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Dr.Rajani Thiranagama M.B.B.S. (Colombo), Ph.D. (Liverpool), Senior Lecturer in Anatomy. University of Jaffna.
23 February. 1954 - 21 September, 1989
In keeping with the wish expressed by the late Dr.Rajani Thiranagama. this book is dedicated to the young men and women and the ordinary voiceless people, whose lives were destroyed to no purpose in the course of the unfinished saga of I the people of Sri Lanka.
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Peace march commemorating Rajam Tliiranagama in Jaffna
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Her murder sent a deep shock of sorrow and anger through a city where killings and disappearances are every day occurances. People knew that she had been killed for what she stood for and for the work she had been doing in the last few years. Rajani was a socialist with a rare commitment to the people. She Wanted their voices and opinions to be heard, their lives and their struggles and their often brutal deaths not to be forgotten, buried in the debris of a ravaged society. Since October 1987 she had been exposing and systematically documenting the atrocities committed by the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force); by the Tamil paramilitary groups which the Indian army armed, infiltrated and now controls, and by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LITE). In the confusion of Northern Sri Lanka its atmosphere of lies and terror, of infiltration and hired assasins one cannot blame her murder on any one agency. It is possible however that her kiUer was acting under instructions from the IPKF or RAW (India's Intelligence Agency) or on behalf of the LTTE who since the recent truce with the IPKF are trying to eliminate all militant groups), she had witnessed and those who have dared to criticise them. spoken out against the degeneration of the LTTE into a purely militaristic organisation Rajani was 35 and had two young with a callous disregard for the people. In daughters. In the last few months her home interviews and discussions with South Asia had been raided by armed men.Her written Solidarity Group in June 1987 she had manuscripts had been taken away and she described the nature of the the LTTE and had received a series of threats. In her the relationship between them and the letters she described harrassment from the population as a whole: the fact that the IPKF:"the local army officer in charge is LTTE had infact the same petit- bourgeois trying to trap me" and in a last letter which base as the parliamentary TULF (Tamil arrived in London after her death she had United Liberation Front); and how written "One day some gun will silence me. although it was the only liberation And it will not be held by an outsider, but movement which offered a plan of military by a son -born in the womb of this very action and put it into practice, this alone is society- from a woman with whom my not enough to liberate a country. "There history is shared". were no mass organisations which could Rajani was driven by a revolutionary's effectively mobilise the people or voice burning honesty so at a time in Sri Lanka their needs and opinions...there were all the when most "revolutionary" affiliations are externals of change: murals, Tiger courts, based on fear or else in hope of personal ribbon cutting by the Tigers! But the people gain, she remained independent. But she had no role. They were spectators, was not an aloof outside observer, she was bystanders., unable to determine the course an activist in ihe heart of a tortured of their struggle." community, close to ordinary people and so Rajani was in Jaffna in July 1987 when the deeply loved that 2000 people defied Indian Armed Forces were welcomed in as intimidation by the IPKF and militant "peacemakers", and during the October groups to commemorate her and protest at War a few months later when she lived her murder. through the onslaught by the same As .a student and later as a doctor in Jaffna peacemakers on civilian targets including ,she had lived through the Sri Lankan Jaffna Hospital, refugee camps and villages. government's campaign of terror and In a letter which was also a poem she wrote: repression against the Tamil community. "You want events, numbers, case histories? But later, particularly in the wake of the Not now please, because my mind is 1983 holocaust against Tamils (when India strangled. stepped in to arm and infiltrate Tamil Inqilab jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net RAJANl THIRANAGAMA / hiow its strange, but that is what I feel . niches forthemselves in which they can Tliat is what we live. survive with the trappings of respectability and nominal power". At Jaffna University Pain agony and fear always fear. where many of the lecturers have long since I ask you, could you write straight when fled, Rajani almost single handedly ran the people die in lots? Anatomy Department.She taught a coliosal When you find them 48 hours a week.But she still found time to dead like flies..." set up the University Teachers for Human But it 'was in these days of anguish that she Rights Group and in the last few months started analysing and documenting this she also produced and acted in a play about chapter of Sri Lankan history calmly aware rape and violence against women in the both of the need and the possible context of war. consequences of such a step. Because , Her committment to fighting women's although "To be objective or analytical oppression was central to all her political seems to be a major effort like trying to do activities.Among her reports and analysis is something physical in the midst of a one powerful section which specifically debilitating illness..it is important for us to documents the atrocities and physical and arrive at a synthesis in analysis, seek for an psychological damage suffered by Tamil understanding, find space to organise, women. Rajani had titled it "I have no more revitalise a community sinking into a state tears sister". of resignation. Objectivity was not solely an For Rajani politics was not something academic exercise for us. Objectivity, the separate from the rest of her life, she was pursuit of truth and ..of critical and honest involved and active where ever she positions was crucial to the community but happened to. When she was in Britain for it was a view which could cost many of us three years writing her Ph D thesis, she our lives". identified with the struggles of other black For Rajani the issue of revitalising the women and was involved in fighting racism community was a central and essential at many different levels.She visited the condition for progress or change and she North of Ireland as part of a Black poured her remarkable energies into this Delegation. And in London she set up the particular struggle , because peoples' Tamil Refugee Action Group and was one structures had to be organised or revived in of the founders of South Asia Solidarity order to voice peoples needs and real Group. opinions. And it was in this context that she The reality of death is perhaps Always hard dealt with the role of Sri Lankan to accept but more so in the case of this intellectuals What she wrote applies vibrant courageous woman with her equally to their counterparts in India "Our laughter and optimism and her hope for the intellectuals should have been the catalysts future.Rajani will be remembered as a to energise the benumbed community but doctor, a researcher into biology, as a are unable to do so. In many instances they writer and a political analyst but more than have side stepped confrontational issues anything as a revolutionary activist who with the IPKF (as they have done with the gave her life for the struggle in this bleak militant groups) and have resigned phase of Sri Lanka's history. themselves to passivity...their unprincipled conduct reflecting merely a desire to create South Asia Solidarity Group Dr Rajani Thiranagama: Her contribution to the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) -Extracts from a talk delivered by Rajan Hoole on behalf of UTHR, on 2nd October, 1989 The degeneration of Politics and Every other political tendency felt impelled implications for Human Rights work to imitate this, even at the cost of coming Upto the early 80's, there was amongst a out second or third best. Politics died as sizeable section of Tamil youth, a healthy homicidal divisions increased. We know our interest in political issues accompanied by recent history which led to a remarkable idealism. The issues were often of social indifference to any kind of social or injustice, their national and international political effort on part of today's university dimensions and quite surprisingly there was students. Guns seemed to determine a remarkable absence of the communalism everything. which was poisoning the air in the country. In this atmosphere of disillusi^nmcn: But the 1983 riots and the involvement of militant groups were finding tl-.cinst.i-.-. foreign resources in the militarisation of our obliged to strengthen themscKc> against youth ensured that the tendency which each other by taking in very young persons gained ground was that of extreme through a variety of questionable methods. nationalism which worshipped military The role of the Indian and Sri Lankan success and by its nature became intolerant. stales in this episode is a shameful one. Inqilab jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; *• www.tamilarangam.net RAJANI THIRANAGAMA The Sri Lankan Tragedy Abdul Rahman Mohamed Babu, a well-known African Marxist political commentator and a leader of the 1964 Zanzibar revolution participated in the memorial meeting for Rajani Thiranagama held in Jaffna on the 21st of November. Here he recounts the experience and its lessons. My visit lo Sri Lanka at the invitation of the any kind; it regards any contradiction as a Jaffna University Teachers for Human threat to its survival whose physical Rights was an eye-opener. I and a number manifeatations must be physically- of international human rights campaigners liquidated. (including. Martin Ennals Secretary of This inability to identify the different kinds International Alert and Liz Philipson from of contradictions and utilise them to the British Labour Party) had been invited positive effect, is tragically noticeable in the to take part in the memorial meeting for a main Sri Lankan movements. It is obvious, comrade campaigner - Dr Rajani for instance, that their inability to Thiranagama who was brutally murdered in distinguish between "antagonistic the streets of Jaffna on 21st September last contradiction" and "contradiction among the year by hitherto unknown assasins. Rajani people", is probably the key factor which was one of the thousands of Tamils, fallen has turned Sri Lanka into killing field:;. at the hands of fellow Tamils, whose deaths Potential friends or allies of the movement have weakened rather than strengthened are mistaken for enemies to be eliminated, the objectives of the Tamil struggle. and enemies mistaken for friends to be embraced. Experience has shown that this Africa's involvement with modern Asian confusion is always fatal to any movement, revolutionary struggles has a long history. ana very damaging to the people it claims Throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s to represent or for whose welfare it is many African revolutionary fighters drew fighting. And Sri Lanka's tragic experience most of their inspiration from liberation confirms it. struggles in Asia. They studied the There was universal condemnation among strategies and tactics of the struggles in the people for the assastns of Rajani. As we China, Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia, marched through the streets of Jaffna on Indonesia, the Naxalite struggle in India the Peace March organised by the and so on. AH these struggles, some University and attended by thousands of successful, some not yet, had one thing in people from the North as well as the South common which made them worth studying, of Sri Lanka, Rajani's popularity was namely, the movements which led them obvious. All streets were covered with enjoyed warm spontaneous support from posters proclaiming her a martyr, her the people. The people loved and admired portraits dominated the entire town. Many their fighters. pedestrians would rush to the organisers of During our visit to Sri Lanka we could not the march requesting her poster to take help noticing that this rapport between the home with them. The city was in obvious people and the fighters was missing. On the mourning and although there were armed contrary, we saw with grief that the people Indian soldiers and other armed groups actually feared the fighters; they were around, ostensibly to protect the march but terrified by them. It seemed to us that they actually lo terrorise the people, the town were all conscious of the fact that any one dwellers could not be intimidated on this of them could be a victim of indiscriminate occasion. They showed whci-j thc;i killing tomorrow, like many of their fallen sympathies were. Rajani w;i., Inqilub jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net =•' RAJANl THIRANAGAMA Rajani was very concerned about the fate of militants and condemn them". She fell that these young men. She had a deep all the risks that she took at that time had compassion for these young men who could to be taken, because the young men who not understand their actions, viewed death took many risks and had brought the as a welcome certainty, and hated the community to this state were likely to community which had done nothing while respect only ihose who themselves took they were consigned to this degrading form risks. of slavery. Rajani and the reopening of the University Jaffna Hospital following October 1987 One incident which concerned her greatly was the massacre at Jaffna Hospital on 21st The crisis facing the community following October 1987, during the Indian assault the Indian offensive of October 1987 was leaving about 70 dead. Rajani felt that the one which brought out her energy and callousness of the Indian entry was strength of character. She was so appalled inexcusable. Many of the doctors thought after seeing the conditions of refugees in that it was too dangerous to bring out the Nallur Kandasamy Kovil, that she sat down truth. Some felt that they should wait for an to write a leaflet. She felt that the reopening appropriate time. There was even a fear of of the University was the best chance of issuing public appreciations of the medical having some means of defence for the staff killed. Rajani felt that the truth should community. She said that we cannot sit be brought out at the earliest and set about around waiting for the Indians to ask us to interviewing staff at the hospital where she come in and conduct lectures.,...The Indian had once worked. army was in control of the premises at that time. A section of the staff felt so numbed Challenge io the University by the damage that they advocated not doing anything until outsiders came and the What Rajani believed in was not an abstract damage was publicised. Rajani held that we philosophy, but was one which evolved to had existed long enough as a community the demands of a social conscience which displaying our sores and eliciting pilv. She insisted on both compassion and felt that to prevent the recurrence of such a consistency. Her courage was tied to a catastrophe, we must show a will of oar sense of responsibility. There is no doubt own to make our own future. Thereafter that she was practically effective. She died work commenced on securing what had because the rest of the community valued her services but was too cowardly and survived the war damage cautious to emulate her sense of It was common for Indian officers to attack responsibility. For many, the accepted the militants and blame them for everything. wisdom is not to take any risks, but to rely Others responded by saying that they on the risks of the others. If we have for the didnot know the militants and were present, the uncertain present the option of innocents. But Rajani took them head on clinging to positions while shirking moral and would say forthrightly, "We as a responsibility or of slinking away with communhv must take responsibility for our degrees without caring to secure the future catastrophe. The militants are a part of our well being of the student community, it is history, a part of our community. 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