Gender Rights And Tamil Genocide- A Response To Nirmala Rajasingam
By Murali Vallipuranathan -August 6, 2014
Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan
I am writing with reference to an article by Nirmala Rajasingam titled “Tamil Nationalism, Population Control and Gender Rights – A Response to Dr.Vallipuranathan” (1). Earlier I was happy to respond (2) to Dr.Krishna Kalaichelvan though he had different views because it was written in academic language in polite words with real references and scientific facts (3). But this time I am writing with disappointment because the ranting of Nirmala is written in abusive language calling others as “lunatic fringe” and without even a single reference or any scientific merit. I am however, compelled to respond to her article to dispel the misconceptions and twisting of my academic presentation created by her. It is for this reason I will neither respond to all the nuances in her response nor will question her moral right to criticize the polygamy or polyandry.
- I have already explained that the media report published in GTN website (4) and other media was prepared by a media personnel who attended to my talk in Jaffna University on 26/06/14 and not by me. My presentation contained slides on the large number of war widows and the marital squeeze caused by the difficulty in finding age appropriate male partners because of the large number of Tamil males who got killed during the war, or gone missing or migrated. Also my slides had reference to history of Tamils particularly to the golden era of Tamils during the period of Cholas 10th AD where Tamils engaged in polygamy by marrying war widows and had children to recover the population lost in war. Same practice was noted in the writings of poet Avvaiyar who is considered as the first Tamil feminist believed to have lived during the Sangam period between 3rd century BC and 4th Century AD. I then stated in my presentation that we could not resort to the historical practice of polygamy in the post war period because of the Marriage Registration Ordinance enacted in 1907 (5). It was during the ensued discussion after my talk a Tamil doctoral scholar among the audience emphasized polygamy as a solution to the special situation of post war marital squeeze and that appeared in the media report. It is therefore clear that the concern and bewilderment of Nirmala over the allegation that I pronounced to legalize polygamy was unwarranted and baseless. If Nirmala is genuinely worried about the reproductive rights of war widows and other young Tamil women facing the post war marital squeeze she should come out with feasible alternative solutions rather than destructively criticizing others who are trying to find solutions.
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