Kandasamy Pathmanabha ( ta, கந்தசாமி பத்மநாபா; 19 November 1951 – 19 June 1990) was a
Sri Lankan Tamil
Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...
rebel and founder/leader of the
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) is a series of Sri Lankan political parties and a former militant separatist group.
Militant separatists
The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K. Pathmanabha (Padmanaba), Douglas Devananda, Su ...
(EPRLF), a
separatist Tamil militant organisation in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
Early life
Pathmanabha was born on 19 November 1951.
He was from
Kankesanthurai
Kankesanthurai (, , lit. ''Port Kankesan''), colloquially known as KKS, is a port suburb, fishing division and resort hub of the Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. Formerly an electoral district, Kankesanthurai is home to the Kankesan ...
in northern
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
[
Pathmanabha became interested in ]radical politics
Radical politics denotes the intent to transform or replace the principles of a society or political system, often through social change, structural change, revolution or radical reform. The process of adopting radical views is termed radicali ...
in the late 1960s. He was one of the members of the Tamil Student Federation/Tamil Students' League which was formed in 1972 as a reaction to the discriminatory
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, rel ...
Policy of standardisation
The policy of standardization was a policy implemented by the Sri Lankan government in 1971 to curtail the number of Tamil students selected for certain faculties in the universities. In 1972, the government added a district quota as a parameter wi ...
. The 1974 Tamil conference incident
The 1974 Tamil conference incident occurred during the fourth World Tamil Research Conference, which was held in the city of Jaffna between 3 and 9 January 1974. Sri Lankan Police disrupted the meeting with force, killing nine or eleven people, a ...
further radicalised Pathmanabha.[
]
ELO
In 1974/75 Pathmanabha and others founded the Eelam Liberation Organisation (Eela Viduthalai Iyakkam) (ELO). On 10 May 1976 the ELO robbed the Puloly Multi-purpose Cooperative Society's bank in Puloly
Puloly ( ta, புலோலி, translit=Pulōli) is a region in Jaffna Peninsula, Northern Sri Lanka. It is located approximately 30 km from City of Jaffna. Its north part is Point Pedro town. Some scholars suggest that region was named ...
. Pathmanabha was personally involved in the robbery.[ Others involved in the robbery included ]Varatharaja Perumal
Annamalai Varadaraja Perumal is a politician from Sri Lanka. He was the 1st and only Chief minister of the North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. He is the founder of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (Varathar faction).
Life
Vara ...
(later Chief Minister of North Eastern Province), V. Balakumaran (later leader of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students
The Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), also known as the Eelam Revolutionary Organisers, is a former Tamil militant group in Sri Lanka. Most of the EROS membership was absorbed into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in ...
) and S. Thavaraja (later an Eelam People's Democratic Party
The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) is a political party and a pro-government paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka. It is led by its founder Douglas Devananda.
Background
Douglas Devananda was one of the founding members of the Eelam Re ...
MP and leader of the opposition on the Northern Provincial Council
Northern Provincial Council ( ta, வட மாகாண சபை ''Vaṭa Mākāṇa Capai''; NPC) is the provincial council for the Northern Province in Sri Lanka. In accordance with the Sri Lankan constitution, NPC has legislative power ove ...
). After the robbery Pathmanabha went on the run
On the Run may refer to:
* "On the run", a phrase often used to describe a fugitive, a person fleeing custody
Literature
* ''On the Run'' (novel), by Nina Bawden
* On the Run (novel series), by Gordon Korman
* ''On the Run'', a novel in the S ...
whilst the ELO disintegrated due to the security crackdown.[
]
GUES/EROS
Pathmanabha moved to London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1976 to study accountancy
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...
.[ Here he met with other Tamils who shared his views. Together they formed the General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) and the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS).][ ]Said Hammami
Said Hammami ( ar, سعيد حمّامي; 1941 – 4 January 1978) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian politician, diplomat and journalist, and the London representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1972 until his ass ...
, the Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
's representative in London, helped a small group Tamils including Pathmanabha take military training in Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
.[ In 1978 he went to ]India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
to establish a base for GUES/EROS.[ He then returned to Sri Lanka but the security forces were still looking for him so he had to travel in disguise.][
]
EPRLF
Pathmanabha and other members, including Douglas Devananda
Kathiravelu Nythiananda Devananda, commonly known as Douglas Devananda ( ta, டக்ளஸ் தேவானந்தா), is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician, Cabinet Minister and leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party. Originally a Sri ...
, Varatharaja Perumal and Suresh Premachandran
Arumugam Kandaiah Premachandran ( ta, ஆறுமுகம் கந்தையா பிரேமச்சந்திரன்; born 8 November 1957; commonly known as Suresh Premachandran) is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician a ...
, left the EROS in 1981 and formed their own militant group
The Militant Group was an early British Trotskyist group, formed in 1935 by Denzil Dean Harber, former leader of the entrist Marxist Group in the ILP, as a separate entrist group inside the Labour Party.
Initially known as the Bolshevik-Leni ...
which would come to be known as the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) is a series of Sri Lankan political parties and a former militant separatist group.
Militant separatists
The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K. Pathmanabha (Padmanaba), Douglas Devananda, Su ...
(EPRLF).[ Pathmanabha moved to Kodambakam, ]Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, India in 1981 to establish the new group.[
In December 1986 the rival ]Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
(LTTE) attacked the EPRLF in Sri Lanka, inflicting a heavy losses and killing Gaffoor, the EPRLF's military commander. Many EPRLF cadres were killed or taken prisoner and EPRLF camps and weapons were seized by the LTTE.[ Devananda was blamed for the debacle.][ The LTTE's animosity against the EPRLF, which it considered to be pro-India, increased following the outbreak of fighting between the LTTE and the ]Indian Peace Keeping Force
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan ...
(IPKF) in October 1987. The LTTE called for a boycott of the 1988 North Eastern Provincial Council election, stating that anyone who contested would be labelled a traitor and punished.[ The EPRLF nevertheless contested and, with the connivance of the IPKF, secured 41 of the 71 seats on the ]North Eastern Provincial Council
The North Eastern Province was one of the provinces of Sri Lanka. The province was created in September 1988 by merging the Northern and Eastern provinces. This merger was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 2006. The province ...
. Varatharaja Perumal became the first (and only) Chief Minister of North Eastern Province.[ On 1 March 1990, just as the IPKF were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Perumal moved a motion in the North Eastern Provincial Council declaring an ]independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Eelam
Eelam ( ta, ஈழம், ''īḻam'', , also spelled Eezham, Ilam or Izham in English) is the native Tamil name for the South Asian island now known as Sri Lanka.
The exact etymology and the original meaning of the word are not clearly kno ...
. Fearful of the consequences once the IPKF had pulled out, the EPRLF leadership fled to India. On 11 March 1990 Pathmanabha was flown from Trincomalee
Trincomalee (; ta, திருகோணமலை, translit=Tirukōṇamalai; si, ත්රිකුණාමළය, translit= Trikuṇāmaḷaya), also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee Dis ...
to Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...
in an Indian military aircraft.[ ]President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Ranasinghe Premadasa
Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( si, රණසිංහ ප්රේමදාස ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa'', ta, ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was t ...
imposed direct rule on the North Eastern province on 25 March 1990.
On the evening of 19 June 1990 the EPRLF central committee were meeting at a flat at the Zachria Colony in Kodambakam. At around 7pm gunmen broke into the flat and started firing.[ Eight people including Pathmanabha, Member of Parliament ]G. Yogasangari
Veerasingam Ganeshasangari Yogasangari (died 19 June 1990) was a Sri Lankan Tamil militant, politician and Member of Parliament.
Yogasangari was the son of V. Ganeshasangaree, brother of Tamil United Liberation Front politician V. Anandasangaree. ...
and provincial minister P. Kirubakaran were killed.[ Five EPRLF cadres waiting outside the block of flats were also killed.][ The assassination was blamed on the rival rebel ]Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pathmanabha, K.
1951 births
1990 deaths
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front militants
Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students militants
People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka
People killed during the Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lankan Tamil rebels
Indian Peace Keeping Force
Sri Lankan expatriates in India