The commemoration of the 22nd death anniversary of Thiyaki Thileepan (Rasiah Parthipan), who attained martyr by fasting to death demanding the mighty India to honour its obligations to Eelam Tamils started Tuesday 15th September.
Lt. Col. Thileepan began his fast-unto-death on 15 September 1987 in the grounds of the Nallur Kandaswamy temple in an effort to persuade the Indian government to honour its obligations to Eelam Tamils, refusing even to drink water. Lt. Col. He passed away on September 26, 1987.
His demands were that the Indian and Sri Lankan governments withdraw Sinhalese army camps from Tamil areas, stop the continuing Sinhala colonisation in the Tamil homeland, suspend all rehabilitation work until the formation of an interim (Tamil) government for the Tamil homelands, halt the setting up of Sinhala manned police stations in Tamil areas and release all political detainees.
During his fast Thileepan daily addressed the sea of people seated silently on the white sands under the blazing sun, from the stage put up for his fasting. He became weak day by day and at one stage he couldn't address the public from the podium and spent much of his time lying quietly. As his condition steadily deteriorated, the people witnessing a young man being allowed to die in such an agonising manner could not belief at the depth of callousness of the Indian government and the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the anger and resentment towards India and the IPKF grew stronger.
But Thileepan’s was determined to sacrifice his life for Tamil people, to safeguard their rights and freedom. The grieving Tamil population witnessed his death on 26 September 1987, the hope they had that there would be a last minute gesture from the Indian government failed. His death sparked widespread anger among the Tamil population and united the Tamil people behind the LTTE.
Thileepan's death and India's ignorance to a Gandhian-style protest exposed Indian government's lack of concern for the Tamils' rights in pursuit of its strategic interests and won more hearts and minds for the Tigers than they could have envisaged.
LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirabakaran in his message on Thiyaki Thileepan said:
"Our Liberation struggle has achieved tremendous victories at great cost. All these achievements were victories which our movement earned in the course of our armed struggle. But my dear comrade Thileepan's death is different from everything else ; it is something to be pondered over because it is something qualitatively different.
"Thileepan by sacrificing his life in the ahimsa arena has established an incomparable record. He died for the Tamil people. He died for the rights of the Tamil people. He died to safeguard our freedom and our honour."
"By his death he has shown how a Tamil freedom fighter is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for the people, for the land he loves. A life is very, very precious. I am quite aware of that. But even more precious is our freedom, our honour, our rights."
"I loved Thileepan dearly, because he was a dedicated freedom fighter. When I saw him battling for life I was very disturbed but I did not regard Thileepan as an ordinary man. I viewed him as a self consuming sacrificial fire."
Adele Balasingham, a witness to Thileepan’s fast in her book ‘The Will to Freedom’ said:
"Thileepan’s non-violent struggle was unique and extraordinary for its commitment. Although an armed guerrilla fighter, he chose the spiritual mode of ‘ahimsa’ as enunciated by the great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi to impress upon India the plight and predicament of the people of Tamil Eelam."
"The levels to which the Tamil people or more specifically, the LTTE cadres are prepared to go for their freedom mirrors not only a deep passion for their liberation, but indicate the phenomenal degree of oppression they have been subjected to. It is only those who experience intolerable oppression of such a magnitude, of being threatened with extinction that are capable of supreme forms of self sacrifice as we have seen from Thileepan’s episode."
"Thileepan’s fast had touched the spirit of the Tamil nation and mobilised the popular masses in unprecedented solidarity. One could sense how this extraordinary sacrifice of a fragile young man had suddenly assumed a formidable force as the collective strength of his people. Thileepan’s fast was a supreme act of transcendence of individuality for a collective cause. Literally, it was an act of self-crucifixion, a noble act by which this brave young man condemned himself to death so that others could live in freedom and dignity."