V. Ponnambalam

V. Ponnambalam
Native name வ. பொன்னம்பலம்
Born (1930-12-18)18 December 1930
Died 5 March 1994(1994-03-05) (aged 63)
Toronto, Canada
Ethnicity Sri Lankan Tamil
Alma mater Madras Christian College
Occupation Teacher

Vallipuram Ponnambalam (Tamil: வ. பொன்னம்பலம்; 18 December 1930 – 5 March 1994; commonly known as VP) was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and teacher. He was a prominent leader of the left-wing in northern Sri Lanka.[1] He served as the secretary of the Jaffna District Committee of the Communist Party of Ceylon.[2][3] Ponnambalam was noted for his 'clean image' as a political leader.[4]

Early life and family

Sinnappu Vallipuram Ponnambalam was born on 18 December 1930.[5] He was son of Vallipuram and Ponnammah from Alaveddy in northern Ceylon.[5] He was educated at Arunothaya School and Skanda Varothaya College, Kandarodai.[5]

Ponnambalam did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Madras Christian College in India. He had gotten admitted at the college through the recommendation of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, leader of the Federal Party and Member of Parliament. At the time Ponnambalam was a sympathiser of the Federal Party and helped Chelvanayakam in his election campaign. At the college Ponnambalam came into contact with communists and carried out social work with them.[5] He became a Marxist.

Ponnambalam married Pooranam, daughter of Kanapathipillai from Karainagar, in 1956. They had two sons – Mavalirajan and Namunakulan.[5] After Pooranam's death in 1974 Ponnambalam married Puvaneswari, daughter of Nagarethinam. They had a daughter, Senchudar.[5]

Teaching career

Ponnambalam became a teacher at Skanda Varothaya College in 1951.[5] He was later principal of Vidyananda College, Mulliyawalai and a lecturer at Palaly Training College.[6]

Political career

On his return to Ceylon from India in 1950, Ponnambalam joined the Communist Party.[2] He became an active member of the party, attending conferences in the Soviet Union and China.[5] He was elected to Mallakam Village Committee in 1952.[5]

Ponnambalam contested the Kankesanthurai Electoral District seat on a Communist Party ticket in the 1956 parliamentary election. He finished in third place, with 4,313 votes (15.77% of the votes in the constituency). The election was won by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam.[7] He stood as the Communist Party candidate in the Uduvil Electoral District in the March 1960 parliamentary election. He finished in third place, with 3,541 votes (17.27%).[8] The winning candidate, V. Dharmalingam, was a close friend of V. Ponnambalam.[2] In 1962 Ponnambalam became chairman of Mallakam-Alaveddy Village Committee.[9] He was elected district secretary for the Communist Party in 1963.[9]

Ponnambalam again contested the Kankesanthurai seat in the 1970 parliamentary election, challenging the Tamil political leader S. J. V. Chelvanayakam once again.[10] Ponnambalam enjoyed strong support from depressed classes and radical youth in the area.[11] In his campaign he accused the Federal Party of resisting progressive measures, such as school, bus service and petroleum distribution nationalisation as well as the enactment of the Paddy Lands Act.[12] He finished in second place with 8,164 votes (26.75%).[10]

Build-up of tension

In the process of preparing the new 1972 Constitution the Jaffna District Committee of the Communist Party argued that the 1957 Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact be incorporated in the new Constitution. They requested the Communist Party leader Pieter Keuneman to facilitate a meeting with the Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the Minister of Constitutional Affairs Colvin R. de Silva. Ponnabalam headed the Jaffna District Communist Party delegation at the meeting. He argued that with the implementation of the 1957 pact the emergence of a large-scale Tamil insurgency could be avoided. According to Ponnabalam's account Bandaranaike was initially sympathetic to the proposal but was swayed by de Silva to reject it.[3]

On 5 October 1974, the Tamil New Tigers ignited dynamite in the residence of Ponnambalam. The attack happened at the same time as Ponnambalam was acting as interpreter for the Prime Minister at a public meeting in Chunnakam.[2][13]

1975 by-election

On 6 February 1975 a bye-election was held for the Kankesanthurai seat (Chelvanayakam had resigned from the seat two years before). Again Chelvanayakam and Ponnambalam confronted each other. Ponnambalam was the candidate of the governing United Front coalition. He lost to Chelvanayakam, who increased his victory margin.[14] Chelvanayakam obtained 25,927 votes and V. Ponnambalam obtained 9,457 votes.[3] The election campaign was marred with tension, and the government assigned a bodyguard for Ponnambalam for his protection.[2]

Departure from the Communist Party

Dissatisfied with developments inside the Communist Party in regards to the Tamil question, Ponnambalam left the party in 1976.[3][15] In reaction to Ponnambalam's departure from the party, it was stated that "with him went the last bastion of the Left movement in the North."[3]

Ponnambalam subsequently founded a new movement, Senthamizhar Iyakkam ('Red Tamil Movement'), a group which would align itself with the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the main Tamil political party. In 1978 he published the booklet Senthamizhar Aagividuvom ('Let's become Red Tamils'), a manifest detailing his shift towards Tamil nationalism. Ponnambalam borrowed heavily from Lenin's positions on the national question.[15][16] With the Red Tamil Movement Ponnambalam sought to align with TULF and its leader A. Amirthalingam and move it towards socialist positions.[15][17][18] Amirthalingam's candidature in the Kankesanthurai seat at the 1977 parliamentary election was proposed by Ponnambalam.[19]

Later years

However Ponnabalam's new party failed to make any significant impact. Ponnambalam withdrew from political life and in 1978 shifted his residence to Lusaka, Zambia where he taught at the Co-operative College.[9] He returned to Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, and was active in the Tamil nationalist camp.[2]

Ponnambalam migrated to Canada in 1985.[9] He died on 5 March 1994 in Toronto.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Communists find common ground in the North". Ceylon Today. 9 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mahavalirajan, Rajan (November 2009). Tamil/Transnationalism a Convenient Concept. AuthorHouse. pp. 16–20. ISBN 978-1-4490-2005-7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Hoole, Rajan; Thiranagama, Rajini (January 2001). "Chapter 3 – 1979 – 83: The Mounting Repression". Sri Lanka: the arrogance of power : myths, decadence & murder. University Teachers for Human Rights. pp. 11, 46. ISBN 978-955-9447-04-7.
  4. ↑ Sri Kantha, Sachi. "Part 13". The Pirabaharan Phenomenon.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Arumugam, S. (1997). Dictionary of Biography of the Tamils of Ceylon. p. 142.
  6. 1 2 "Obituaries" (PDF). Tamil Times XIII (3): 30. 15 March 1994. ISSN 0266-4488.
  7. ↑ "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1956" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
  8. ↑ "Result of Parliamentary General Election 19 March 1960" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "வி.பொன்னம்பலம்" (in Tamil). alaveddy.ch. 2 June 2009.
  10. 1 2 "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1970" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
  11. ↑ Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (10 June 2010). Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: The Ceylon General Election of May 1970. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-521-15311-9.
  12. ↑ Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (10 June 2010). Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: The Ceylon General Election of May 1970. Cambridge University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-521-15311-9.
  13. ↑ Dissanayake, T. D. S. A. (2004). War Or Peace in Sri Lanka. Popular Prakashan. p. 33. ISBN 978-81-7991-199-0.
  14. ↑ Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (January 1988). The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict. C. Hurst & Co. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-85065-033-1.
  15. 1 2 3 Cheran, R.; Kanaganayakam, Chelva; Ambalavanar, Darshan (2007). History and Imagination: Tamil Culture in the Global Context. TSAR Publications. pp. 90–. ISBN 978-1-894770-36-1.
  16. ↑ Vaitheespara, Ravi (2007). "Towards a Tamil Left Perspective on the Ethnic Crisis in Sri Lanka". Theorizing the National Crisis: Sanmugathasan, the Left and the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka (PDF). Colombo: Social Scientists Association.
  17. ↑ Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (January 1994). S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947–1977: A Political Biography. C. Hurst & Co. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-85065-130-7.
  18. ↑ Karunaratne, Vikramabahu (1979). Lanka Samasamaja Party and the Tamil speaking people. Government Clerical Services Union Press. p. 30.
  19. ↑ Rajasingham, K. T. "Chapter 25: War or peace?". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story.

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