The passing of the Vaddukoddai resolution on May 14th, 1976 was commemorated in Jaffna on Saturday, 40 years on.

Lighting a flame of remembrance for all those who died in the Tamil genocide, local politicians and council members, including the Northern Provincial Councillors, M K Shivajilingham and Ananthy Sasitharan attended the event.

The Vaddukoddai resolution, spearheaded by SJV Chelvanayakam, remains a cornerstone of the Tamil movement for self-determination in Sri Lanka, concluding that an independent state of Tamil Eelam was needed to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka.

The resolution was unanimously adopted by the Tamil United Liberation Front on May 14th, 1976 and later endorsed overwhelmingly by the Tamil electorate.

Stating that "successive Sinhalese governments since independence have always encouraged and fostered the aggressive nationalism of the Sinhalese people and have used their political power to the detriment of the Tamils", the resolution highlighted key issues that remain today including the Sinhalisation of Tamil areas, the violence against the Tamil people, "the terrorising, torturing and imprisoning of Tamil youths without trial for long periods on the flimsiest of grounds", the use of Sinhala as the official language and giving Buddhism the foremost place within the state.

Outlining the features of the envisioned Tamil Eelem, TULF convention declared:

a. that the State of TAMIL EELAM shall consist of the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces and shall also ensure full and equal rights of citizenship of the State of TAMIL EELAM to all Tamil speaking people living in any part of Ceylon and to Tamils of EELAM origin living in any part of the world who may opt for citizenship of TAMIL EELAM.

b. that the constitution of TAMIL EELAM shall be based on the principle of democratic decentralization so as to ensure the non-domination of any religious or territorial community of TAMIL EELAM by any other section.

c. that in the state of Tamil Eelam caste shall be abolished and the observance of the pernicious practice of untouchability or inequality of any type based on birth shall be totally eradicated and its observance in any form punished by law.

d. that TAMIL EELAM shall be a secular state giving equal protection and assistance to all religions to which the people of the state may belong.

e. that Tamil shall be the language of the State, but the rights of Sinhalese speaking minorities in Tamil Eelam to education and transaction of business in their language shall be protected on a reciprocal basis with the Tamil speaking minorities in the Sinhala State.

f. that Tamil Eelam shall be a Socialist State wherein the exploitation of man by man shall be forbidden, the dignity of labor shall be recognized, the means of production and distribution shall be subject to public ownership and control while permitting private enterprise in these branches within limit prescribed by law, economic development shall be on the basis of socialist planning and there shall be a ceiling on the total wealth that any individual of family may acquire.