Last week, three young Tamils from Toronto, Montreal and London, published a piece on the website Tumblr, listing the 'privileges' of being Sinhalese. Since then, the piece entitled 'Check your Sinhala privilege', has sparked widespread praise, criticism and passionate debate online.

Tamil Guardian caught up with the writers, Ram, Ahila and Sinthujan, via Facebook, to find out more..


Tamil Guardian: What inspired you to write this piece?
 
Sinthujan:

We were just speaking about the concept of privilege in general, unrelated to Sri Lanka, and som e of the problematic things some of our friends would say. Even though many of them are well-intentioned and well-educated, they often neglect to see the issues in some of their statements. Most of them similarly don't see the ways the social, political, and economic arrangements of any given society are what systematically produce  existing inequalities between different social groups.

This neglect is especially prominent in discussions of Sri Lanka, for instance, when civil conflict is simply explained in terms of “ethnic hatred” rather than through a close examination of the ways societal arrangements in Sri Lanka have benefited some ethnic groups relative to others.

, Ananthy Sasitharan, has become a rising Tamil voice in the North-East.

Tamil Guardian caught up with the activist-turned-politician on the phone, as she made her way home from a day of campaigning. The interview was interrupted briefly when Ananthy – who has already escaped an attack on her vehicle in recent weeks – suspected that her vehicle was being followed.

TAMIL GUARDIAN: How would you describe the present state of the Tamil homeland in the North-East?

ANANTHY SASITHARAN:

"Our homeland is completely occupied by the military, so much so that the military presence seems larger than the actual Tamil population. At any event, the army is there. People are scared by the army presence, they live in a state of fear, too afraid to talk or do anything. All our native lands are in their hands, they have seized everything.