Tamil diaspora rejects Sri Lankan identity
Tamil diaspora rejects Sri Lankan identity and it marks February 4th as the black day when the British left Eelam in 1948. There is a very painful history behind the reason for this rejection. Eelam Tamils were targetted by Sri Lanka because of the Tamil Identity, and the diaspora determined to keep that Tamil identity in every possible way.
More than 800,000 Tamils escaped from Sri Lanka's continuous genocide and live around the world as Tamil diaspora. Most of the Tamils live in western, Europe, and other nations are proud of their country of residence. They called themselves British Tamil, American Tamil, Australian Tamil, French Tamil, Canadian Tamil, etc. and they are proud of it. Even under heavy pressure from successive Sri Lankan governments, Tamils in Eelam still wanted to identify themselves as Eelam Tamil. Not all Tamil refugee's lives are better off, and Tamil refugees in India and South Asian nations still feel hardship.
In 2021, the following poster from the National Council of Canadian Tamils explains the Tamil diaspora view. Once a nation and kingdom that lived with dignity and sovereignty now shrank and tried to keep its identity in Eelam.
Background:
February 4 is a black day for Eelam Tamils. It's the start of the genocide. British granted freedom for Ceylon and simply granted control to the Sinhala Buddhists to start its genocide against Tamils. Several massacres against Tamils and systematic colonization took place right after the British left in 1948. Before the British arrived, there was a Tamil kingdom. Sri Lanka's genocide against Tamils escalated with a pogrom in 1958 when hundreds of Tamils were killed by Sinhala thugs and armed forces. During that time, Tamils were only protested non-violently. Pogrom after pogrom and several massacres forced the Tamils to democratically mandate to form an independent state called Tamil Eelam. It was not a decision by LTTE. In fact, LTTE had only less than 30 members until 1983 when was the last pogrom took place. After that Tamils fought back and built their own state. In 1990, Tamil Eelam state was protected by the Tamil Eelam armed forces and it had to fight several battles against Sri Lanka's genocidal military. In 2002, the government of Tamil Eelam entered into internationally facilitated peace talks, and LTTE submitted its federal system based interim solution proposal in 2004.
In 2009, when Tamil's State was destroyed by the genocidal way, the following statement was released by the Canadian Tamil Congress and its Ottawa chapter calling it genocide.
The history after 2009, can be summarized by the United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions 19/2 of 22 March 2012, 22/1 of 21 March 2013, 25/1 of 27 March 2014, 30/1 of 1st October 2015, 34/1 of 23 March 2017, and 40/1 of 13 March 2019. 30/1 called for a hybrid court with foreign judges but Sri Lanka never showed intention to implement it. Still, the Tamil diaspora continues to raise their voice for justice.
12 years after the Tamil Eelam government was destroyed, the Sri Lankan genocide against Tamils escalated and now in the final phase of erasing the evidence of genocide. Recently Mullivaikkal genocide monument was demolished as part of erasing the memories. The University science students population went from 100% to less than 30% within the last 12 years. The Eastern province Tamil population already went majority in that past to very low now as the land grab continues on a larger scale. Tamils in Tamil Eelam faced genocide in escalated phase after 2009. The Northern Provincial council send a resolution to UNHRC in 2015 calling it genocide that requires immediate action. The details of this resolution can be found in the following booklet which was jointly published by Ottawa Tamil Association and Brampton Tamil Association in 2016.
https://ottawatamilassociation.ca/archive/2018/Sri%20LankasGenocideAgainstTamils_%20Booklet.pdf
In 2018, 21 Tamil organizations from the world endorsed the following resolution after 2 days of an academic conference and a final day presentation at the parliament.
https://tamilconferences.org/media/press-releases/second-itc-resolutions/
In 2019, the Canadian parliament also unanimously passed a resolution called the UN to investigate the Tamil Genocide. The following petition request the Canadian government to recognize the Tamil genocide in the following link:
https://www.change.org/tamilgenocide
Why a potential "Sri Lankan Heritage Month" is a shame and opposed in Canada?
Canada provided freedom and opportunities to Tamils who took refuge after escaping genocide in Sri Lanka. Tamil Canadians also worked hard and contributed to Canada in big ways. As a result, Tamil Heritage Month first became law in Ontario in 2014 and then unanimously passed as a motion in the Canadian Parliament.
Even after all these, the Sri Lankan government still trying to brand Tamils with its "Sri Lankan" slavery branding. In the past, in addition to Tamil Heritage Month, Sinhala Heritage Month also took place in Canada.
However, in 2020, the Sri Lankan government tried to change Sinhala Heritage Month to "Sri Lankan Heritage Month". This simply means that by getting few Tamils into its events, they tried to whitewash its crimes.
The following links have that information about changing it to "Sri Lankan heritage Month" in April.
https://slcaottawa.com/site/
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