Burning Of Jaffna Public Library
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The burning of the Jaffna Public Library (, ''Yāḻ potu nūlakam erippu''; Sinhala: යාපනය මහජන පුස්තකාලය ගිනිබත් කිරීම, ''Yāpanaya mahajana pustakālaya ginibat kirīma'') by an organized mob of Sinhalese individuals took place on the night of 31 May 1981. The
library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
's burning was one of the most violent examples of ethnically motivated biblioclasm of the 20th century. At the time of its destruction, the library was one of the biggest in Asia, containing over 97,000 books and manuscripts. Sri Lankan Government rebuilt the burnt library and restarted its collection.


Background

The library was built in many stages starting from 1933, from a modest beginning as a private collection of philanthropist and linguist scholar
K. M. Chellappah Kanagasabai Mudalithambi Chellappah (24 February 1896 – 24 April 1958), () was a Sri Lankan judicial officer, philanthropist, Tamil and Sinhala linguist scholar who was the pioneer of free library movement in Sri Lanka and laid the foundation f ...
. Soon, with the help of primarily local citizens, it became a full-fledged library. The library also became a repository of archival material written in
palm leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and spread to oth ...
s, original copies of regionally important historic documents in the contested political history of Sri Lanka and newspapers that were published hundreds of years ago in the
Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...
peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
. It thus became a place of historic and symbolic importance to all Sri Lankans. Eventually, the first major wing of the library was opened in 1959 by then Jaffna mayor
Alfred Duraiappah Alfred Thangarajah Duraiappah (15 June 1926 – 27 July 1975) was a Sri Lankan lawyer who served as Mayor of Jaffna from 1970 until his assassination. He was also a Member of Parliament for Jaffna from 1960 to 1965. Duraiappah was killed by the ...
. The architect of the
Indo-Saracenic Indo-Saracenic architecture (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal) was a Revivalism (architecture), revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and gov ...
style building was S. Narasimhan from
Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Prominent Indian
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
S.R. Ranganathan served as an advisor to ensure that the library was built to international standards. The library became the pride of the local people as even researchers from India and other countries began to use it for their research purposes.


The riot and the burning

On Sunday 31 May 1981, the
Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front (, ) is a political party in Sri Lanka. Formation On 4 May 1972, several Tamil political groups, including the Federal Party (ITAK), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), and All Ceylon Tamil Congress formed the Tami ...
(TULF), a regionally popular democratic party, held a rally in which two policemen Sergeant Punchi Banda and constable Kanagasuntharam were shot and killed by
PLOTE The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) is a former Tamil militant group that had become a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front. O ...
gunmen. That night police and paramilitaries began a
pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...
that lasted for three days. The head office of
TULF The Tamil United Liberation Front (, ) is a political party in Sri Lanka. Formation On 4 May 1972, several Tamil political groups, including the Federal Party (ITAK), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), and All Ceylon Tamil Congress formed the Tami ...
party was destroyed. The Jaffna MP V. Yogeswaran's residence was also destroyed. Four people were pulled from their homes and killed at random. Many business establishments and a local
Hindu temple A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...
were also deliberately destroyed. On the night of 1 June, according to many eyewitnesses, police and government-sponsored paramilitias set fire to the Jaffna public library and destroyed it completely. Over 97,000 volumes of books along with numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts were destroyed. Among the destroyed items were scrolls of historical value and the works and manuscripts of philosopher, artist and author
Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy (, ''Āṉanta Kentiś Muthū Kumāracuvāmi''; ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 September 1947) was a Ceylonese metaphysician, historian and a philosopher of Indian art who was an early inte ...
and prominent intellectual Prof. Dr. Isaac Thambiah. The destroyed articles included memoirs and works of writers and dramatists who made a significant contribution toward the sustenance of the Tamil culture, and those of locally reputed physicians and politicians. The office of the ''Eelanaadu,'' a local newspaper, was also destroyed. Statues of
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
cultural and religious figures were destroyed or defaced. The Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) who sent an investigative team to Jaffna after the riot concluded: Nancy Murray wrote in a journal article in 1984 that several high-ranking security officers and two
cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...
s
Gamini Dissanayake Dissanayake Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Lionel Gamini Dissanayake, PC (known as Gamini Dissanayake; ,; 20 March 1942 – 24 October 1994) was a prominent Sri Lankan politician, a powerful minister of the United National Party, and Leader of the Op ...
and
Cyril Mathew Caluadewage Cyril Mathew (30 September 1912 – 17 October 1989) was a Sri Lankan politician, member of parliament, representing the Kelaniya electorate, and served as the Minister of Industry and Scientific Affairs in the Jayewardene cab ...
were present in the town of
Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...
, when uniformed
security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...
men and plainclothes mob carried out organized acts of destruction. After 20 years the government-owned ''Daily News'' newspaper, in an
editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...
in 2001, termed the 1981 event an act by "goon squads let loose by the then government".


Reaction

Two cabinet ministers, who saw the destruction of government and private properties from the
verandah A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...
of the Jaffna Rest House (a government-owned hotel), claimed that the incident was The national newspapers did not report the incident. In subsequent parliamentary debates some majority Sinhalese members told minority Tamil politicians that if Tamils were unhappy in Sri Lanka, they should leave for their 'homeland' in India. A direct quote from a
United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...
member is ::::- Mr. W.J.M. Lokubandara, MP in Sri Lanka's Parliament, July 1981. Of all the destruction in Jaffna city, it was the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library that was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna. Twenty years later, the mayor of Jaffna
Nadarajah Raviraj Nadarajah Raviraj (, ; 25 June 1962 – 10 November 2006) was a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Jaffna in 2001 and a Member of Parliament for Jaffna District from 2001 to 2006. A member of the Tamil National Alliance, he ...
still grieved at the recollection of the flames he saw as a university student. For Tamils, the devastated library became a symbol of "physical and imaginative violence". The attack was seen as an assault on their aspirations, the value of learning and traditions of academic achievement. The attack also became the rallying point for Tamil rebels to promote the idea to the Tamil populace that their race was targeted for annihilation. The priest and scholar Rev. Fr. (Dr.) H. S. David died of shock the next day after seeing flames engulfing Jaffna Library from his room at St. Patrick's College, Jaffna the night before.


President J. R. Jayewardene

The then President
J. R. Jayewardene Junius Richard Jayewardene (; ; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the secon ...
admitted that members of his party had encouraged the violence against Tamils in this period:


President Ranasinghe Premadasa

In 1991 the then president of Sri Lanka
Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa''; ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 unt ...
publicly proclaimed that He was accusing his political opponents within his UNP party,
Lalith Athulathmudali Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC (; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was a Sri Lankan politician. He was a prominent member of the United National Party, who served as Minister of Trade and Sh ...
and
Gamini Dissanayake Dissanayake Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Lionel Gamini Dissanayake, PC (known as Gamini Dissanayake; ,; 20 March 1942 – 24 October 1994) was a prominent Sri Lankan politician, a powerful minister of the United National Party, and Leader of the Op ...
, who had just brought an
impeachment Impeachment is a process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In Eur ...
motion against him, as directly involved in the burning of the library in 1981.


President Mahinda Rajapakse

In 2006 the president of Sri Lanka
Mahinda Rajapakse Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...
was quoted as saying, He was also further quoted as saying in reference to a prominent local
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
poet, reminding the audience that He concluded in that speech that as a cumulative effect of all these atrocities, the peaceful voice of the Tamils is now drowned in the echo of the gun; referring to the rebel
LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...
's
militancy The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...
.


Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

In 2016, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the United National Party apologized for the burning of the library which happened during a UNP government. He was interrupted by the shouting of Joint Opposition MPs for which he claimed


Government investigation

According to Orville H. Schell, Chairman of the Americas Watch Committee, and Head of
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
's 1982 fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka, the UNP government at that time did not institute an independent investigation to establish responsibility for these killings in May and June 1981 and take measures against those responsible. No one has been indicted for the crimes.


Reopening

In 1982, one year after the initial destruction, the community sponsored Jaffna Public Library Week and collected thousands of books. Repairs on parts of the building were in progress when the
Black July Black July (; ) was an anti- Tamil pogrom that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983. The pogrom was premeditated, and was finally triggered by a deadly ambush on a Sri Lankan Army patrol by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 23 ...
pogrom-induced civil conflict began in 1983. By 1984, the library was fully renovated; however, the library was damaged by bullets and bombs. The military forces were stationed in the
Jaffna Fort Jaffna Fort (; ''Yapanaya Balakotuwa'') is a fort built by the Portuguese at Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 1618 under Phillippe de Oliveira following the Portuguese invasion of Jaffna. The fort is located near the coastal village of Gurunagar. Owing ...
and the rebels positioned themselves inside the library creating a no man's land as the fighting intensified. In 1985, after an attack on a nearby police station by Tamil rebels, soldiers entered the partially restored building and set off bombs that shredded thousands of books yet again. The library was abandoned with its shell and bullet-pocked walls, blackened with the smoke of burnt books. As an effort to win back the confidence of the Tamil people and also to mollify international opinion, in 1998 under president
Chandrika Kumaratunga Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (; ; born 29 June 1945), commonly referred to by her initials CBK, is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fifth President of Sri Lanka, President of Sri Lanka from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. ...
, the government began the process to rebuild it with contributions from all Sri Lankans and foreign governments. Approximately US$1 million was spent and over 25,000 books were collected. By 2001 the replacement building was complete but the 2003 reopening of the rebuilt library was opposed by the
rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...
LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...
(who wanted the burnt remnants of the original building to stand and a replacement library constructed in a different location). This led all 21 members of the
Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...
municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...
, led by Mayor Sellan Kandian, to tender their resignation as a protest against the pressure exerted on them to postpone the reopening. Eventually the library was opened to the public.


See also

* 1981 Anti-Tamil pogrom *
Book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politic ...
*
Cultural genocide Cultural genocide or culturicide is a concept first described by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, in the same book that coined the term ''genocide''. The destruction of culture was a central component in Lemkin's formulation of genocide ...
* Destruction of Library of Alexandria *
Burning of books and burying of scholars The burning of books and burying of scholars was the purported Book burning, burning of texts in 213 BCE and live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 212 BCE ordered by Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. The events were alleged to have destroye ...
* Burning of Nalanda University Library *
List of anti-minority pogroms in Sri Lanka Following is a list of riots and protests in Sri Lanka, an island nation situated in South Asia. Throughout its history, Sri Lanka has experienced a number of riots. Since 1915, many of them have stemmed from ethnic tensions between the Sinhal ...
* Sri Lankan Civil War *
List of destroyed libraries A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
List of attacks on civilians attributed to Sri Lankan government forces The following is a list of attacks on civilians attributed to armed groups under the control of the Sri Lankan government, which includes the Sri Lankan Army, Sri Lankan Navy, Sri Lankan Air Force, Sri Lankan Police Service, state-backed mobs ...


Notes

* * * * *


References


Further reading

* Rebecca Knuth (2003), ''Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century''. New York: Praeger. * Rebecca Knuth (2006), ''Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction''. New York: Praeger. * Nicholas A. Basbanes (2003), ''A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World''. New York: HarperCollins.


External links


History in Flames: Remembering the burning of Jaffna Library

Official website of the Jaffna library

Jaffna library vandalized 2010

Documentary on the burning of the library by Someetharan



Burning Books
– Reported by
Kevin Sites Kevin Sites (born 1963/1964) is an American author and freelance journalist. He has spent nearly a decade covering news for global wars and disasters for ABC, NBC, CNN, and Yahoo! News. Dubbed by the trade press as the "granddaddy" of backpa ...

Jaffna Library burning Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffna library 1980s fires in Asia 1981 disasters in Asia Arson in 1981 1981 in Sri Lanka 1981 riots Arson in Sri Lanka Book burnings 1981 mass shootings Burning of Jaffna Public Library Anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka June 1981 in Sri Lanka Library fires Mass murder in 1981 Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war Political repression Political controversies in Sri Lanka Spree shootings in Sri Lanka Attacks on libraries 20th-century mass murder in Sri Lanka Attacks on buildings and structures in 1981 Attacks on buildings and structures in Sri Lanka 1981 controversies 1981 in politics
Jaffna Public Library Jaffna Public Library (; ) is located in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It is one of Jaffna's most notable landmarks, and is run by the Jaffna Municipal Council. The library was built in 1933 and is Sri Lanka's second main public Library, only rivalled by Co ...
Jaffna, Burning