THE EXPERIENCES OF TAMIL WOMEN: NATIONALISM, CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER, AND WOMEN'S POLITICAL AGENCY

[Part III.]

 

-- Nanthini Sornarajah

 

This is the third and final installment of a three part discussion by Nanthini Sornorajah on Tamil women’s negotiation with nationalism and the construction of gender.  This conclouding section highlights women’s dissenting voices resisting nationalism, and the particular direction taken by Tamil militarism.  The first section was published in the February issue of lines; it offered a broad introduction to nationalism and gender (See Vol. II;  No. 4 - February 2004)).  The second section examined the mobilization of women within the ranks of the LTTE.   (See Vol. III;  No. 1 - May 2004).

 

Sornorajah  begins her  discussion of Tamil women and dissent by looking at the experience of women outside the LTTE – not only women who fell foul of the LTTE through their explicitly opposition, but also ordinary Tamil women who experienced a tension between their day to day lives and the demands of militant nationalism.

 

What intervention could the LTTE women's wing make in the lives of ordinary civilian women who were as described above prepared to fight for the nation as well as for themselves. Thiranagama [i] describes the various ways in which society stigmatised women who were raped or molested by the IPKF There was a resurgence of conservatism upon the arrival of the IPKF.(Hoole:92:318)

Not too surprisingly the LTTE `s response was not too different. Mownaguru reproduces in her article an anonymous leaflet that appeared on the streets of Jaffna, widely believed to have been authored by the LTTE. It is important for women to take care in their dress, in their pottu and make-up. It doesn't mean that we are enslaved if we dress according to our tradition. Some married women say that it is expensive to wear saris. This is not acceptable. Women should dress simply and they should not attract men by their way of dressing. Some women say that it is difficult to maintain long hair.  These pretensions are wrong….  We are engaged in a struggle for national liberation.  But the changes which have been taking place in our culture will only demean our society. " (Jeganathan:95:169)

 

Women's beautification, their dress and behaviour were important as markers of national identity, and also as the reproducers of tradition. Here was a situation, where women had through social practice contesting the images of tradition, but the hegemonic group, despite its claim to militant womanhood, was ramming tradition down the throats of ordinary women who had no use for it.

 

There is yet another telling example of how the LTTE portrayed images of women, when they were not part of the armed unit. P.Nedumaran, a spokesman and champion of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu produced a pamphlet on the life of one of Prabhakaran's right hand men Kittu, describes his young widow as a modern `Thilakavathy' [ii] . The historical character of Thilakavathy maintained widowhood and remained faithful to the memory of her warrior husband who had died in battle. According to Nedumaran the modern Thilakavathy, Kittu's young widow, has now in memory of her husband decided to offer herself in service to the LTTE providing medical assistance to its wounded fighters. (Nedumaran: 93:119-130) The emphasis here is not on the young woman serving the LTTE, but that she has undertaken a penance to offer her life symbolising widowhood, as the wife of a dead hero, but not in her own right.

 

It would be interesting to see what structural potential and practices within the LTTE would engender a distinctive political agency for women. As nationalism always hierarchizes the various forms of oppressions that women experience, privileging the national oppression over gender oppression this appears to be reflected within the structures of the liberations movement as well. As none of the LTTE pamphlets even superficially deal with their programme of action to oppose forms of subjugation we can only assume that even in practice it is completely subsumed within the combat for national freedom.  This is further reinforced by the fact that  the regimentation, discipline, punishment, and codes of conduct that form an essential part of group dynamics within the LTTE.

 

In modern Tamil nationalism these two constructions of gender as stated earlier, the passive inert mother, who is simply a bystander; or the super hero martyr who performs her dance of death as an individual, are both inflexible and monolithic. There is nothing between armed combat and inactivity. Women's political agency is determined by "these constructions. The political space available to render these images more fluid and develop along different lines has been denied to many women who dissent from this hegemonic view.  LTTE's suppression of the Mother's Front, and Poorani Women's Refuge are examples of their intolerance for all independent civilian initiatives outside their own monolithic organizations.

 

Dissenting voices: women standing proudly outside nationalism

 

It would be appropriate to begin this section with an account of the activities of the Mothers Front, who did not constitute a dissenting voice, but began functioning totally independently of the LTTE and or other militant groups. The fact that the Mother's Front did not articulate a clear ideological stance on nationalism brought about its early demise.

 

The formation of the Mother's Front in the 1984-85 years, with the disappearances and indiscriminate detention of young men between the ages of 15 to 30 was the first spontaneous movement organised by women. The leadership originated from the Jaffna Tamil middle classes, who tended to have a narrow vision about the long term development of the campaign itself, the campaign began of its own accord as a response to state violence, and not by male design as part of a construction of the nationalist project. As the numbers of the detainees grew, the militancy of the mothers also increased drawing participants from all different classes and backgrounds. Several thousand mothers marched through the streets of Jaffna, gheraoed and barricaded the government secretariat and held rallies putting forward their demands.

 

" Not only the spirit, but also the enormous numbers that they were able to mobilise spoke loudly of the high point to which such mass organisations especially of women can rise. " (Hoole:92:362)

However once the LTTE became ascendant the Mothers Front despite its spontaneous and spirited organisation had to succumb to the dictates of the LTTE. Despite its size, the lack of cohesion and vision rendered the Mother's Front to eventually become a charitable outfit which petered out in time.

 

Even so the Mother's Front is a stark contrast to the mothers and sisters who figured in LTTE propaganda videos as the brave mothers of the fallen heroes of the LTTE. The tear stained sorrowful faces of the women holding torches to the dead, was different to the women across class and caste barriers who came together for at least one brief moment in history to challenge the military and governmental authorities, however short lived that may have been.

 

There were many women as individuals and in groups, who refused to toe the hegemonic nationalist line. These women's voices of dissent the LTTE would not tolerate. One such activist was RajaniThiranagama who co authored the Broken Palmyrah and who was subsequently murdered by the LTTE for her own brand of militant feminism, her writings and practices.

 

Her own scepticism about nationalism is contained in her poem, " A Letter from Jaffna" written during the IPKF occupation of the Tamil areas.

"Our brave defenders and freedom fighters lure the enemy,

right to our doorstep

to the inside of a hospital,

start a fight, ignite a land mine

Fire from near each and every refugee camp, Escape to safety,

 

And then come the shells, whizzing, whizzing, Bloody hell, Tigers have withdrawn while We,

the sacrificial lambs drop dead in lots."

 

"Fear?

Now we know of Rape

I'd like to get together with the other women. But I know of nobody to get in touch with. All of us are scattered

15 years of war. And now a hopeless halt. Our society has no will to organize   

The era demises with so much loss and bitterness all round. (Thiranagama:Outrite: 1988)

Thiranagama decries the LTTE for dragging the whole community along its suicidal path of fanaticism and militarism, and laments the lack of unity and organisation within Tamil society, despite the claims of unified nationhood.

 

 

Schalk, contemptuously refers to the women who wished to proudly stand outside the nationalist paradigm as the 'Palmyrah group' or as `western feminists'. (Schalk:92:112-113) His misreading of who refuse to allow their political agency and praxis to be subsumed into male dominated nationalism, while extolling the LTTE women's ideology as martial feminism is an example of exoticisation of Asian women by yet another white male academic from Europe.

 

Rajani Thiranagama was a founder member of Poorani (the whole woman) Women's Refuge, which housed in rotation women affected by IPKF violence and who did not receive any support from the community. Most of these women were from rural areas in and around Jaffna town. Talks on, gender specific forms of oppression, and training on para legal, and women's health issues were offered to the women. Poorani became a centre for women who dissented from Tamil nationalism to congregate and discuss feminist ideas. Following Thiranagama's murder the LTTE, visited the refuge demanded that its funds be handed over by intimidating the inmates and took over. The leading women involved in the project had to leave Jaffna, for security reasons [iii] .  This is in contrast to Schalk's version of events, which claims that Poorani was shut down owing to internal dissension (Schalk:92:42).

 

The Jaffna Women's Study Circle which was active from the early eighties, was a small pioneering group that was active in studying the subject-position of the Tamil woman and critically evaluating the claims of Tamil nationalism. Again the war and LTTE's bid to silence dissident voices have resulted in many of these women fleeing the Tamil areas [iv] .

Even though the voices of dissent are not strong, they are intensely powerful in their own inimitable way. Selvi Thiagarajah, a former member of PLOTE, was subsequently detained by the LTTE in early 1990 for staging a play critical of Tamil nationalism. The LTTE has not been forthcoming with any information on Selvi's disappearance. Selvi a recipient of two international literary awards while in LTTE custody, was active with Poorani, and the Jaffna Women's study circle.

Sivamohan comments,

"Selvi's poem of 1988 reproduces this same sense of disillusionment. It is ambivalent and traumatised about the jubilant cries of a doomed nationalism....", and reproduces lines from Selvi's poem `In Search of Sun'.

In Search of Sun My Soul,

full of despair, yearns for life …… primitive humans

yellow toothed, ugly mouthed, thirsting blood slit flesh, saliva adribble

cruel nails and horrifying eyes,

Bragging and jubilating over victories are not new Legs lost from long walks

For miles and miles in search of a throne

Days wasted waiting for a full moon

Only boredom lingers    (Selvi: Options: 1)

 

Does Selvi foretell us rather ominously about her future experience with her torturers. The women who feel the need to negotiate a space for themselves amidst competing claims of nationalisms, knew that this could very often cost them their lives. In Thiranagama's words

 

 

"Objectivity the pursuit of truth and propagation of critical and honest positions was not only crucial for the community but was a view that could cost us our lives. It was undertaken only as a survival task." (Hoole:92:408)

 

This essay would be incomplete if I do not finish this essay with the words of Sivaramani, an uncompromising feminist, and one of the brightest young stars of modern Tamil literature who ended her life in 1991 unable to live any longer in an atmosphere of terror and repression where she could no longer determine her own life, realise her own subjective agency.

 

 

I do not have words for a solution like a leaflet in bold print

Dreams, their meaning is lost to me who is uncertain

whether the sun will rise tomorrow While a gun aims at a society's Umbilical cord,

The dreams of a butterfly resting delicately

on the tip of a fragile flower

are merely an occurrence          (Sivaramani: 94.59)

Nationalism, its constructions of womanhood couched in the traditions and images of the past, and the tragedy facing women who wish to construct an alternative space through their self agency and praxis, is starkly presented in her words,

 

"The last thinking human is dying, slowly. The door is closed to all Dissent.

You leave your children the legacy of darkness; The crumbs of culture preserved

In the traditions of a six-yard cloth [v] ." (Sivaramani:94:25)