The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 37 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part37.

htm

The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon

Part 37

Sachi Sri Kantha

[28 June 2002]

Why is He ‘Loved’ by the Tamils?

The Most Abused Four-Letter Word
In my opinion, the most abused four-letter word in English is not
the F-word rhyming with ‘luck’, but the L-word ‘love’. The
F-word is abused only by the vocabulary-challenged comics and
teenagers with glands bubbling with sex hormones. Contrastingly,
the word ‘love’ is abused not only by teenagers, but also by creeps
of all sorts – including the malcontented clergy of all
denominations, baby-kissing politicians, toady journalists,
scheming spouses and slothful speechwriters.

That love is universal to all cultures is an unchallenged fact. But

the pointer that markers (or tags) of love are culture-specific is
routinely overlooked. While an open expression of love is
permissible in the Las Vegas or London airports, the same act
would raise eyebrows and scorn in Chennai or Tehran airports.
Why I mention this is to indicate the ignorance shown by foreign
journalists in evaluating whether Pirabhakaran is loved or not by
Tamils in Eelam and elsewhere. To cite an example, the unsigned
editorialist of the Economist magazine began an editorial,
published before the 2000 general election in Sri Lanka, with the
following sentence:
“In Northern Sri Lanka, the secessionist Tamil Tigers are
feared and even respected, but seldom loved.” [Economist,
London, Oct.7, 2000; pp.19-20]

What was not mentioned is how did he measure the ‘love’ among
the Eelam Tamils for Pirabhakaran? It cannot be measured that
easily by a fly-by night, non-Tamil speaking journalist, by asking
the residents of Jaffna through a translator-interpreter whether they
‘love’ the Tamil Tigers. Even if that particular journalist gathered

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some ‘negative answers’ to his question from the Eelam residents,

unless he or she is a behavioral-psychologist or cultural-
anthropologist, the accuracy and validity of the answers given to
strangers would be of dubious quality. To comprehend how love is
expressed and shared by Tamil culture, one should study it in
depth – investing time, money and energy. Also wanted for this
exercise is an unbiased heart, which seems distinctly lacking in the
unsigned pieces published in the Economist magazine. Luckily for
Tamils, there exists one study by Margaret Trawick, the professor
of social anthropology at the Massey University, New Zealand,
who had endured to investigate how love is expressed among the
20th century Tamils.

In this chapter, I will first identify the culture-specific markers for

love in Tamil culture so that one can assess how much
Pirabhakaran is loved in more objective terms rather than the
subjective, half-baked pronouncements of culturally blind-folded
journalists who dominate the international newsmedia. Secondly, I
will explain why Pirabhakaran is loved by the Tamils.

Margaret Trawick’s Study on Tamil Love

In 1993, I reviewed Margaret Trawick’s work, Notes on Love in a
Tamil Family (1990) for the Tamil Nation monthly [May 1993]. I
provide excerpts from this review below.
“According to the author, for Tamils, anpu (as Tamils know
‘love’ in a broader sense) has the following nine properties.
1. containment (adakkam): Open expression of love is to
be restrained, even if it is mother love. Tamils also do
not express love among opposite sexes openly.
2. habit (pazhakkam): Attachment, or a sense of oneness
with a person or thing or activity, grows slowly, by
habituation.
3. harshness and cruelty (kadumai and kodumai):
Physical affection for children is expressed not
through caresses but roughly, in the form of painful
pinches, slaps and tweaks. The movie song, ‘Adikkira
kai thaan Anaikkum; Anaikkira kai thaan adikkum’
(Hitting hand will hold, and holding hand will hit)
expresses this sentiment beautifully.

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4. dirtiness (azhukku): ‘Defiance of rules or purity

conveyed a message of union and equality and was a
way of teaching children and onlookers where love
was’, tells the author. This is exemplified by mother’s
care of baby’s bodily excretions and the host’s
cleaning of guest’s plate of food (echchil).
5. humility (panivu): Love is implicated in expressions
of humility and patience (porumai, the strength to
sustain and endure).
6. poverty and simplicity (ezhumai and elimai): Self
renunciation of luxury (such as fancy clothes and
jewellery) for the cause of a loved one, as expressed in
sentiments like, ‘I don’t want new clothes…as long as
you are sick’.
7. servitude (adimai): Illustrated as the servant of God,
who receives the highest respect among the civilians.
Elimination of the boastful ‘I’ (Naan) and substituting
with the self deprecating ‘this slave’ (Adiyen),
exemplified by Tamil saints of the past.
8. opposition and reversal (ethirttal and puratchi):
Characterized by the use of very intimate suffix, -di
(for girl) and –da (for boy) among family members and
close pals. When these intimate forms of address are
used by acquaintances or strangers, they become
derogatory.
9. mingling and confusion (kalattal and mayakkam):
Love erases distinction completely and mingle
everyone, typified by the adage, ‘We are all one’
(Onrae kulam – Oruvane Thevan). In addition, love
leads to dizziness, confusion, intoxication and
delusion (mayakkam).
All these nine cultural markers of Tamil love are indicated in
the love Tamils have shown for Pirabhakaran.
1. containment: One cannot ask a Tamil, like in
Gallup-poll, to find out whether he or she loves
Pirabhakaran or not. Prudent Tamils will not answer in
the affirmative. It is a very private issue, like what the
Americans consider the details of their individual
paychecks.

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2. habit: Remember that in the first 10 years of Tamil

militancy (circa 1975-1985), there were many who
competed for the leadership role with Pirabhakaran.
Some who were even trained in the PLO camps and
Israeli camps. They only turned out to be mercenaries
(for the arms of Sri Lankan and Indian governments)
and later metamorphosed into parliamentary
seat-warmers. Tamils came to accept Pirabhakaran,
only after he proved his mettle. Cynics may quip that
Pirabhakaran physically eliminated his rivals to reach
the pinnacle. But Eelam Tamils also came to be
convinced that his rivals for leadership had
self-destructed themselves by ill-judgments, and also
by deviating from the path of ‘Eelam’ for which they
had pledged to work. It is not an exaggeration to
reiterate that among the 60 plus million Tamils living
today, considering the impossibility of the aim of
establishing an army, none had followed the Edison
formula for success (constituting three simple
elements: hard work, common sense and ‘stick-
to-it’iveness spirit) diligently like Pirabhakaran for the
past 25 years. Pirabhakaran also shares some of
Edison’s peculiar background in that he was a ‘semi-
literate’ in the fool’s world of literacy, boasting of
prefixes ‘Oxford’, ‘Harvard’ and ‘Sorbonne’ linked by
a hyphen to the word ‘educated’, or prefixes
‘Sandhurst’ and ‘West Point’ linked by a hyphen to
the word ‘trained’.
3. harshness and cruelty: Loving Pirabhakaran was (and
is) no bed of roses. The harshness and cruelty were
absorbed as part of the package, for the pride his
movement has delivered to the Tamils.
4. dirtiness: Of course, that Pirabhakaran was not from
the dominant Hindu Vellala caste has been accepted by
the Tamils. The ‘dirtiness’ in the Brahminical world
view has been completely ignored.
5. humility: The pain of routine ridicule, delivered from
the political pulpit and press desks in Colombo,
Chennai, Washington DC and London, for loving
Pirabhakaran is tolerated by Tamils with humility.

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6. poverty and simplicity: With whatever scale one

measures the quality of life in Eelam during the past
two decades, an apparent economic poverty and
simplicity is visible in the places where Pirabhakaran
is loved. Still the Eelam Tamils endure this hardship
for love of Pirabhakaran and his ideological goal.
7. servitude: His adversaries, like the operatives of the
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), may
ridicule the decorating terms such as ‘Suriyathevan’
and other word-plays, but Tamils who love
Pirabhakaran serve him in various fronts – in his army,
and as support cast under much hardship. Servitude is
a cultural marker in Tamil love, which cannot be
understood by culture-challenged academics,
journalists and paid report-writers.
8. opposition and reversal: This cultural marker doesn’t
need explanation, since there was opposition to
Pirabhakaran for his methods, especially among the
older generation. The opposition was mainly due to
generational conflict, who were familiar with the
Gandhian path of non-violence and couldn’t grasp the
post-Gandhian scenario that gun holders dictate terms
in global politics.
9. mingling and confusion: This cultural marker for love
among Tamils, towards Pirabhakaran, is
self-explanatory if one observes the existing pattern in
Tamil Nadu.

To continue my review of Margaret Trawick’s book,

“The author also observes, ‘Within the nuclear family, four
relationships seemed to be especially important to the Tamil
people whom I knew. These wee the mother-daughter,
father-son, husband-wife, and brother-sister relationships.’
The love links between these four relationships are identified
the author as follows:
‘A man sees his son as a continuation of himself: A woman
sees herself as a continuation of her mother; The bond
between brother and sister is strong but must be denied; The
bond between husband and wife is conflictual but difficult to
sever.’

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As an example for the sentiments of sibling love among

Tamils, the author has presented in the book, the following
duet:
‘Brother:
You were born to win many battles
With your elephants and armies
You were born to marry your aunt’s daughter
And live in joyful love!
Sister:
Shall I tell you know my brother
brought me up like a darling daughter,
sheltered me under his wing?
Shall I tell you of the unimaginable
Misfortune which separated us?
Both:
We were born together,
Joined like the eye and the pupil,
Like the pupil and the image within!
Though the earth and sea and sky
Should come to an end,
We shall not forget our love,
Nothing can break our bond!’
This duet is none other than an English translation of that
touching lullaby, ‘Malarnthum malaraatha paathi malar
pola’, penned by poet Kannadasan (whose name is not
mentioned in the book!) for the hit movie, Pasa Malar. The
author has stated that this particular movie, although released
in the early 1960s, still enjoy mass appeal among the Tamils,
for extolling the sentiments of sibling love. Of course, this
lullaby duet of Kannadasan should be enjoyed in the original
(not presented in the book) since translation does not do
merit to the beauty and cadence of the poet’s choice of Tamil
words in expressing sibling love. Kannadasan also made an
elegant use of the very intimate suffix, -da (for boy) to
express intimacy and love, in this lullaby. In original
(undoubtedly, a vintage Kannadasan), the cited duet reads
like this:
Brother:
Yaanai padai kondu Chenai pala venru
Aala piranthaayada – Puvi aala piranthaayada

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Aththai mahalai manam kondu ilamai vazhi kandu

Vaazha piranthaayada
Sister:
Sirahil enai moodi arumai mahal pole
Valartha kathai sollava
Kanavil ninaiyaatha kaalam idai vanthu
Piriththa kathai sollava
Both:
Kannin mani pola maniyil nizhal pola
kalanthu piranthomada
Intha mannum kadal vaanum
Marainthu mudinthaalum
Marakka mudiyaathada – Uravai
Pirikka mudiyaathada.”
Any Tamil who has siblings of opposite sex feel soothed by
the intimacy and love when he or she hums the lines of this
wonderful and powerful lullaby, and for Tamil siblings of any
age who live separated by current national boundaries, these
lines will bring tears in their eyes from the reminiscences of
events shared in love.
Now, the love shown for Pirabhakaran by his thousands of
cadres can be easily explained by the lines of this particular
lullaby of Kannadasan extolling sibling love. Even the lines,
Yaanai padai kondu Chenai pala venru – Aala
piranthaayada, in the lullaby appears to confirm the
blessings Pirabhakaran has received from Providence. Unless
those non-Tamil sociologists, journalists, quasi human rights
activists and politicians who fault Pirabhakaran for
‘brainwashing’ young Tamil teenagers dip in the sentimental
pool extolled by Kannadasan in the Tamil original, they will
miss comprehending why Pirabhakaran is loved, despite all
the bad mouthing he is served with.

Why Pirabhakaran is loved by Tamils?

In a monthly column I wrote to the Tamil Nation (Nov.15, 1992)
under my nom-de-plume C.P.Goliard, I had hinted the answers for
this question. Thus, it is more than appropriate I reproduce this
column in entirety, though I have not mentioned the name
Pirabhakaran in it. Here it is, as it appeared ten years ago. I have
not changed the time markers within the text.

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The Status of the Tamil Language

“It was Winston Churchill who once said, ‘The farther
backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to
see’. So, to learn the future status of Tamil language, one
should study its past. This column summarises some salient
features of the past history of Tamils till 1900.
Tamil is the leading member of the Dravidian family of
languages, which consists of over 20 languages spoken
traditionally in the Indian subcontinent. The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of Language (1991), authored by David
Crystal, observes that, ‘Tamil has the oldest written records
of this family, dating from the 3rd century BC, and scholars
believe, it to be close to the ancestor language, known as
Proto-Dravidian. But, despite the historical records and
associated reconstruction, there is little agreement about the
origins of the language, or its speakers. One tradition speaks
of migration from land to the south, now submerged; other
views suggest a movement from Asia, via the north-west,
perhaps around 4,000 BC…There is, however, strong support
for the view that Dravidian languages were once spoken in
the north of India, and were gradually displaced by the arrival
of the Indo-European invaders.’
Aramaic and Tamil
Recently, the monthly magazine The Middle East (Aug.1991)
reported that Aramaic, the language in which Jesus would
have preached to his followers two millennia ago, is on the
verge of extinction. Therefore, it is appropriate to compare
the past development of Aramaic and Tamil simultaneously.
In terms of generational scale, one millennium consists of
only 40 generations (In 25 years, one generation produces its
progeny to continue the cultural traditions.) Therefore, only
80 generations separate us from the time of Jesus and the
Apostles.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Ed, 1990),
Aramaic language was the lingua franca of the Near East
around 500 BC (when Buddha was reforming Hinduism in
India). The Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds as well as
portions of the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezra were
written in Aramaic. It had its greatest influence in the Middle
East culture from circa 300 BC until circa AD 650, and was

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supplanted by Arabic. Now, the western dialect of Aramaic is

spoken by only 6,000-odd residents of a mountain village
Maaloula, which lies 50 km north of Damascus, Syria. The
eastern dialect of Aramaic survives in a few villages of Iraq,
southern Turkey and the southwestern Soviet Union.
Two millennia ago, the world population was around 250
million. It is an irony that though the message of Jesus Christ
had spread all over the world in multitude of languages, the
mother tongue of the Messiah is now struggling to survive.
The Tamil language was relatively lucky to have strong
vitality for the past 2,000 years. It has been estimated that at
the time of Jesus, India had a population of about 100
million. The Tamil-speaking population in India and Eelam
would have been in the range of 8-10 million, two millennia
ago. Within 80 generations, Tamil continue to survive, but
Aramaic is now on the verge of extinction. How did this
happen?
Four ‘C’ Powers
I can postulate the influence of four ‘C’ powers, which
enabled Tamil to live and Aramaic to struggle for survival.
These are, cerebral (cultural) power, commercial power,
crown (and civil) power and combat power. It is the
combination of these four powers which had allowed the
Tamil language to survive till now. Let me illustrate the
significant roles of these four ‘C’ powers briefly.
Cerebral (cultural) power
The cerebral power of approximately 1,000 intellectuals at
the most, during the past 80 generations, was influential in
elevating Tamil into a culturally rich language. The authors of
Tolkappiyam, eight anthologies of secular poetry of the
sangam period and Tirukkural (all written between the 1st and
4th century AD), the religious saints collectively called 63
Nayanars, great poets of merit (Ilanko, Kamban and Auvayar),
goliards (Kavi Kalameham and Arumuga Navalar), composers
(Arunagirinathar, Arunasala Kavirayar and Gopalakrishna
Bharathy), folk physicians collectively named Chittars and
religious hymnodists (Pattinattar, Thayumanavar and
Ramalinga Swamigal) produced voluminous literary material
to enrich the Tamil language.
Commercial power

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Tamils had indulged in commerce with other nations from

time immemorial. Till 500 years ago, marine navigation has
been one of the strong points which symbolized the Tamil
commercial power and combat power. Prof. Walter Wallbank
observed in his book, A Short History of India and Pakistan
(1958), ‘In general, Tamil civilization was very advanced,
based as it was on a flourishing sea trade, Tamil rulers,
especially the Cholas, had great fleets which sailed to
Ceylon, Burma, Java and even the Far East. In 45 AD, the use
of the monsoon in navigation had been discovered and, taking
advantage of these prevailing winds, ships could now cross
the Arabian Sea instead of hugging the coast. The trade of
Tamil Land with Rome was particularly active, as Europe
greatly prized the spices, perfumes, precious stones and
textiles of south India. Several Roman colonies were set up in
Tamil Land, and it has been estimated that the annual drain
from Rome to India approximated 4 million dollars.”
Crown (and Civil) Power
Jawarhalal Nehru, in his Glimpses of World History, makes
reference to the crown (and civil) power Tamils enjoyed
between the 3rd century AD and the end of 12th century.
Almost 60 years ago, in a letter dated June 23, 1932, to
daughter Indira, Nehru wrote,
‘Farther south and east in India lay the Tamil country. Here
from the 3rd century to the 9th, for about 600 years, the
Pallavas ruled…it was these Pallavas who sent out
colonizing expeditions to Malaysia and the Eastern Islands.
The capital of the Pallava state was Kanchi or Conjeevaram,
a beautiful city then and even now remarkable for its wise
town-planning.
The Pallavas give place to the aggressive Cholas early in the
10th century. I have told you something of the Chola Empire
of Rajaraja and Rajendra, who built great fleets and went
conquering to Ceylon, Burma and Bengal. More interesting
is the information we have of the elective village panchayat
system they had. This system was built up from below,
village unions electing many committees to look after
various kinds of work, and also electing district unions.
Several districts formed a province.’
Then, Nehru describes about the rise of ‘Pandya kingdom,

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with Madura for its capital and Kayal as its port. A famous
traveler from Venice, Marco Polo, visited Kayal, the port,
twice in 1288 and in 1293. He describes the town as a great
and noble city, full of ships from Arabia and China, and
humming with business.’
Combat Power
The combat power, which had been inter-twined with the
crown power and commercial power, hardly needs further
description. The combat history of the Pallava, Chola and
Pandya dynasties has been recorded by many historians,
including Nehru.
In the letter quoted above, Nehru succinctly summarized the
Tamil combat power in one paragraph. ‘The Tamil Pallavas
rise on the east coast and the south and for a very long period
they hold sway. They colonize in Malaysia. After 600 years
of rule, they give place to the Cholas, who conquer distant
lands and sweep the seas with their navies. Three hundred
years later they retire from the scene, and the Pandyan
kingdom emerges into prominence, and the city of Madura
becomes a centre of culture and Kayal a great and busy port
in touch with distant countries.’
Nehru also infers another interesting point from the
observation recorded by Marco Polo on the medieval Tamil
Nadu. The chronicler from Venice had written about the
imports of large number of horses into south India by sea
from Arabia and Persia (currently Iran). Nehru noted, ‘It is
said that one of the reasons why the Muslim invaders of India
were better fighters was their possession of the better horses.
The best horse-breeding grounds in Asia were under their
control.’ This suggests that the medieval Tamil military
strategists were preparing themselves to stop the Muslim
invasion spreading towards south India, at the time of Marco
Polo’s visit.
The Past 500 Years
Well, the history of past five centuries (only 20 generations)
show the decline of crown power, combat power and
commercial power among the Tamils in Tamil Nadu and
Eelam. Only the cerebral power sustained the Tamil language
to its current status. The languages which were relatively late
entrants to the cultural world such as English, French,

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Spanish and Arabic gained elevated status because those who

spoke these languages began to dominate the world by crown
power, commercial power and combat power.”

The greatness in Pirabhakaran is that he dreamt and established an

army, to reassert the combat power of Tamils, and thereby regain
the crown (and civil) power of Tamils. While tens of thousands of
other 60 million plus Tamils had concentrated only on achieving
some cerebral power to gain status (and I am one typical example
of this group), only Pirabhakaran thought of establishing the
combat power for Tamils. By this, Pirabhakaran brought the
mind-set of the Tamil ethnics from the ‘bullock-cart’ age of the
19th century to at least the ‘bullet-train’ age of the 20th century.
With all due respect to Mahatma Gandhi, whether one likes it or
not, guns and bullets have served well in gaining independence,
freedom and status from the oppressors. Though handicapped in
textbook education, Pirabhakaran chose the paths of Washington
and Mao rather than Gandhi to liberate the homeland of Eelam
Tamils. This is why Pirabhakaran is loved by Tamils.

Mahindapala’s Angle on Pirabhakaran’s ‘greatest

achievement’
For over 10 years, H.L.D. Mahindapala remains as the most
virulent critic of Pirabhakaran. His bias in twisting the history of
Ceylon to suit his Sinhala-Buddhist blinders in any debate
eliminates him as an impartial analyst of multi-cultural Ceylon.
While taking into account these deficiencies, I still like to present
his angle on Pirabhakaran’s ‘greatest achievement’, since the issue
he focuses is one which had been an Achilles’ Heel for Eelam
Tamils.

In a debate on caste system he engaged with me in 1996,

Mahindapala built up a case that the Prevention of Social
Disabilities Act, 1957 of S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike “stands as a
monumental landmark not only to the liberal spirit of the
Sinhalese but also to the enlightened and pioneering efforts of
reforming the dismal and the discriminatory legacy left behind by
five centuries of colonial rulers.” [Lanka Guardian, March 15,
1996, pp.3-5]

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Mahindapala continued,
“However, the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act ran into
serious obstacles laid by the all-powerful upper-caste in
Jaffna to block its implementation. Undeniably, the greatest
achievement of Mr.Prabhakaran is in the dismantling of the
obscene and the oppressive caste system in Jaffna that
dehumanized Jaffna society since the coming of the Dutch.
The act of Tamil youths taking up arms was a double-edged
weapon – (1) against the Sinhalese, and (2) against the
upper-caste Tamils of Jaffna who have been their oppressors
for generations…” [ibid]

In a subsequent passage, Mahindapala observed,

“…The two-pronged machinations of the Jaffna upper-caste
to retain their traditional supremacy were directed
simultaneously against (1) the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist
governments’ and (2) their own sub-castes. They held on to
their precarious positions by pitting (2) against (1). Naturally,
they resented any outside interference that would threaten
their prestige, position and power in Jaffna. This point is
illustrated amply in the obstructionist tactics of the
Chelvanayakams and Ponnambalams to the Prevention of
Social Disabilities Act…” [ibid]

Mahindapala is an obnoxious polemicist, afflicted with amnesia. If

the Social Disabilities Act of 1957 passed by the padre
Bandaranaike Cabinet was such a boon to the low-caste Tamils in
Jaffna, how come the Sri Lankan armed forces which came directly
under the purview of widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike failed to
notice it? Why the Kandyan Govigama Buddhists (KGB in short)
initiated a policy of ethnic cleansing in the island’s armed forces
since 1962, which in turn facilitated the rise of Pirabhakaran’s
army? I will deal with Mahindapala’s writings in a separate
essay, so as not to dilute the focus of this series.

Bruce Hoffman’s erroneous perceptions on Pirabhakaran

and LTTE
The answer to the question ‘Why Pirabhakaran is loved by the
Eelam Tamils’ is that he internationalized the Eelam Tamil
campaign for freedom and independence, unlike anyone who

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preceded him as Tamil leaders. The path he took to promote his

cause was untouched by the Tamils for the past 500 years. He
sharpened the ‘combat power’ of Tamils, which had been blunted
by the manacles of casteism.

This point surfaces in an article entitled ‘A Nasty Business’,

which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly magazine of January 2002.
The author of this article is Bruce Hoffman, who is identified in
the magazine as ‘a terrorism analyst at the Rand Corporation’. For
those who are unaware, I wish to note that the Rand Corporation
has extensive links with the Pentagon. It is also not improper to
infer that Bruce Hoffman’s links to the Israeli agents are not weak.
From his descriptions, he appears to be one of the American
advisors who have availed their expertise to the Sri Lankan armed
forces (since the days of Lalith Athulathmudali) to neutralize
Pirabhakaran. Thus, his sanitized version of a project report
should be of considerable interest to Eelam Tamils.

Some caveat is needed before I provide Hoffman’s impressions in

length. On superficial reading, his description of his experience in
Colombo presents an uncomplimentary picture of the Tamil
Tigers. Thus, the readers are advised first to ignore the pejorative
remarks on LTTE, relating to the reported terrorist acts and
assassinations, since Hoffman uses non-confirming words and
phrases like, ‘arguably’, ‘believed to be’ and ‘believed to have’.
Secondly, readers should focus on the profile of a Sri Lankan army
officer, identified with the pseudonym Thomas. Undoubtedly,
Thomas is a Sinhalese and he cannot be a poster-guy to the
professional wing of the maligned Sri Lankan armed forces. This
what Hoffman had observed:
“…I learned this some years ago, on a research trip to Sri
Lanka. The setting – a swank oceanfront hotel in Colombo, a
refreshingly cool breeze coming off the ocean, a magnificent
sunset on the horizon – could not have been further removed
from the carnage and destruction that have afflicted that
island country for the past eighteen years and have claimed
the lives of more than 60,000 people. Arrayed against the
democratically elected Sri Lankan government and its armed
forces [Note by Sri Kantha: Without any criticism, Hoffman
had glossed over the emaciated form of Sri Lankan
democracy and the racially segregated army akin to the
pre-World War II American army.] is perhaps the most

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ruthlessly efficient terrorist organization-cum-insurgent force

in the world today: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
known also by the acronym LTTE or simply as the Tamil
Tigers. The Tigers are unique in the annals of terrorism and
arguably eclipse even bin Laden’s al Qaeda in
professionalism, capability, and determination. They are
believed to be the first nonstate group in history to stage a
chemical-weapons attack when they deployed poison gas in a
1990 assault on a Sri Lankan military bases – some five years
before the nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the
apocalyptic Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo. Of
greater relevance, perhaps, is the fact that at least a decade
before the seaborne attack on the USS Cole, in Aden harbor,
the LTTE’s special suicide maritime unit, the Sea Tigers, had
perfected the same tactics against the Sri Lankan navy.
Moreover, the Tamil Tigers are believed to have developed
their own embryonic air capability – designed to carry out
attacks similar to those of September 11 (though with much
smaller, noncommercial aircraft). The most feared Tiger unit,
however, is the Black Tigers – the suicide cadre composed of
the group’s best-trained, most battle-hardened, and most
zealous fighters. A partial list of their operations includes the
assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi at a campaign stop in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu,
in 1991; the assassination of Sri Lankan President
Ranasinghe Premadasa, in 1993; the assassination of the
presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake, which also
claimed the lives of fifty-four bystanders and injured about
one hundred more, in 1994; the suicide truck bombing of the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka, in 1996, which killed eighty-six
people and wounded 1,400 others; and the attempt on the life
of the current President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika
Kumaratunga, in December of 1999. The powerful and much
venerated leader of the LTTE is Velupillai Prabhakaran, who,
like bin Laden, exercises a charismatic influence over his
fighters. The Battle of Algiers is said to be one of
Prabhakaran’s favorite films.” [Note by Sri Kantha: For
balance, Hoffman should have provided “a partial list of
operations” carried out under the orders of his identified
‘victims’ Rajiv Gandhi, Premadasa, Dissanayake and
Kumaratunga, which had caused the lives and limbs of tens of
thousands of Eelam Tamils since 1981. But he cannot do it

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for practical reasons, since he had authored this paragraph to

project a cuddly image of his Sri Lankan benefactors, and to
show the gullible readers of the Atlantic Monthly that his
benefactors were fighting a terrorist force on behalf of the
‘democratically elected Sri Lankan government’.]

Hoffman’s description of the action of a former Sri Lankan army

officer Thomas, then followed in the next paragraph:
“I sat in that swank hotel drinking tea with a much decorated,
battle-hardened Sri Lankan army officer charged with
fighting the LTTE and protecting the lives of Colombo’s
citizens. I cannot use his real name, so I will call him
Thomas. However, I had been told before our meeting, by the
mutual friend – a former Sri Lankan intelligence officer who
had also long fought the LTTE – who introduced us (and was
present at our meeting), that Thomas had another name, one
better known to his friends and enemies alike: Terminator.
My friend explained how Thomas had acquired his sobriquet;
it actually owed less to Arnold Schwarzenegger than to the
merciless way in which he discharged his duties as an
intelligence officer. This became clear to me during our
conversation. ‘By going through the process of laws’,
Thomas patiently explained, as a parent or a teacher might
speak to a bright yet uncomprehending child, ‘you cannot
fight terrorism’. Terrorism, he believed, could be fought only
by thoroughly ‘terrorizing’ the terrorists – that is, inflicting
on them the same pain that they inflict on the innocent.
Thomas had little confidence that I understood what he was
saying. I was an academic, he said, with no actual experience
of the life-and-death choices and the immense responsibility
borne by those charged with protecting society from attack.
Accordingly, he would give me an example of the split-
second decisions he was called on to make. At the time,
Colombo was on ‘code red’ emergency status, because of
intelligence that the LTTE was planning to embark on a
campaign of bombing public gathering places and other
civilian targets. Thomas’s unit had apprehended three
terrorists who, it suspected, [Note by Sri Kantha: This should
be noted that Thomas’s unit had just suspected! – to
comprehend the demented mind of Thomas and what he did
subsequently on his suspicion.] had recently planted
somewhere in the city a bomb that was then ticking away, the

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minutes counting down to catastrophe. The three men were

brought before Thomas. He asked them where the bomb was.
The terrorists – highly dedicated and steeled to resist
interrogation – remained silent. Thomas asked the question
again, advising them that if they did not tell him what he
wanted to know, he would kill them. They were unmoved. So
Thomas took his pistol from his gun belt, pointed it at the
forehead of one of them, and shot him dead. The other two,
he said, talked immediately; the bomb, which had been
placed in a crowded railway station and set to explode during
the evening rush hour, was found and defused, and countless
lives were saved. On other occasions, Thomas said, similarly
recalcitrant terrorists were brought before him. It was not
surprising, he said, that they initially refused to talk; they
were schooled to withstand harsh questioning and coersive
pressure. No matter: a few drops of gasoline flicked into a
plastic bag that is then placed over a terrorist’s head and
cinched tight around his neck with a web belt very quickly
prompts a full explanation of the details of any planned
attack.
I was looking pale and feeling a bit shaken as waiters in
starched white jackets smartly cleared the china teapot and
cups from the table, and Thomas rose to bid us good-bye and
return to his work. He hadn’t exulted in his explanations or
revealed any joy or even a hint of pleasure in what he had to
do. He had spoken throughout in a measured, somber, even
reverential tone. He did not appear to be a sadist, or even
manifestly homicidal. (And not a year has passed since our
meeting when Thomas has failed to send me an unusually
kind Christmas card.)… [Atlantic Monthly, Jan.2002;
pp.49-52]

The above description by Hoffman on Pirabhakaran and LTTE has

to be taken in the spirit it was written. This American ‘expert’ was
a paid consultant to the Sri Lankan armed forces and he had
presented his impressions to the American readership of the
Atlantic Monthly, for the payment he and his employer (Rand
Corporation) received. Nevertheless, he also had exposed the
activities of sick-minded terrorists like Thomas, though Hoffman
states imprudently that “He [Thomas, that is] did not appear to be

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a sadist, or even manifestly homicidal.” From the information

provided by Hoffman, I assembled the following:
1. Hoffman had visited Colombo “some years ago”, and he
mentions finally that “Not a year has passed since our
meeting when Thomas has failed to send me an unusually
kind Christmas card.” Literally this means, some years have
passed by. Could it be that Hoffman has not met this
Thomas again?
2. LTTE cadres involved in such high-profile operations, if
they are caught, are known to swallow the cyanide capsules.
Nothing is mentioned about any one of the three suspects in
the story trying to ingest cyanide, or that the interrogators
had successfully prevented such ingestion.
3. Thus, Thomas may have provided a composite story linking
the shooting of one innocent suspect in point blank, and
another two being interrogated for planting a bomb in
Colombo. Other than the point-blank shooting, the
purported ‘success’ of Thomas could even be a fib to
impress the American guest, since other corroborating
details are missing. This is important, since in the previous
paragraph, Hoffman specifically lists the ‘terrorist acts of
LTTE.’ Then, one wonders why he failed to ask Thomas
‘When this particular terrorist act of ‘bomb in a crowded
railway station’ during rush hour was averted? Hoffman also
does not inform the readers whether how he confirmed the
success of Thomas independently.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Eelam Tamils know for the
past three decades that Pirabhakaran emerged from the generation
of Eelam Tamils who were at the receiving end of the atrocities of
the likes of Thomas and his predecessors. Pirabhakaran and LTTE
cadres have been repeatedly criticized for their zeal of puritan
ethic, by those who spuriously cloak themselves with the garb of
‘human rights’ and as ‘analysts of terrorism’. But this puritan ethic
is nothing different from the motto of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, which states Ense petit placidam sub libertate
quietem (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under
liberty.) It is a pity that only the culture-challenged journalists,
including those who contribute to the magazines like Economist
and the Atlantic Monthly cannot comprehend it. I use the term
‘culture-challenged’ in double contexts. The contributors whom I

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have cited in this chapter are ‘culture-challenged’ in both

American and Tamil history. (Continued).

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