Category Archives: truth as casualty of war

Kaniyan Pungundran – Editor-in-Chief of Jaffna Monitor ….September 2025 … ..where the title runs thus: “JVP Still Denies the Tamil Ethnic Question: Sharika Thiranagama Speaks to Jaffna Monitor”

It feels like yesterday. As a student, I remember flipping through Amuthu, a Tamil-language magazine published by Lake House. One day, I came across an article about Dr. Rajani Thiranagama—her brilliant career, and how she was cowardly and mercilessly assassinated. More than the tragedy of that brave woman, what seared itself into me was the image of her two young daughters standing beside their mother. Even as a boy, I felt a deep and overwhelming compassion for them. That night, I hugged my mother tightly, whispering questions to the God I was raised to believe in: How could anyone kill the mother of two small children?

Years later, I found myself sitting across from one of those children—Sharika Thiranagama—interviewing her in detail for Jaffna Monitor. As we spoke, what struck me repeatedly was not only her brilliance as an academic but also the warmth, composure, and clarity that radiated from her. That evening, I watched as she disagreed with some of my friends. The way she objected—polite, firm, and unshakably precise—made me realize that though her life was marked by loss at the most vulnerable age, she had absorbed her mother’s humility, bravery, and steady mind. It was in that moment I understood how personal tragedy had forged not bitterness, but intellectual rigor—how the child who once heard gunshots from her doorstep had grown into a scholar determined to dissect the very forces that create such violence.

Continue reading →