A Tribute To A True Legend
By Siva Thiagarajah –MARCH 22, 2019
Three months ago, Mr Vairamuttu Varadakumar, Executive Director of the Tamil Information Centre, U.K., based at Kingston, gave me the assignment to write a short account of the History and Culture of the Tamils of Lanka from the earliest times until the debacle at Mullivaikkal ten years ago, to be completed in just three months. When I objected that the time is short, he said: ‘you can do it’.
His long-time dream was to build an ‘Ilankai Tamilar Heritage Museum’ in England exhibiting the long history and heritage of the Tamils of Lanka for the benefit of the younger generation of the Tamil Diaspora. As a first step he wanted to organise a two-day exhibition on the 18th and 19th of May 2019, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the end of the Civil War on 19th May 2009 in the island. This was a period of immense trauma and violence; tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Many more were injured, displaced and detained in camps in the final months of the war and for years afterwards. He wanted a small book about the Cultural Heritage and History of the Tamils of Lanka to be presented to coincide with this exhibition.
Varadakumar
Unfortunately, Mr Varadakumar passed away on the 13th of May. The Tamil Community Centre, determined to carry on the work he has commenced, is arranging a two-day exhibition on the 18th and 19th of May in Kingston as planned. This will be a day of collective mourning, reflection and education. The name of this book, ‘The Tamils of Lanka – A Timeless Heritage’, intended to be launched at the exhibition, is the name given to the exhibition as well.
Mr Varadakumar hails from a well-known family from Manipay in Jaffna. His father, the Late Vairamuttu, has worked as a secretary to the Late Sir Oliver Goonatileka, a Governor of Ceylon. Mr Varadakumar, after his secondary schooling went to Madras for his higher education and graduated from the Madras Christian College at Thambaram.
Mr Varadakumar has been a legend in his own lifetime. Since his arrival in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s from Lanka, he has been continuously fighting the cause of the dispossessed, the poor and the refugee Tamils who sought asylum in the UK and in Europe. In 1981, along with the Late K. Kandasamy and Father Pathinathar he founded the Tamil Information Centre (TIC), which functioned from an office at number 11 Beulah road, Thornton Heath and later at Clapham with little or no funding and scarce personnel. This is an independent, non-profit organisation established to empower the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka to improve the quality of their lives. The aim is to create a society where equality, diversity and respect for each other are maintained. A great emphasis is placed on human rights and self-determination for the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka. In 1984, the TIC had offices in Chennai and Madurai as well. In 1987 the TIC was closed for a while with the intent of moving its head office to Lanka.
In 1987 he joined the Tamil Refugee Action Group, London, and was its first Coordinator of this organisation for a decade. This is a charity working with hundreds of refugees, fighting for lost causes in the UK High Court and lobbying Parliament members not only for refugees but for human rights and Women’s rights as well. In later years this became part of the functions of the TIC.
In 1991, after the death of his colleagues, he moved the TIC offices to East Ham, where there was a substantial Tamil population from Lanka. He was adept in bringing together all the various Tamil Diaspora groups in the UK, volunteers, as well as militant and non-militant service workers, in search of an equitable resolution to the Tamil struggle. He also had the knack of getting people together, collecting volunteers and organising funds. The TIC became a ‘Resource Centre’ for researching and collecting authentic documents which is now a ‘revered repository’.
The TIC offices moved to Kingston Upon Thames in 2003 and in 2005 underwent massive reorganisation under the guidance of Mr Varadakumar. The original organisation branched into (A). TIC Ltd., as a shareholding company and (B). Centre for Community Development, a registered Charity. The TIC continued to work for: 1. Human rights advocacy, 2. Liaison and Collaboration with other relevant organizations, 3. Human rights education, 4. Resource centre. 5. Information, Research, Publication and Policy work, and 6. Conflict resolution and peace-building.
