Being Tamil

 January has been recognised as Tamil heritage Month in the UK following in the footsteps of the Candian Government who established i back in 2014. There are approximately over 450,000 in the UK alone. Tamils are from both the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the North and East of Sri Lanka. 

My parents are both from the North of Sri Lanka (although my mother's side is a bit more complicated). Shortly after they got married, my dad emigrated to France amidst the civil war and my mum followed a year later and the rest is history.

I believe that my identity as a Tamil is defined by the civil war. In order to elaborate this more, I need to explain the civil war and Sri Lanka. In the North-East part is heavily populated by the 'minority', Tamils. The rest is the 'majority', Sinhalese. When the British gave Sri Lanka independence on 4/2/1948, they do what they always done and messed it up by giving the power to the Sinhalese. As with any country, there was always racial tension between the Sinhalese and Tamil but this newly found power gave Sinhalese the green signal to do whatever they wanted to do. And what was their aim? To make the whole of Sri Lanka Sinhalese. And how did they do that? First, they did the casual discrimination by  touching our education. Tamils needed to have high marks to enter university whereas Sinhalese can go through with average marks. And other sectors followed suit such as the job market. As with any injustice, we protested for our rights. The government obviously didn't like that. So step 2: violence.  Progoms started  at regular intervals where Tamil businesses, homes and religious establishments were vandalised and burned down not mentioned the copious amount of people who were murdered! W had enough. We wanted our rights, our own land and our livehoods back. So naturally, step 3: rebel groups formed to fight for our own land. The most successful group amongst these were  the LTTE aka Tamil Tigers led by Prabakaran Velupillai. The government didn't back down. The North was became more and more restless all culminating in civil war which started in 1983. For 25 years, the LTTE found to have our own land (Eelam). For 25 years, we fought for our rights. For 25 year, we found for our Tamil language. May 2009, it all came crashing down. A mass genocide happened while the world was watching. Tamils were bombed in no-firezone. Schools in the north were targeted. 1000 and 1000s have 'disappeared'. May 2009, the Sri Lankan government won! 

So to me being Tamil means saving my heritage. The Sinhalese government tried to erase us but they can't. I got my language, my Tamil. It is one of the most complicated but beautiful languages. Growing up in a suburb just outside Paris where you were the only brown one was hard in terms of  cultivating our culture. Therefore our language was very important to us. We always talked in Tamil at home. Movies were our way to learn about culture and improve our language skills. My parents seeked other tamils and soon parties, events, etc... followed where you could mingle with people that looked like us and understood us! The Tamil french community was very small at the 90s so I don't remember going to temples in my early age, as I don't there were any at that time but I could be wrong. I also started to attend Tamil school when I was 10 in order to learn how to write and read Tamil. Through reading Tamil, my dad introduced me to poems and stories. My love for my language increased even more. Now, my kids are slowly learning Tamil. I wished I started when they were babies. But, with both of them attending nurseries from a very young age, we encouraged them to speak in english at home so they don't have an issue with communicating.  Laksha is able to do all 3 but needs a bit more confidence in talking. It took us about 6 years to get her here. Mahish is a very work-in-progress. However, he is the one that loves watching Tamil movies  more. He is slowly starting to pick up from these movies and through Tamil class. We celebrate all Tamil festivals at home and learn the importance of each festival. I'm an atheist so I don't go to temples or church but I make sure that my kids know the story of all the Gods that I use to believe in. We have a prayer room with all the Gods photos in them so if they wish to pray, they have that space. 

Another way for me to fight for my identity as a Tamil,  is in all forms where they ask for ethnicity, I fill it as Eelam Tamil. Hopefully, this will be picked up from the Census done in 2021, as I know lots of fellow Tamils did the same thing.  In all my jobs or through volunteering, I proudly present my history. Colleagues from my last 3 jobs didn't know there was a civil war in Sri Lanka and therefore I educate them. Not long ago, I heard one of my white colleagues educating a new staff member about our fight for independence! This is why it's important to educate the ones around us because they will become our allies in our fight for our Eelam and Eelam Tamils!