Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
15 January 2021
DEVADASIS
AND TAMIL COMBATANTS
This
morning’s meditation was on my maternal uncle Ratnum Durai who was tortured to
death by Japanese in their line of duty.
I have this recorded in my book – meant largely for my family:
My Mum’s family got displaced out of Burma - first
to Sri Lanka and then to India due to world-war II. During the war my mother’s
brother – Uncle Ratnum Durai worked for
the Allied Forces and I learnt about this from my mother and her elder
brother Uncle Lionel Durai of 27, 130th Street (Ground Floor),
Kandawglay – Yangon 1121, Myanmar. My uncle
updated me as follows from the records he had.
STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN RAYMOND A.MALONEY OF
THE US AIR CORPS TO THE U.S. O.S.S IN
1945
DEATH
OF RATNUM DURAI. O.S.S. AGENT CODE NAMED REX
ON
22 JANUARY 1944 BY
JAPANESE
KEMPEITAI’S DAILY TORTURE & BEATINGS
Q:
Do
you have any information concerning the death of one RATNAM DURAI at the New
Law Courts Building, Rangoon, Burma? If so, please state what you know of your
own knowledge concerning the incident?
Capt.
Maloney: When I was placed in the New Law Courts
Building, RATNUM DURAI was already confined in a cell adjacent to the one to
which I was assigned, and was moved to my cell in about 10 days. On nearly
every day for several weeks after I arrived, one or more interrogators, usually
the interpreters, would come to the cell and ask him questions. I understood
from the questions that they were seeking information as to the radio frequencies
and codes he used as an agent for the United States intelligence, where he was
trained, and the names of other natives trained with him. The interrogators
would frequently beat him with a heavy club or rubber hose while in the cell.
At other times he would be taken from the cell and be gone for a period of from
a few hours to 2 days. When he was returned to his cell his body would show
evidence of very severe beating, and frequently he had been so badly mistreated
that he could not walk. About half the time he was given nothing to eat and did
not recover. He died in January 1944, about 6 weeks after I arrived. He had no
diseases or injury, except from apparent beatings, when I first arrived.
Q:
State what was told to you concerning
this mistreatment and of the background of RATNUM DURAI?
Capt.
Maloney: I was told that DURAI
was a Hindu and a citizen of Burma, but had been trained by the United States
Intelligence and dropped from a plane behind the Japanese lines in Burma as an
agent; that he was captured during the latter part of November 1943 and
immediately brought to the New Law Courts Building.
DURAI told me that he
was always beaten when he was taken from his cell for interrogation and that on
several occasions he was hung by his feet from the ceiling of the interrogation
room, so that his head was barely above the floor, and that water was then
poured in his nose.
Q:
Can you give any information as to those
responsible for the mistreatment resulting in the death of RATNUM DUARI?
Capt.
Maloney: There was one Japanese
interpreter who was on the case continuously and gave many of the beatings. He
was about 25 years old, about 5’5” tall and could speak good English. He said
he knew a little about boxing and that he was one of the few Japanese there who
wore their hair long as in Western style.
Signed
: RAYMOND A.MALONEY, Captain, AC. ASN 0-726056
My search through public records connected me to the
following about Captain Maloney:
Raymond
Alberg Maloney
Birth:
Dec. 4, 1916, Virgin, Washington County , Utah, USA
Death
: Jul. 12, 2004, Virgin, Washington County , Utah, USA
…….
On
December 1, 1943 Maloney was aboard B-24D #42-73055 serving with the 10th Air
Force, 7th Bombardment Group, 9th Bombardment Squadron. They were part of a
formation of B-24s on a bombing mission to Insein, Burma, near Rangoon. Fierce
enemy opposition of anti-aircraft fire and fighter planes was encountered.
Maloney's plane, along with four others, was shot down during the air battle.
Maloney and six of his nine crew mates were able to parachute to safety and
became prisoners of war. Two of his crew mates died as prisoners. After being
held for eighteen months, Maloney was freed when Rangoon was liberated by US
and British forces. - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9197027/raymond-alberg-maloney
I learnt also about the violent ways of the Japanese
who killed my Maama / Uncle - through Wikipedia:
‘The
Kenpeitai ran extensive criminal and collaborationist networks, extorting vast
amounts of money from businesses and civilians wherever they operated. They
also ran the Allied prisoner of war system, which often treated captives with
extreme brutality. Many of the abuses were documented in Japanese
war crimes trials,
such as those committed by the Kempeitai
East District Branch in
Singapore.
The
Kenpeitai also carried out revenge attacks against prisoners and civilians. For
example, after Colonel Doolittle's raid on Tokyo in 1942, the Kenpeitai
carried out reprisals against thousands of Chinese civilians and captured
airmen, or in 1943 the Double
Tenth massacre which
was in response to an Allied raid on Singapore Harbour. All these actions
together—including Unit 731's vivisection campaign—include
some of the worst atrocities committed during World War II.’
Now
that the Australian Government is pro-Japan and anti North-Korea in 2017, which
side do I take – pro or anti Japanese?
With
time, the form of the particular side we
take, fades and perishes. The side we take is relative to other players
involved in the manifestation at that time at that place. The more common we
become, the deeper the value of the experience. My Maama / Uncle, as per my
knowledge from the inside – and using our family measures, worked for the
‘good’ side that was committed to Peace at world level. His pain and our
premature loss of that relation for being part of that good side and our
acceptance of what happened is my family
heritage of positive value towards world Peace. THAT is the measure – at global
standards, I would use for insiders. At
family level my uncle was on the side of Peace. His job happened on the side he
considered to be peaceful at world level. That is how, we naturally take with
us, our home structures into work as well as national and global structures. Unless we override nature with
external knowledge – the two systems would merge / collude naturally when we
think we are unsupervised. At the deepest level we carry this into our next
stage of life – which to those of us who believe in rebirth – is also our next
life on earth, after our body dies in this life.
The above was written many years ago. Then this
morning I read the Island report ‘MP
Sritharan sets poser for UGC’ which begins as follows:
[TNA
Parliamentarian S. Sritharan says that if the University Grants Commission
considers the Mullivaikkal Memorial being re-erected in the Jaffna University
premises an illegal construction then it should take action to remove various
other memorials in other universities too.]
That reminded me of an
incident in Vaddukoddai – a few years back. When I said that the shop next door
had only one electricity account for two
shops, and hence we were entitled to do likewise, the engineer said – words to
the effect ‘just because they commit a wrong, would you also do likewise? I
responded by stating that when they did not find fault with the other shop, I
was allowed to conclude that that action was as per the law.
Until therefore we knew
about a UGC law, we were entitled to use our judgment. But once UGC instructs
along a certain principle the individual universities have the obligation to
not override those orders.
Mr Sritharan was part of
the University of Jaffna. Now he is part of the National Parliament. The
current mind structure needs to be higher – so it would include the past in the
present. Where the two are differently structured – the past needs to remain as
invisible Energy and not be ‘seen’. It’s like in marriage. Where the two family
structures are fundamentally different, the past needs to be invisible Energy.
It is for this reason that the Vedas are largely in common sound form. University
life of Mr Sritharan needs to be his Veda and his current Parliamentary
structure needs to be the most apparent home of his laws. Now that he is
married the biological family that he was born into becomes his past. One
merges with the other as Shakthi which is Eternal. A good wife would carry her
birth family as Energy . In Thesawalamai – both husband and wife needed to do
this. Hence daughter inherited from mother and son from father. In Indian Tamil
community – the tradition was for the
wife to merge with the husband’s family structure.
As per the Island report
:
[MP Sritharan speaking to the media, on Tuesday, in Kilinochchi said
that there were many memorials in other universities and there was nothing
different between them and the one to be erected in the Jaffna University. “The
wrong is there when you attempt to affix a communal identity to that statue”,
the MP said showing pictures of memorials erected by undergraduates in other
universities in memory of student activists that had been killed by
para-military death squads during the time of the JVP’s second insurrection in
the 1988-90 period.]
The difference is that
JVP has not become Equal Opposition to Government in Parliament. Tamil
Political groups have – in 1977 and in 2015. As a Tamil University, it is the
duty of University of Jaffna to seek within through Political & Social
Sciences as to the causal Energies that produced the two outcomes which
happened only because the Commonness in Sri Lankans was stronger than the
differences.
Those family with South Indian
culture would have knowledge of Devadasis. As per Wikipedia:
[The Chola empire supported the Devdasi system; in Tamil Devdasis
were known as Devar Adigalar,
("Dev" means "Divine" and "Adigalar"
"Servants", i.e. "Servants of the Divine"). Both male and
female Devadasi were dedicated to the service of a temple and its deity. The
Chola empire developed the tradition of music and dance employed during temple
festivals. Inscriptions indicate that 400 dancers, along with their gurus and orchestras, were maintained by the Brihadeesvarar
temple, Thanjavur, with
munificent grants including the daily disbursement of oil, turmeric, betel leaves,
and nuts. Nattuvanars were the male accompanists of the Devadasis during
their performances. The Nattuvanars conducted the orchestra while the Devadasi
performed her service. Inscriptions indicate that Nattuvanars taught the Chola
princess Kuntavai.
As the Chola empire expanded in wealth and size, more temples were
built throughout the country. Soon other emperors started imitating the Chola
empire and adopted Devadasi systems of their own.]
As highlighted in my
recent article ‘WAR
MEMORIAL IN UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO?’ Thanjavur
, where Devadasis were recognized as Divine, has already established ‘War Monument Mullivaikkal Muttram’.
Armed Tamil combatants are the parallels of Devadasis. Their
exceptional talents are confirmations of unjust discrimination, including from
within the Tamil community – on Caste basis. The moment they become official
government – they lose that exceptional talent and become ‘juniors’ as JVP has
become. Tamils in genuine Opposition will always carry that exceptional power. The reason is they are not accountable and therefore
are free of structural responsibilities.
The monument of victims –
if official – makes us juniors to the government. As per the above report:
[Sritharan asserted that the Army had erected many memorials in the
North and they had become monuments of heroes but when people there built
memorials they were termed as statues of traitors.
He said that one day the children would wonder
with whom the government security forces had fought because only their statutes
might remain. Such a situation would help those who want to distort the
truth about the past, the MP said.]
The value of this is in
the following depiction at War Monument Mullivaikkal Muttram in Thanjavur :
[Sculptures spread throughout the
memorial depict the stories of the Eezham Tamils, from the Burning of Jaffna library in 1983 to
the mass
massacres they had endured. The sculptures show images of sencholai - a school children massacre,
sufferings of internally displaced people in IDP camps in a menik farm and
in the IDP camp of kilinoichi, cluster bombing & phosphorus bombing by the
Sri Lankan army in a no fire zone, wailing mothers, broken limbs, guns, and
dead bodies. Some sculptures also
portray the peaceful lives Eezham Tamils led in the island nation and depict
their various cultural identities including the national bird and the national
tree of Tamil Eelam.]
The heroes have been
included with great heroes like Kattapomman who opposed British rulers:
[Behind the Pavai is a building that houses portrait and photo
galleries. Portraits of the people who lost their lives in the
Eelam wars are on display here, among them the Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s parents,
Parvathiammal and Thiruvenkatam Velupillai and his two sons Charles Anthony
and Balachandran, LTTE ideologue Anton
Balasingham, Tamilchelvan, Thileepan, Annai
Bhoopathi, Kittu, Balraj, Sivakumaran, Malathi, Miller, Angayarkanni among others.
A photo gallery at the memorial's
Conference hall houses hundreds of photos of those who dedicated their lives
for the cause of Tamil language.
The Galleries also exhibit photos of Tamil kings like Pandara Vanniyan
- Vanni Tamil Eelam, Sangiliyan - Jaffna Tamil Eelam, Kattabomman, Puli Thevan, Velu Nachiyar,
Sethupathy, Maruthu Brothers, Theeran Chinamalai who resisted colonial
rule. Other photos on display are those of the Tamil scholars and artistes
including non-Tamils who have contributed to the development of the language]
If the above account is
true – then missing is the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran whose presence is invisible but known through
his parents and children as well as his juniors within LTTE. To my mind, this could be due to the killing
of Rajiv Gandhi and becoming the Lankan Government’s junior to get rid of
Indian Peace Keeping Force.
University of Jaffna as well as the
Provincial Council, would perform exceptionally well if they are self-sufficient
in terms of status and do not ‘take’ Diaspora status as a handout. The moment
they use such status – they become juniors of those governments.
I recall and feel my Ratnum Durai’s
pain as my own. I believe that this has resulted in my insight through the path
of faith - into global conflicts. To go universal with the Eelam experience, we
need to remain as De facto power and express our Opposition independently and
not relative to others – including other universities in this instance. They
are juniors. We are unique.
There
are no monuments for my uncle who also was a war hero. But in my heart – there is
an eternal flame celebrating my uncle’s courage which prevented him from divulging
the secret codes that the United States Intelligence used. He did not need
cyanide because he had enough courage to endure the pain of torture.
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