Hindu extremist groups step up activities in Tamil Eelam

Hindu nationalist organisations have increased their presence and activities in Tamil Eelam over recent months, including by supporting the release of a racist Sinhala Buddhist monk.

Earlier this year, the ‘Hindu Federation of Sri Lanka’ wrote to Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe, calling on him to pardon Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara.

The monk, a notorious racist, was sentence to four years of imprisonment for defamatory remarks he made against the Muslim community, during a 2016 press conference. He was released on bail this week.

The organisation claimed the monk is “a good human being” and claimed he had helped “resolve” issues between “Hindus and some other religious extremist groups” on the island.

Earlier this month, the Siva Senai group in Jaffna protested outside the Northern Province Governor’s office demanding the immediate removal of the Zonal Director of Education who allegedly requested that images of Hindu deities be removed from his office.

The group demanded that the new director, who had assumed office last month, also requested that images of Hindu deities be removed from a workshop held by the education department.

The Siva Senai in Jaffna is headed by Maravanpulavu Sachithananthan, and is reported to have links to fellow Hindu extremist organisations in India. When Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi won elections earlier this year, less than a dozen members from the organisation gathered at a temple in Jaffna to celebrate.

“We are starting to observe the incitement to religious fundamentalism in the North-East,” said Rev Fr Ravichandran, in a video released by the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research last month.

“In the context of Hindutva in India, by trying to cultivate the same Hindutva feeling in Sri Lanka, attempts are being made to sow division between the Hindu-Christian forces that have stayed united throughout the long struggle,” he continued, noting there were also Christian fundamentalist groups becoming more active in the North-East.

“As far as the Tamil people are concerned, these two are harmful – Tamil leadership, be it political, societal or religious, must act vigilantly with these in mind.”

See the full video, with interviews from both Christian and Hindu religious leaders, below.