Photo 1: Sourced from http://tinyurl.com/jagbbh7.
Photo 2: Sourced from the internet.
In both photos Rajan is in the centre behind Thileepan.
Audio recording: https://soundcloud.com/user-492987594/thileepan
Thileepan, Dixit will let you die. திலீபன், உன்னை டீக்சித் சாகவிடுவான்.
On 15 September 1987 Lt. Col. Thileepan started a hunger strike in Jaffna. After refusing food and water for twelve days, Thileepan died on 26 September. He was 23 years old.
There are a number of articles describing what Thileepan had hoped to achieve when as a result of his hunger strike. In this story, I hope to narrate the steps that led to Thileepan’s decision.
The narrator is Rajan, who was a close friend of Thileepan. He can be seen in the photo.
The backdrop of the story is the Indian government’s intervention in Lanka.
Rajan: There continues to be many doubts about how Thileepan came to the decision to go on a hunger strike. Many wonder if it was the decision of the LTTE or his own. Many people have written articles based on their own theories. This is how it happened.
One night, a week or two before the fast, a group of us were at our base in Pothpathy Rd, Kokuvil discussing the Tamil political situation. Thileepan was lying on the settee on which he normally slept. I slept on a carpet on the floor near him. It was normal for us to chat in this way before we fell asleep.
The Indian government had promised to set up an interim government in the Tamil areas in the north and east as a condition of the LTTE’s support for their peace package. But there seemed to be no progress in honoring this. The LTTE had taken the Indians’ word in good faith and we had handed over our weapons to them. On the ground, cadres from the ENDLF (Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front) had returned from their military training in India and were clashing with the LTTE fighters. The IPKF were not doing anything about the clashes or the continuing Sinhalese colonisation of Tamil lands.
We spoke about our gratitude to the Indian government for their military training. We spoke about how our people had followed India’s way of resisting using the law of ahimsa (non violence) before being forced to pick up arms. We speculated on what may happen if the Indians did not stick to their side of the deal.
Thileepan and I were exchanging thoughts and ideas as friends and comrades.
It was then that he said he was going to go on hunger strike – to urge the Indian government to see through its commitments to the Tamils. In taking this action, Thileepan believed the government would respect the law of ahimsa because of what Ghandi had achieved.
The next morning at about 8am, Thileepan told me to get onto his red 200 Honda motorcycle. We drove to Thiru Master’s home.
We often sought out Master’s wisdom and comprehension of the world and its complexities. I am able to speak to you like this today, because of what I learnt from Master. He was a friend, who patiently explained the world to us at any time of the day, no matter how long it took him. Master had an ability to analyse a political situation and predict its outcome. He is a great asset to the Tamil people.
We spoke to Master for about two hours. He explained to us how Thileepan would need to carry out his hunger strike and of other hunger strikes that had marked the pages of history.
He told us about India’s revolutionary Potti Sriramulu and of the leader of the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Bobby Sands.
(Sriramulu undertook a hunger strike in support of the formation of an Indian state for the Telugu-speaking population of Madras Province. He died in the process. When Sands died in his prison his funeral was attended by 100000 people).
Thileepan asked Master how India would respond to his hunger strike. He told Thileepan his decision was a good one but that Dixit will let him die. (Dixit was India’s HC to Sri Lanka at the time and played a crucial role in the formation of the Indo-Lanka accord).
“திலீபன், உன்னை டீக்சித் சாகவிடுவான்”.
When I remember Thileepan, I remember those words that Master said.
“திலீபன், உன்னை டீக்சித் சாகவிடுவான்”.
This was the validation that Thileepan wanted to hear: Dixit would allow him to fulfil the task that he was about to set out to do.
From there we went to the leader’s (of the LTTE) base in Thinnevelli. Thileepan wanted to ask him for his permission. They spoke in a room by themselves for about two hours. We left with the leader’s blessing.
I can’t remember how soon after Thileepan started the hunger strike. It was within two weeks. Before starting he expressed commitment to continue right till the end unless India agreed to his demands (see photo). He always believed in trying to resolve things in a peaceful way and eschewed violence. He had many plans about the projects that he wanted to run to help the community rebuild and prosper. But he didn’t want to risk another failed peace process, which would involve further bloodshed of the Tamil people.
When I asked him if he was really going to see it out till the end, he said that we wore cyanide around our necks so that we would not be captured by the Sri Lankan army and so why not die in this way? He told me that I must stay by his side the whole time. I joked in reply saying that would mean that I too would have to go without food. (Listen to audio here)
He told me that even if he begged for water, we were not allowed to give him any. But he never did ask us, even though he was in great agony.
On the day he was to start his fast, we were with him as he made his way to the stage set up for his hunger strike. It was in front of Nallur Kandasamy temple and a large crowd had gathered to bear witness to his action. In the minutes prior to him climbing the stage, an elderly women returning from the Temple, walked up to Thileepan and put a pottu on his forehead. This photo is commonly used in papers and magazines. I am standing behind Thileepan in the photo. For me this was a sign that Thileepan was not going to die.
During his fast, many tried to convince him to give up, including Thiru Master. But Thileepan’s resolve was unshakeable. As was Dixit’s.
The forewarning that Dixit would allow Thileepan to die, kept playing over and over again in my mind, as I stayed by my friend’s side.
I didn’t tell anyone else about what Master had said and until now have never spoken about it publicly. Many won’t have the courage to write this. But this is the truth, and I hope that you will write it as it happened.
