|
lines
|
|
THE
EXPERIENCES OF TAMIL WOMEN: NATIONALISM, CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER, AND
WOMEN'S POLITICAL AGENCY
--
Nanthini Sornarajah*
This is the second of a three part discussion by Nanthini Sornorajah on Tamil women’s negotiation with nationalism and the construction of gender. This section examines the mobilization of women within the ranks of the LTTE. The first section was published in the February issue of lines; it offered a broad introduction to nationalism and gender (See www.lines.magazine ). The final section of this tri-partite essay will focus on women’s dissenting voices resisting nationalism (See Vol. III; No. 2 - Forthcoming August 2004).
Women and `male sanctioned theories of nationalism'
[i]
In
analyzing the LTTE’s approach to gender, I rely on two political
pamphlets published by the LTTE on their women fighters
titled, `Women and Revolution' and Women fighters of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In addition to official LTTE newspaper
reports, two video documentaries titled 'Nidharshanam' of the celebration
of the `Great Heroes Day', have also informed my understanding
of the LTTE and its particular incorporation of women in to armed struggle. There are also two articles
by Peter Schalk, the non-LTTE source who is an apologist
to the LTTE's own particular ideology surrounding women's participation in armed combat, which he calls martial feminism.
I
am also relying on three anthologies of creative writing by three
martyred LTTE women fighters, to analyse their personal political
motivation and their identification with the movement and its goals. The three anthologies contain mostly poetry and have appeared as official LTTE publications. The
poems and short stories do not stand out in any way for their
subtlety or ambiguity of meaning, or any such literary merit. In
addition I am also relying on poems written by women dissenting
from LTTE ideology to assess the intent and subjectivity of political
actors standing outside Tamil nationalism.
From Adele Balasingam's pamphlets the theoretical positions
that the LTTE holds with regard to women's participation in the national
struggle become clear. Firstly, the primacy of the national struggle
over the imperatives of women's own emancipatory struggle is
implicit. Further it is obvious that the quest for emancipation has to occur within
the parameters of the national struggle, the aim of which is achieving a unity which is nationhood. The
leader of the LTTE V.Prabhakaran
made the following statement on the occasion of the International
Women's Day, 1992. Remarking on the achievements of
the LTTE women,
" mark a revolutionary turning
point in the history of the liberation struggle of the women of Tamil Eelam, Women can succeed on the
ideal path towards their (own)
liberation only through joining forces with a liberation movement"
(Schalk:92: 47)
The statement is further buttressed by Balasingam's analysis
that "the participation of women in the Tamil Eelam Freedom
Struggle is not only crucial for national victory but will begin
to effect radical changes in the lives and consciousness of Tamil
women which is vital to their own social emancipation and women
free themselves from the constraints of social oppression, replacing traditional norms and values with revolutionary conceptions
of women's place in society
thereby paving the way for radical transformation
of women's lives and social attitudes towards women in an authentic
socialist state of Tamil
Eelam." (Balasingam:83:30)
Vanathy's
poem "Come forward" reinforces this perception and the
need for a space for women to
organise independently of the national struggle is not recognized.
“We all long for, The freedom of our land, The day
we achieve it , then, Women's oppression Will be buried in its grave. ~Vanathy :93:16)
Adele Ann's political statement on the women fighters of
the LTTE, presupposes a unilinear development of Tamil women's political
consciousness towards transforming
their position in society, within the ambit of the Tamil
nationalist struggle. In her introduction
to her pamphlet, she narrates a gradualist development of Tamil women's agency from passive resistance,
growing in to active support and
sympathy for the militant movements culminating in the direct and
full fledged participation in armed combat of the LTTE. (Ann:93:
2-6) Also the claim that armed
combat the most `advanced form of militancy' alone can create a
rupture to lead women towards emancipatory goals needs to be
evaluated. (Balasingam :83:18.).
While
making a rherotical commitment to women’s emancipatory goals, the
nationalist literature focuses only on the combat experience of
Tiger women. Adele carefully eschews the discussion of gender
specific forms of oppression, and what
the LTTE women's section proposals to deal with these were. There
is no discussion of the women's own ideological motivation, apart
from one that was purely nationalist. There is very little discussion
on how various forms of gender specific oppression determined women's entry into the national struggle,
or how they proved to be a catalyst for subjective action by women.
It is self evident that in the LTTE's eyes, a distinct women's
agency is not possible, and any such initiative has to
be subsumed within the armed struggle, for national liberation.
The emphasis on the armed struggle f• or national liberation undermi• nes women's own efforts at developing their subjective
political agency, especially when this occurs through male designation, orchestrated by `sanctioned male
theories on nationalism'
(McClintock:95:357)
The women's unit has totally relied on the sanction and design
of the charismatic leadership of Prabhakaran, in whose central figure
all power within the LTTE is reposed. Schalk also endorses this view (92:47) In
the epilogue to her pamphlet Ann says, "
Mr.Prabhakaran, who views the
successful induction of women into the armed struggle as one of his major
achievements will without reserve promote the holistic development of the women fighters, as a part of his vision of women's path to liberation."
(my italics, Ann:93 :110)
Ann's painfully abject attempt to credit Prabhakaran fully,
with the establishment of the women's wing, implies that the LTTE women had no
significant part in making making
the decision to set up the women's military unit. The
need to make such tactical statements
itself is evidence of the lack of independence and autonomy that
the women's unit enjoys.
The figure of Prabhakaran has structural as well as symbolic
significance for the gendering of Tamil nationalism, representing
male privilege and design. The ‘Thalaivar’ (leader or lover-lord) is the central
repository of all power and is now a cult figure. His praises are sung
by foreign academics like Schalk to Adele Balasingam to ordinary
women cadres, such as the women martyrs in whose poetry collections
we can find references exalting the leader, as the ‘king of the
Tigers’, the brave
Tamil warrior who has taken on an `avatar' to reclaim the land,
etc., He is simultaneously the leading patriarchal figure to military supremo of the
national liberation struggle.
These words of Bharathy, one of the martyred young women
poets, were cited in the preface to her anthology published posthumously:
"If I can see my `Anna' (older
brother, Prabhakaran in this context, ) only once, if I speak
to him once it is like taking a tonic. With that one meeting I can
work for the movement tirelessly for a long time" (Bharathy:93:18)
The source óf the loyalty and commitment to the movement
of individual is perceived to be the charismatic figure of Prabhakaran.
Armed combat and the LTTE women.
Adele Ann's `Women fighters of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam' gives an account of the nature of the military training, a
narrative of the military operations that the women undertook and their heroic actions in
battle cautiously eschewing gender
specific issues concerning Tamil women.
The physical act of leaving home, facing opposition and
criticism from family, neighbourhood and village requires courage. The life of a guerrilla fighter particularly
for women, is about facing danger, quite possibly death, a rupture from
their hitherto
relatively protected familial world. Learning to fight, undergoing immense physical hardship
during training, handling weapons and feeling the power of being able to take
on the enemy can also be `exhilarating.' This experience demonstrates to the
women themselves that they are as capable as the men: it breaks down the notions
that women are passive and weak; this alone can contribute to a
sense of exhilaration and euphoria. (Peteet:91:145) The LTTE women have been able to prove that they are no
less than the men in the battlefield. Adele's account of the nearly 20 - 30 major battles in a period of 6 years is remarkable and speaks
for the ferocity and military competence of the LTTE women. LTTE women organise their
own training camps and are
able to
plan and execute their own battles.
Adele's account highlights the substantial and leading role played by women in the battle field, ambushes, sabotage
operations and particularly suicide
bombings. The pamphlet mentions discipline, and the LTTE code of
conduct, similar to regular armies, and also the
concept of punishments for breaking
the code appear as important as the training. What ever the achievements of the LTTE military women the
following words of Ann make it crystal clear how divorced the military
adventure of the LTTE women is from the perils suffered by
ordinary Tamil women.
"Women in combat belong to
a totally new world, a world outside a normal woman's life. And
that is what makes these women fighters so interesting and admirable.
They have taken up a life that bears little resemblance at all to
the ordinary existence of women."
(Ann:93:ii)
The
BBC video documentary on LTTE suicide bombers (1991)focusing on
the women cadres illustrates this remarkable statement.
It would be correct to assume that the LTTE would have had
considerable control over the locations and the kind of exposure their women would receive in a BBC film. At no point
are the LTTE women cadres seen
with ordinary people, involving the lives of ordinary women.
All the images are
of them in battle fatigues in non-social environments.
The main spokesperson in the documentary is the Australian
wife of the LTTE theoretician
Adele Balasingam, and not any of the `self confident' Tamil women
combatants. The women combatants are shown to be happy and
contented in battle fatigues living in isolated environments almost like
beautiful and exotic young animals,
at play. Then an interview
with a young woman who has had both of her arms
blown off is shown. She mechanically spouts defiant words about
continuing the struggle, declaring her loyalty to her leader and
the movement. Adele Balasingam presides over these images with her own
analyses about how radicalised Tamil
women have become and how they wish to sacrifice their lives for
the Tamil cause.
There
is no recognition of the fact that women’s lives are uneven, and
at different times and places they could be incorporated into the
struggle at different levels. Within the Palestine movement,
women could have different levels of involvement, carrying
different official statuses. Such as `friends' of the movement,
or full time combat. There is a considerable degree of movement
between the various statuses, depending on how the woman
is positioned within her society. Very often the women who are in
the middle are the liaison between the movement and the ordinary
people and play a pivotal role. (Peteet:91:147) In all of the LTTE
publications, such women are totally absent. The only women who are ever present
are those who carries weapons and martyred themselves.
The cult of suicide:
The
suicide cult of the LTTE is a unique phenomenon, linked to notions
of martyrdom and immortality. Carrying a cyanide capsule
around the neck is observed as
a rule. There are two situations in which suicide is undertaken.
The first situation is
swallowing cyanide to avoid being captured by the enemy. This is
mandatory. And secondly, there are special commando units, called
Black Tigers, who will wire themselves or drive a vehicle filled with explosives
and detonate themselves once they reach their target, which could
be an individual, a building or a naval vehicle on the sea. The word denoting suicide in Tamil is Thatkolai (That=self,
kolai= murder). The LTTE
call their suicide missions Thatkodai, kodai meaning gift. So
suicide in Tiger parlance has become ‘Jelgift’) Rajeshkumar in an unpublished paper, says that Tigers have created a new common sense making suicide
respectable and suicide is now equated with martyrdom, self sacrifice,
immortality and courage. While Hindus
do not build gravestones
for their dead, the LTTE have restored the ancient practice of building grave stones (nadukal) not for just anybody,
but for brave warriors. The brave
Tigers are raised to the level of gods citing Tamil heroic poetry
purananooru. The idealisation of death interacts with the invivncibility
of the Tigers and their immortality, which is derived from the possibility of suicide. (Rajeshkumar:95: 5-7) The promise of immortality is ever present in the poems
of the female fighters, making death even more enticing.
"Warrior, We shall not tarnish your grave
With tears Or by lighting lamps For we know what resides there
is the
sun! " (Kasturi:92:54)
Her fellow fighter Vanathy declares that the fallen heroes
are never forgotten because
“............................... You have not faded away Your dense
presence lives everywhere You travelled
around the land in your human form Now you are a glowing light
of the world. The shock waves of your demise Will give
birth to many new dawns .............................
(Vanathy:93:26)
Suicide
is also synonymous with liberation. LTTE nationalism which disunites
the nation even further along class, caste and regional lines, aspires
to achieve a unity of the nation through suicide, in death which
is now synonymous with liberation. The longing for freedom, a new
society or national liberation often appears as a metaphor, couched
in a language of emotive rhetoric and is not seen beyond the experience
of death. Phrases denoting death,
grave, gravestones
interacting with notions of rebirth, birth and life, history
and immortality, figure abundantly
in the poetry cited a
"In our land once freed, If our graves are one day built,
It would not be to receive your Salutations of tears Or flowered
wreaths respectfully laid. It is for you to crown our land With your determination A rebirth... After my most Meaningful death You shall certainly walk about
In Tamil
Eelam. ....................
(Kasturi:92:48) There is the longing that death
will bring new births and immortality. In Bharathy's words, “...................... Your graves Move eastward, To give
birth to the Freedom child that They carry in
their wombs .............................” (Bharathy:93:63)
It
has been suggested that the image of the female armed combatant
in national struggles are masculinised. In the Palestinian movement, the more masculine a
woman combatant appeared then the more respect she would command. Women who expressed a traditional `femininity
or isp aye a certain sensual femininity
were considered to be inherently problematic, and. therefore
not good fighters.(Peteet: 91;149)
McClintock analyses Fanon's own construction of female agency in
a masculinised form. " Fanon masculinises the female
militant. She is the woman - arsenal of the
men." (McClintock:95:366), firmly placing agency in the hands
of men. Armed struggle and femininity are seen to be
irreconcilable; aggressive nationalism
and armed violence went hand in hand and were the preserve of the
masculine gender.
The LTTE women constitute themselves through their practice
of armed combat in at least two different possibilities. Firstly, it is the masculunised image of the
fighter, in battle fatigues, in battle fatigues, hair cut short
carrying heavy arsenal full of violent and ferocious imagery, that resonates with existing
meanings of ‘masculinity’. The second
construct is that of the virgin fighter. Coomaraswamy
mentions the virgin in arms, but only discusses the masculinisation of the female fighter.
(Coomaraswamy: 96:20-21)
Coomaraswamy extends this argument further in the Tamil context,
stating that the masculinisation of the woman militant has no parallel
epic or mythical precedent, and that this is perversion of Tamil
culture, which valorises the married woman. The LTTE departing from the `auspicious
image' of a Tamil married woman, wearing pottu,
(1) sari and flowers in her long hair, celebrating procreation and
life through her 'shakti' now emphasise an androgyny for women. The LTTE's form of androgyny committing a total
erasure of femininity up holds male values such as ,aggression, authority, hierarchy and violence, away from the feminine qualities
of nurturence, networking and love of non-violence. (Coomaraswamy:96:
20-22)
Coomaraswamy's critique is seriously flawed by a certain
essentialising of what are understood as feminine qualities. It is also not
correct to say that the LTTE `s construction of gender with regard
to the female combatant is a complete departure from what
is understood as Tamil culture, and that it does not derive from
an existing
Tamil mythology, even though a certain 'masculinised' image of the
combatant
is perceived to be necessary.
It is at this point that we need to look at how the LTTE
combatant's life of self sacrifice culminating in death through suicide,
becomes a gendered process. Coomaraswamy calls `life' values, such as the `auspicious'
institutions of marriage and procreation. (96:22).
“The days when We went on a wedding procession with accompanying music are now
gone. My sister's Charred body returns from the battle field in its
last procession still embracing her weapon."
(Bharathy:93 :39)
What Schalk terms `abandonment of life' (Schalk:92:51) is
what LTTE relied on to establish its superiority and legitimacy over other
militant movements to justify its claim that it should be the `sole
representatives of the Tamil people.'(2) Maintaining celibacy
and sexual purity is part of the sacrifice or abandonment of life that
the LTTE cadre is supposed to uphold. Particularly female sexuality
is dangerous. How can this be contained or usefully harnessed in the
cause of nationalism? Coomaraswamy does not acknowledge LTTE's emphasis
on the `chaste and sexually pure' woman, which originates from Tamil culture. From strict segregation of the sexes to blanket proscription
of any relationship between men and women, (3) it also
uses other subtler tactics to maintain the distance between
men and women.
The nation just as the militant movement is a family. The
embodiment of the nation is contained within the figure of the mother. Therefore the members of
the nation are obviously brothers
and sister belong to a kin group. This is perceived as a self evident
truth within Tamil nationalism. When cadres enter
the family of the LTTE, they develop
simulated family relationships. Respectful forms of address customary
within families are used, such as Anna (older brother)
Akka (older sister) or Tha (younger
brother) to denote relationships between cadres. This was prevalent
within the cultural nationalism of Tamil Nadu, as well as
in the earlier phase of Tamil nationalism
in Sri Lanka. There is a tactical use for such forms of address
as well. When a comrade
in arms is called a brother or sister, such address masks any suggestions as to possible sexual encounters or relationship
between young people who are not actually related by blood. It is
a tactic used to maintain sexual distance. Particularly women are called Akka or Amma (mother) even when they are younger, the suggestion being that the young men and women
then would not entertain any sexually
illegitimate ideas. In these ways also Tamil nationalism masked
and restrained interaction between the sexes, while at
the same time attempting to maintain
a familial cohesion and unity within the movement which then extends
to the nation.
Let us look at the figure of the female suicide bomber of
the LTTE. She is today known internationally as a novel of India.
Even though the LTTE did not claim the assassination, they loosely let it be known that they had carried out
the operation. They also let it
be known that Dhanu avenged herself by killing Gandhi because she
had been raped by members of the IPKF in Tamil Eelam.
A suicide killing is sanctioned
as an act of avengement for a raped woman.
Here the raped woman is
contrasted with the chaste woman. The LTTE unconsciously accepts
the stigma and blame that Tamil society in general phenomenon. The LTTE's determination
and tenacity are symbolised
by the
women black tigers like Dhanu who detonated herself to kill Rajiv Gandhi the ex- prime minister attaches
to the raped woman.
On the other hand the virgin combatant channels her sexual
energy to blow herself up and destroy the enemy. This resonates with the epic figure of Kannaki. (4)
Kannakí is the quintessentially Tamil heroine. Unlike
Sita, wife of Rama who signifies chastity
and passivity, Kannaki signifies chastity, justice and militancy. The LTTE has appropriated
an epic character, and given it a modern twist, to construct the
persona of the female fighter by ascribing it, virginity.
Schalk celebrates the modern construction
of the virgin fighter as a modern Tamil Joan of Arc. (Schalk:92:103)
The symbol represents the combination of a chaste
and sexually powerful womanhood,
who is to sacrifice her life for the cause, avenging the indignities
suffered by herself/the nation.
How does this female virgin warrior of the LTTE constitute
herself through her practice of war? The poem `The Woman of Tamil Eelam
by Vanathy reads thus
"It is not kunkumam (5) that
decorates her forehead, Its red blood! Her eyes do not carry the dreams
of youth, But the graves of the dead! Her lips
murmur not useless
utterances, but the determined oaths of those
who died in battle! What is tied around her neck is not the
Thali (6) but the cyanide capsule! She embraces
not men, but weapons Her feet go in search of not kinship ties, but the freedom of this land! The bullets that fire from her
gun will defeat the enemy without fail! It will break the shackles of
Tamil Eelam! Then our people's lips will sing the nation's song!!!"
(Vanathy:93:17).
Amongst women cadres the sense of sacrifice and dedication
are supreme. They had to endure more as they had to break
more barriers and new ground to reach the point that they
are at now. They live and fight like the male fighters very close
to death all the time. Death preoccupies their subjective consciousness.
In eulogizing the the first suicide bomber Miller,
Kasturi says,
“....................... The Tamil warriors befriended death. But you, entered into a marriage
with death and slept restfully in its lap. ..................... (Kasturi:
92:11)
The interaction between the notions
of marriage or life's pleasures and death is aimed to heighten the
sense of sacrifice and of how death is seen as a viable alternative
to life.
Similarly
Vanathy pays homage to Aniththa, a woman cadre from the eastern
province, who died by taking cyanide in a confrontation with the
armed forces. She is being lauded in this poem for following the
lead of Kumarappa, (7) one of the LTTE leaders. seventeen men who died by taking cyanide
when the Indian Army apprehended them, triggering off the
conflict between the IPKF and the LTTE in 1987.
" You were
inducted into the battle field by lieutenant Kumarappa. You followed in his foot steps, With the same determination and
idealism And finally paid your highest tribute to him,
Taking cyanide and marrying death.... " ( my italics, Vanathy:93:12)
Or in another poem about yet another female comrade,
“.......................... When dying, embraced death with happiness!" (Vanathy:93:19)
Even though the number of women cadres are far smaller
than men in recent battles the numbers of women dying in battle fields is now
almost as much as that of men. (Ulagaththamilar: 98: April 15:15) Bharathy, in praise
of one of her dead comrades says,
" One day,
it may be today, tomorrow or some time later, the truth is that
we will meet with death on this land. That is why every one
is so eager to go to the battle field."
(Bharathy:93:73-74) '
The overwhelming majority of the creations of these three
young women poets are about their battles and death at the end of
it. There is very little reflection
upon the inferior position of women in Tamil society, or any understanding
of how nationalism itself perpetuates and restructures patriarchal
relations, and how it restricts the space for an independent
agenda on gender to be followed. The image is that of a super heroic
woman with a cyanide capsule around her neck, standing outside her
community, her extraordinary tryst with death rendering her inflexibly
monolithic. Notes:
** The poems cited in this essay were translated
by me with the exception of Selvi's and Sivaramani's`poems. Rajani
Thiranagama’s poem was written in English. Bibliography
1.Ann, Adele, 1993, Women and Revolution, Publication Section, Madras, S.India
2.Anderson,
Benedict, 1991, Imagined Communities,
Verso. London.
3.Balasingam Adele, 1993, Women Fighters of Liberation Tigers, Publication Section, Jaffna Sri Lanka.
4.Coomaraswamy, Radhika, December 1996, `Tiger Women and
the Question of Women's Emancipation', Rajani Thiranagama Memorial Lecture, published in the Tamil Times, London.
5.Davis, Nira-Yuval, 1997, Gender and Nation, U.K, SAGE Publications Ltd
6.Goody, J.R, Tambiah, S.J., 1973,
Bridewealth
and Dowry, U.K, Cambridge
University Press, UK.
7.Hoole, Rajan,
Somasundaram, Daya, Sritharan, K., Thiranagama, Rajani, 1990, The Broken Palmyra Sri Lanka, The Sri
Lanka Studies Institute, California.
8.Kanesan, Vasanthy., 1992, Kasthuriyin Aakkangal, Publication Section, LTTE, Thamil Eelam.
9.Maunaguru, Sitralega, 1995, 'Gendering Tamil nationalism:,
The construction of `woman' in Projects of protest
and Control', in Jeganathan ,P., et al. Unmaking
the Nation, Sri Lanka, Social Scientists' Association, Colombo.
10.McClintock,.Anne, 1995, Imperial Leather, Race,Gender
and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest, U.K, Routledge Inc.,New York.
11.Nedumaran , P., 1993, 'Nee
Oru Thilakavathy!', Kavya Nayakan Kittu, Madurai.
12.Ramaswamy, Sumathi, 1997, Passions of the Tongue, U.K,
The Regents
of the University of California
13.Panchali, 1997, 'Thesiya Viduthalaip Porum, Pennilaivathamum',
Naan Oru Pen, Sarinihar,
Bharathy, Colombo.
14.Sanmuganathapillai, Pathmasothy., 1993, Vanathyin Kavithaigal, Publication Section, LTTE, Tamil Eelam.
15.Schalk, Peter, 1992, ` Birds
of Independence-On the participation of Tamil women in Armed Struggle,' Lanka.
16.
Sivamohan, S., 1997, `Embodied Nation and Postcolonial Praxis',
Paper read at the 12 Annual South Asia Conference at Univ. California
Berkeley.
17.
Sivaramani, S., 1994, Sivaramani Kavithaigal, Vizhippu, Toronto. * Nanthini Sornarajah is a Sri Lankan Tamil academic currently based in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. She works in the area of gender and nationalism. |