Futility of War

Today, a Tamil film had a profound effect on me. "Kannathil Mutthamittal", in english meaning a Kiss on the Cheek, gives an idea about the effects of War on people. The backdrop to this film is about the conflict that is going on in Sri Lanka, between the Sri lankans and the minority Tamils. The effects of War and its futility was clearly evident tome. Before i go into the details, let me give the people a backdrop to the Sri Lankan conflict.

The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka had largely taken the form of a demand for autonomy for the Tamil-speaking regions under an overall federal framework. The lack of results after twenty-five years of negotiations, and the perception amongst Tamils that the Sinhalese dominated government was unwilling to grant their wishes, led to a significant section of young Tamils, particularly in Jaffna, adopting a more radical position. They now favoured the use of violent means. A large number of militant organisations were set up, one of which was the Tamil New Tigers (TNT), formed in 1972 by a small group of young Tamils and university students led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. Many students joined the TNT thereafter because they believed that they were not given equality in the grading systems and admission to post-graduate schools.

The TNT's first military operation was the assassination of Alfred Duraiappah, the SLFP mayor of Jaffna, in 1975, followed by a few successful bank robberies to fund their activities and the assassination of a number of minor police officials. The success of these early acts gave them confidence, and in 1976 they teamed up with the militants headed by S. Subramanian to form the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In 1979, the late Anton Balasingham joined the LTTE as their main ideologue. Balasingham added depth to the LTTE's politics. Whereas they had earlier been committed to the single idea of Tamil independence, Balasingham added a new layer of social policies, inspired by Marxism and anti-casteism, which profoundly shaped the LTTE's worldview.

The LTTE continued the TNT's campaign of low-intensity violence against state agents, particularly policemen, and quickly became the most efficient and ruthless of the many Tamil militant groups. In 1978, they wiped out a police patrol that had discovered one of their training camps, the first major military victory for a separatist Tamil group. After one such attack in July 1983, which killed 16 army soldiers, Sinhalese mobs took revenge in the event now called Black July, which saw the death of 1,000- 3,000 Tamils. Following this angry Tamil youths swelled the ranks of the LTTE seeking retribution for the violence. The intensifying conflict produced a steady stream of volunteers for the LTTE, which they shaped into a militia with the help of India's Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency. In 1984, they began launching higher intensity attacks against Sri Lankan troops. The same year they also formed a naval unit, the Sea Tigers.

Talking about the film, it highlights the plight of the refugees that come in from the affected parts of Sri Lanka and into India. In that, one particular refugee woman gets pregnant and bears a child. Circumstances force her to abandon the child and go back to her strife torn village. The child is raised by someone else, and she grows up to be a fine girl. On her 9th Birthday, she is told about her background and from then on, the search for her real parents. During that search, the child sees the horrors of Wars and also the suffering of the people affected by War.

In the later part of the Movie, the main characters wonder as to why people are losing their humanity and adopting War. The examples, if loked at this decade alone, would involve Chechnya,Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Israel-Palestine, and now Afghanistan and Iraq. Quoting from the movie, two reasons as to why this happens. The Arms Industry has now been well established and in order to thrive and consolidate, encourages War in most of the world. The Second Reason, is possibly, that in this age, Reasoning and Irrationality are dominant in the world.

The fact that so many Wars are taking place is proof of the last statement that i made. The fact that a Child is seperated from its mother is the one reason why i consider Wars futile. Lives are lost, country's are devastated and people's lives are scarred physically or mentally for a long time. Now, unfortunately, Wars are assuming the factor of Legitamacy. Following 9/11, the US has made War the ultimate weapon of Legitamacy, with Iran now on its target. The world is so dangerous now, that we can see more Children geting seperated from parents, and nations getting disillusioned with the so called factor of peace.

NOTE: THE SECOND THIRD PARAGRAPHS ARE FROM WIKIPEDIA. FULL CONTEXT OF THE SRI LANKAN CONFLICT CAN BE FOUND THERE