Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam is a Sri Lankan journalist and author from Jaffna, known for incisive reporting on conflict, culture, and geopolitics across South and Southeast Asia.

Sri Lanka

“Grasp Every Opportunity, Don’t Be Afraid” — Sir Nishan Canagarajah

“Grasp Every Opportunity, Don’t Be Afraid” — Sir Nishan Canagarajah

Life can be quietly ironic. Less than a month after I interviewed Professor Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran and titled the piece “The First Sri Lankan Tamil Knight in 50 Years,” another Sri Lankan Tamil was honoured with a knighthood. This time, it was Nishan Canagarajah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. At the age of fifteen, while his elder brothers were studying at universities outside Jaffna, a Grade 9 Nishan spent three days and nights at Jaffna Hospital caring for his dying fath


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

"Prabhakaran Was Very Clear-Eyed That He and His Family May Die Fighting for Tamil Eelam” — Anita Prathap Speaks Exclusively to Jaffna Monitor

"Prabhakaran Was Very Clear-Eyed That He and His Family May Die Fighting for Tamil Eelam” — Anita Prathap Speaks Exclusively to Jaffna Monitor

If not for the bravery and persistence of Indian journalist Anita Prathap, the Sri Lankan state might well have succeeded in burying the truth about Black July 1983. At a time when the government was determined to deny that any pogrom had taken place—and when the state machinery worked overtime to suppress every whisper of anti-Tamil violence—it was Anita Prathap who broke the silence on the international stage. Defying the odds, she travelled to Sri Lanka and became one of the first foreign jou


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

One Thousand Years of Belonging – One Mad Command of Exile: The Story of Jaffna’s Muslims

One Thousand Years of Belonging – One Mad Command of Exile: The Story of Jaffna’s Muslims

Part-1 I was only a few years old when the LTTE committed one of its most heinous crimes — the mass expulsion of Jaffna’s Muslims. Three decades later, I found myself sitting in Sonagar Theru (Moor Street), Jaffna, with a group of Muslim women who still carry the scars of that history. Their bodies and souls bear the weight of one of the greatest tragedies and injustices ever committed in the name of the Sri Lankan Tamil struggle. Among them was 68-year-old Mahroopa — fragile, elderly, yet


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam