Evolutions in Tamil diaspora politics: Exploring the alternative organising of younger generation Tamil activists in the aftermath of atrocity crimes

Evolutions in Tamil diaspora politics: Exploring the alternative organising of younger generation Tamil activists in the aftermath of atrocity crimes

Following three decades of armed conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. The victory was framed as a successful counterterrorism operation, however, the GoSL’s military campaign in the Tamil-populated North East of Sri Lanka faces credible and ongoing allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide – it is estimated that 147,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the final stages of the armed conflict and hundreds of thousands more were displaced, injured, and detained. The Tamil diaspora mobilised en masse in response to this state-led violence, which included a growth of organisations in the burgeoning Tamil social movement, as well as the unanticipated participation and leadership of younger generation Tamils, specifically those who left their ancestral homelands as children or were born outside of their ancestral homelands. Based on critical ethnographic research and using concepts derived from organisational and social movement studies – such as “anti-organisational elements”, “prefigurative processes”, and “mobilising structures” - this talk explores intracommunity dynamics and political organising in the Tamil diaspora in the aftermath of atrocity crimes. It focuses particularly on younger generation Tamil activists and their approaches to equitable, diverse, and inclusive forms of political participation and representation beyond dominant and complicit organisations and institutions.   

Dr. Meena Kandiah is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University with research and teaching interests spanning state crime, resistance, [counter]‘terrorism’, social movements, and diaspora politics.