[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 April 2013, 22:41 GMT]The Tamil Nadu student movement that has “thrown up a new young
leadership” that is unaffiliated to any political party and is
challenging the US-sponsored UNHRC resolution on conceptually firm
grounds “clearly shows that here is a new generation of Tamils which is
imagining new political futures,” write Prof MSS Pandian and PhD scholar
A. Kalaiarasan in a commentary published on the April 13 issue of the
Economic and Political Weekly (EPW). In the article titled ‘A Tamil
Spring?’ making a concise sociological analysis of the evolution of the
student protests, the authors show how the student uprising, besides
affecting the mass sentiments of the TN public and effecting greater
awareness on the nuances of the Tamil Eelam struggle, is also
influencing, challenging and changing the political discourse of
parliamentary parties in Tamil Nadu.
Prof MSS Pandian, who teaches at the Centre for Historical Studies at
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, is the author of several
scholarly works on the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, including the
book “Brahmin and Non-Brahmin,” which is considered as major academic
reference for the study of Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu.
Mr
A. Kalaiarasan, a PhD scholar at the Centre for Studies in Regional
Development at JNU, is also a student activist who has worked with
solidarity groups to mobilize support for the cause of the Eezham
Tamils.
Referring to the initiation of the protests from Loyola
College, Chennai against the pro-LLRC US resolution, the demands tabled
by the students and the mass mobilizations that followed, the authors
write “The charter demanded, among other things, a proactive role by the
union government for an independent probe into the war crimes committed
by the Sri Lankan army at the end of Eelam war in 2009, a referendum on
the demand for an independent Tamil state of Eelam and the imposition
of economic sanctions on Sri Lanka.”
“As if to “humour” P
Chidambaram, the union fi nance minister who happens to be an alumnus of
the college, the students promised a non-cooperation movement
mobilising the people of Tamil Nadu not to pay taxes to the union
government.”
“Smelling a political opportunity, politicians –
including those from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the
Congress whose direct and indirect complicity in the Sri Lankan war
crimes needs no mention – made a beeline to the venue of the fast. But
for K V Thangabalu, the former TNCC president, who was heckled with
anti-Congress slogans, most of them were politely welcomed; yet their
overtures were unrequited. The students’ resolve was to keep their
protest unsullied by time-serving politicians.”
“In a midnight
operation, reminiscent of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK) government’s past style, the Tamil Nadu state police broke the
fast on its fourth day. For them, four days were more than enough. Not
only did the fasting students receive support from students from other
colleges, but it also triggered and galvanised a statewide students’
protest against the UNHRC resolution.”
“Thousands of them from
arts and sciences as well as engineering and medical colleges took to
the streets in different parts of the state, small towns were no
exception. The protest in which young men and women participated in
equal strength took varied forms – posters and pamphlets, hunger
strikes, processions, human-chains, effigy-burning, rail and road rokos,
and siege of central government offices.”
The authors also note
how sections in Tamil Nadu, that formerly were generally ‘apolitical’
and aloof, were also roused into participating in protests.
“Significantly,
schoolchildren, accompanied by their teachers and carrying pictures of
the 12-year-old Balachandran, who was shot dead in captivity during the
Eelam war, too conducted their own protest marches. Parents and
teachers, sharing the students’ concerns, tacitly endorsed their action.
After all, three senior staff of the Loyola College kept vigil at the
venue where the students fasted.”
“The fringe could not hold out
for long. They soon joined the mainstream. Sixtynine students from
IIT-Madras, a campus where the only authorised political activity
hitherto has been protesting against caste-based reservation a la the
Youth for Equality and P V Indiresan, expressed their solidarity with
the sentiments on the streets by observing a day-long hunger strike.
About 40 of the students who sat in fast were from north India; and Som
Prakash Singh, an MLA from Bihar, addressed the students.”
“Posters
giving details of the Sri Lankan conflict and its consequences for the
Island Tamils adorned the campus. They were in seven languages,
including Tulu. The IIT-M administration did not disapprove of the
protest. Also, the IT professionals working in some of the IT majors
conducted a human chain protest along Chennai’s ITcorridor. No less than
150 IT professionals took on themselves the task of distributing
pamphlets on Sri Lankan war crimes to the suburban train passengers.
They sought the passengers’ support for the student movement.”
Tamil
political observers also observe that this ‘Tamil Spring’ has witnessed
an active and vibrant participation of young women activists, who are
also emerging as leaders of the struggle. They say that this a new
phenomenon in pro-Tamil Eelam demonstrations in Tamil Nadu and that the
student protests has opened up greater democratic space for Tamil women
activists to articulate their political views on Tamil Eelam.
Giving
a background of the rise of a literate and politically active class of
youth spearheading protests, the symbols from the Eezham Tamils’
liberation struggle used in the protests, the authors further write on
the level of political consciousness of this new generation of
activists.
“Self-assured, articulate and well-informed, they
could rattle ill-informed TV anchors without batting an eyelid and
confidently talk of Geneva convention and Article 370 of the Indian
Constitution. Their understanding of politics too is complex. For
instance, they are deeply aware of the politics that the media has
played and continues to play. A large flex banner which was used in one
of the demonstrations read, “Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The
Official Media Partner: The Hindu”. Indeed, a brilliant summary of the
newspaper’s shameless role in defending the Mahinda Rajapaksa’s
genocidal regime.”
Noting how the student protests’ influenced
political decisions taken by both the ruling and opposition parties in
Tamil Nadu, especially how Ms. Jayalalitha’s government had to concede
to the demands of the students in the form of an assembly resolution,
the authors write that “Political parties no longer lead but are being
led – at least for the moment,” concluding that the student upsurge
makes political prospects for the Indian National Congress, which stood
by and continues to shield the genocidal Sri Lankan state, in Tamil Nadu
bleak.
While lauding the space that EPW provides for critical
articles such as these, Tamil political observers lament the utterly
dishonest position that is taken by its editorials regarding Sri Lanka.
Insiders in Indian media circles state this is largely owing to the
influence of certain individuals who are on the editorial board of the
EPW who toe the CPI(M) party line.
In an editorial on the March
30 issue of the EPW titled “Keep up the Pressure”, the editorial made a
statement that “The new wave of outrage in Tamil Nadu over exposes on
war crimes in Sri Lanka against the minority Tamil citizens during the
Eelam civil war in 2009 does not come as a surprise. A series of
protests led by students and lawyers have demanded that India take a
stronger position in international fora like the United Nations Human
Rights Council (UNHRC), thereby forcing an international investigation
into the war crimes.”
The hollow understanding behind this
statement, ironically, is exposed by the commentary by Prof Pandian and
Mr Kalaiarasan published in the same magazine in next issue.
The
Tamil Nadu student protestors clearly recognize the Eezham Tamils as a
nation and not as minority, recognize what happened to the Eezham Tamils
as genocide and not as war crimes, and demand as a political solution
nothing short than a referendum on the creation of Tamil Eelam.
While
silencing all of these genuine and conceptually clear articulations put
forward by hundreds of thousands of students protesting across Tamil
Nadu, the editorial focuses on attacking “fringe groups” in Tamil Nadu
and on advocating “federalism” claiming that it is the solution demanded
by “minorities in Sri Lanka”.
“One does not expect honesty in
reporting on Sri Lanka from outfits like The Hindu, whose former
editor-in-chief N.Ram was awarded the highest civilian award of Sri
Lanka. But a magazine like EPW, that has a credible name in academic
circles, should not allow a few politically motivated elements in its
board to pass ethically and politically dishonest statements in its
cover especially on a crucial issue like the genocide of a nation,” a
media student from Chennai told TamilNet.
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