M.R. Narayan Swamy

By M.R. Narayan Swamy When Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi prepared to fly to Colombo in July 1987, Tamil politicians and militants from Sri Lanka were invited to New Delhi to approve a proposed bilateral pact that sought to end Tamil separatism. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and his team were put up in the five-star Hotel Ashok, no doubt because the Tigers were the most formidable force in the military arena, even if they were a

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Indian-origin Tamils, descendants of indentured labourers brought to Sri Lanka in the 19th century, are steadily moving away from the tea plantations that once defined their existence. After generations of living a hand-to-mouth existence, many are finding success in new fields emerging as a more empowered ethnic group. Yet, for the tens of thousands who still toil in the tea estates poverty and entrenched racism remain daily realities. Community leaders speak about signi

By M.R. Narayan Swamy It was in 1966 that the Mizo National Front (MNF) launched its guerrilla war against the Indian state. This was nine years before Velupillai Prabhakaran shot dead the Mayor of Jaffna, and a decade before Sri Lanka witnessed the birth of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The comparison is striking not only in timeline but also in scale: Prabhakaran’s envisioned Tamil Eelam spanned roughly 18,000 to 19,000 square kilometres, not far off from Mizoram’s approximatel

By M.R. Narayan Swamy How did Hindu temples come to dot the skyline in parts of Southeast Asia at a time when Buddhism too was spreading its wings? To answer this, we need to turn to the visionary Pallava kings, who ruled a sprawling region in southern India with Kanchipuram as their capital, overcoming military defeats with patience, confidence, and bravery. And who better to unveil this story than William Dalrymple, one of Scotland’s foremost historians, who has made Delhi his home and has