Dr. S Rajasundaram 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, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

activist known for his struggle for the rights of

Tamil people The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is one of the longe ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, through peaceful and democratic means. Along with his friend S.A. David, He founded Gandhiyam, a social service organization, named after the Indian revolutionary

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, that was aimed at economic, social, cultural revival of the

Tamils The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is o ...

and also fight the Sri Lankan state's repeated and continued policies of oppressing the Tamils and denying them of their rights. The Sri Lankan government unlawfully arrested along with him, several thousands Tamil activists and he was sentenced to the

Welikada Prison The Welikada Prison (; also known as the ''Magazine Prison'') is a maximum-security prison and the largest prison in Sri Lanka. It was built in 1841 by the British colonial government under Governor Campbell. The prison covers an area of . It is ...

where he was subsequently killed during the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983.

Social Work

Rajasundaram along with his friend and noted architect S.A. David, founded Gandhiyam to peacefully resist the Sri Lankan state terror through Gandhian principles and also lead the

to live as per the Gandhian ways of life. In a span of 5 years, the organization had a sound presence throughout the traditional homelands of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, in

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 ...

Kilinochchi Kilinochchi (; ) is the main town of Kilinochchi District, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Kilinochchi is situated at the A9 road some south-east of Jaffna. It was the administrative center and de facto capital of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) until ...

Mannar Mannar may refer to the following places: India * Mannar, Alappuzha, a town in Chengannur Taluk, Kerala Sri Lanka * Mannar District, one of 25 districts in Sri Lanka ** Mannar Island, an island within the district ** Mannar Bridge, a bridge conne ...

Mullaitivu Mullaitivu (; ) is the main town of Mullaitivu District, situated on the north-eastern coast of Northern Province, Sri Lanka. A largely fishing settlement, the town in the early twentieth century grew as an anchoring harbour of the small sailing ...

Vavuniya Vavuniya (, ) is a city in Vavuniya District in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The municipality is administered by an Municipal Council. The town has been known since ancient times, but being a heavily forested area, less than 100,000 people ...

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...

and

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

. At the time of their arrest, the organization had 450 pre schools with an average of thirty students each were providing daily milk and triposha and Kindergarten teaching facilities to village children. Mobile clinics equipped with basic preventive and curative medicine were making regular rounds to outlying villages. A training center was preparing thirty to forty young women, every three months for Gandhiyam work in their own villages. In addition, Gandhiyam with other social service organizations was assisting 5,000 refugee families from Tea Estates to settle down to safe life among the traditional Tamil villages.

Arrest and murder

After constant monitoring and crackdown of their social activities by the

Sri Lankan government forces The Sri Lanka Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka encompassing the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy, and the Sri Lanka Air Force; they are governed by the Ministry of Defence (Sri Lank ...

, Rajasundaram along with David were finally arrested in April, 1983, under the infamous PTA. The charges consisted of: # Meeting

Uma Maheswaran Kadirgamapillai (Kathirkamar) Nallainathan (; 18 February 1945 – 16 July 1989; commonly known by the nom de guerre Uma Maheswaran) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and the founder and leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eel ...

and not informing the police # Meeting Santhathiar and not informing the police # Assisting Uma and Santhathiar to escape to India Both were imprisoned for life for these charges. Following imprisonment, They were allegedly subject to both physical and mental forms of torture. Dr. Rajasunderam was severely attacked, his left arm dislocated, his ear drums broken and left on several occasions unconscious on the floor. On 25 July 1983, several Tamil inmates of the

, almost all of them exclusively detained under the PTA were attacked by Sinhala prisoners and guards as a part of the larger pogrom against Tamils. 35 including one 16-year-old were brutally murdered and dumped in front of a statue of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

in the prison yard. The remaining Tamil prisoners those who managed to survive the massacre were detained at the youth ward and the first floor of the prison. Two days later, on 27 July, armed Sinhalese prisoners broke into both these cells where Rajasundaram and David among others were housed. Nearly 40 prisoners armed with axes, swords, crowbars, iron pipes and wooden logs appeared before the cell and started to break the lock. Dr. Rajasundaram who went up to the door pleading with the assailants to give up their violence was dragged out by the group who killed him by smashing his head with an iron rod.

References

{{Authority control 1983 deaths Sri Lankan Tamil activists Sri Lankan Tamil people 1942 births