Politics After a Ceasefire: Suffering, Protest, and Belonging in Sri Lanka’s Tamil Diaspora Kitana Ananda Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Kitana Ananda All rights reserved ABSTRACT Politics After a Ceasefire: Suffering, Protest, and Belonging in Sri Lanka’s Tamil Diaspora Kitana Ananda This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic study of the cultural formations of moral and political community among Tamils displaced and dispersed by three decades of war and political violence in Sri Lanka. Drawing on twenty months of field research among Tamils living in Toronto, Canada and Tamil Nadu, India, I inquire into the histories, discourses, and practices of diasporic activism at the end of war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Tamils abroad were mobilized to protest the war, culminating in months of spectacular mass demonstrations in metropolitan cities around the world. Participant-observation among activists and their families in diaspora neighborhoods and refugee camps, and their public events and actions, as well as semi-structured interviews, media analysis and archival work, reveal how “diaspora” has become a capacious site of political becoming for the identification and mobilization of Tamils within, across, and beyond-nation states and their borders. Part One of this study considers how migration and militancy have historically transformed Tamil society, giving rise to a diasporic politics with competing ethical obligations for Tamils living outside Sri Lanka. Chapters One and Two describe and analyze how distinct trajectories of migration and settlement led to diverse forms of social and political action among diaspora Tamils during Sri Lanka’s 2002 ceasefire and peace process. Chapter Three turns to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka to contrast narratives about the emergence of Tamil politics, nationalism and militancy with diaspora narratives developed through life history interviews with activists. Taken together, these chapters provide a layered social and historical context for the ethnography of Tamil diaspora life and activism. Part Two of the dissertation ethnographically explores how and why Tamils in Canada and India protested the recent war, soliciting their states, national and transnational publics, and each other to “take immediate action” on behalf of suffering civilians. Chapter Four examines diaspora community formation and activism in Toronto, a city with the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside Asia, in the wake of Canada’s ban on the LTTE. Chapter Five turns to refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, India, to discuss how camp life shaped refugee politics and activism, while Chapter Six follows the narratives of two migrants waiting and preparing to migrate from India to the West. Chapter Seven examines how Tamil activists in Toronto and Tamil Nadu publicly invoked, represented, and performed suffering to mobilize action against the war. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the modes of Tamil migration, asylum- seeking, and diaspora activism that emerged in response to the war’s end and its aftermaths. In their actions of protest and dissent, I argue that Tamils from Sri Lanka create new modes of belonging and citizenship out of transnational lives forged from wartime migration and resettlement in multicultural and pluralist states. A political subject of “Tamil diaspora” has thus emerged, and continues to shape Sri Lanka’s post-war futures. This ethnography contributes to scholarly debates on violence, subjectivity and agency; the nation-state and citizenship; and the politics of human rights and humanitarianism at the intersections of diaspora, refugee and South Asian studies. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Charts, Graphs and Illustrations ii Acknowledgements iv Dedication ix PART ONE: Sri Lanka’s War and the Making of a Tamil Diaspora, 1983-2009 Introduction: The Politics and Ethics of Tamil Displacement and Diaspora ……….. 3 Chapter One: Tamil Migrations and Diasporic Locations ………………………...... 44 Chapter Two: Rise Up or Return? Tamil Activisms During the Ceasefire …………. 92 Chapter Three: “Our Historic Struggle”: Tamil Politics and Diaspora Histories ....... 131 PART TWO: “The Final War,” 2008-2009 Chapter Four: Mobilizing Diaspora: Activism and Community Under Multiculturalism in Tamil Toronto …………………………………………………. 197 Chapter Five: Camp Life and Refugee Politics in Tamil India ……………………... 279 Chapter Six: Waiting to Leave: Migrant Non-Belonging in the City ………………. 340 Chapter Seven: Suffering Community: Tamil Protest and Dissent at the End of War 372 Conclusion: After the War…………………………………………………………... 443 Epilogue: Post-War Sri Lanka, Diaspora and the Tamil Refugee …………………... 452 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………... 459 i List of Charts, Graphs and Illustrations Figures 0.1 UN Political map of Sri Lanka 1 0.2 Map of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka 2 1.1 Map of Sri Lanka’s Tamil diaspora, 1983-2002 50 1.2 Map showing labor route from Tamil Nadu to central Sri Lanka 54 1.3 Tamil immigration to Canada: Before 1991, 1991-2000, 2000-2006 69 1.4 Map of Jaffna High Security Zones and Military Camps 83 2.1 Paanai overflowing with pongal and LTTE flags at Pongu Thamil in 115 Geneva, Switzerland 2.2 The triangular semiotic of the LTTE’s claim of “sole representation” 117 2.3 Ottawa Pongu Thamil 2002 poster: We will bring out the feelings of the 118 Eelam Tamils to the world! 2.4 Pongu Thamil 2004 at Queen’s Park 124 2.5 Prabhakaran and the crowd at Pongu Thamil 2004 125 4.1 WTM calendar in a Tamil home in suburban Toronto, August 2009 252 4.2 Pongu Thamil 2008, Toronto 272 4.3 National Flower of Tamil Eelam, Gloriosa superba (karthigaipoo) 272 4.4 Poster from Pongu Thamil 2008, O Canada: You have ban(ne)d [sic] our 275 feelings and our representatives 5.1 Map of Sri Lankan refugee camps in Tamil Nadu (OfERR) 282 5.2 Camp in a colonial storehouse, February 2009 287 5.3 Line houses in the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Erumaipatti during Pongal, 289 January 2009 5.4 New refugee camp housing at Gangaipuram, February 2009 291 5.5 Protest at a refugee camp in southern Tamil Nadu 323 5.6 Women’s self-help group meeting, Gangaipuram camp, February 2009 335 7.1 Map of three kingdoms “before” (left) and Ceylon “after” colonial 385 occupation (right), at Remembering Silenced Voices, July 2008 7.2 Survivor testimonies and silhouettes of Tamil refugees fleeing violence at 389 Remembering Silenced Voices, July 2008 7.3 Remembering Silenced Voices homepage at blackjuly83.com 391 ii 7.4 Call of the Conscience banners, Toronto, August 2008 401 7.5 Adankāpatru (Boundless Love) protest in Toronto, May 13, 2009 423 7.6 Flag of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 428 7.7 National flag of Tamil Eelam 428 7.8 Flag of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 432 7.9 States and Cities of Tamil Eelam image used on protest banner in Toronto 434 Tables Table 1: Tamils from Sri Lanka, by the numbers (estimated) 50 Table 2: Tamil arrivals according to 2006 Statistics Canada census 69 Table 3: Clothing and Household Items Provided in Sri Lankan Refugee Camps 292 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the culmination of a decade of research, thinking, writing, and rewriting. I have many people to thank for their time, conversations, assistance, advice, friendship, love and care. First and foremost, I wish to thank all of my interlocutors during my fieldwork, in Colombo, Tamil Nadu, Toronto, and London: You have shared so much with me that this dissertation can never fully capture. Many of you prefer not to be named, and I cannot properly thank you here. I hope we will meet again soon. My studies and research would not have been possible without the financial support of the following institutions and grants: Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Foreign Language and Area Studies awards, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I also wish to thank the participants of conferences and workshops at Stanford University, the New School for Social Research, the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, the University of Toronto, the American Anthropological Association meetings, the South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia University, and all who engaged with this work. There are also many people who can be individually named who I wish to thank. I must begin with my dissertation committee. E. Valentine Daniel has been a formative influence and a compassionate mentor throughout this project. Charred Lullabies is the book that drew me in to the historiography and anthropology of Sri Lanka. Val, I feel iv humbled and privileged to have worked with you. Thank you for your care and commitment to seeing this project through. Elizabeth Povinelli’s breadth of knowledge, quick thinking, and good humor has greatly aided me in this work. I started the research for what eventually became this project in her “Language, Culture and Power” class and for that I am especially grateful. Partha Chatterjee’s work and classes further shaped my thinking on questions of state power, hegemony, and political society in South Asia and beyond. Ilana Feldman joined my committee at a later stage, and I thank her for being a thoughtful and engaged examiner at my defense. J. Bernard Bate (Barney) passed away unexpectedly last month. Barney was a bright spot in the academy: always warm, encouraging, and happy to share his enthusiasm for all things Tamil. His brilliant work on Tamil oratory, democracy and action, and his collegiality is (and will continue to be) an inspiration to me. My undergraduate teachers at the University of Toronto also helped make this dissertation possible, by providing the foundations for my future study.