Jaffna Library – Burning Memories 1981 யாழ் பொது நூலகம் எரிப்பு

The burning of the Jaffna library -யாழ் பொது நூலகம் எரிப்பு- was an important event in the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war. An organized mob went on a rampage on the nights of May 31 to June 2, 1981, burning the Jaffna public library. It was one of the violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the twentieth century. The library at the time of destruction was one of the biggest in Asia containing over 97,000 unique books and unique manuscript.

On Sunday May 31, 1981, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) a regionally popular democratic party held a rally in which three majority Sinhalese policeman were shot and two killed.

That night police and paramilitaries began a pogrom that lasted for three days. The head office of TULF party was destroyed. The office of the Eelanaadu, a local news paper was also destroyed. Statues of Tamil cultural and religious figures were destroyed or defaced.

Four people were pulled from their homes and killed at random. Many business establishments and a local Hindu temple were also deliberately destroyed.

On May 31, night according to many eye witnesses saw police and government sponsored paramilitias set fire to the Jaffna public library and destroying it completely. Over 97,000 volumes of books along with numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts were destroyed.Among the destroyed were scrolls of historical value and the works and manuscripts of philosopher, artist and author Ananda Coomaraswamy and prominent intellectual Prof. Dr. Isaac Thambiah. The destroyed articles included memoirs and works of writers and dramatists who made a significant contribution toward the sustenance of the Tamil culture and those of locally reputed medical physicians and politicians.

Nancy Murray wrote in a journal article in 1984, that several high ranking security officers and two cabinet ministers were present in the town of Jaffna, when uniformed security men and plainclothes mob carried out organized acts of destruction.After 20 years the government owned Daily News, newspaper in an editorial in 2001 termed the 1981 event as an act by goon squads let loose by the then government.