Freedom fighters were being remembered Nov. 27 at the Tamil Students Association (TSA) Hero’s Day at U of T.
Organized by TSA, Hero’s Day served as a reminder of the sacrifices made by various freedom fighters in the continuous effort to end Tamil oppression in the island of Sri Lanka. The event also honoured civilians that died in Sri Lanka’s civil war, which has lasted since 1948.
Prior to 1948, Sri Lanka was inhabited by both the Tamil and the Sinhalese. When British rule ceased, power went to the Sinhalese-dominated United National Party, which enacted various anti-Tamil policies. As peaceful protests were put down and negotiated power-sharing pacts with Tamil leaders were torn up, the civil war between the Sinhalese and Tamil people became a brutal reality.
Seventy thousand people have died in the conflict in the past 50 years, and millions have lost their homes or have fled the country.
Presently, Tamil newcomers, including many U of T students, are trying to recuperate from the brutality of war to build a strong Tamil community in Toronto.
“The destruction caused by the war, including the death of friends and loved ones, has had a profound mental impact on the expatriate Tamil community,” says Mayooran Somanathan, advisory council and former engineering rep. of TSA. “Our frequent displacement during the war disrupted my education, forcing me to reconsider whether I should continue my education in Sri Lanka, or move abroad, as millions of Tamils were doing.”
Somanathan says that “starting a new life [in Canada] was not easy. I had just enough money to survive for one month. I had to improve my English. I also had to continue my education from where I left off. The Ontario provincial government provided welfare assistance for me to get started with my schooling, but I had to work part-time to make ends meet.”
Regardless of the difficulties, Somanathan received his degree in Chemical Engineering from U of T and, through TSA, he has been active in forming a flourishing Tamil community in Toronto. “We (at TSA) started organizing presentations for high school students helping them prepare for university, conducted Tamil cultural programs, and raised funds to help the war-affected people in Sri Lanka.”
Thaves Ponnampalam, vice-president of TSA, says that the main objective of the TSA’s agenda these days is promoting the Tamil culture and language at every possible opportunity.
“Tamil language classes, held for the first time ever at U of T, took place [last month] and were taught at three different levels (introductory, intermediate, and advanced), attracting many U of T students which included a fair number of non-Tamils,” said Ponnampalam. He says that these classes are a crucial way of keeping touch with the Tamils in Sri Lanka, since the Tamil language is the first thing that unifies Tamils all over the world.
