116-402: Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran ( Tamil : பொன்னுத்துரை சிவகுமாரன் ; 26 September 1950 – 5 June 1974) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and the first Tamil militant to commit suicide by swallowing cyanide . Sivakumaran was born on 26 September 1950. He was the son of Ponnuthurai, principal of Urumpirai Hindu Tamil Vidyasalai, and Annalakshmi. Sivakumaran's father and mother were both supporters of
232-455: A Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests
348-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
464-504: A time bomb under Chandrasiri's car and quietly slipped away but when the bomb exploded no one was in the car. No one suspected Sivakumaran. Mayor of Jaffna Alfred Duraiappah was a member of the governing Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its chief organiser in Jaffna District . Tamil militants considered Duraiappah to be a traitor and government collaborator. In February 1971 Sivakumaran tried to assassinate Duraiappah by throwing
580-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
696-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
812-526: A Tamil bakery was set on fire about a mile away from the police station in Murunkan. A Tamil watcher of the government farm had been attacked by 2 people who had taken his torch and gun. That night, a Sinhalese family was fired at in Palampitiya. The mother and the eldest son were killed and the two younger sons were injured. P. S. Soosaithasan, M. P. for Mannar, claimed that the motive was not communal as
928-639: A Tamil laborer. At the Stock Estate in Udugama, three Tamils were seriously assaulted by a crowd and their jewelry stolen on 22 August. The line rooms at the estate were attacked the next night. A mixed Tamil-Sinhalese family was fired at by a mob at Homadola Estate, Hiniduma. Several of the sons were maimed and one was killed. On 17 August, Sinhalese wadiyas were set on fire in Vavunikulam. Many Sinhalese fishermen fled after this. On 23 August,
1044-522: A Tamil labourer was killed. Before dying, the labourer had shot the mob and the gun was now in possession of the mob. Another Tamil engineer took the gun and used it to keep the mob at bay. An army unit arrived where the attack took place. They took the Tamil man's gun but did not rescue any of the Tamils nor did they challenge the mob. After the army left, a police jeep arrived and dispersed the mob. In Galle town, violence against Tamils began on 17 August. At
1160-480: A Tamil man sheltering Tamils in his house called police to report an attack on his house, they hung up on him. The mob invaded the house and attacked the Tamils there, killing two. They then tried to burn alive 3 Tamils who had not been killed, but the Tamils managed to survive. When police and army arrived at the house, they complained that Sinhalese police officers and civilians were butchered in Jaffna. In another case,
1276-602: A Tamil man was assaulted and his house was looted and burned. His six daughters were gang raped by about 8-9 men. In Pallepola too a Tamil woman was gang raped by a Sinhalese gang. In Asgiriya, several Sinhalese broke into a Tamil woman's home and shot dead her husband and brother. At Sellagamma, a Tamil man was beaten and then shot dead. Another Tamil was killed at Elkaduwa in the Mala Colony. Hindu temples in Ukkuwela and Udupihilla were burned. One Tamil man reported seeing
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#17327658042481392-551: A Tamil man was nearly burned alive by a mob, and nearby police officers and soldiers did nothing. A Sinhalese friend intervened on the Tamil man's behalf and rescued him. A train full of Sinhalese thugs arrived at Maho at around 6:30 am on 17 August. It had been delayed at Anuradhapura. The Tamil passengers in the train were assaulted, as were Tamil passengers awaiting the train to Batticaloa. 16 Tamil-owned shops were burnt and 9 shops rented to Tamils were looted. Two Hindu kovils were attacked and damaged. A drunken gang of youths looted
1508-476: A Tamil shopkeeper complained about his shop being looted to police, the latter showed no interest in helping and retorted that Sinhalese police officers were being killed in Jaffna. 35-40 Tamils had been assaulted and looted while on the train at Polgahawela. Tamil shops and homes were burned and the Kathiresan temple was set on fire. At Alawwa, a Tamil shopkeeper was killed during an attack on his shop. When
1624-449: A carnival at St. Patrick's College , where they assaulted Mr. Kulanayagam, who asked them for an entry free. The policemen misbehaved and helped themselves freely to food at food stalls without paying. On the 13th, the same policemen again went to the carnival where they clashed with locals around midnight. Two policemen were injured and hospitalised as a result. The policemen had claimed that they had gone in search of two men wanted for
1740-467: A carnival in Jaffna, which led to a clash between the two groups. This led to further police violence against Tamils in Jaffna, followed by Tamil violence against Sinhalese in the city. Following the Jaffna incidents, violence between Sinhalese and Tamils flared throughout the country. While the large majority of victims were Tamils, Sinhalese were also attacked in Tamil majority areas. Following Ceylon's independence in 1948, which saw D.S. Senanayake ,
1856-416: A carnival without tickets. Apparently the policemen were inebriated and proceeded to attack those who asked for tickets. The conflict escalated and the policemen were beaten up by the public and in retaliation the police opened fire. Others have the view that the carnival incident was a pretext, inquiries revealing that it was conducted in an organized manner and was hence a pre-planned attack. What began as
1972-587: A classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate the Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams
2088-409: A derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests
2204-542: A false radio message was sent from the Jaffna Police Station to the I.G.P., Colombo. The message conveyed a fabricated report: "Today, 4 C.T.B. buses have been set on fire. Naga Vihara is under attack. A crowd has gathered at the Railway Station, Jaffna, with intentions to assault incoming passengers. The situation is deemed serious." This false rumour was one of many created to stir up anger amongst
2320-427: A hand grenade on to Duraiappah's car which was parked on Second Cross Road in Jaffna. Duraiappah was not inside the car at the time. This time the police found out that Sivakumaran was involved and started a manhunt for him. In 1972 and 1973 the police arrested many Tamil youths suspected of being militants. As a result, Sivakumaran's militant activities slowed down. In January 1974 nine civilians were massacred by
2436-485: A minor police-civilian clash in Jaffna escalated into a nationwide anti-Tamil communal violence. Some elements within the defeated SLFP were accused of fomenting the violence through planned and organized spreading of false rumours against Tamils to destabilize the government. Anti-UNP political motivation was revealed by the Sinhalese rioters who reportedly told their Tamil victims that they were being punished for helping
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#17327658042482552-408: A naval party led by a Sub-Lieutenant on 17 August. The Kankesanturai-Colombo train was attacked in the early hours of 17 August at Anuradhapura station. A Sinhalese mob attacked the Tamil passengers, brutally assaulting and robbing them. The Tamil station master of the station had his car burned while police did nothing. The army was also uninterested in helping Tamils. Tamil refugees sought refuge in
2668-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
2784-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
2900-495: A plurality of minority Sri Lankan Tamil votes. In the elections, the party stood for secession . An official government estimate put the death toll at 125, whereas other sources estimate that around 300 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs. Human rights groups, such as the UTHR-J , accused the newly elected UNP -led government of orchestrating the violence. The pogrom began with policemen threatening and assaulting Tamils at
3016-631: A power vacuum. Chelvanayakam was succeeded by Amirthalingam as the leader of the TULF. On 3 June, after Chelvanayakam's ashes were taken to Trincomalee, a three-day clash between Sinhalese and Tamils in the area resulted in injuries on both sides. While some witnesses saw the August violence as continuation of the June violence, Sansoni maintained they were unrelated. The 1977 general elections took place on 21 July 1977. The Tamil districts voted almost entirely for
3132-588: A pro-Sinhala-Buddhist policy, marginalizing the Tamils. Despite the communal tensions between Sinhalese and Tamils, there had been no major outbreaks of ethnic violence between the two groups since 1958. As early as 1972, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam had suggested that the Sri Lankan Tamils of the north and east may seek a separate state in response to the discrimination by the Sri Lankan government. In 1974, all major Tamil parties representing Tamils in
3248-535: A relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil) was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which
3364-430: A robbery, this was rejected by Sansoni. On 14 August, MPs A. Amirthalingam and V. Yogeswaran reported that several local residents had complained of being assaulted by the police. A policeman was then later shot at and hospitalized. After this, some Tamils had been assaulted by unidentified men, alleged to be police. On 15 August, a mob of about 100 people were reported to be causing damage to lights and signs near
3480-625: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom The 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka followed the 1977 general elections in Sri Lanka where the Sri Lankan Tamil nationalistic Tamil United Liberation Front won
3596-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
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3712-528: A standstill. The officers are unable to travel to their respective work places safely. As a protest against the Police authorities the members of our Unions in all offices in the District have decided to go on strike till the issues involved are satisfactorily resolved. We demand a public inquiry into the whole incident". On the morning of 16 August, a police inspector attempted to remove the shot policeman from
3828-610: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
3944-406: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
4060-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
4176-412: Is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of
4292-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
4408-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
4524-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
4640-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
4756-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
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4872-511: Is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to
4988-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
5104-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
5220-848: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
5336-582: The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi and its leader S. J. V. Chelvanayakam which influenced Sivakumaran's own political beliefs. Sivakumaran had two brothers and a sister. He was educated at Urumpirai Hindu College and Jaffna Hindu College . After school he joined Kokkuvil Junior Technical College but dropped out after two months. Sivakumaran became a supporter of an armed struggle. In 1969 a small group of militant Tamil youths from Valvettithurai formed an underground group . The group
5452-607: The People's Bank in Kopay . As the bank's police guards gave chase, a cornered Sivakumaran swallowed a vial of cyanide, dying instantly. Sivakumaran became the first Tamil militant to die in such a manner and the first Tamil "martyr". A large public funeral was held which was attended by senior Tamil politicians. Sivakumaran's body was taken in procession from Jaffna hospital to Urumpirai . Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V. Prabhakaran would later claim that Sivakumaran's death
5568-549: The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora . Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to
5684-599: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
5800-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
5916-427: The 13th, the same policemen again went to the carnival where they clashed with locals around midnight. Two policemen were injured and hospitalised as a result. The policemen had claimed that they had gone in search of two men wanted for a robbery, this was rejected by Sansoni. There were different beliefs on how the riots started. Some believe they started when there was a dispute that began when four policemen entered
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#17327658042486032-614: The Anuradhapura District were also badly affected. In Maha Iluppallama and Kahatagasdigiliya, Tamil houses and shops were damaged. 5 miles from Rambewa, a Tamil lorry driver was attacked and his fate was unknown. At Horwapathana, several Tamil houses and businesses were set ablaze. When one Tamil man was taken to the police station for protection, he reported that the SI threatened to kill Tamils if his family members in Jaffna were harmed. At Kekirawa, 5 Tamils were killed. 5 miles from
6148-688: The Department of Health in Anuradhapura were also attacked by Sinhalese hospital employees despite some police and army protection being afforded to them. Dr. K. N. K. Wijayawardana, the Medical Superintendent at Anuradhapura hospital recounted the violence that had occurred there: '...a mob of about hundred people armed with iron rods and other weapons had broken the door of the room where the Tamil clerks had taken refuge and attacked them. Most had saved their lives by jumping from
6264-472: The Galle bus stand, Tamils were attacked. One was mutilated to death and a Tamil woman had been raped by 3 men and then had her jewellery taken. Tamil traders had their shops looted and burnt. One trader was stabbed in the abdomen. Violence spread to the estates. At Thalangaha Estate, Tamil hotel workers were slashed with razors by Sinhalese rioters. A crowd of 200 Sinhalese attacked the line rooms and assaulted
6380-481: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
6496-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
6612-634: The Jaffna Bus stand. A mob was also reported to have caused damages to the Old Market and assaulted people there. Tamil politicians and members of the public blamed the police for this violence. However, Sansoni said that the evidence was insufficient to apportion blame to the police. On the morning of the 16th at 5am, MP V. Yogeswaran stated that a number of people came to his house to inform him that 10 policemen in Khakis had set fire to shops in
6728-701: The Kalubowila hospital were also attacked by Sinhalese mobs. Other Tamils were killed immediately by the mobs or later died of their injuries. A number of Tamil women were raped by the mobs. Several Tamils working at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo were assaulted in the early hours of 20 August. The assaulted employees reported the assault to their superiors, and the Chief Postmaster, Postmaster General, and Maradana police arrived at
6844-607: The North and east of Sri Lanka where Tamils are the majority. In 1957, the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact was formed, but later scrapped by then prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike . Tensions related to the Sinhala Only policy resulted in riots in 1956 and 1958 . During the early 1960s, prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike ruthlessly enforced the Sinhala Only policy, much to the detriment of
6960-463: The North east came under one forum (named as Tamil United Liberation Front - TULF). On 27 July 1975, Alfred Duraiappah , the Mayor of Jaffna and ruling party Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) orgernizer for Jaffna was shotdead allegally by Velupillai Prabhakaran , the government responded by re-arresting those it imprisoned earlier for anti-state activity, while others fled to India. On 14 May 1976, at
7076-572: The Old Market at 1.40 AM. The police were also accused of smashing goods and damaging name boards, statues and motor vehicles. Sansoni states that Mr. Joseph, Additional Government Agent received a letter to the Government Agent from three Trade Unions of the Jaffna Kachcheri who complained that "the Police committed atrocities on the innocent public from last night, causing damage to public properties, Normal life has come to
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#17327658042487192-494: The Police in which five Tamil civilians, S. Vartharajah, T. Suriyakumaran, S. Kailasapillai, S. Gopalakrishnan and K. Edirimanasingham were wounded by bullets during police firing, none of which proved fatal, although Vartharajah had his right leg amputated as a result. According to UTHR, an additional five civilians were also shot dead by the police. At the same time, Tamil mobs had gone on a rampage against Sinhalese shops, burning and looting them. On 17 August at 11:00 a.m.,
7308-534: The Sinhalese. There were several attacks on Sinhalese and their properties in Kilinochchi starting on 19 August. A Buddhist temple was burnt by a crowd of 200, and several boutiques and bakeries were burnt. Sinhalese goods whose owners had fled had also been looted. About 20 Sinhalese wadiyas were burnt in Thallady were burned. A few Sinhalese were assaulted by Tamil rioters. Many Sinhalese took refuge in
7424-606: The TSF and formed his own group which was known as the Sivakumaran Group. Whilst speaking at an event at Colombo Hindu College in July 1970 Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs Somaweera Chandrasiri , a Sinhalese politician, claimed that Sinhalese and Tamil cultures were linked. Sivakumaran was angered by this. In September 1970 Sivakumaran tried to assassinate Chandrasiri as he visited Urumpirai Hindu College. Sivakumaran placed
7540-748: The TULF, winning 18 seats in parliament, with the TULF becoming the largest opposition party in Parliament and Amirthalingam becoming Leader of the Opposition . The SLFP was reduced to eight seats and the United National Party won 140 seats, with J. R. Jayewardene , becoming the new Prime Minister . On 12 August, four policemen visited a carnival at St. Patrick's College , where they assaulted Mr. Kulanayagam, who asked them for an entry fee. The policemen misbehaved and helped themselves freely to food at food stalls without paying. On
7656-845: The Tamil nation in this country The TULF states in its manifesto for the 1977 general elections attacks the Republican Constitution of 1972 , mentions grievances of the Tamils and liberation by the National Assembly of Tamil Eelam formed by Tamil speaking members of the National State Assembly drafting a constitution for the new state and bring it into force "either by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle". According to Sansoni, A. Amirthalingam had explained "that 'peaceful means' meant negotiation, 'direct action' meant Sathyagraha, 'struggle' meant civil disobedience". Amirthalingam intended to form
7772-617: The Tamil-owned Walawwawatte estate. A Tamil telephone switch connector overheard a conversation where the HQI of Maho Police station called the Superintendent of Police, he informed him that all Tamil shops were burnt, to which the superintendent replied "good show." At Galgamuwa, Tamil businesses and houses were also looted and burned. The Pillaiyar temple was also looted. At Migalawa, Tamil engineers were attacked and
7888-643: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
8004-496: The Tamils. In 1965, the new prime minister Dudley Senanayake created the Dudley-Chelvanayakam Pact , which sought to find a compromise on the issues of language, colonization, and devolution. Sinhala colonization of the Eastern Province abated and there were modest gains in making Tamil the language of administration in the north and east. However, the regional councils proposed by the pact were not implemented. In 1970, Sirimavo Bandaranaike returned to power and once again enforced
8120-409: The UNP win the elections. Reports indicated that some sections of the SLFP also participated in the violence. Walter Schwarz in the Minority Rights Group reported: The trouble began in Jaffna, capital of the Northern Province, when Sinhalese policemen, believed to have been loyal to the defeated Sri Lanka Freedom Party of Mrs Bandaranaike, acted provocatively by bursting into a Tamil carnival. In
8236-578: The Vavunikulam shooting, had proceeded to assault Tamils. Widespread rioting against Tamils in Colombo by Sinhalese thugs began on 18 August. The mobs burned and looted Tamil homes and businesses. Collectively, Tamil victims lost tens of thousands worth of assets during the riots. Many Tamils were assaulted. Some were very seriously hurt and suffered broken bones, fractures, stab wounds, etc. Tamil train passengers were attacked by Sinhalese co-passengers who invoked false rumors of Tamil atrocities against Sinhalese in Jaffna as their justification. Tamil patients in
8352-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
8468-412: The anti-Tamil pogrom (the third such outbreak in two decades) has brought out the reality that the Tamil minority problem in Sri Lanka has remained unresolved now for nearly half a century, leading to the emergence of a separatist movement among the Tamils. As on previous occasions, what took place recently was not Sinhalese-Tamil riots, but an anti-Tamil pogrom. Although Sinhalese were among the casualties,
8584-942: The approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
8700-463: The attackers fled. Bodies were stacking up since there was no inquest. Dr Wijayawardana states that the situation improved and the army became more visisble. At Ibbankatuwa, recently settled Sinhalese colonists attacked Tamils, setting houses on fire and killed three Tamils, Three Tamils were raped. In Kurunegala town, several Tamil businesses were burned. During attacks on estates, several Tamils were assaulted and some were killed. In Wariyapola, when
8816-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
8932-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
9048-473: The family had lived in the area without communal issues, though Sansoni doubted this. On 24 August, presumably after news of the attack on the Sinhalese family reached them, the army and police had gone on the rampage in several Tamil villages, burning Tamil shops and houses. 5 Tamils had been shot dead by soldiers. On 28 August, a lorry of 15 Sinhalese fishermen accompanied by Police Constable Balasunderam returned to Vavunikulam to retrieve their goods. The lorry
9164-647: The first Prime Minister of the island forming a government with a coalition with his United National Party (UNP), the Sinhala Maha Sabha of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the Tamil Congress of G. G. Ponnambalam . This coalition soon fell apart, and Bandaranaike who was elected wave of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism, delivered on his election promise by enacting the Sinhala Only Act in 1956, Tamil parties began asking for more power for
9280-539: The first national convention of the TULF at Vadukoddai, presided over by Chelvanayakam unanimously adopted the political resolution, known as the Vaddukoddai Resolution : restoration and reconstitution of the Tree Sovereign secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam based on the right of self-determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of
9396-471: The formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from the Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows
9512-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
9628-409: The hospital without following due procedure, and Sansoni speculated that this was the cause of rumors that doctors in Jaffna did not attend to Sinhalese policemen. After this, Jaffna shopkeepers complained that the police were throwing fiery objects at boutiques, but Sansoni claimed that the objects had been set on fire by mobs and placed in the middle of the road, and that the police were merely clearing
9744-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
9860-589: The killing of PC Karunandhi. The killing of PC Karunandhi was a shock to the police and after the killing of Shanmuganathans, Tamil police officers detailed to investgate the militants, requested transferes making it difficult for the police to find Tamil police officers to investigate the Tamil militants. In order to suppress the militants, many Tamil youth were detained and tortured. G. G. Ponnambalam died in February 1977, followed by Chelvanayakam in April, creating
9976-402: The large majority of those killed, maimed and seriously wounded are Tamils. The victims of the widespread looting are largely Tamils. And among those whose shops and houses were destroyed, the Tamils are the worst sufferers. Of the nearly 75,000 refugees, the very large majority were Tamils, including Indian Tamil plantation workers. According to an official estimate, 125 people were killed during
10092-461: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
10208-632: The meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages , a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil
10324-488: The objectives of his party, and in order to retain his seat" and does state that his party would not violate the constitution. Sansoni states in his report that during the general election campaign, members of the TULF and its youth front spoke in campaign speeches that "Eelam will be set up, if necessary by resort to violence". On 14 February 1977, Police Constable A. Karunandhi of the Kankesanthurai police station
10440-537: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
10556-477: The pogrom. His wife Mangayarkarasi Amirthalingam emotionally recounted some incidents of rape that occurred during the 1977 pogrom and said "Tamil women could not walk the streets during nights in safety." The following is a breakdown of the rioting by district as given in the " Report of the Presidential Commission " (1980) and other eyewitness accounts: On 12 August, four policemen visited
10672-504: The police at the World Tamil Conference in Jaffna. Tamil militants blamed the government and Posts and Telecommunications Minister Chelliah Kumarasuriar for the massacre. Sivakumaran however blamed Duraiappah and ASP S. K. Chandrasekera for the massacre and sought vengeance. Fearing torture if he was arrested, Sivakumaran started carrying cyanide pills. On 4 June 1974 TSF militants including Sivakumaran attempted to rob
10788-440: The police station. A Sinhalese baker from Paranthan noted that there were no Sinhalese remaining in that town. Policemen and soldiers in Kilinochchi had attacked Tamil shops and homes. Sansoni reported that between 15 August and 2 September there were multiple reports of theaft of weapons including guns, rifles and pistols, from Sri Lanka Customs offices in Jaffna and elsewhere. Three stolen guns were detected during transport by
10904-432: The retiring rooms of the railway station. However, the police constable present refused to defend the refugees and the Tamils were attacked. The superintendent of police (SP) G. W. Liyanage and Major Jayawardene appeared to be gloating about the attacks on Tamils. Eventually, an army squad agreed to defend the Tamils in the retiring room. As more trains came to the station, the Tamil passengers in them were assaulted. Tamils at
11020-431: The riots. By ethnicity, the breakdown was 97 Tamils, 24 Sinhalese, 1 Muslim, and 3 of unknown ethnicity. Other sources estimate that around 300 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs. In a letter addressed to President J. R. Jayewardene , the leader of the main Tamil party , A. Amirthalingam accused Sinhala hoodlums of killing 300 Tamils, raping around 200, and causing injury or displacement to tens of thousands during
11136-467: The road. This is contradicted by another local eyewitness who stated the following: "In the night of the 15th, word spread that there were fires in the town area and that the Police were setting fire to some shops. The young men rushed to the area. Some of the elders had brought used tyres, piled them up at CSK Junction and set them on fire, creating a barricade so that the Police could not come into our area. I saw some policemen coming there and pulling out
11252-739: The scene a few hours later. Another round of assaulting of Tamil employees took place, this time in the presence of their superiors and police officers. Police behaviour in the Colombo District was mixed. Some Tamils note that the arrival and action of police helped to arrest mob violence. Several police officers also transported Tamil victims of assault to the hospital, and police stations held Tamil refugees. However, others report police standing by in cases of mob behavior, and some Tamils complained of police apathy or downright hostility. Several Tamil houses were attacked throughout Matale by Sinhalese rioters, and many Tamils were hurt. In Kotagoda,
11368-439: The sign-post with the street names. Using the sign-post they lifted a burning tyre by its loop, carried it and threw it on some inflammable material in the Old Market, thus setting it on fire." During the morning troubles, the police opened fire on crowds and assaulted people. Several Tamil residents accused the police of an engaging in a "reign of terror" by burning and damaging shops. Sansoni refers to five cases of shooting by
11484-539: The southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later,
11600-470: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
11716-420: The state of Tamil Eelam through political means by persuading and convincing members of parliament as Sansoni found "that any other method of achieving the separate State is unlawful and unconstitutional". He further states in his report that R. Sampanthan has stated that he took the oath of allegiance perform his duty as a members of parliament and use parliament as a "forum for the vindication and achievement of
11832-515: The streets, Buddhist priests under attack, and doctors at the Jaffna hospital neglecting Sinhalese patients." He continued to spread these false rumours throughout the night, introducing macabre variations, such as the claim that Sinhalese women were being nailed to walls in Jaffna. The main killings of Tamils at Anuradhapura followed his arrival. Tamil houses and shops were burned and looted throughout Anuradhapura city. In these attacks, many Tamils were assaulted and some were killed. Other areas of
11948-476: The town, a bus was stopped and the Tamil passengers were assaulted and tarred. Dr Wijayawardana, Medical Superintendent of the Anuradhapura Hospital, states that the hospital received a steady stream of casualties from the violence and when he visited the police station to request protection for the hospital, he found two Cabinet Ministers at the station on a fact finding mission. A police patrol
12064-437: The vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as
12180-541: The violent altercation that followed the police opened fire and four people were killed. A wave of rioting followed, spreading quickly to the south. The upheaval followed the pattern of previous ones and, as before, there were signs of provocation and concertation. Among 1500 people arrested were several known Sinhalese extremists, accused of instigating violence against Tamils. Edmund Samarakkody in Workers Vanguard reported: The outbreak in mid-August (1977) of
12296-539: The windows, except for a lab technologist (MLT) who was handicapped. He was simply bludgeoned to death. Later I learnt also that the mob after their foul murder at the hospital had planned to march to my quarters and attack the Tamil doctors and their families there.' At 10:30 PM, SP Liyanage arrived in Anuradhapura from Jaffna and echoed the false radio message circulated earlier by the police in Jaffna, embellishing it with disturbing details: "Chaos in Jaffna, Sinhalese individuals murdered, Sinhalese women subjected to rape on
12412-526: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
12528-534: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
12644-600: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
12760-417: Was fired at by a gang of 20 - 25 Tamils. 5 fishermen and the police constable were killed in the firing. The lorry was then burnt, along with the corpses of the 5 deceased. After this, Sinhalese army personnel had made comments about killing Tamils. The crowd that shot the fishermen at Vavunikulam then went to Tenniyankulam Tank and burnt four Sinhaelse wadiyas . Several Sinhalese police officers, angered by
12876-688: Was known as the Thangadurai Group and was led by Thangadurai and Kuttimani . The group would later be known as the Tamil Liberation Organisation (TLO). Other members of the group included V. Prabhakaran , Sri Sabaratnam , Sivakumaran, Periya Sothi, Chinna Sothi, Chetti and Kannadi. In 1971 Sivakumaran joined the Tamil Student Federation (Tamil Manavar Peravai) (TSF), which had been formed in 1970 by Ponnuthurai Sathiyaseelan. Sivakumaran later left
12992-614: Was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of
13108-436: Was provided to the hospital, however the female house officers' quarters (used by a Sinhalese doctor) was burnt down before it arrived. That night the hospital was attacked by a mob and a Tamil lab technologist was killed while others escaped to the Superintendent's quarters that was housing the Tamil doctors and their families. As the mob approached the Superintendent's quarters an army truck appeared and packed in front of it and
13224-681: Was shot by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), this was followed by the killing of two more Constables of the same name Shanmuganathan in Inuvil Jaffna, they were attached to CID units of police stations in Kankesanthurei and Valvettithurai . PC Karunandhi was detailed for the search for Prabhakaran and Patkunarajah who were suspected in the Duraiappah assassination, while PCs Shanmuganathan were investigating
13340-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
13456-458: Was the inspiration for LTTE cadres carrying cyanide capsules as standard equipment. A bronze statue of Sivakumaran was put up in Urumpirai but during the 1977 anti-Tamil riots the statue was destroyed by the police. The edifice was demolished by the army during Operation Riviresa . The statue was re-built in 1999. 5 June is commemorated as Tamil Students' Day of Uprising or Sivakumaran Day in
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