In the midst of Sri Lanka’s economic and political turmoil, experts say the country’s Tamil minority, which suffered greatly during the civil war, feels victimized all over again. Some are fleeing to India’s Tamil Nadu.
The island nation’s economic and political crisis has reached a breaking point in recent weeks, with severe shortages of essential supplies and fuel.
Thousands of Sri Lankans took to the streets in Colombo, demanding the resignations of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
However, protesting is a luxury that many Sri Lankan Tamils do not have, and scarcity caused by the economic crisis is nothing new to them, according to Nilanthan, a political analyst based in the northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna.
Sri Lankan Tamils, the country’s largest ethnic minority, make up nearly 12% of the 22 million-strong population and are primarily concentrated in the northern and eastern provinces.
The ethnic minority has deep social, cultural, and linguistic ties with the people of Tamil Nadu in southern India, and has been struggling to recover from decades of civil war, which lasted until 2009 and claimed around 100,000 lives.
‘We are being victimised once more.’
Nilanthan claims that in the island’s most recent economic and political crisis, Sri Lankans “are all equally affected across different ethnicities and social backgrounds.”
“There is no fuel or basic necessities anywhere. However, it is an additional burden for Sri Lankan Tamils because we are being victimised once more. We’ve been victims of war, and now we’re victims of the economic crisis,” Nilanthan told DW.
According to Packiyanathan Ahilan, a senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, economic hardship is something Tamils in the northern and eastern provinces are all too familiar with, having endured scarcity for many years during the civil war.
“Tamils were already trained to live without fuel, gas, and electricity, among other things. So, based on their many years of experience as Tamils in Sri Lanka, they can manage the ongoing issue in some way. But it is also difficult for them to live and manage their daily lives “DW was informed by Ahilan.
Tamils are unable to protest.
Protests like those seen in other parts of the country have been rare in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces.
“Sri Lankan Tamils living in these areas cannot protest,” Nilanthan explained. “With the exception of a few isolated incidents of clashes between protestors and police officers, protestors [in other regions] have largely remained unharmed… If the Singhalese [Sri Lanka’s largest ethnic group] become agitated, the police are called in. But we’d have to deal with the military here,” Nilanthan added.
Thangamuthu Jayasingam, a Batticaloa-based attorney and National Peace Council director, claims that Sri Lankan Tamils who have come out to protest for other issues have suffered as a result.
“As a result, they are wary of actively protesting… However, Sri Lankan Tamils support the protests wholeheartedly. They never supported the Rajapaksas,” Jayasingam said.
Civil unrest has focused attention on misgovernance and politicians’ divisive tactics based on religion and ethnicity.
Protesters, according to Ahilan, are calling for the removal of the politically powerful Rajapaksha family due to corruption. “Tamils demand accountability for war crimes.”
The Rajapaksha family was central to Sri Lanka’s civil war, and their victory was one of the reasons they came to power.
Some Tamils in Sri Lanka are also calling for structural changes, such as greater autonomy and demilitarisation.
‘ “If Sri Lanka does not address its minority issue, it will suffer on the international stage as well,” said Jayasingam.
Travel to Tamil Nadu
In recent months, at least 100 refugees, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils from the Northern and Eastern provinces, have arrived in India’s Tamil Nadu. Many of them sold their homes and lands to fund their boat trips to escape the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
“They believe Tamil Nadu is safe, and whenever there is danger, they flee there,” Nilanthan explained, adding that Sri Lankan Tamils have cultural and linguistic ties to Tamil Nadu.
According to Jayasingam, India is a “friendly country” for Tamils in Sri Lanka. “Those with the means are attempting to travel there. It is within their grasp. If things worsen, there will be even more refugees.”
With a sizable Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora living abroad, the remittance economy has also helped some Tamils stay afloat. However, lower-income Tamils do not have access to this. “They are only attempting to enter India as refugees,” Ahilan explained.
According to Nilanthan, all Sri Lankans are doing their best to manage their economic situation with limited resources. “Sri Lankan Tamils have survived genocide, and we will try to survive this as well.”
( Curtesy www.dw.com)