brand logo

Building from the past

23 Oct 2022

  • Aragalaya-Poraattam and resistance in Batticaloa
By Thavarasa Anukuvi Since the end of the war, people in the north and east have been engaged in longstanding struggles – for fundamental rights, against systematic discrimination, communal attacks on minority communities, justice, accountability, sustainable peace, and ongoing resistance against militarisation and land occupation in the north and east.  It is not the first time that people in the north and east have experienced scarcity of food and essential items. During the 26 years of civil war and particularly during the last phase of the war in 2009, people in the north and east experienced severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages. Against this backdrop, insights can be gained from shifting the focus from Colombo to Batticaloa.  During the initial stages of the economic crisis, although many discussions took place and concerns were articulated in private spaces, the streets of Batticaloa remained largely silent. However, after the Mirihana incident of 31 March, where hundreds of people demonstrated near former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence on Pangiriwatta Road near Kotte demanding his resignation, a number of protests were organised in Batticaloa in solidarity with the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement.  On 4 April, Eastern University Medical Faculty students held a demonstration at the Kallady Bridge and in front of Gandhi Park – two important landmarks in Batticaloa. On 7 April, I witnessed a group of women holding another demonstration at Gandhi Park demanding reductions in the prices of essential goods and for the State to provide relief to vulnerable communities in the country.  On 8 May, students of the Eastern University and a few local public organisations led a rally from the Eastern University to Chenkalady Junction. They set up a GotaGoGama shelter where they stayed for 20 days and nights in solidarity with the GotaGoGama occupation at Colombo’s Galle Face Green, demanding the Government to ‘go home’.  Meanwhile, the appointment of new ministers on 18 April 2022, including three out of five parliamentarians from Batticaloa District – Naseer Ahamed from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan from Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), and Sathasivam Viyalendiran from Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) – further intensified people’s anger towards the Government.  Following the appointments, people in Eravur, Oddamavadi, and Kalmunai led demonstrations against these ministers. In addition, each time the national trade unions called for a strike, different Batticaloa trade unions such as the Ceylon Teachers’ Union, Eastern University Teachers’ Union, the Bank Union, and the Batticaloa Tamil Journalists’ Union supported it, calling on the Government to resign. Following these demonstrations and public forms of protest in solidarity with the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement, civil society organisations in Batticaloa such as the women’s organisations, human rights activists, social activists, and members of inter-religious groups commenced a series of dialogues on the unfolding situation.  Many participants in these discussions linked the current crisis with the democratic struggles of Tamil and Muslim people in Batticaloa, which had been carried out through different modes of resistance such as peace walks, artworks, and more.  The discussions also foregrounded inter-ethnic relations and how to avoid ignoring each other’s problems while living harmoniously alongside each other. Participants further highlighted the importance of paying attention to women-headed households and other vulnerable communities, how the economic crisis had impacted them, and the State’s systematic oppression of ethnic minorities in the north and east. Overall, many participants emphasised that the local communities’ response should highlight local issues of people in the district for democratic change in Sri Lanka.   Batticaloa’s Justice Walk   On 12 May, when violence had spread across the island after a mob attacked GotaGoGama at Galle Face in Colombo on 9 May, people in Batticaloa initiated the Justice Walk.  The Justice Walk connects two significant landmarks in Batticaloa. The walk starts from St. Sebastian’s Church, whose eastern point faces the Batticaloa Lagoon where the Kallady Bridge crosses. It ends at Gandhi Park, which is located near the Batticaloa clock tower in Batticaloa’s city centre. It still continues until today, having been going on for more than 160 consecutive days.  The Batticaloa Justice Walk is the focus of my essay, as it sheds light on different voices from the Batticaloa District and adds a perspective to the ‘Gota go home’ movement from Batticaloa. In contrast to other protests in Batticaloa during the economic crisis as described above, the Batticaloa Justice Walk is neither politically partisan nor institutionally organised. Those participating do so as individuals, not as members of any organisation or political party, nor as representatives of groups.  Moreover, the Justice Walk does not seek to replicate the Aragalaya-Poraattam protests but aims at building solidarity for democratic change in the country. This solidarity is articulated through a form of resistance that has been deployed by activists, women’s groups, and individuals in Batticaloa throughout the war and post-war eras, highlighting local issues and experiences. The current Batticaloa Justice Walk is predominantly led by women. This builds on a long history of activism of women’s organisations and passionate individual women, contributing to many democratic efforts while working as frontline activists and raising their voices against injustice and for peace, often at great personal risk.  People participating in the walk come with diverse demands, reflecting their feelings, opinions, and aspirations in relation to larger, structural issues such as economic hardships as well as longstanding problems such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), memorialisation of the war, and land grabbing in the north and east. In general, the posters and banners reflect on peace, justice, democracy, local knowledge, the impact of the economic crisis, and structural issues in the country. Some of these demands and slogans overlap with the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement. The demand for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign was only one demand amongst many others.  Following are some of the slogans I have documented, which highlight the wide range of demands, aspirations, and hopes of Batticaloa protesters: ‘Abolish the Executive Presidency,’ ‘Walking for peace,’ ‘Remembering May 18,’ ‘Looking for a society free of corruption,’ ‘Do not steal our local resources,’ ‘Unite against power, dominance, and oppression,’ ‘Wanting a people’s constitution,’ ‘Wanting a constitution to protect the life of the future generation,’ ‘System change,’ ‘Let’s protect everyone’s rights in the country,’ ‘We want our rights back,’ ‘No corruption,’ ‘Protect our local resources,’ and ‘Give us our money back’.  Several of them deployed a general verb form without the use of personal pronouns, e.g. ‘walking for peace’ instead of ‘I am walking for peace’ or ‘wanting’ instead of ‘I/we want’. In my understanding, this depersonalised way of articulating demands and aspirations, without a personal pronoun, is a way of safely navigating experiences and histories of violence and oppression of protests by going beyond the individual.   Justice Village    As a part of the Justice Walk, various events take place every Saturday at Gandhi Park – the final destination of the walk. It is, unlike the walk, a space for talks, discussions, theatre performances, exhibitions, poem readings, teach-outs, and songs. Batticaloa’s Gandhi Park is located in the middle of the city, thus many people come there to relax and watch the beautiful sunset in the evening, which makes for a great audience.  A play titled ‘Eluttaani,’ performed on 4 June by a group of women, narrated the skills and knowledge of Batticaloa’s local culinary culture as a means of dealing with the economic crisis in the district. On another Saturday, a Kuththu – a popular, traditional Tamil theatre form – was performed, conveying useful information about the current situation. Paintings and installations are another important part of the Saturday events at Gandhi Park. They highlight issues such as the importance of remembrance, addressing gender-based violence, and local knowledge.  Children are a crucial part of the justice walk and of the Justice Village, as participants in the walk refer to its final destination, Gandhi Park. At Gandhi Park, they would draw, sing, and dance for the struggle. Every Saturday, people who have participated in the walk make giant banners with slogans collected from the previous seven days of the Justice Walk. This collective activity unites people and provides an opportunity to reflect on and document the walk.  Many people who do not participate in the Justice Walk also come to the site, watch performances, and sometimes start conversations with the organisers. The conversations centre on sharing each other’s unique experiences of the crisis and expressing feelings. Those participating in the walk are also willing to actively reach out to the people in the park. For example, one day, they approached the people present with a painting and built a conversation around the work. This way, they involve the public in the struggle.   Closing observations   In conclusion, I would like to call attention to two points.  First, people in Batticaloa demand not just solutions to the economic crisis but anticipate structural and constitutional changes for a new chapter in the country. For example, my discussions with people in the district highlighted many examples of how State actions against minority communities continue even amid an economic crisis.  Hence, while it is important to focus on the dire economic impact of the crisis in many places in the north and east, it is equally important to look at them in conjunction with issues of oppression and violence that people have experienced and continue to experience. Thus one can conclude that the collective sentiment from Batticaloa is that without a proper vision for the longstanding structural issues in the country, it will be challenging to make a collective effort to change Sri Lanka for the better.  Second, while it may be true that people in the north and east have been ambivalent about participating in the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement, this does not mean that there are no shared concerns or solidarity. Rather, it is past experiences of loss, pain, and disappointment that foster reluctance and caution to actively take part in the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement.  Many people in Batticaloa have been engaged in democratic struggles for decades, but there is a common feeling that even in the post-war situation, there was not much support for their struggle from the Sinhalese community. Others feel that there were no promising demands emerging from the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement to address the ethnic issue in the country. In addition, surveillance, intimidation, and inhuman laws like the PTA have long been used to suppress minorities’ voices and make them more vulnerable.  Yet, with the crackdown of the Aragalaya-Poraattam movement and arrests of activists, the ambivalence regarding the movement seems to gradually make way for a common ground to articulate shared concerns and to build solidarity. References to arrests under the PTA, suppression of freedom of speech, and the cracking down on democratic spaces in the country that cut across space, time, and ethnic as well as religious boundaries reveal a willingness to engage with the past, not to divide, but to build bridges. The past cannot be ignored and one has to deal with the past to foster solidarity in the present.   (The writer is an independent researcher and photographer based in Batticaloa)  


More News..