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E. Valentine Daniel: Charred Lullabies (Hardcover, 1996, Princeton University Press) 4 stars

An academic study of tamils in Sri Lanka

4 stars

I had to skip multiple pages because there were too many words like "dialectic", "Anthroposemeiosis" (I refuse to learn this word) but this book is a grim documentation of how Tamils were failed by so many people including fellow tamils and how casteism is such a big barrier to unity among Tamils. I was also, once again, shocked by the tame demands of Tamils who fought united with the Sinhalese for freedom and how the anti-tamil riots of 1983 opened their eyes to how they will never be equal to the Sinhalese. The increased violence only made Tamils violent with each other as commanders tried to subjugate their troops with violence. There is so much trauma among the tamil diaspora of refugees from Sri Lanka.