When Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan spoke in an interview about her roots and her identity as an Eelam Tamil woman, she said,

“I cannot speak Tamil fluently,”

“But I love being an Eelam Tamil woman,”

and “I love my family and my cultural history.”

Seeing the hatred some people have expressed on social media in response to her words, I want to record a few thoughts here about our identity as Eelam Tamils.

Dear friends and family!

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was born and raised in Canada. Alongside her identity with the country in which she was born and raised, she has openly spoken of her identity as an Eelam Tamil, rooted in her parents’ ancestral homeland.

What is wrong with that?

Does someone lose their ancestral ethnic identity because they cannot speak their mother tongue fluently?

Or, if someone becomes a citizen of the country where they were born and raised, must they forget their parents’ ancestral history and culture?

Of course not!

Today, the children of Eelam Tamils living across the world grow up absorbing the languages and cultures of the countries where they were born and raised.

Many of them may not be able to speak Tamil fluently. Yet that does not take away their right to cherish their ancestral history and ethnic identity.

In that spirit, as an Eelam Tamil living in a country of the diaspora, I too express my support for Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan openly identifying herself as an Eelam Tamil woman.

Today, Eelam Tamils live in many countries around the world, including Canada, Britain, Switzerland, France, Germany and Australia.

Many have become citizens of the countries where they live. I too am an Eelam Tamil living in Canada.

Even when we acquire citizenship in the countries where we live, the history of our ancestral homeland, our language, our culture and our ethnic identity do not disappear from us.

So, my Tamil friends and family living across the world!

Wherever we live, and whatever citizenship we acquire, let us preserve and never forget our ancestral identity as Eelam Tamils.

Let us teach our children the history and culture of their ancestral homeland. Let us make it possible for them to grow up as citizens of the countries where they were born and raised while also knowing their ancestral identity.

Here I wish to say something to certain Sinhala nationalists who oppose the name Eelam and express ethnic hatred.

The word Eelam was not newly invented today. It is one of the names Tamils have historically used for the island of Sri Lanka.

In that sense, Eelam Tamil has been used as an ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity for Tamils whose ancestral roots lie on the island of Sri Lanka.

You need to understand this.

I want to remind you of one more thing.

Have you not noticed that the word Eelam appears even in the names of political parties operating in Sri Lanka?

Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO),

Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF),

Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP):

the word Eelam appears in the names of several political movements and parties.

When the name Eelam has also been used in Sri Lanka’s political history, why do you express so much opposition to a Canadian actress identifying herself as an Eelam Tamil woman?

Does expressing an Eelam Tamil identity amount to denying another people’s identity?

Or does a woman saying that she loves the history and culture of her ancestral homeland take away anyone else’s rights?

We do not oppose your identifying yourselves as Sinhalese or your love for your language and culture!

If so, why do you express ethnic hatred when we cherish the history and culture of our ancestral homeland and identify ourselves as Eelam Tamils?

Just as you have the right to preserve your ethnic identity, we too have the right to preserve our ancestral ethnic identity.

It is better to understand the history of the word Eelam and the cultural background of the Eelam Tamil identity, and to avoid hatred based on ethnicity.

Everyone has the right to criticize a person’s films, acting or opinions.

But insulting someone for expressing their ancestral ethnic identity and trying to damage their professional life are unacceptable.

Finally, I want to say one thing to our Eelam Tamil friends and family living across the world.

We may have left our ancestral homeland. Our children may have been born and raised in other countries. We may have become citizens of the countries where we now live.

But we have a responsibility to pass on the history of our ancestral homeland, the cultural traditions of our forebears and our identity as Eelam Tamils to the next generation.

In that spirit, I once again express my support, as an Eelam Tamil, for Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who has openly spoken of her ancestral identity.

We may have migrated from the land where we were born and raised to other countries. But the history and cultural identity of our ancestral homeland have not migrated away from us!

Swami Sankarananda 🙏