Rajani Thiranagama
Rajani Thiranagama | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | University Lecturer |
| Spouse | Dayapala Thiranagama |
| Children | Narmada Thiranagama, Sharika Thiranagama |
Dr. Rajini Thiranagama (February 23, 1954-September 21, 1989) was a Tamil human rights activist and feminist who was shot dead by Tamil Tigers cadres after she criticised them for their atrocities.[1] At the time of her assassination she was the Head of the department of Anatomy in University of Jaffna and an active member of University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna branch in which she is one of the founder members.
Biography
Early life and education
Rajini was born in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, to middle-class Tamil Christian parents. She was the second child of the four female children. She followed her primary and secondary school education in Jaffna and in 1973, she entered the University of Colombo to study medicine. At university, she became actively involved in student politics. [2]
Marriage and children
During her stay in Colombo University she met a politically-active Student leader from Kelaniya University named Dayapala Thirangama. Dayapala was from a rural Sinhala Bhudist background. Rajani broke ethnic and religious barriers and married Dayapala in 1977. They had two daughters: Narmada, (1978), and Sharika, 1980. At present Rajinis husband and her two daughters live in England. In 2005 Sharika portrayed her mother's role in the documetary film on Rajini called No More Tears Sister. [3]
Medical Profession
1978 Rajani begins her first posting as an intern medical doctor at Jaffna Hospital. After the completion of the intern, in 1979 she traveled to Haldumulla, a small village situated near Haputale to work as a medical doctor. By 1980 she returned to Jaffna as a lecturer in anatomy in the newly-formed Faculty of Medicine at university of Jaffna. By this time, Jaffna was practically a battle zone in the early stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. Many were leaving Jaffna for Colombo or migrating to other countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Links with the LTTE
Inspired by her elder sister Nirmala, then a member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Rajani became involved with the LTTE, administering care to those wounded in action. In 1983, Rajani traveled to England under Commonwealth scholarship for post-graduate studies in anatomy at Liverpool Medical School. There she launched a major international campaign for the release of her sister who was imprisoned in 1982 in under Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act. She also continued her links with LTTE by joining its London Committee in order to educate human rights groups and other international organizations about the atrocities occurring in Sri Lanka. While continuing to write and publish scientific papers, she also became implicated in grassroots organizations fighting for women’s rights and against the discrimination of Britain’s black people and became involved in the international campaigns of other liberation groups. [3]
As a human rights activist
Over time, constant exposure to politically motivated killings by armed groups on all sides caused Rajani to rethink her position on armed struggle. [4] A determined idealist, she criticized the narrow nationalism of the LTTE, and the atrocities committed by the LTTE, the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the Sri Lankan government forces upon the innocent Tamil civilian population in Jaffna. She began to collect evidence of human rights violations of IPKF and LTTE. In University of Jaffna, Rajini along with some other teachers of that time founded the Jaffna branch of the University Teachers for Human Rights.
Along with the evidence of human rights violations by IPKF and LTTE, Rajini co-authored a book entitled The Broken Palmyra [5]. The book documents the happanings in Jaffna in 1980s. [6][7]
Assassination
A few weeks after the publication of book The Broken Palmyra, on September 21, 1989, she was shot dead at Thirunelvely, Jaffna in front of her house by a gunman while cycling back from work. University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna, remaining co-authors of the book The Broken Palmyrah and Rajini's sister accuse Rajini was murdered by the LTTE for criticizing LTTE for its atrocities. [8]
Legacy and memorials
Documentary Film
In a documentary released worldwide in 2005, No More Tears Sister: An Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal, produced by the National Film Board of Canada,[9], Rajini's life and her legacy are vividly brought to life.
Quotes
Embracing feminism and a belief in human rights, Dr Rajani felt that women in particular were the primary casualties of war;
Men in battle garb, whether they come with swords or guns, on a horse or in armored cars, the price of conquest seems heightened by the violation of women,
One day some gun will silence me and it will not be held by an outsider but by the son born in the womb of this very society, from a woman with whom my history is shared,
wrote Dr. Rajani in 1989, a few months before she was killed.
References
- ^ "On the occasion of the release of No More Tears Sister, a film on the life and times of Rajani Thiranagama". Retrieved 2007-02-12.
- ^ "Surviving the Plots of RAW and Premadasa". Retrieved 2006-11-22.
- ^ a b "RAJANI THIRANAGAMA BIOGRAPHY" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-11-22.
- ^ "RAJANI THIRANAGAMA HISTORY OF CONFLICT". Retrieved 2006-11-22.
- ^ "The Broken Palmyra". Retrieved 2006-11-22.
- ^ "The Broken Palmyra Forward". Retrieved 2006-11-23.
- ^ "The Broken Palmyra review". Retrieved 2006-11-23.
- ^ "University Teachers for Human Rights". Retrieved 2006-11-22.
- ^ "No More Tears Sister Film". Retrieved 2006-11-22.