Srilankan Diaries

Dual video series where you reflect upon comprehensive visual contents from the Sri Lankan Diaries. Heights of Animosity between India-Sri Lanka The visiting Indian leader signed a controversial peace pact with the Colombo government Sri Lankan Civil War Footage Wanni Operation and the Sri Lankan War rarest clips by Daily News Journalist.

Al Jazeera's picture describing the aftermath                                  f Failure of UN to stop Genocide in Sri Lanka

Being a geographically proximate state of India, Sri Lanka assumes great importance to India. Both India and Sri Lanka are situated in the outer rim areas of the Indian Ocean and, thus, have tremendous potential to develop maritime trade with the Afro-Asian countries and the various other countries of the world. In the context of 116 Indo-Sri Lanka relations, the geo-strategic dimension continues to be as one of the independent variables. Since colonial days, naval strategists have emphasised the importance of Sri Lanka in the defence calculations of India. For the British colonialists, Sri Lanka had been an integral part to the defence of the Indian subcontinent as it served as a vital link in their sea communications eastwards. India after independence, continued to adhere to the principles of strategic importance of Sri Lanka on the lines of the British theory in the sub-continent. This is evident from the fact that in the early years, just after independence and even the years i

Schwartz, waiter, writing on    “The Tamils of Sri Lanka”,     (London Minority Rights Group Report No. 25,    1983) said that only a few leaders men tried to strike a balance between the Sinhalese and Tamils. Kumari Jayawardena, in her article, “Aspects of class and ethnic consciousness in Sri Lanka - II” Mainstreams (Vol. XXI, No. 50, Aug. 13, 1983)4 writes : the Sinhala Buddhists, who felt economically hammed-in, politically oppressed and culturally deprived, found the racist myths and legends and in their search for identity, indulged in violence against ethnic religious minorities Wickramsinghe, Ethnic Politics in Colonial Sri Lanka describes Sri Lanka’s current ethnic conflict in terms of historical movement and incisive examination of Sri Lanka’s modem political and Social history. A book written by Wizesinha, Rajiva, Current Crisis in Sri Lanka, (New Delhi, Navrang, 1986)is also a useful addition to the existing literature. It is author’s firm view that the

The story of Sri Lanka India relations had its own meanderings. A tipsy-topsy ride that changed the South Asian history forever. Sri Lanka diaries bring for you a curated timeline so how it happened as it happened: In 1975 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam forms, start of the war for the rights of Tamil minority of Sri Lanka. Army blocks Jaffna routes which LTTE forays into so as to start what was next going to be called as Sri Lanka civil war. July 1987 India Srilanka go for a peace agreement which was followed by a peace accord signed between the two parties leading India to send peace keeping force in the Sri Lanka. Next came the horrendous event that shook India Sri Lanka relations were the LTTEs successful attempt in assassinating Rajiv Gandhi. A garlanding was done by a suicide bomber on May 1991 which in fact was a murder attempt. Tamil tigers kill Sri Lankan president Premdasa. May 1993. By 1995 Jaffna, the cultural capital of Sri Lanka was un

South Asia has been ridden with internal conflicts in the past, which seems very likely to continue in the future. These conflicts derive from        (a)      Ethno-political causes as for example the several insurgencies continuing in Northeast India, (now spread into Bhutan) Chakma dissatisfaction in Bangladesh, Tamil-Sinhala strife in Sri Lanka, Mohajir-Sindhi struggle in Pakistan and so on . (b)       Communal - religious causes, as for example communal rioting in several parts of the subcontinent, the Sikh militancy which obtained in the Punjab and Islamic fundamentalism which complicates the present militancy in Kashmir . (c)       Socio-economic causes as for example caste violence and Naxalism in various parts of India and the sectarian violence which persists in Karachi. Clearly none of these causes of Internal conflicts are neatly separable. The Tamil-Sinhala strife in Sri Lanka, for instance, has a Hindu - Buddhist undertone. Similarly, t

Indian intervention in Sri Lanka was more than political rustling of South India or the helping hand Indian forces were giving to their neighbours to bring back normalcy to the northern region which was badly being affected by the riots caused by ethnic polarities which was increasingly widened by two factors. Majorly that are regional politics and the Indian decision to step in supporting an extreme group that was Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Here discussing operation Poonamalai is important. While Srilankan Govt. was expecting moderate approach from Indian counterpart but the intensity of riots in which casualities were mainly Tamil civilians. It was June 3rd of 1984, Jaffna was under total blockade by army men from Colombo who were going hard and fast at the Tamil seperatist groups. Fighter planes standing at Gwalior Air Force station received an unusual request. The Mahrajpur Air Force station was not ending the day that early as the evening schedule since the orde

As far as the demography is concerned Srilankan and Indian territorial boundaries are less pertinent because of ethnic similarity across the borders of two nations. Tamilians in Tamil Nadu and Tamilians in the Srilankan region acted virtually as a unit towards a motive that spoke of Tamilian autonomy or least of equal participation in the administration of the Srilanka. Tamil people in the ruling part of Tamil Nadu pressurised the Indian Government to resolve the matters in Srilankan province which has in the  70s and 80s resonated with every riot that has taken place between the two communities in the island country. The debate was clearly us vs them when the successive governments in Srilanka failed to show any kind of support towards Tamilians in the northern and eastern parts of the country. The reason was simple: they feared separation. In Tamil Nadu political parties camouflaged their own goods and bads amidst the 1983 riots where they were trying to use political influence

The extremist groups of Srilanka like LTTE along with smaller such groups by the 1970s had forged a more than sympathetic relations with Tamilian political parties across the border. LTTE chief also had camaraderie with leaders like Karunanidhi, Veeramani. The parties in India were Tamil Movement and Dravidar Kazagham. Now Indian Central Govt. faced another issue that was the global eye of US and Britain where it was certain that intervention of the big power here, in this case, India in Srilanka's internal matters which would have raised the question of an interference on the sovereignty of the smaller nation. At the same time, Indian Government was ready to continue its moderate approach on the island nation. These parties backed separation of Srilankan State, with Tamil Eelam as the region(North and Northeast) Tamilians in the Srilankan region were demanding not only autonomy in the state but were also demanding equal opportunities for admission in the Srilankan Universitie