so-called No Fire Zone, along with clippings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi shaking hands with Mahinda Rajapaksa. It ends with the rhetorical question: “Will you still vote for them?” Though the VCDs are not publicly distributed, this message is set to reach a vast majority of the voters.

Beginning with Dalit leader Thirumavalavan’s indefinite fast early this year, Eelam demonstrations in Tamil Nadu have peaked. A dozen self-immolations in the last three months have mobilized the students and youth towards the Lankan Tamil cause. Since young people form the largest slice of the voting populace, both the staunch critics of Tamil self-determination, AIADMK and Congress, have played down their opposition to Eelam, a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, keeping in mind the mood of the electorate. Sensing that the Lankan Tamils problem would emerge as a key electoral issue, Jayalalithaa staged a token fast. A while ago, unwilling to be isolated, Congressmen collected relief material for the affected civilians in Vanni. Likewise, Rahul Gandhi’s justification of the party’s tie-up with the pro-LTTE VCK of Thirumavalavan as ‘political strategy’ revealed the extent to which the Congress was willing to dilute its opposition to the Tigers to avoid becoming ‘unpopular’ at poll time. 

Congress politicians in Tamil Nadu have so far not been targets of Jarnail Singh-style protests, but as the daily civilian death toll in the Vanni reaches explosive proportions, they might perhaps have to be cautious on the campaign trail. Moreover, if LTTE chief Prabakaran were to be harmed in the war’s last phase, the DMK and the Congress would not only be embarrassed by the public hysteria, but they could also face a rout in the elections, should such tragedy strike closer to poll date, May 13.

Official link here.

What’s kept me busy…

I have managed to sail through the past few days with my health mostly intact. Ever since the wounds healed, I have got going. . . Mostly running around. First, on Wednesday there was this documentary Pottu getting launched at the Vis. Com. department at Loyola College. Produced by the Kalangarai Trust, it deals with the life (and the struggle for a dignified life) of tsunami widows in the Nagappattinam district. Especially since Tamil Nadu has the highest number of widows in India, I think this is one area that deserves a l-o-t of attention. I will be blogging about this elsewhere (and will link to it later)… But the high point of the visit was getting to share the dias with veteran film director Balu Mahendra. Been a great fan (despite the fact that I got a late start where movies are concerned), so when I met him, I was so thrilled, I didn’t know what I was talking. There’s something that he said that totally inspired me (and sort of reflected the life that I led). It seems Balu sir always asked his assistants (Bala, Ameer, all of them) to read a short-story or a poem everyday. They were asked to write a synopsis, otherwise, they weren’t asked to get on with that day’s work. He spoke about this passion for reading literature, for appreciating poetry, and also how much of one’s drive (to learn, to educate oneself, to become more understanding, well-read, and so on) has to come from within. For five full years after school, that’s how I went about doing stuff. So, I loved that bit really, and I felt some kind of justification for what I went about doing. In those days, it appeared as if I was screwing up my life, but right now, I actually prefer screwing it myself, than letting others do it. Other people are merciless. And when other people are screwing your life, it’s a lot less fun. 

On Wednesday evening, I presented a paper at a national conference at my university. It went on well, but nothing really remarkable. Yesterday was again extremely tiring, too many hours of class, and then this departmental seminar, then rushing off to a public meeting in Mylapore in memory of the 16 Tamils who have immolated themselves seeking an end to the war in Sri Lanka. I addressed the meeting, but couldn’t stay till the end. There was this unbearable headache coming on, I hadn’t eaten the whole day, and I had to leave. I managed to reach home onnly around 9.20 p.m. And I skipped dinner as well. Sometimes I am very afraid that my refusal to eat food, or feel hungry, is going to cost me a lot later in life. But that’s only later right? For now, let me do things as I want to.

Going by the mood of yesterday’s meeting (it was organized by Tha. Vellaiyan, Tamil Nadu Traders Association President), I am really convinced that nothing other than Eelam is going to be an election issue. But right now, the Eelam issue is being used to thrash just about everybody on the political scene. I think people basically need a little more clarity on whom to vote against, given the fact that no one is calling for a total boycott of elections.. 

I will write more later, my machine’s battery is showing a lot of those sweet alarm symbols.

Interview with Siritunga Jayasuriya

(First published in Countercurrents.org)

SIRITUNGA JAYASURIYA, a trade unionist and leader of the United Socialist Party is best-known for being a high-profile Sinhala dissenter against the war on the Tamils in Sri Lanka. A fierce critic of the current regime and an ex-Presidential candidate, Jayasuriya has survived several attempts on his life. His unwavering voice of dissent cannot be silenced wherever he is. During a recent visit to India, he spoke to Meena Kandasamy about the situation in the war-torn island and bravely answered questions on India’s role in the war. 

Meena Kandasamy : You were telling me about your friend Deshapriya who had to flee Sri Lanka because he happens to be a mediaperson with his own individual and independent opinion. Right now, a lot of coverage especially in the Tamil Nadu press is about how Sinhalese journalists have been forced to flee their country just because they are dissenters. What is your take on that?

Siritunga Jayasuriya : You see that is a very good point to start, because not many journalists started their discussion in that angle. Now, many people think Sinhala people live okay, and that the problems lie with the Tamils. I think that is not the correct picture. Of course, Tamils are the worst-hit victims, but at the same time, the Sinhala people are also victimized. The first victim of war is democracy, followed by rights of all the people. 

[Read the rest of this one-hour interview here. IMHO, it was one of the scariest interviews I have done so far. Everytime he spoke, I was wondering about what would be the repurcussions of his statement back home, in Sri Lanka. If he will be safe there, if the Army's goons attack him, if his family can live peacefully. I just admire the man's courage. It's one thing to be Tamil to oppose the genocide, but it takes quite a bit of daring to be Sinhala and oppose the Sri Lankan Government and its war. . . ]

Hitting below the belt

Yesterday I went to the black flag rally organized by the Lankan Tamils Protection Movement under ayya Nedumaran. I also stayed back for the public meeting that followed. And there were certain things that did not escape my notice: 

I am really scared that this Eelam Tamils protection movement, in spite of its noblest goals, is being used as an anti-DMK vehicle. Everybody (or at least I) expected the meeting to be a platform where our leaders spoke about the necessity for a ceasefire, or the exponentially increasing number of civilian casualites, the Indian government’s inaction, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s adamant approach to carry on the war–or any other pro-Eelam point of interest that will unite all Tamils in Tamil Nadu. That was not the case.

•  Vaiko attacked media for its celebration of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victories and for turning a blind eye toward civilian deaths and sufferings. But, the choicest of his abuse was reserved for Karunanidhi. At one point of time, Vaiko called him an eunuch. I find this disturbing. 
• Ramadoss, demonstrated his medical knowledge by certifying that Karunanidhi lacked mental clarity, or words to that effect. 
• Nedumaran claimed credit for having ghost-written the five resolutions of the TESO conference of the 1980s, refuting the commonly held belief that those “brave” points were put forward by Karunanidhi. 

I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the other speakers, so I cannot say anything about what their political motive was. Everyone else at least kept up some standard of decency in attacking Karunanidhi. To me, this meeting sounded as though Eelam was just a electoral rallying-point. Or a convenient “coming together for seat-sharing” platform.

I don’t have admiration for the DMK, but I resent the fact that a burning issue, a question of life and death for some, is being hijacked for political mud-slinging. It would have at least made sense if the Indian Government was targeted.

I will not bother to devote so much space just to share my disappointment with our politicians attacking one another. The fact is, compared with Muthukumar’s funeral procession, yesterday’s black-flag rally was a very, very tame affair.   Perhaps it could arise from the fact that the funeral procession was totally a students’ affair, it was absolutely spontaneous, whereas yesterday’s black flag procession wasn’t like that. Yet, in yesterday’s procession, whenever someone came up with a pro-Tiger slogan, it would be silenced by some “volunteers” of some of the bigger parties. The presence of those who want to play it so safe will not be suitable for any kind of struggle. Especially for a struggle for the right to self-determination. 

As I write this, the fourth self-immolation suicide has taken place in Tamil Nadu. At least for the sake of these innocent souls who are giving up their lives in the hope of some solution coming about, I hope our politicians will rethink and review themselves, and come out of their routine pettiness.

Students protests and the state’s repressive reaction

On one hand it is the success of the students’ struggle against the genocide of Eelam Tamils that an indefinite closure of all colleges has been announced. My amma says it happened before only in 1965 during the anti-Hindi agitations, my friends say it could have taken place in ’83 or ’87 (again related to the Eelam issue). But this is the first time in my lifetime that I am seeing this happen.

On the other hand, I am deeply upset that the state government issued late-night orders to indefinitely close all colleges. What was the catastrophe that they were trying to avoid? The fact that Muthukumar’s name would be the only thing on everyone’s lips. (It is already on everyone’s cellphone screens–so many messages are doing the rounds)? Or, was it fear that the opposition hartal would in some ways involve the students (with/without colleges being closed, interested students would contribute their bit)? Was it fear that more students would go on fasts, disrupt traffic, and so on (But why have such fear when pro-DMK media virtually blacks out every kind of protest)? Does any one know that the Salem law college students are on the sixth day of their fast unto death? Or that the Tiruchi Law College students are on the fourth day of their protest?

The state should realize that by pushing us underground, or back to our respective villages, our struggle will not be quelled. The state should realize that they are not in British Era, or in Stone Age and wake up to the fact that all of us collectively inhabit this world of sms and mobile phones. So getting students together need not happen only if colleges are open. That is merely a superstitious assumption as far as students are concerned.

I essentially find two major problems with this indefinite closure:

Point one: DMK has no business being so anti-students, so anti-student politics. The DMK thinks that students watch their channels and listen to songs and are a hedonistic generation. We have proved their guesses and their dreams wrong. So, unsure of how to react, they try to use the upperhand of the law and the power of the police. But the DMK could do with a little looking back at history? How did they capture power? Did they not ride high on the strength of student agitations?

Forget amnesia about the past. Perhaps they are plagued by long-term memory loss (my sympathies). Cut to the present.

Point two: Did the state government not try to make use of students. I remember very clearly that in the initial meeting when the Confederation of All Students was formed, on October 20, 2008, we had announced our support to the human chain struggle scheduled for October 22, and we had announced a boycott of classes on October 24. But, the human chain struggles’ date was shifted to October 24 coinciding with the date originally announced by us. At that time, in panic, we called media friends and worried if our independent struggle was being co-opted/hijacked by the state. We had no intention of being a state-sponsored organization. And, how was the human chain held? Students participated in large numbers, but had the state government not “facilitated” that participation? By telling universities and colleges to permit the students go and take part? Why this about turn right now?

The ruling parties are afraid that with elections round the corner, a powerful dissent group like students could prove to be very costly. Especially because they have an extremely just demand (Stop genocide), there’s nothing that can force students to have a rethink.

I am actually pretty sure that such state repression will go a long way in building a solid students’ movement. Intimidation tactics fail to work even against individuals. It will never be effective against students. Especially because the situation in Vanni is becoming more and more hopeless, and 400 thousand civilians are left with no option but death, nobody can afford to remain silent

martyr muthukumar

I went to Muthukumar’s funeral saturday, and though I paid my homage, I never had the courage to look at his face. It was not because I am against curiousity of any kind, it is just that, I couldn’t get the nerve. Since Thursday, I must have read his last letter at least ten times, until I could no longer bear to reread it. Or perhaps, I knew its contents by heart, by then. And every time I read, I cried. It is sad to think that someone wrote so much, so powerfully and then went on to print it, and then go to Shastri bhavan and set himself on fire. 

And he was woefully young and talented. And sharp and critical and brutally frank. There’s no reason why he should have tried to escape from life. I was all the while reminded only of Kasi Anandan ayya’s short poem Poraali (Fighter) You cry/ For the dying. He dies/ For the crying.

That sort of sums up Muthukumar. But I think his mission was successful. He conveyed a message that thousands of public meetings, posters, pamphlets couldn’t convey. I was so disoriented after this letter, I can’t put it down into words. Not here, of all places. It is solely because of Muthukumar that I saw the Tiger flag in Tamil Nadu. It is because of him that I saw placards of the Tamil National Leader Pirapakaran in a massive procession. It is because of him that I witnessed a students’ upsurge on such a scale. It is because of Muthukumar that I heard slogans I would have never had the courage or the context to imagine.

I salute his sacrifice.  

Last week alone, hundreds of Tamil civilians, particularly young children have been killed by the genocidal Sinhalese military. And all of us know, and are afraid to say, that this is India’s war. The escapism that I saw around me, the refusal to acknowledge the reality, the ever-ready helpless shrug, everything’s disappeared. The media and the state government are trying hard to cover up, and to curtail, but no one can singe a blinding sun. There’s only one word on the lips of those I know, and those I love: Tamil Eelam. 

You can’t hear me talking about anything else too.

TAMILS AGAINST GENOCIDE Counsel Bruce Fein in Chennai

The Tamils Against Genocide Counsel Bruce Fein (ex-Deputy Associate Attorney General, USA) was in Chennai recently. We (mainly Dr.Ezhilan who runs Max Foundation and me and our friends) organized a meeting Friday where he addressed select members of the media, and some of the city’s intellectual crowd. Our aim was to get people here understand that the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka is not something that only Tamils should be bothered about, it is something that every human being should react against. 

The meeting went off spectacularly well. And although we didn’t even *dream* of press coverage (we called the media so that they would *know* what was happening, and that would someday reflect on the way in which they covered the atrocities.. .)

Here’s the full-version Tamilnet.com report of his speech. And here’s the story in the New Indian Express (Pressure group bid to put Fonseka in the dock) and in the Times of India (US lawyer wants Lankan leaders tried for genocide) .

And, here’s a pic of Bruce Fein meeting with Dr.Veeramani (we rushed from the meeting venue ICSA to Periyar Thidal which is about five minutes away)..

Bruce Fein with Dr.Veeramani. Also seen are Kali Poongunran (Gen.Sec., DK) myself, and Dr.Ezhilan

Part of the reason why I am throwing myself so totally into this sort of activism is the gravity of what is happening in the Vanni. In the past four days, there have been over 150+ civilian deaths and hundreds more have been maimed/injured for life because of the Sri Lanka Army’s continuous shelling/bombing/what-not. I think the war is in its scariest phase, and I know I cannot sit still.

UPDATE: BRUCE FEIN’S SPEECH VIDEO (in 5 parts), AND THE TAMIL TRANSLATION (in 2 parts) CAN BE ACCESSED ON PERIYAR WEBVISION.