Former History academic of Jaffna University passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2015, 23:53 GMT]
Santasilan Kadirgamar, formerly, Senior Lecturer (1979-1983) and Head of the Department of History (1982-1983) at the University of Jaffna, passed away on Saturday at the age of 81. His notable academic contribution was his book on the Jaffna Youth Congress of the 1920s and 1930s, which is available both in English and Tamil. Inclined to Left politics in the island, Seelan was the chair of the Jaffna branch of the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE-Jaffna) in 1979 and was the co-founder of the Jaffna Citizens’ Committee, set up in 1981, after the burning of the Jaffna Public Library. At no stage of his life, family or political connections made him to get himself aligned with the regimes in Colombo or establishments outside.

Born on 11 April 1934 at Chaavakach-cheari in Jaffna to Rev. and Mrs J.W.A. Kadirgamar, Seelan lived in British Malaya during World War II. He later came back and studied at Jaffna College and in the University of Ceylon. He did his Masters at the International Christian University, Tokyo.

After leaving Jaffna University in 1983 on a Japan Foundation Fellowship, he was lecturing at several universities in Japan.

While at Jaffna, Seelan had good rapport with all the shades of Tamil militancy at their formative stages. He was the first Patron of Ma'rumalarchchik-Kazhakam at the Jaffna University.

His book on Jaffna Youth Congress was published while he was at Jaffna University. He also lectured at the University of Colombo before coming to Jaffna.

His funeral takes place in Colombo on Tuesday.