He had won the Death
S. Seshadri, Democratic & Human Rights Activist
“In the Eelam struggle, we have lost hundreds of our cadres. We may have to lose some more also in future. We are prepared to sacrifice our lives if it is going to ensure peace, democracy and freedom for the Tamil people”
Only few months before his death he was declaring amongst his comrades at their meeting held in Choolaimedu Office. No body at that time took a serious note of that, but prophetic words indeed, for he had fallen victim within next few months to the bullets of assassins who mercilessly pumped scores of bullets into his tough body. Some misguided Sri Lankan Tamils became his killers made the tragedy even more poignant. He has made a supreme sacrifice to uphold the just causes dearer to his heart-an egalitarian socialist society in Sri Lanka where people of all religions, races pursue their faith in total freedom, where all nationalities be it Tamils, Sinhalese, Plantation Tamils or Islamic Tamils, in short, all communities live in peaceful co-existence and harmony, each enriching the others life style and culture allowing noble thoughts to come from all sides.
His great vision was followed up with a determined effort on the basis of a definite plan of action. By consciously building a social base amongst the exploited sections of the Tamil community, he integrated them with the Tamil people’s just struggle against Sinhala Chauvinism.
With this brutal assassination, I firmly believe that the killers objective was not merely to silence him and his fellow comrades, but much more than that, that is to silence an opinion, an ideology, an ideology which was perceived as a threat to their existence in the long run. This act clearly exhibits the hollowness and bankruptcy of their politics.
Hence a real tribute to comrade Pathmanabha would be to uphold and work much more vigorously than ever to carry forward his ideals and adopt his methods to solve the contemporary problems confronting the Tamils. The ideals he was pursuing was well reflected in his decisions taken at various issues he and his EPRLF comrades encountered during his life time. This was unique, quite different from that of the other Tamil groups and at times it may be quite contrary also.
A brief review will be helpful to reinforce our faith on the path charted by him. Of course a detailed and exhaustive study alone will do justice to him and to my conscience, the paucity of space and other constraints restricts me to a brief outline only.
My acquaintances, with him dates back to the 70’s when he was in Eelam Revolutionary Organisers (EROS). The smiling face, soft spoken but deep thinking nature, intensive observation combined with a vision emitting a sense of confidence and sincerity of purpose. Attentive listener, a down to earth practical person attaching no dogmatic stigmas to his decisions are all some of the impressive characters attracted me in my first meeting itself.
Above all he was able to give a human touch to every problems we had discussed. In the subsequent years I offered myself too eagerly to work with him as one of his close comrade-inarms when he provided an opportunity for me. With this rare privilege to my credit, I would like to share some of his thinking with the readers of this commemorative issue.
His life was closely interwoven with the historic events and developments of his period. He was not a silent spectator but an active participant in all these developments.
Born in 1951 was brought up by his mother who inculcated moral values in his very early childhood. He was very fond of his mother till her tragic accident death which happened only few months before his own death. The human values, the concern for the fellow human beings in Pathmanabha could be attributed to her influence. His childhood and youth passed through a very turbulent political period in Sri Lanka. To understand Pathmanabha’s social and political commitments better we must know the historical developments that took place during his childhood and youth period which had influenced the entire youth in general and a socially conscious Pathmanabha in particular.
Soon after the independence of Sri Lanka, more precisely after 1956, when Bandaranaike regime introduced the Sinhala only act. the process for the discriminating against the Tamils started. Successive rulers, only added fuel to the fire with their various acts and deeds to this discrimination. Sri Lankan politicians of all hues barring leftists were in the rat race to get the majority votes. Unfortunately setting one section of their population against another with a short sighted narrow objective of getting votes, roused the Chauvinistic passions amongst ihe Sinhalese which was detrimental to the interests of the Tamils. It has done much harm to the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka.
On the other hand the elitist Tamil political leadership of Federal party types were more interested in parliamentary seats than giving an effective leadership in the struggle for the oppressed Tamil population. The Tamil society was feeling isolated. Successive Sri Lankan Governments were more interested in scapegoating the interests of Tamils to please the Sinhala Chauvinists. Over the years
the qualitative built up of this unhealthy development in Sri Lankan polity had precipitated with the adoption of 1972 constitution and also the introduction of the district wise standardisation.
In Tamil society where the literacy rate is high, and who are cultural proud of higher education, the youths were most affected by this standardisation in the fields of higher education and employment. But at the same time, since the Sri Lankan Government had opted for the neo-colonial path for its development, it has failed to create a local bourgeois base with sufficient employment opportunities. The education mills were turning out more and more unemployed youths every year. The institutions of higher education like universities were limited with few seats only to accommodate the students passed out of the school finals. Many ambitious talented youths frustrated with their future combined with other socio-economic factors gave a favourable climate for organisations like J.V.P. These youths devoid of political ideology and mass base unsuccessfully conducted an armed insurrection to capture political power through the barrel of the gun.
Sri Lankan Government used this as a pretext to strengthen its armed forces and thereby paved the way for massive militarisation of the state. Sri Lankan state, unable to counter the upsurge adopted the dirty trick of diverting the masses with the district wise standardisation and paved the way for anti-Tamil programmes in future.
In the international scenario also, the imperialist block led by U.S. imperialism was facing defeat after defeat everywhere. The oppressed people, nation and countries were liberating themselves from the yoke of Imperialism, colonialism, Neo-
colonialism, racism and Zionism. The victory of these struggles inspired the youths world over. To cite an example the victories of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Cuba and Nicaragua are noteworthy. The struggle of the Palestinians, Africans in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe also got a new fillip and it intensified their struggle to a higher stages.
Comrade Pathmanabha belonged to the generation which witnessed the above mentioned important historical events. Padmanabha and his like minded friends were seriously searching for an alternative political course. They wanted to defend the Tamil people through armed struggle against the militarised state machinery. They formed an organisation called Eela viduthalai iyakkam (Eelam Liberation Organisation) in 1974. Its political approaches clearly deviated from the futile political approaches of the traditional Tamil political organisations. The uniqueness of this is that the Tamil youths entering the center of Tamil politics ignoring the political role of the elitist Tamil leadership. In fact it was a forerunner for various other militant Tamil organisations that sprang up later.
The militaristic approach of ELO., lack of experience, and other factors attracted the state’s repression and had to die a premature death. The defeat of this experiment had thrown out valuable experiences to comrade. Nabha. In the later years these lessons helped him to evolve a much more refined and more practical approaches in forming EPRLF.
The defect of the ELO experiment evoked more determination for Nabha. Due to the state repression combined with his family pressure, he had to go to London for his higher studies. There his restless mind was preoccupied with
the problems of his people and was
searching for an effective solution to the Tamil people’s problem.
He used the opportunity of his stay in London to get acquaintances with the revolutionaries of various countries. He was alternatively listening to their views, bearing their positive and negative experiences of their struggles. Notable amongst them were African National Congress (ANC) Palestenian Liberation Organisaions (PLO). SWAPO.. Polisario and Eriterians. These interactions not only helped him to learn their experience but also to enlarge his world view, comrade Nabha’s Gradual progression from a humanist to a Nationalist, from a Nationalist to a Revolutionary, from a Revolutionary to a Marxist- Leninist took place during these period only.
During Eelam struggle days he was able to look at the struggle with an international perspective. He considered the Tamil People’s struggle as a part of the overall revolution of the entire Sri Lanka for an egalitarian socialist society. He had a clear perception that the Eelam Tamils problem could be solved only with a broad alliance of the left and democratic forces of Sri Lanka. He consciously worked for that.
This political foundation helped him for his firm line in the later years, when the imperialist intrigues and Zionist conspiracies were visible with the involvement of Israeli Mossad and Anti-India baits by the vested interests who were opposed to the struggle of the Tamil People. To day other groups who were not able to see beyond the Geographical limitations of Eelam had fallen prey to these Imperialist - Zionist traps. More relevant is attached to it now as the revelations are made in the press about some Tamil groups being helped by the Mossad in Guerilla warfare.
The pinch is at present felt by the Muslim population who are being mercilessly killed every other day by the LTTE Terrorists. Pathmanabha during his life time was able to prevail upon his cadres and organisation against this senseless killings. He and his organisation not only desisted from this type of killings but also condemned such actions carried out by other groups in an unequivocal terms. To cite an opt example is his condemnation of LTTE’s Anuradhapura Massacre TELO’s 86 attack, and EROS (curiously calling themselves Marxists) attack on G.P.O in Colombo. Interestingly they were all in the united front ENLF. While condemning the killings of innocent civilians while doing so he adhered firmly to his principles and not bothered about such condemnation may embarras his U.F. partners. It reflects his human value and the concern for the human life. In this respect he stood head and shoulders above other Tamil groups in his love for human life and ideals of humanism.
His interaction with various revolutionaries all over the world combined with his own experience, helped him to learn more about the “people oriented” politics. When he severed his links with EROS, he was guiding General Union of Eelam students. He impressed the advanced section of the students to go to various sections of working people like fishermen, rural proletariats, workers and other oppressed sections of the Tamil Community. He integrated these sections into the Eelam National Liberation struggle.
He considered plantation Tamils and Islamic Tamils as a component part of the Eelam liberation struggle, while other groups preferred to ignore this section. He was able to take up the issues of the plantation Tamils in Thimbu Talks also. During 70’s during
his stay in India, he was instrumental for the formation of various repatriates organisations. His view about Srima Shastri pact was very clear. His firm view was that the pact was concluded without the consent of the plantation Tamils and was not acceptable to him. He offered to accommodate the repatriates in Eelam.
To cite an example for his persistence, is the bringing out “EELAM NEWS” regularly. During his stay in India in the early 80’s he was taking personal care in bringing out the magazine. “EELAM NEWS” was the regular link with his innumerable friends in India and abroad. He may forgo his food expenses and at times he had spent days without food to save some money for printing and despatching this paper on regular basis. We used to admire his persistence in spite of so many odds he had encountered. He was firm in bringing it out periodically and regularly.
In the later period of degeneracy of various Tamil groups, lot of unhealthy tendencies developed. He was vehemently opposed to such tendencies. One such tendencies is the killing of their own cadres whenever the leadership confronted a difference, of opinions. The notorious ‘torture chamber’ ‘death traps’ organised by other groups was Vehemently opposed by him. Another tendency is military adventurism of heroic personals
leaving the people as silent spectators and at times a mute submissive slaves. These groups used the gun point to make the people submissive to their wishes.
The other tendency which was opposed by him was various anti-social activities carried out by other groups in the Indian soil like selling drugs. kidnapping and similar other antisocial activities.
Comrade Nabha was very clear and his party condemned these tendencies and also guarded his party from such infections. He has bequeathed to the society a healthy organisation.
Today comrade. Nabha, a rare personality committed for great ideals is no more with us, but he had lived as a living symbol and shown the course for all of us.
By Killing Nabha, the killers have killed only his physical body. The values, ideals comrade Nabha professed in his life time is living with every one of us. Especially amongst the EPRLF Comrades. It will live for ever. It cannot be extinguished by bullets or by any other force. With his living he had won the death.
Let me conclude this brief write up with an opt poem from ‘Githanjali’ by Rabindra Nath Tagore. This poem comes to my mind whenever I think of Com. Pathmanabha. Let me share it with the readers.
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my Country awake”. -Tagore
