Captain (Nithi) Chellappa
Captain (Nithi) Chellappa
Irasaiyya Nithyanandan
Manchanthoduvai,
Mattacalappu
Birth: 25.05.1957
Death: 26.04.1992
Event: Attacked by the Sinhala army who were hiding between Kurinjamunai and Kannankuda.
Captain Chellappa (Nithi) was a passionate journalist in the liberation struggle. The period of the heroic liberation struggle of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was the period when most of the Tamil people contributed to the national liberation struggle of Tamileelam from their own positions. Some of them have done their entire work with dedication. Nithyanathan, was also one of the most famous journalists in Mattacalappu in the 1980s.
It is a highlight of the historical record that our people have seen Nithi, who was introduced to the people as a journalist in Madu. Madu has gained and lost lawyers, engineers, doctors, teachers, and public servants as fighters. In this line, Nithi’s name is also inscribed in the historical record of a journalist who became a fighter and a hero.
The rise of a nation always depends on poets, writers and journalists. It is a record of history that they can bring about a revolutionary change in a nation. Although their role has never been absent in any liberation struggle. It is impossible to mention that everyone of this kind had a role in the national liberation struggle of Tamileelam. Although countless such people have been among us, not everyone has joined hands in the national liberation struggle. It is a fact that the change of time and the economic culture of our nation have kept some people away from the struggle.
It is a known fact that the emotional poet Kashi Anandan awakened the Tamil youth with his poems. Among them, Nithi was one of those who lost themselves, gave up their family burdens and loved the freedom of the motherland so that our future generations could have spring in life.
At a time when the form of the Tamileelam national liberation struggle had changed to a struggle that began to use weapons, Nithi had fully fulfilled the role he had to play in the activities of the early fighters in Mattacalappu through the journalism department.
He had been doing social work for the people and the liberation work associated with it very actively through his newspaper. It was the first example of a journalist in Mattacalappu joining the national liberation struggle full-time and became maveeran.
The period when the Tamil people of Mattacalappu joined themselves in the rise of Tamil nationalism and started working on its path began from 1956. Before that, the political revolution that took place in 1956 overturned the Mattacalappu Tamil community, which was immersed in the selfishness of the educated, rich and powerful, and politics became linked to the liberation of the Tamil people. Through that politics, people like Nithi also set foot on the journey of liberation.
Nithi, a native of a village located on the Mattacalappu-Kalmunai, was born on 25.05.1957. His real name was Rajaiah Nithyanandan. He was called Nithi by everyone.
He was recognized as a courageous journalist by bringing the massacres of Tamil people in Mattacalappu and all the oppression against the people to the outside world. Nithi was one of those journalists who worked for the welfare of the people, not just as a profession.
After 1983, the Mattacalappu People’s Committee had started functioning as a very powerful organization. The People’s Committee was in a position where everyone had to answer. Nithi’s role in this People’s Committee was also immense. Nithi expressed his opinions boldly without fear of anything and was very interested and passionate about national liberation.
Nithi can be firmly recorded today as a journalist of Tamil nationalism who stood firm with a pen at a time when the Tamil youth, who had lost their own country and were enslaved, stood firm in the field demanding that they should wake up and fight bravely for their freedom.
Our people, who were fighting against the Sinhalese occupation, were forced to fight against the forces of a foreign country, India. While the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stood firm as the national liberation movement of the Tamil people, the Indian army’s invasion of Tamileelam forced our national liberation movement to fight against them.
The human race living in this world speaks thousands of languages and has distinct cultures in its life, but when humans, without the will to give up, want to enslave the human race, liberation becomes a necessity. This process is so intense that humans fight against themselves. It is expected for a nation that is being enslaved to fight for its freedom. Wherever we live in the world, recognition should be given to the state of living equally without any discrimination. Such a situation has arisen in our motherland as well. We can say that we want freedom. But only the one who tries to fight to get it becomes a leader. Only the leader who emerges amidst sacrifices is accepted as a national leader by that nation.
When the Tamileelam liberation struggle turned into an armed struggle, many movements emerged from our midst. Since each movement worked with each policy and each goal, it was impossible to move our liberation struggle on a solid basis. As a result, the organizations that were not principled and intended to use this for the seats reserved in the Sri Lankan Parliament, operating in Tamileelam, as it would hinder our ideal journey, were stopped and all Tamil people were asked to join the national liberation movement. Certain youth from other organizations, including the Eelam Student Revolutionary Organization, also joined the movement.
With the arrival of Indian troops in Tamileelam, those who worked with different policies also set foot in Tamileelam in groups. Both governments began to use people like these to complicity in the conspiracy of the Indian and Sri Lankan governments and to sabotage the Tamileelam national liberation struggle. They began to implement the first plan to destroy the intelligent people who worked in support of the national liberation movement of the Tamil people in the land of Tamileelam. In this order, Rev. Father Chandra Fernando, who worked in the People’s Committee in Mattacalappu, Tamil Teachers’ Association President T.S. K. Wanasinghe, Principal Ganapathipillai Araiyampathy, Teacher Kanagarethinam Araiyampathy, Grama Sevak Devisuthan Kommadurai and others were shot dead by those who acted as gangs under the support of the Indian soldiers. The Tamil people of Mattacalappu suffered from the loss of the invaluable service of the above-mentioned people.
During the year 1988, many intelligent people fell victim to the murderous attacks that were rampant in the land of Tamileelam. The voices that were raised for rights were suppressed. In this series, an assassination attempt was also made against Nithi, a reporter for the Mattacalappu District Weerakesari newspaper, on Pioneer Street in Mattacalappu.
Nithi’s journalism activities combined with his patriotism and social work for the people were a great challenge for the Indian army and the traitors who were associated with them. Due to this, they tried to assassinate Nithi. On 15 August 1988, when Nithi was traveling on Pioneer Road in a pedal car, the Tamileelam traitors who intercepted him attacked him, poured acid on his penis, cut her throat and left him for dead. When pedestrians on the road noticed that Nithi was alive, they admitted him to the Mattacalappu General Hospital. When Nithi’s friends in the journalism department came to know about the incident, they used their influence to transfer her to the Colombo Hospital, as treating him in the hospital would be more dangerous. After that, he stayed in Colombo with a friend of his in the journalism department.
Nithi, who deeply loved the Tamil people and the Tamil national liberation struggle, realized the danger he faced in Mattacalappu and decided to join the national liberation struggle full-time. When we look at the comments made by someone who met Nithi in Colombo on this occasion, we come to know that he joined the national liberation struggle in a clear way.
In late 1988, the Mattacalappu Liberation Tigers of Tamil Nadu established their main camp in the Mattacalappu-Amparai district, in the area known as Mannampitiya, the original homeland of the Tamils. Nithi and Saravanabhavan (the brother of Major Francis, who was the political officer of Mattacalappu-Amparai district) met the LTTE members who were staying in Thiriconamali, and joined the national liberation struggle full-time in early 1989.
After that, Nithi and Saravanabhavan undertook some projects necessary for the national liberation movement in Colombo. During this time, Saravanabhavan and two others were abducted by Sri Lankan intelligence agents. Since no information could be found about them, the LTTE announced that Saravanabhavan had become a maveeran.
As our national leader said, the victory of the liberation struggle can take four years, forty years, or be passed on to the next generation. According to the statement of our national leader, there are those who have joined the liberation journey and those who have lost their way. Captain Nithi is the one who joined the journey until his last days in Mattacalappu.
After the Indian troops left Tamileelam, Nithi led the huge gathering organized by the LTTE at the Hindu College Ground in Mattacalappu as a fighter.
In the early 1990s, people all over Tamileelam were filled with joy. They walked around with the feeling that they had achieved freedom. They adopted the LTTE movement as their guardian deities. The slogan of freedom was heard all over Tamileelam. The LTTE movement began to carry out its administrative work everywhere. Nithi started publishing the monthly magazine “Kondal”. This newspaper became the national newspaper of the Tamil people in Mattacalappu.
Nithi, who supported Tamil nationalism and the Tamileelam liberation struggle with a pen in one hand and the key weapon of liberation in the other, went down in history as the first person to hold a pen in one hand and a weapon that was the key to liberation. When the history of politics and liberation of Mattacalappu is written with the help of such determined people, it is the great desire of every Tamil who loves Tamil nationalism and the Tamileelam liberation struggle that it should not be changed by the insensitive, unscrupulous people. This is what our national liberation movement has also been committed to. The history of determined fighters should be a solid record. Everyone should realize that fighters are not always those who aspire to reserved seats in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
A person from the journalism department named Nithi joined the Tamil national liberation struggle full-time and planned and carried out some successful attacks in the Mattacalappu district in the task of removing various obstacles to liberation. He worked quickly and intelligently with Newton, a veteran fighter who was the then Mattacalappu-Amparai District Intelligence Officer.
Nithi was a source of great respect among all the officers and fighters. When we see him standing on the field, having shed all the burdens of family that were attached to him, we can learn from Nithi’s life how much a person from the field of journalism can achieve by becoming a freedom fighter. And how he can lose himself in the liberation struggle of the nation.
Nithi, who can be called a senior journalist of the Mattacalappu district today, was seen as a selfless and excellent man. If he had been there today, he would have been recorded in history as having worked in the field of journalism for 32 years.
The areas west of the Mattacalappu Lake, which can be said to be the largest land area of Mattacalappu, are called Paduvankarai. This area is also divided into three districts: Vavunathivu, Pattippalai, and Porathivupattu.
This area, which includes small villages, fields, and small areas of forests, was home to many liberation fighters. Specifically, this vast area was under the control and administration of the fighters.
On 26.04.1992, Nithi, who had set out from the field circle near Kothiyawela village, was on his way from Kurinjamunai village to Kannankuda village for work when the unexpected incident occurred.
Captain Nithi and Veeravengai Balumahendra (Ganapathipillai Uruthra, Alaiyadivembu, Akkaraipattu, Amparai) were killed in an attack by the Sinhalese army who were hiding between Kurinjamunai and Kannankuda.
This incident caused great pain among the fighters. Everyone who was proud to have people like Nithi as fighters was deeply saddened. Nithi, who should have been alive and doing work for many years, left us in a short time. We can also see today that the loss of someone like him has paved the way for many who were aiming for office to enter.
Even after many years have passed, the weapon of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been silenced, and the form of the liberation struggle has changed, history cannot remain without considering the selfless and loyal person who loved the Tamil people very deeply. Captain, one of the Tamil liberation fighters who was born in Mattacalappu. Nithi will forever remain in history as a hero of the holy soul of the fighter where writing and news meet in the history of the struggle of the Tamil people.
We lost a good man who was needed by the people.
Captain, a great serviceman who became a fighter, an excellent journalist who was a media bridge for the liberation of Tamil nationalism. Nithi will remain in our memory forever.
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
0 Comments