Tamil tigers: if guerrillas turn into terrorists, their chances of success are drastically reduced
Life in Asian or African countries, especially if we take not exotic aspects, but the internal political alignments of these states, the so-called. The "civilized world" is of little interest. Sometimes, in order to learn about the political situation in a particular corner of the globe, an event of global significance is required. Most often it is tragic. Regarding the long-term Tamil guerrilla war in Sri Lanka, such an event was the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991.
Rajiv was loved and respected by many. The young, photogenic man with the smile of the hero of Indian films stood out sharply against the background of the elderly party leaders of both the Union and the countries of the Soviet bloc. On top of that, he replaced his mother Indira, who also died as a result of the assassination attempt, as prime minister. But if Indira was killed by his own guards - Sikhs, who supported the national liberation struggle of their fellow believers in the Punjab state, then Rajiv was destined to become a victim of Tamil rebels operating in neighboring Sri Lanka. It was with the murder of Rajiv that the world learned about such a unique organization as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and their bloody struggle to create a Tamil state.
Tamils are an ancient and distinctive people. These are the Dravids - representatives of a special South Indian race, intermediate between the Caucasian and Australoid. The ancestors of modern Tamils lived on the Indian subcontinent long before the Indo-Aryan invasion, after which they were pushed south. Without exaggeration, the Tamils can be considered the most developed and "historical" Dravidian people of India. Their statehood existed at least from the third century BC. Today Tamils live primarily in two states - India, where they inhabit their historical lands - the state of Tamil Nadu in the extreme southeast of the peninsula, and in Sri Lanka, where they make up the majority of the population in the north of the island.
From overpopulated India and Sri Lanka over the decades, Tamils migrated throughout South Asia and today significant Tamil diasporas live in Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and across the ocean in South Africa. But if in India the Tamils to a greater or lesser extent got along with the central authorities both under British rule and after the proclamation of sovereignty, then in Sri Lanka the Tamils' desire for national self-determination grew into a protracted civil war.
It should be remembered here that Sri Lanka, unlike India, is not a multinational state, but a binational one. No, of course, many more ethnic groups live in Sri Lanka, but the vast majority of the population is made up of precisely two peoples - Sinhalese and Tamils. The Sinhalese, of which about 75% of the island's population, are the Indo-Aryan people, who have been practicing the Buddhism of the "small chariot" (Hinayana) for a long time. It was the Sinhalese who created the tradition of Sri Lankan statehood and, after the proclamation of the island's independence, naturally took key positions in the management of the young state.
Tamils make up more than 11% of the population of Lanka, but they are densely settled in the north and east of the island. It should be noted that they have been living on the island since ancient times, yielding in "nativeness" only to the Australoid Veddas - the small forest tribes of Lanka. Unlike Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils profess Hinduism, mainly Shaivism, traditional for Tamils. In addition to the Shaivites, there are many Catholics among the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Of course, there have always been disagreements between the Sinhalese and Tamils, which reached their climax by the seventies of the last twentieth century. The Tamils, dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy and a really secondary position in the public and political life of the state, put forward the idea of creating their own state of Tamil Ilam in the northern and eastern provinces of Lanka.
It should be noted here that the 1970s were characterized by an active struggle for national self-determination throughout the world. The spread of socialist ideology, superimposed on the nationalist aspirations of African and Asian liberation movements, contributed to the growth of support for the anti-imperialist movement on the part of the USSR. Sri Lanka and India were considered by the Soviet Union as "progressive" states, so there could be no question of supporting parties and movements opposed to the official course in these states.
However, back in the 1970s, Sri Lankan Tamils began to form their own national liberation movement, which could achieve sovereignty for the Tamil-speaking provinces of Lanka. The reason for the intensification of separatist sentiments was the legislative measures of the Sri Lankan government, restricting the admission of Tamil students to educational institutions. A large number of young Tamils have lost access to education, while also lacking jobs.
All this led to the radicalization of Tamil youth, who were no longer satisfied with the moderate positions of "systemic" politicians. Youth groups of a radical nature have appeared. One of them, the New Tamil Tigers, was created in 1972 by eighteen-year-old Vellupilai Prabhakaran. And if other groups soon disappeared into oblivion, or remained marginal sects, then from the New Tamil Tigers four years later, in the spring of 1976, the armed organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (hereinafter - LTTE) was formed, which became famous throughout peace. Why "tigers"? This Asian predator was considered a symbol of the Chola dynasty, which created a Tamil state in southern India and northern Sri Lanka in the Middle Ages. Here the opposition to the lion - the symbol of the "Sinhalese" Sri Lankan statehood, clearly slips.
Tamil Eelam Liberation Tigress
In 1983, the LTTE militants switched to systematic hostilities against the Sri Lankan authorities. During this time, the Tamil tigers developed into a powerful and developed organization that enjoyed significant influence among the Tamil population of the northern and eastern provinces of the island. Unlike many other extremist and terrorist organizations in the world, the Tigers have formed both the political and the paramilitary parts of the organization, in this resembling the Basque or Irish separatists. The LTTE had not only its own radio station, but also its own bank. As for the paramilitary wing, it was actually formed as the regular armed forces of the Tamil state, with division into branches of the armed forces, special services, auxiliary units and even its own naval and air forces.
The very existence of the Tamil tigers became possible, first of all, thanks to the colossal poverty and unemployment of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka. The disadvantaged youth formed a permanent reserve of tigers, allowing them to regularly replenish their armed units with new recruits, often very young. For three months, recruits were turned into "tigers" who were not afraid of death (fortunately, the fallen heroes were held in high esteem, and it is not in the tradition of Shiva Hindus to worry strongly about a possible death). Women played an active role in the resistance. It was the woman who became the direct executor of the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. By the way, it was the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" that until recently belonged to the "black palm" in terms of the number of terrorist attacks committed by suicide bombers. The Tamil term "tiyakam" means self-sacrifice with the simultaneous killing of an enemy.
The tigers fought against the Sri Lankan army for more than twenty-five years, while controlling most of the Tamil-speaking provinces of the North and East of Sri Lanka and regularly recalling their existence by terrorist acts in the Sinhalese part of the island. During the hostilities, at least 80 thousand people died, and the greatest damage was caused to the economy of Sri Lanka.
The murder of Rajiv Gandhi was the revenge of the Tamil tigers for the participation of the Indian armed forces in punitive operations on the side of the Sri Lankan government. The Indian Prime Minister found his death in the state of Tamil Nadu - in the city of Shriperumpudur. The Indian government has designated May 21 as Anti-Terrorism Day. Of course, the LTTE was unable to bring its victory closer with terrorist acts, although the armed confrontation with the Sri Lankan authorities continued for another 18 years, until 2009. In 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces managed to gain the upper hand over the tigers and inflict a series of crushing defeats on them.
Velupillai Prabhakaran
All territories previously controlled by the LTTE were taken under the control of government forces, and Velupillai Prabhakaran died while trying to break through the encirclement (according to another version, he took cyanide). The operation of the government troops cost the civilian population of the island 6, 5 thousand lives, the same number of soldiers and officers lost in the battles of the armed forces of Sri Lanka. More than two hundred thousand people were left homeless, turning into refugees. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a powerful radical organization with a thirty-year history, could not recover after this defeat, existing today only in the form of small representations in emigration and separate scattered units on the territory of Sri Lanka itself.
After the defeat of the LTTE, a new armed organization, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), emerged in the jungles of the Tamil-speaking part of Sri Lanka, which included many former "tigers". The founders of the PLA take Marxist positions. It is likely that the emergence of this organization is associated with the incessant "people's war" of the Maoist communist rebels on the territory of India itself, including the provinces inhabited by Tamils. However, the scope of the PLA is still very far from that of the LTTE.
The moral of the Tamil tiger story is this. First, the LTTE's failure is due to the lack of real support from any foreign country. After the end of the Cold War, the United States no longer needed a destabilizing factor in India. The Muslim world remained indifferent to the struggle of Tamil Hindus, as, in principle, the international communist movement.
Second, the terrorist methods used by the tigers ultimately scared away potential supporters of Tamil independence from them. And the murder of Rajiv Gandhi played an important role in this. It was after him that the world finally decided on its attitude towards the LTTE as a terrorist organization. And, at the same time, the point in the history of Tamil resistance is unlikely to ever be put. The mutual confrontation between Tamils and Sinhalese has gone too far, and the historical memory is too long, especially if it is the memory of the war.
