திருப்போரூர் - ஒரு திருமணம் (நினைவுக்கட்டுரை ~ ஶியாம் தேக்வாணி)

ஈழப் போரில் கொல்லப்பட்ட பிரபாகரன் திருமணம் 1984-ல் திருப்போரூர் முருகன் கோயிலில் நடந்தது. திருப்போரூர் > சமரபுரி என்று தமிழிலக்கியங்களில் வடசொல்லாகவும் வரும். சிதம்பர சாமிகளின் திருப்போரூர்ச் சன்னதிமுறையைப் படித்தால் நூற்றுக்கணக்கான செய்யுள்களில் காணலாம். இலங்கைத் தமிழ்வழக்கில் உள்ள பல வடசொற்கள் போலச் சமர் என்ற சொல்லும் வழங்கி வருதலை அவதானிக்கலாம். சமரம் = போர், அமர் < சமர் (ஒப்பு: அமணர் < சமணர், ...). அமர் என்னும் இச் சொல் சங்க இலக்கியங்களிலும் உள்ளது.

இடப்புறத்தில் பிரபாகரனும் மதிவதனியும் திருமணக் கோல ஃபோட்டோ (1984, சமரபுரியில் ஶியாம் தேக்வாணி எடுத்தது).

கிளிண்ட் ஈஸ்ட்வுட் போன்றோர் நடித்த ஹாலிவுட் வெஸ்டெர்ன் திரைப்படங்களை இளமையில் விரும்பிப் பார்த்த திரு. வே. பிரபாகரன் பள்ளிக்கல்வி வரைதான் முடித்தார், அவர் தந்தை வேலுப்பிள்ளை சிறீலங்கா அரசில் வேளாண் திணைப்புலத்தில் பணிபுரிந்தவர் (agronomist). ஈழத் தலைவர் பிரபாகரன் திருமணப் படம் எடுத்தவரும், முதல் குழந்தை மதிவதனிக்குப் பிறந்ததைப் பத்திரிகைகளில் எழுதியவரும் ஆன சியாம் தேக்வாணி என்னும் வட இந்தியர் பிரபாகரனின் 1980களின் வாழ்க்கையைப் பற்றிப் பத்திரிகைகளில் எழுதிய நினைவுமடல். வலைப்பதிவுகளில் காணாததால் இணைப்பாகக் கொடுக்கப்படுகிறது.

100,000 பேராவது உயிர் இழந்திருப்பார்கள், கண்ணீர்த் துளி போலக் குவலய
வரைபடத்தில் காட்சியளிக்கும் ஈழத் தீவில் மாண்டார்களுக்கு நினைவஞ்சலி.

நா. கணேசன்

குறிப்பு: ஶியாம் - முதலெழுத்து விஸ்டா போன்ற நவீன கணினிகளில் சரியாய்த் தெரியும். ஶியாம் = சியாம் = கருப்பசாமி (கண்ணன் < கண்ஹ < கிருஷ்ணன்).

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090520-142579.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/In-pics-Prabhakarans-life--death/articleshow/4547071.cms

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090520-142594.html

The life and times of a brutal legend
By SHYAM TEKWANI

IN NOVEMBER 1986, police in Tamil Nadu, India, seized arms and sophisticated communications gear from assorted Sri Lankan Eelam or Tamil-homeland groups operating out of the state.

Tamil Tigers founder Velupillai Prabhakaran - who then enjoyed the hospitality of the Indian government in Chennai - went on a much-publicised fast-to-the-death.

Tellingly, he demanded the immediate return - not of his rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles or AK-47 assault rifles - but his lifeline to the world: his wireless sets.

Everything was returned to him in good order, along with a glass of fruit juice that he sipped to declare his victory.

The incident showed how, for all of the Tiger chief's military innovations - his forces pioneered suicide bombing and the female suicide bomber, for instance - it was a powerful communications network and a sympathetic media that was at the core of his guerilla strategy.

Accordingly, when based in Chennai, he gave exclusive interviews to handpicked and influential publications. Later, the Tigers would embrace the Internet .

PARANOID TO THE CORE

For all that, paranoia dictated his behaviour.

I have a memory of his startled expression when I congratulated him on his newborn, towards the end of a long discourse on Eelam.

Soon after his fleeting pause, it became clear that he had lost interest in going on and on about his vision of Eelam.

He was less voluble, withdrawn and then, he left the room abruptly.

It was left to his trusted aide, Anton Balasingham, to cautiously quiz me on how and what I knew of the addition to his leader's family.

BUILDING THE CULT OF PRABHAKARAN

Prabhakaran founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the 1970s. In building his force - which, at its zenith, controlled a third of Sri Lanka - he adopted practices from a range of religious and political traditions and rituals, for a variety of political and publicity goals.

For him, the flavour of the 1980s was Marxist rhetoric.

But, when his oft-repeated desire for a single-party socialist government in his imagined Eelam drew gasps of horror, the Lenin portrait in his den was summarily removed and Marx was forsaken in all conversations.

He then abandoned ideology to aggressively build a cult around his persona. Tales of his marksmanship, valour and genius became commonplace.

Soon, taking an oath in his name by his cadres and celebrating his birthday became mandatory.

From Hinduism, he borrowed the practice of deifying martyrs and erecting shrines, to which people were expected to make offerings and pray on a day designated as holy.

Hollywood taught him to produce slickly produced audio-visual presentations for profit and goodwill.

JUST NOT WHEN EATING

Calendars, posters, CDs, DVDs, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations - Prabhakaran had them all out years before the world had heard of the Al-Qaeda propaganda machinery.

Acutely aware of the power of propaganda and his image as the most lethal weapon in his arsenal, he ensured everybody in his group understood how to use it.

Cadres were not to interact with anyone outside the fold.

His photo - and only his - would be the single image that hung on the walls of all denizens' homes in his territory. Every street corner would have his speeches or Eelam national songs playing from the loudspeakers, at all hours.

However, while Prabhakaran majestically posed for the camera with his "cubs" (as he called the children he recruited), there were a few restrictions: He did not like being photographed while satiating his enormous appetite for food.

No photos were allowed of his female cadres and none of dead or dying Tigers. These rules were later rescinded.

LEARNING TO BEFRIEND THE CAMERA

During one of our initial photo sessions (in the early 1980s), Prabhakaran was awkward, uncertain of what was expected of him and very receptive to being directed.

When it was suggested he change into combat fatigues, he went one step further and emerged from a room with his pistol fully loaded.

Within seconds, framed by his bodyguards and a huge cut-out of a Tiger, with a huge portrait of Lenin in the background (this was before Marxism was banished from Tiger talk), he was in his element.

An hour later, he eagerly asked for copies.

Several photo sessions later, and in Jaffna while fighting for his supremacy against the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) that was deployed in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990, he revelled in playing the role of actor and director with consummate ease.

He would tease a twinkle into his eyes with as much ease as unleashing a flash of fury.

There was bluster in his voice, preparedness in dealing with questions and animation in his conversations, yet through it all he retained a daintiness to his grip.

He would play to the gallery with sardonic witticisms, refrain from any response in English, ponder a bit to deliver a quotable quote and strike the pose that struck him as just right for the occasion.

In one of his hideouts during anti-IPKF operations, he even called for his leopard cub and posed gleefully for the camera while stroking his pet - much like a prosperous zamindar (a land-owning peasant) back from a hunt - while bantering with his friend and deputy, Yogaratnam Yogi.

CYANIDE PILL MYTH

It was essential to his strategy to get the message across that he had a committed following - and that this commitment came from men, women and children.

The cyanide pill was the emblem of commitment, and he generously arranged for me to photograph it, as his boys gamely posed with a vial containing it hung around their necks.

While every instance of a cadre biting into the pill during assorted battles captured headlines, there was barely any mention of the many more who threw the vial away.

After Prabhakaran arranged for former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to be killed by by the world's first woman suicide bomber in May 1991, he began wearing the black thread of his cyanide vial outside his shirt, in an ostentatious display of his commitment to the cause.

However, recently released photos from the treasure trove of albums that Sri Lankan troops found in the fleeing Prabhakaran's house prove instructive: The black string holding the vial of cyanide disappears in a number of images where he is with his family.

Neither is his son and likely intended heir Charles Anthony - equally portly - seen wearing one, even when he has his combat fatigues on.

Ultimately, Prabhakaran reportedly died fighting, rather than in a dramatic suicide, seeking to escape the cordon of Sri Lankan troops on Monday.

ENLISTING RAMBO

In the prevailing environment of anxiety and hopelessness, Prabhakaran was crafty enough to whip up hatred and give a machine gun to potential recruits.

The romance of the gun for a teenager fed on a limitless diet of action movies, hatred for the identified enemy, a sense of purpose and an assurance of immortality, is an aphrodisiac far more potent than the promise of seventy- two virgins in paradise.

Visiting the Tigers' training camps in the peninsula after Rajiv Gandhi's murder, the first thing I noticed were the babyfaced boys, some not even in their teens.

Their field training began with an oath to their leader: "To achieve Tamil Eelam, my life and soul, all this, I sacrifice. We'll be very faithful and trustworthy to our elder brother, Mr Prabhakaran, the leader of our revolutionary organisation. I now begin my training. The thirst of Tigers is Tamil Eelam."

This was also repeated at the end of the day, when their flag was lowered down the mast.

Their history lessons were an endless litany of hatred against the enemy - comprising only rapists, butchers and racists - and the glories of ancient Tamil kingdoms and kings.

Classic indoctrination. Classroom instructions centred around battlefield strategies (written on a blackboard with a piece of chalk and based on some war movies), case studies (reconstructed with videos and photos) from previous exploits and, finally, a film from an extraordinary video collection of B-grade Hollywood action movies.

Rambo was the popular choice.