The 'Translocal' Nationalism of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora: A Reading of Selected Short Stories of V.N. Giridharan

Abstract

The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora has a strong presence now in North America, Europe, etc; The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka necessitated migration since the mid 1980s. Like many modern diasporic communities, the Sri Lankan Tamil community has developed linkages between the diaspora and their homeland, as well as between different diasporic settlements across the world as part of the diaspora’s “translocal” political practices (Appadurai, 1996). The characters in the stories of V.N.Giridharan are culturally alienated and ethno-politically helpless and guilty; that is, living in Canada, materially well off, they can neither feel real oneness with nor participate in the Srilankan Tamils’ cultural collective living in the homeland, and their determined struggle against human right violation, political discrimination and exploitation. A strong feeling of empathy and guilt pervades their living. Though the stories do not directly narrate incidents to bring this out, the narrative features of these stories bring out the social psychological causes entrenched in the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora, expressing their transnationalism and translocal politics.