Why No Tamil Revolution?
Right idea, wrong continent. Photo by Mikey G
As a wave of revolution sweeps North Africa, at least a few Sri Lankan Tamils must be asking, why not here? These are a few reasons.
1. No people
If you’ve ever played Risk, it all comes down to the number of men on the board. There’s also chance and strategy, but with enough troops you can beat anything. There simply aren’t enough young Tamils left. The socially networked and conscious Tamils that could start a revolution aren’t here, they’re in London or Toronto. They can organize hundreds of thousands of people there, but you can’t take back streets you’re not in. This diaspora says that people are afraid to protest here, which isn’t entirely true. They are afraid, but more importantly they simply don’t have the numbers. That ship has sailed. Literally. More here.
2. No unity
In Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, somewhat diverse people have united under their national flags. In Sri Lanka, separatist Tamils have been asking for a separate state. They also haven’t really tolerated dissenting views, waving the violent and jealous LTTE flag instead of anything people could actually rally around. While it seems clear that broad people power can change regimes, it’s unclear whether they can separate countries.
3. No cause
The first two points are, I think, objective. More subjectively, the cause of Tamil separatism isn’t actually right. When almost half of Sri Lankan Tamils live in Colombo or the south, carving out an ethnic state in the North and East doesn’t actually solve the problem. Something more just would be calling for equal rights for all Sri Lankans, but separatists obviously aren’t calling for that. While this is what many Tamils want, there isn’t unity on the issue. Let me qualify that with, IMHO.
I’ve expanded on this for an article in this Sunday Leader, but those are my thoughts. From the 50s to the 80s there were enough numbers, there was a sort of Tamil unity and the government was so crappy that even Sinhalese revolted, meaning there was cause. There was not, however, social media or Al Jazeera so Tamils practicing non-violent resistance actually did get violently suppressed (as DBS has been writing about).
That was a time of violent revolution, but that really didn’t work. As a political scientist goes into here, it’s actually easier for states to crush violent revolutions, and terrorism gave any state a carte blanche after 9/11.
Honestly, the best policy for Tamils of that day would have been to suffer silently, have many children, and let them revolt now. Obviously, no one saw that coming.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
Now don’t get the Tamil started again so the gov can kill another 40, 000 people with out any evidence in the name of Terror. Even if they are afraid, let them live for now. But I’m sure they will Rise Again one day to get the Freedom they need.
Every sentence of yours hits the point.
What do the Tamils do now? Either suffer in silence and have more babies.
Or, organize rallies and get the word out to the world media – remote possibility, as everybody who can think or organize were eliminated by LTTE. Unless there’s an external pressure on the GoSL, there is no way that the lot of Tamils will improve on the ground in the near future.
So what does it feel like to take on Sri Lanka and get fucked in the ass? Ask the Tamils.
Appreciate ur sense of grandeur for SL. If you live for the next 10 years, ask this q then to yourself.
Run along and kill some Kashmiris/Dalits/Muslims/Christians like you folks usually do will ya? Thanks.
Ratakji…..go on buddy! …..you are an asset for tamil nationalism!! arsoles like you create vp!
No it’s an insular, racist, violent, caste-ridden community such as your Tamil community that creates folks like VP. Stop blaming everyone else for your own fucked-up-ness.
I suggest you back to your history books….It was SL goverment’s racist policies + people like you along with India’s geopolitical interest that created Tamil nationalism & VP!
Ah the the grand exercise in wash your hands off. Hilarious!
I wonder if i can read some of those history books of yours, I’ve read the ‘unbiased’ sinhala version now i want to read the ‘unbiased’ tamil, hopefully in english.;)
So if you become a murderer tamil, and go about killing people left and right it should be ok if you blame it on somebody else?
I guess it’s only escapists like JC who go about championing the eelam revolution these days. All the tamils in the north are finally busy going about their business doing what normal people are supposed to do, getting jobs & sending their kids to school.
FYI, i NEVER EVER advocated eelam separitism or supported LTTE
No, you just advocated bombs going off in cities across Sri Lanka, and for India to arm and train the LTTE.
Just die will you.
not really. but that will most likely happen if another ’83 happens or china gets too close for indian comfort.
no point in angering big brother.
Whose big brother? It’s quite plain that it’s the Yindians who are mighty worried these days. Why not concentrate on solving your own little problems first, like starvation and killing of little baby girls and that stink that hangs like a shroud over everything over there?
Nothing changes the fact that you advocate terrorism jc nars.
Bite your cyanide capsule and do the world a favour.
[...] explains why there are no Tamil uprisings in Sri Lanka visible like the recent ones in Middle East and [...]
[...] explains why there are no Tamil uprisings in Sri Lanka visible like the recent ones in Middle East and [...]
simple annwer……there are no tamils to revolt cos the have been abductuted and killed or they are in boosa….indi u come see me here they torture me……me better go, they r oming
Why’s there no post yet about those fucking Indian fishermen? Those guys shouldn’t be murdered, but certainly should be ass raped before the Indian government twist Mahinda’s hand and take them home.
I’m curious about this too. On his blog, Kolu seemed to think that some of those fishermen were actually killed by out Navy. I had been under the impression that all the fuss was just Tamil Nadu politics. Wasn’t it?
Once I went to Thamil Nadu and there was this beach which I think was called Marissa Beach or something. I was told it was a tourist attraction. I went there and can you guess what the attraction was? Human shit. It was stinking like, well, the rest of India and you just cannot avoid stepping on shit. Tourist attraction my ass.