Rajini Thiranagama

Rajini Thiranagama

Infobox Person
name = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama


image_size = 175px
caption = Dr. Rajini Thiranagama
birth_date = birth date|1954|2|23|mf=y
birth_place = Jaffna, Sri Lanka
death_date = death date and age|1989|9|21|1954|2|23|mf=y
death_place = Jaffna, Sri Lanka
occupation = University Lecturer
spouse = Dayapala Thiranagama
parents =
children = Narmada Thiranagama, Sharika Thiranagama
Dr. Rajini Thiranagama (nee Rajasingham) (February 23, 1954-September 21, 1989) was a Tamil human rights activist and feminist who was shot dead by Tamil Tigers cadres after she criticised them for their atrocities.cite web|url=http://www.uthr.org/Statements/Release%20of%20Film%20on%20Rajani%20-%20No%20more%20tears%20sister.htm|title=On the occasion of the release of No More Tears Sister, a film on the life and times of Rajani Thiranagama|accessdate=2007-02-12] At the time of her assassination she was the head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Jaffna and an active member of University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna branch of which she is one of the founding members.

Biography

Early life and education

Rajini was born in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, to middle-class Tamil Christian parents. She was the second child of the four female children. She followed her primary and secondary school education in Jaffna and in 1973, she entered the University of Colombo to study medicine. At university, she became actively involved in student politics. cite web|url=http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part24.htm|title=Surviving the Plots of RAW and Premadasa|accessdate=2006-11-22]

Marriage and children

During her stay at Colombo University she met a politically active student leader from Kelaniya University named Dayapala Thirangama. Dayapala was from a rural Sinhala Bhudist background. Rajani broke ethnic and religious barriers and married Dayapala in1977. They had two daughters: Narmada, (1978), and Sharika, 1980. At present Rajini's husband and her two daughters live in England. In 2005 Sharika portrayed her mother's role in the documetary film on Rajini called "No More Tears Sister".

Medical Profession

1978 Rajani begins her first posting as an intern medical doctor at Jaffna Hospital. After the completion of the intern, in 1979 she traveled to Haldumulla, a small village situated near Haputale to work as a medical doctor. By 1980 she returned to Jaffna as a lecturer in anatomy in the newly-formed Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jaffna. By this time, Jaffna was a battle zone in the early stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. Many were leaving Jaffna for Colombo or migrating to other countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Links with the LTTE

Inspired by her elder sister Nirmala, then a member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Rajani became involved with the LTTE, administering care to those wounded in action. In 1983, Rajani traveled to England under Commonwealth scholarship for postgraduate studies in anatomy at Liverpool Medical School. There she launched a major international campaign for the release of her sister who was imprisoned in 1982 in under Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act. She also maintained her links with LTTE by joining its London Committee in order to educate human rights groups and other international organizations about the atrocities occurring in Sri Lanka. While continuing to write and publish scientific papers, she also became implicated in grassroots organizations fighting for women’s rights and against the discrimination of Britain’s black people [cite web|url=http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070212_10|title=South African LTTE Connections Exposed, By Rohan Gunaratna|accessdate=2007-02-12] and became involved in the international campaigns of other liberation groups. cite web|url=http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/nomoretearssister/pdf/press_kit.pdf|title=RAJANI THIRANAGAMA BIOGRAPHY|accessdate=2006-11-22]

As a human rights activist

Over time, constant exposure to politically motivated killings by armed groups on all sides caused Rajani to rethink her position on armed struggle. [cite web|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/books/eelam/hoole.htm|title=RAJANI THIRANAGAMA HISTORY OF CONFLICT|accessdate=2006-11-22] A determined idealist, she criticized the narrow nationalism of the LTTE, and the atrocities committed by the LTTE, the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the Sri Lankan government forces upon the innocent Tamil civilian population in Jaffna. She began to collect evidence of human rights violations of IPKF and LTTE.At the University of Jaffna, Rajini and some of her teacher colleagues founded the Jaffna branch of the "University Teachers for Human Rights".

Having witnessed the evidence of human rights violations by the IPKF and LTTE, Rajini co-authored a book entitled "The Broken Palmyra" cite web|url=http://www.uthr.org/BP/Content.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra|accessdate=2006-11-22] . The book documents the violence in Jaffna in the 1980s. [cite web|url=http://www.uthr.org/BP/A%20FOREWORD.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra Forward|accessdate=2006-11-23] [cite web|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/books/Eelam/hoole.htm|title=The Broken Palmyra review|accessdate=2006-11-23]

Assassination

A few weeks after the publication of book "The Broken Palmyra", on September 21, 1989, she was shot dead at Thirunelvely, Jaffna in front of her house by a gunman while cycling back from work. University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna and Rajini's sister accuse the LTTE of her murder, retaliating against her criticism of their violent tactics. [cite web| url=http://www.uthr.org/Reports/Report3/Rajaniwork.htm#_Toc515857060 |title= University Teachers for Human Rights|accessdate=2006-11-22]

Legacy and memorials

Documentary Film

In a documentary released worldwide in 2005, "No More Tears Sister: An Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal", produced by the National Film Board of Canada, [cite web|url=http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/nomoretearssister/film.html|title=No More Tears Sister Film|accessdate=2006-11-22] , Rajini's life and her legacy are vividly brought to life.

Quotes

Embracing feminism and a belief in human rights, Dr, Rajani felt that women in particular were the primary casualties of war;

cquote|"One day some gun will silence me and it will not be held by an outsider but by the son born in the womb of this very society, from a woman with whom my history is shared," wrote Dr. Rajani in 1989, a few months before she was killed.

ee also

*Sri Lankan Civil War

References

External links

* [http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume2/AppendixIII.htm Dr. Rajani Thiranagama: Her contribution to the University Teachers for Human Rights (U.T.H.R.)]
* [http://samudaya.org/articles/archives/2005/06/no_more_tears_s.php No More Tears Sister - Documentary]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/rajini.html For Rajini 23rd February 1954 * 21st September 1989 by Nalin Swaris]

Persondata
NAME=Thiranagama, Rajini Rajasingham, Dr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Rajini Rajasingham
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH=February 23, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH=Jaffna
DATE OF DEATH=September 21, 1989
PLACE OF DEATH=Jaffna


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