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Veteran journalist Sivanayagam passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 12:42 GMT]
Veteran journalist S. Sivanayagam whose contributions were part of the history of the liberation struggle of Eezham Tamils, passed away on Monday in Colombo at the age of 80. The funeral will take place on Thursday. Joining The Daily News in 1953, he became the founder editor of Saturday Review started in Jaffna in 1982. The weekly that made a name in the early stages of the Tamil militant struggle had an abrupt end with the 1983 pogrom. He was later in charge of the Tamil Information Centre in Chennai. In 1990, he was editing a new journal Tamil Nation. Following the assassination of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, he was arrested without any charges, harassed, insulted and was ill treated by the Indian intelligence. He left India in 1993 to get asylum in France. He was also residing in London. Ailing from bone cancer, a few years ago he went back to Colombo and was remaining silent.

During his stay in London, Mr. Sivanayagam launched and edited the monthly journal 'Hot Spring' and also mentored Diaspora Tamil writers and journalists.

The 684-page monograph he brought out, “Sri Lanka: A Witness to History” is also a monograph on the history of the liberation struggle of Eezham Tamils from the point of view of a journalist.

Born in Kokkuvil in Jaffna on 7th September 1930, Mr. Sivanayagam had his schooling at Kokkuvil Hindu College and at Jaffna College.

Since 1953, he was in the editorial staff of various newspapers coming from Colombo: The Daily News, The Times of Ceylon and The Daily Mirror. In the 70s, he was editor to the publications of the Ceylon Tourist Board.

There was a vibrant Tamil theatre in Colombo in the latter half of 60s and the first half of 70s prior to the pogroms against Tamils in 1977 and 1983. During this period, Mr.Sivanayagam wrote reviews of many of these plays in the English paper Daily Mirror, introducing them to the non-Tamil readers under the nom de plume 'Arjuna'. Discerning Arts and Cultural scene followers used to wait eagerly to read his learned reviews which were in an exquisite language.

TamilNet joins the Eezham Tamil nation in paying tributes to him and conveying condolences to his bereaved family members.