Images of Martyrdom among Tamils

Abstract This article focuses on two main subjects: the contemporary Christian imagery of martyrdom among Tamil speakers and the nonreligious imagery of martyrdom within the Tiger Movement (TM), which together with the People’s Movement (PM) is also known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), under the leadership of Vēluppiḷḷai Pirapākaraṉ (1954–2009). His task was to dismantle Tamil concepts of martyrdom from their Caiva and Christian content and to create new concepts that altogether were nonreligious. The military section of the Tiger Movement was defeated in May 2009, but the political section continues and its nonreligious concepts of martyrdom are cultivated annually at Great Heroes’ Day on November 27. The Tamil Resistance Movement became a purely political movement and is now active in the diaspora, especially in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In Īlam all reverence of martyrs of the Tiger Movement is strictly forbidden.