Sri Lankan Civil War: Part 2

In the last episode, we discussed how Sri Lankan government policies marginalized the already excluded Tamil population. Despite Thanthai Chelva of the Tamil Congress leading a non-violent movement to draw attention to the Tamil cause and push the government to hear the demands of ordinary Tamil people, racial policies favoring the Sinhala language and culture left Tamils feeling like second-class citizens in their own country. Tensions escalated, especially with the Sinhala-Only Act and other discriminatory policies, pushing Tamil youths to take up arms. Among them was a young man who would become the face of the resistance—V. Prabhakaran, Vellupillai Prabhakaran. In this episode, titled Birth of the movement and rise of the Tigers, we delve into how Prabhakaran first formed the TNT (Tamil National Tigers) and later renamed it the LTTE, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. We explore how he successfully convinced the youth that violence was the only way to make the Sinhala administration address their grievances. Listen to the full episode to learn more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.