Groups
| Part of a series on |
| Sri Lankan Tamil people ஈழத் தமிழர் |
|---|
| History |
|
| Culture |
|
| Religion |
|
| Society |
|
| Languages and dialects |
|
| Politics |
|
| Diaspora |
|
- Student organizations
Most started as student organizations. The notable one were Tamil Students League (TSL) or Tamil Manavar Peravai founded in 1970 by Ponnuthurai Satyaseelan. Another one was Tamil Youth League or Tamil Ilaignar Peravai founded in 1973 that was progenitor of many militant groups. Finally General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) founded in London, UK whose members founded Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students which in turn split into Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front that gave birth to current political party and sometime paramilitary organization Eelam People's Democratic Party.
- Major groups
Prior to 1987 the major groups included the Indian trained and equipped Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, eventually militarily beaten by the LTTE, but politically part of pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance party, as well as a former rival and splinter group from LTTE, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, currently a minor standalone political party with many of its cadres working as paramilitaries, although the PLOTE leadership denies this. Amongst the many leftists groups the major one was the pro-Indian and Marxist Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, militarily defeated by the LTTE but a faction of which is part of the TNA and others working with the Sri Lankan government as paramilitaries. The Eelam People's Democratic Party is a pro-government group and a political party accused of being a paramilitary. A faction of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisers (EROS) is part of LTTE. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTe) is the only remaining armed Tamil nationalist group.
- Other groups
There were over 30 other minor groups of which some are notable such as National Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam (NLFTE), which according to Taraki Sivaram, was a small but influential Maoist group based largely in Jaffna, which
"drove down the road to perdition by splitting hairs over the question of whether it should first build an armed wing or a mass political movement".People's Liberation Army (PLA) in reality the military wing of wing of EPRLF, Led by EPDP founder and leader Douglas Devananda. Important achievement of the PLA was the 1984 kidnapping of American couple Stanley and Mary Allen from Columbus, Ohio, in Jaffna.Another minor but notable group was Tamil Eelam Army (TEA) of Panagoda Maheswaran involved in the attack against an Air Lanka flight in Madras, India. Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA) founded in 1982 by Oberoi Thevan; a splinter group of TELO. After the assassination of Thevan in 1983 by the LTTE, TELA was absorbed by PLOTE.
- Militant fronts
There are also number of militia groups such as Upsurging People's Force, Ellalan Padai, and Ravanan Padai considered by some to be groups allied to the LTTE.
Read more about this topic: Sri Lankan Tamil Militant Groups
Famous quotes containing the word groups:
“In America every woman has her set of girl-friends; some are cousins, the rest are gained at school. These form a permanent committee who sit on each other’s affairs, who “come out” together, marry and divorce together, and who end as those groups of bustling, heartless well-informed club-women who govern society. Against them the Couple of Ehepaar is helpless and Man in their eyes but a biological interlude.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“... until both employers’ and workers’ groups assume responsibility for chastising their own recalcitrant children, they can vainly bay the moon about “ignorant” and “unfair” public criticism. Moreover, their failure to impose voluntarily upon their own groups codes of decency and honor will result in more and more necessity for government control.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.”
—George Gurdjieff (c. 1877–1949)