The concept of martyrdom of the LTTE

The concept of martyrdom of the LTTE

By: Peter Schalk

The LTTE very often uses Tamil words for "martyr" and adds without hesitationthe English word "martyr" in English pamphlets, as if the Tamil words wereequivalents. Let us first make clear what we may mean with '`martyr" in aJewish­Christian tradition. The Western reader is influenced by this tradition.Discussions about "true" and "false" martyrs usually preclude aconceptualisation of what a martyr is. The discussion in the West about what a martyr isis very complex, but we will make it short here.

We can say that the image of a martyr meaning "(blood) witness" made up in aJewish Christian tradition contained eight elements. If these are put together as an imageor ideal role and are ascribed to a person, then we have to do with a fully competentmartyr.

1.A martyr­to­be has a firm conviction that he does not want to change or abandon under any circumstance.

2.A martyr­to­be is exposed to physical or mental torture and is executed because of his conviction.

3.A martyr­to­be has not used violence or urged others to use violence to defend him, but he has nevertheless shown remarkable civil courage.

4.A martyr­to­be is regarded as "genuine" by his followers.

5.A martyr­to­be's conviction is evaluated by his followers as representing important cultural values, if not ultimate cultural values.

6.A martyr­to­bets torture and death are regarded as redemption for his own failures in life or for his group's or for humanity's as a whole.

7.The death of a martyr is regarded not as an end but as a passage to another way of existence. Life is regarded as indestructible for a martyr.

8.The dead martyr is venerated in ritual.

The ideal martyrs are those who die Christ­like, even if they are Jews. Jesus was aJew.

There is a "movement", then, in the life of a martyr that passes throughtotal humiliation and dehumanisation but ends up in elevation, grades of apotheosis andrecognition. This "movement", seen from a global point of view, follows awell­known pattern that we know from rites of marginalisation. We could say that the lifeof a martyr follows the pattern of a rite of marginalisation in which especiallyhumiliation and submission to death are stressed (but ending nevertheless in elevation).The process of martyrdom repeats the same pattern as baptism or an initiation rite. Incertain trends of Judaism and Christianity, this stressing of submission became apermanent and dominant feature and constituted these religions as "religions ofmartyrdom".

If we apply this normative pattern of maximum competence for a martyr, we find that theLTTE martyr is not fully competent. Regarding item 2, most LTTE fighters die in battle,but there are also cases of torture and executions. The main deviation from the pattern isitem 3 stipulating that the martyr has not used violence. The Muslim martyr, the shahid,also falls short here, and so does the mediaeval Christian martyr who dies with hissword in his hands.

Item 6 has to be clarified. The concept of redemption in the LTTE does not refer tosins committed by individuals or by the community against God earlier in life or inhistory; it refers to the killing of enemies. The blood that has been spilled by the LTTEmartyr for the holy aim redeems the killing of the enemy. This is made explicit in asecret ritual performed by the LTTE over the corpse of a martyr.

Instead of rigidly applying a Jewish­Christian normative pattern, which is provoked bythe LTTE's own reference to the Jewish Christian term "martyr", we should, ofcourse, look for an indigenous Indian interpretative pattern, and we find it in theconcept of tiyakam (see below). According to this pattern, the LTTE is indeed fullycompetent. The problem is that the LTTE does not stick to one term alone. There are thusseveral ideas crossing each other, sometimes in the same text.

In the sacrificial ideology of the LTTE the following terms, demonstrating itscomplexity, are highly frequent:

•arppan,ippu, "sacrifice",

•pali, "sacrifice",

•virar, "hero", viram, 'heroism",

•maravar' 'warrior",

•maram' 'valour",

•tiyaki, "one who abandons",

•tiyakam, "abandonment",

•catci, "witness", "martyr",

•"martyr"( English)

The word arppanippu (alternatively arppanam or arppanam) comes fromSanskrit arpana. We have translated it with "sacrifice". It can also mean"dedication", referring to the sacrifice that is dedicated to a god. The wordalso belongs to a secular context, to the dedication of a book. It does, however,originally belong to a religious ritual context, to the libation offered to the god in thetemple or to any gift presented to the god. We have the word tevarppanam, "offeringthat is acceptable to gods''. Arppi, "to offer", could include the totality of ahuman as expressed in the Tamil composite ivvutampai unakkarpanam akkinen, "Ihave sacrificed this body to you". In the context of the LTTE this sacrifice becomesa sacrifice for the realisation of Tamililam.

Not being aware of the religious sacrificial connotation of this Hindu term, the readermisses the point that is communicated to the reader of the Tami1 text: just as a libationor any gift is sacrificed to a god, so you sacrifice yourself totally for the sake of theholy aim. The sacrifice on the battlefield is rationalised by reference to a well­knownsacrifice to a god. The closest parallel in the West to the arppannippu would bethe devotio practised by dedicated fighters on the battlefield of the Romans.

***

The word pali (Sanskrit bali) refers to a sacrifice to gods and manes,and the Tamil verb palikotu means "to sacrifice a victim", "topresent offerings (to a deity)" and "to kill". A pali is that which hasbeen "killed" or taken as a sacrifice. It can be an animal, boiled rice orflowers given to a god or to manes. In LTTE language, the pali is, of course, notan animal or vegetable. The pali is the fighter himself who has been killed and whois at the same time the sacrificer and the sacrifice. He gets killed in the very act ofkilling that intents to make the holy aim come true. His getting killed is equalled to thekilling of a sacrifice in the kovil. The word pali belongs to thesacrificial language of the Hindu temple.

***

The word virar is an honorific masculine form for viran. That means"Hon. hero". There is no feminine form *viral, but another form viri. A"heroine" can also be designated in literary Tamil by other names liketalaivi, "female leader", and vira ananku, "heroic woman".Only the epicene form vicar is applied to women in LTTE texts. There is also the neologismvirankanai, "heroic woman", created first by the DMK and then taken up bythe LTTE.

Viram or viriyam means "bravery", "heroism","fortitude".

The LTTE leadership bestows posthumously exclusively the honorific title virar, "Hero",or ma~virar, "Great Hero", to all men and women, cadres of the LTTE.These are the persons who have succumbed to their wounds in battle or who have anticipatedgetting killed by killing themselves with cyanide in battle (or in battle­likesituations) to avoid capture and torture. The dead fighter is sometimes called viramaranamatainta vicar, "hero who attained heroic death".

The word virar in an LTTE context is complex because it refers to different historicaltraditions about heroes and to different types of heroes.

***

The word maram is connected with "valour" "bravery","anger", "wrath", "enmity", "hatred","strength", "power", 'victory", 'war", "killing"and "murder". Not only a warrior can have maram, but also a whole armyand a horse. This can be made evident by the two turai, "themes" ofheroic so­called Cankam poetry, tanaimaram, "valour of the army" and kutiraimaram,"valour of the horse". The maravar in the so­called Cankam literaturecan be described as an aristocratic libertine with access to worldly pleasures. Up to theend of the first millennium the word maravar referred to a function, the warrior'sfunction, that could be taken up by mercenaries in different armies. Usually this group ofwarriors was spoken of as a functional group by the term mara­k­kuti.

Kuti does not mean caste like cati, Sanskrit jati, or like kulam, Sanskrit kula.Kuti, a Tamil term that has become a loan word in Sanskrit, means "house","abode", "home", "family", "lineage",`'town", "group of tenants". It refers to an allegiance of people with thesame interest, here to an allegiance of mercenaries that was open to all who sought theirlivelihood in warfare. Only after the first millennium did the term develop into a castename.

Today the word maravar has developed into a caste name for hunters and robbersin South India, for dacoits, i.e. a criminal caste. The maravars were declared acriminal caste in 1911 by the then Government of India. Their political ambition after1911 was to get rid of this bad reputation that discriminated them in public life. Thissucceeded only in 1947.

Their ambition was taken up by the South Indian Branch of the Forward Bloc. This wasfounded by Muttiramalinkam Tevar on behalf of Subash Chandra Bhose in 1938. What connectedthem immediately was their anti­Congress position. There is thus a close connectionbetween the maravars and the Subhasists in recent times from about 1938. Thisconnection is also clearly visible in the fact that part of the Indian National Army (INA)under Subhash Chandra Bhose to 1945 consisted of maravars. Maravar ambitions andSouth Indian Subhasism were co­ordinated. The self­image of the maravars ofhaving a glorious history, and their political ideology classified as Subhasism strongIyinfIuenced the mind of the young Veluppillai Pirapakaran.

Among all the words given here, only the word maravar seems to be genderrelated. Even if it is seen as an epicine form, and even though VEluppillai Pirapakaran,when seeing men and women as one fighting collectivity, defines all as maraver, thepresent author has not yet found a single text written by women in which female fighterscall themselves by the most "male'' designation of a maravar. They do nothesitate to call themselves virar because there is already a female tradition ofvirar, but evidently they hesitate to use maravar. When this hesitation has beenovercome, the desired gender distinctions have been overcome.

***

When the LTTE speaks about "martyrdom", it often translates the word tiyakam.It does not lexically mean "martyrdom". It means "abandonment".Implied in this concept is the meaning of voluntary abandonment of life, the consciouschoice of possible death to reach an aim that is declared holy.

The very specific meaning assigned by the LTTE to tiyakam is the voluntaryabandonment of life in the very act of taking life, in the act of killing. The gettingkilled whilst killing (in rage), having been confronted with the death of a comrade, is tiyakam.Likewise, a tiyaki is one who is killed whilst killing (in rage), having first beenconfronted with the death of a comrade. It is of the uttermost importance to understandthe concept of tiyakam as a reaction on encountering death. Tiyakam isa specific type of aggressive mourning behaviour in the martial culture of the LTTE. Akilled male and female LTTE fighter is regarded as a tiyaki.

No living fighter, male or female, is called virar or tiyaki. These epithets belong tothe veneration of the dead, but the ideal of a tiyaki is, of course, in the mind ofthose who choose to die as a tiyaki. We could therefore introduce a distinctionbetween a tiyaki-to­be and a tiyaki. This distinction is not unimportantbecause a tiyaki is expected to have lived a special life in abandoment of thetemptations of life. He was during his life, or at least during the last stages of hislife, a tavan, 'tan ascetic". The first "martyr" of the LTTE,Cankar, was said to have been a tavan.

The concept of tiyakam, "abandonment (of life)", i. e. a rather specificIndian form of martyrdom, is cultivated by both male and female fighters. A"martyr" of the LTTE has not chosen, like the Christian martyr, to suffer in themind the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. He has taken up arms against the sea oftroubles, trying to end them by opposing them.

The concept of tiyakam that has its roots in the last section of theBhagavadgita was known in the medieval period, in the early colonial period and wasrevived in the struggle for independence of India. The concept itself implies the takingup of armed struggle. The ideal tyagi (Sanskrit) is Arjuna who withoutself­interest kills even his kin and teachers in dedication to Visnu. The LTTE tiyaki(Tamil) is then not a misunderstood creation of a Christian martyr, but stands in thetradition of the revivalist martial concepts that were emphasised during the Indianstruggle for independence in the 20th century.

In the Tamil version of the Ramayana, Rama himself is called tiyakamavinotan, "thegreat one who diverts himself with abandonment".

The tiyaki is also known to Caivacittanta philosophy from about the 16th century AD. Ina work called Nanavacittam, the tiyaki is described as one who is completely without(worldly) acai, ``desire". He, indeed, is said to be a makattana tiyaki, "greattiyaki".

Another Caivacittanta work from about the 18th century called Kaivalliya Navanitamgives a classification of religiosi from lower to higher. First there is the makarttan,"great acting person", who acts without attachment to worldly things. Thenthere is the mapoki, `'the great enjoyer", who can live without having any interest.Finally there is the mattiyaki, "great abandoner", who does not expectany fruit from his actions. All three of them are eligible for vitu,"liberation".

The concept of a tiyaki from the Gita's last section was interpreted inpolitical terms and applied to the freedom fighters against British colonialism by theIndian independence movement. Especially in the writings of Vivekananda, the distinctionbetween a religious and political interpretation of originally religious terms wasconsciously blurred. "Liberation" was not only the liberation of the individualsoul from bondage in rebirth, but was homologised to the freedom of the nation; and thesoul itself was not only an individual and a mental quality, but was homologised to thecollective spirit of the nation.

There is in Yalppanam (Jaffna) then a long Tamil Gita tradition about the tiyaki, atradition that depicts the tiyaki as an outstanding living man who has extraordinarymental and moral qualities that all amount to self­restraint. He is one who has anultimate aim of becoming a tiyaki.

The status that such a person had in a deeply religious society becomes similar to thestatus that a tiyaki­to­be has within the martial society established by the LTTEand which is openly displayed in the cult of the dead, of the tiyakis. It is tempting toproject a continuity from the Gita over the medieval period to colonial and post colonialtraditions about the tiyaki, with regard to status, not, of course, with regard to theiraims, but again with regard to the ultimacy of an aim. We are, however, not tempted. The"roots" of the LTTE go to the Indian freedom struggle, not further.

The idea of the tiyaki suffering a representational death for the people ofTamililam is highly developed in the LTTE. This idea comes close to certain traits ofrepresentational death in Christendom. The tiyaki concept has been taken up by someof the representatives of the Catholic and Protestant Church. The Catholic Church ofYalppanam has very deep roots in the population and has established itself as afolk­religion alongside Hinduism. Its Bishop chaired the Citizens Committee of Yalppanamand many priests are involved in organising relief for the physical and mental sufferingof the people. Some priests have suffered death in their work for the community and somehave suffered torture in Sinhala prisons.

The concept of tiyaki has, however, a "negative" side. It rationalisesthe use of violence. The LTTE tiyaki gets killed in the very act of killing. Whatthe priest wishes to emphasise is the representational dying, and not the killing.Therefore we find this tiyaki concept sometimes replaced by another concept, thatof catci. This word means "witness". 'witness" in Greek is martys, whichwe recognise in our "martyr". It does not imply the act of killing.

***

Some of the Catholic priests have taken up the idea of the killed young man or womanbeing a catci (caksi), and this term has also found its way into the idiom of the LTTE andits supporters and sympathisers. This brings us to a new concept that emphasises strictlythe aspect of representational death.

This word catci or caksi is a Tamilised form of Sanskrit saksin, which means"witness". The word caksi {cat.ci) is normally related to the legal sphere andalso has a specific meaning within the speculative philosophy of Caivacittanta. There itrefers to a mental ability in the mind of man, but it did not have the meaning of"martyr" in an indigenous pre­colonial Tamil tradition. From colonial times theword caksi is also related to persons who died for their conviction. The word then getsthe special meaning of irattacaksi, 'blood witness" or cattiyaccaksi, "truthwitness".

When did this meaning of caksi as blood witness arise and who gave this meaning? Theanswer is simple: The Christians. When the Christian missionaries had to translate theGreek word martys, "witness", in the New Testament into Tamil, theytranslated the classical formula for the meaning of "martyr', in, for example,Matthew IS, 16 and many other places with caksi.

Through the translations of the New Testament into Tamil7 this usage of the word cameinto Christian preaching, became common knowledge and was spread by the Christians(Catholics} to the LTTE, of which a very strong Catholic contingent is in Mannar.

In one official Tamil document of the LTTE, the present writer has found the word catciand he also knows that the LTTE author, who wants to remain anonymous, is a Catholic. Thepoet said in his poem concerning killed LTTE cadres:

cattiyam unkalukku catci

Truth (shall be} your witness

This alludes to the technical Christian term of a cattiyaccaksi, `'truthwitness''.

Further, a Tamil playwright who is also a Catholic finds it apt to use even the word vetaccatci, "witness (martyr) of religion", as a term for an LTTE fighter.

More important than this stray information is that in preaching and in literature byTami1 Catholic priests, some LTTE cadres who have been killed are called catci in Tamil.Taking up this strand, we leave, of course, the corpus of official LTTE texts and turn toCatholic interpretations of LTTE fighters' dying on the battlefield. They lack and they donot request the imprimatur from the LTTE. By using the term catci, a special Christianmeaning is introduced into the understanding of a "martyr" that separates itfrom the other terms of Indian origin.

A catci in the Christian sense submissively endures all sufferings to the endwithout using violence. Submissive endurance in suffering is the main virtue of aChristian martyr, who really hands himself over in complete faith to God as a "truthwitness" of agape in the steps of Jesus Christ. By calling a killed LTTE cadrea catci, the element of self­sacrifice for others is selectively emphasised, not at allarmed heroic killing. This is said here as a rule that has exceptions. Even a priest is ahuman who may be tempted to blend the martyr with the hero.

The whole semantic field word catci, implying submissive endurance in suffering todeath, is, of course, an anomaly in the martial idiom of the LTTE, and is de facto veryrare in documents that carry the imprimatur of the LTTE. Only once could the presentauthor find it in printed form. The author of it is a Catholic. The LTTE emphasisesinstead the killing of the fighter before he is killed himself. It does so with the helpof the two terms virar and maravar. These two terms are also part of the semanticfield of the LTTE concept of a tiyaki. A tiyaki is a virar or maravar or both.Again, it is important to emphasise that the martial aspect of the tiyaki is not anaddition to this concept, but that it organically belongs to the concept of a tiyaki. Itis not a misunderstood concept of the Christian concept of a martyr.

In English texts distributed by the LTTE one can find the word "martyr"rather frequently. This is thus an additional term in the sacrificial ideology of theLTTE. In the first proclamation of the Heroes' Day in 1989, we can read:

Every freedom fighter who sacrifices his or her life is a martyr...

The LTTE appeals then to a Western understanding of what a martyr is, but does notrealise that the West has a differentiated comprehension of this. Some would blankly denythat a LTTE tiyaki is a martyr because he uses violence. Others would say that he is amartyr because of his representational death on behalf of others. Some again wouldassociate this word with suicidal behaviour only and acknowledge the tiyaki to be amartyr alongside kami kaze warriors. There are some who will say that the word martyr hasno meaning at all in an LTTE context, that it is only a persuasive term. Finally, thereare the enemies of the LTTE who say that the LTTE has no martyrs, it has only terrorists,and only the soldiers from one's own side can be called martyrs.

True enough, the word "martyr" creates a hermeneutic problem for the LTTE inthe West. The reader should, however, know that this problem is not new. In the Englishspeaking stream of the struggle for independence in India, this word was already used forthe victims of British suppression. The LTTE has inherited this term, like most of theother terms pertaining to its sacrificial ideology, from the Indian freedom struggle forindependence.

This tallies completely with the early conceptualisation of the young VeluppillaiPirapakaran, who was strongly influenced by the martial terminology of South IndianSubhasism formed in the Indian struggle for independence. One dominant configuration ofhis thinking is the homologising of colonial occupation and the Indian freedom struggle{as performed by "Netaji") to the Sinhala occupation of the Tamil homeland andthe freedom struggle of the Tigers.

Courtesy: Temenos 33 (1997), 151-190

http://www.tamilcanadian.com/article/1390