‘Odyssey of war’ Mr Rajeswary Balasubramaniam
In this work, Dr Nadesan reflected the struggle for the liberation of Tamils in Sri Lanka (1977-2009) and the failure of interwoven world politics, illustrating how the upper-class Tamils overcame caste, religious religion, and regions and united for the liberation of Tamils, but went beyond the spirit of liberation, migrated, and eventually made the liberation struggle of Tamils as a profitable business.
The novel ‘Odyssey of War’ shows how the struggle of the Tamil freedom fighters, avatars armed with many great expectations to save the Tamil nation, suddenly perished in ashes.
The novel dissects the vital parts of the struggle as a doctor and conducts an autopsy to find the cause of his death. Odyssey of War will be of great help to the future generation to study the Sri Lankan Tamils’ freedom struggle.
‘Odyssey of war is the story of Asokan, an eight-year-old boy whom Indian soldiers orphaned on October 16, 1987, and a wonderful Tamil family who adopted him and raised him as their son. The novel follows his relationship with Jennifer, claiming to be of gypsy heritage, telling Asokan the history of gypsies who migrated from India to many Western countries, telling Asokan that both have a subcontinental connection.
But this is not only Asokan’s story. This is the sad history of many Tamils of that generation and the cruel, inhumane, egoistic activities that have been covered up as things that cannot be talked about openly. It’s also the story of Ganesan, a childhood friend of Asokan, chased out of the town due to caste atrocities. It’s the story of Gunam, a young man shot dead by the LTTE, as recorded in Asokan’s uncle’s diary. It’s the story of Selvi who volunteered to sacrifice her life and future for the liberation of the Tamil people, her beloved Karthika and the consequences of failure in the LTTE. Some of the characters in this story may cause discomfort. Religious, educated, and wealthy members of the Tamil community in many countries helped the LTTE by turning a blind eye to their deadly actions. The atrocities of the LTTE intensified because no one spoke against them. The novel asks the reader to reflect on whether they were also a party of perpetrators of injustice as equal to the Sri Lankan government to the Tamil people, ultimately seeking an end with weapons and destroying the entire society.
In this story, along with the expressions of individual feelings of love, caste, class oppression, intimidation by various powers, betrayal, and the greed of Tamil nationalists who used the money raised for the Tamil community for their own benefit, and are still seeing it, and the subjects are discussed in a heated manner.
The LTTE, an armed group that was widely talked about in the world during the last thirty years ago, in the month of May 2009, was destroyed by the Sri Lankan government forces. Using Asokan’s story, this novel considers the question of whether one of the reasons for the serious failure of the LTTE is the lack of political vision of the LTTE or Tamil society, Tamil media, who congratulated the LTTE for the benefit of their own lives.
The author advances the view that the LTTE did not understand that Sri Lankan Tamils are one of the communities that have suffered on the world stage, caught in the hypocrisy of Western governments who did not consider anything except their geopolitical needs.
In the late 1970s, Western powers meddled in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, and they supported the Sikhs’ independent state in India through Pakistan. So, India trained many Tamil groups in anger at the Sri Lankan government, the darling of the West. Those Tamil groups fought among themselves.
The LTTE killed the Prime Minister of India (1991) and made enemies of the liberation war of Tamils. At that time, they took money and weapons from the Sri Lankan army, to expel the Indian forces from Sri Lanka.
The LTTE had the largest concentration camps in Tunukai and there are many stories of their torture of Tamils. These beatings and killings in these stories have been reflected in the diary of Asokan’s uncle.
After the September 2003 bombing of the Twin Towers, Western governments moved away from the concept of ‘Tigers as freedom fighters’ and saw them as terrorists. They began to monitor the armed ships of the LTTE in the South Asian waters, and the West plans to destroy the tigers. After that, India and many other countries’ spies entered Sri Lankan affairs.
Looking at the Tamil people living as slaves under the control of the LTTE and suffering due to the continuation of the war, the ‘Odyssey of war’ describes ‘that they are ‘deer wandering in a desert looking at mirage channel’.
After reading this novel, you will understand how much the author cares about humanity, ethnic unity, and peace activities in many places. This novel is not an ordinary novel, but a critical reflection on the most important period of the Sri Lankan Tamil struggle.
Published by Sarasavi Publishers.
