By way of strategy, the Federal Party aimed at disorganizing the working of the Jaffna kachcheri by preventing its officers from entering the kachcheri office. Its ultimate object was to bring pressure upon the government by non-violent means to make it realise the just demands of the Tamil speaking people. The date of the commencement of the satyagraha campaign at Jaffna was fixed as the 20th February 1961. The Federal Party made this decision unanimously. The next phase of the direct action took the form of satyagraha before Government offices in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Chelvanayakam in 1961 to that of LTTE’s violent campaign led by V. I will make a few more pertinent observations, comparing the Federal Party’s nonviolent campaign led by S.J.V. Next month, I’ll transcribe chapters 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Secondly, a classical music concert held for public view. First, the main office in which government business is transacted. Kachcheri, is the recurring word in these chapters. Secondly, ethnic cleansing of Tamils from the Sri Lankan armed services. I present these chapters from Ponniah’s book to show that Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s legacy to Tamils can be summed up as: First, sending the military to the North. If I’m not wrong, among the individuals who appear in these chapters, all have passed into history the solitary exception being Chelliah Rajadurai (born 1927), then the Federal Party MP for Batticaloa. These chapters cover the events of February 1961. Subtitles for chapters are as in the original. To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Satyagraha campaign of the Federal Party, I have transcribed chapters 7, 8 and 9 from this book.
As there are altogether 22 chapters (as listed below),Ĭhapter 6: On the Eve of Satyagraha, 1961Ĭhapter 11: The Premier’s Broadcast: The Pros & ConsĬhapter 12: Some Highlights of SatyagrahaĬhapter 13: Government’s Anti-Satyagraha MovesĬhapter 14: The Premier Returns from Commonwealth Premier’s ConferenceĬhapter 18: The ‘Iron Curtain’ – The HardshipsĬhapter 19: The Curfew, Military and PeopleĬhapter 20: The Tamil Question and the Ceylon Indian Tamils But, I feel that the complete text deserves preservation. In the past, I have liberally quoted from this book. Ponniah (1963) with the caption Satyagraha and the Freedom Movement of the Tamils in Ceylon is of merit. Navaratnam (ex Federal Party MP for Kayts, 1962-1970) had devoted a chapter or two to the 1961 satyagraha campaign in his 1991 memoir The Fall and Rise of the Tamil Nation, as a leading participant. Secondly, whatever that was written and preserved gets lost periodically (1958, 1977, 1981, 1983 and from 1984 to 2009) by the pyromaniac vandals belonging to the Sinhalese tribe.Īmong the handful of books in English about the 1961 satyagraha campaign initiated by the Federal Party in the North and East of Ceylon, I should note that V. First, we are sloppy in writing our history. It is a pity that Tamils have been bad record keepers, when it comes to history.
26th Year on the Web Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
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