Thenmuli Rajaratnam
Thenmuli Rajaratnam was a Sri Lankan Tamil involved in the armed struggle for Tamil self-determination during a period of intense ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Born amidst the turmoil of civil war, she experienced firsthand the discrimination faced by Tamils, culminating in her joining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization seeking an independent Tamil state. At the age of seventeen, Rajaratnam was tasked with assassinating Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had previously sent troops into Sri Lanka, a move that heightened tensions among Tamils. She executed this mission in 1991 using a suicide bomb, resulting in Gandhi's death along with the deaths of thirteen bystanders.
Her act made her one of the most notable female suicide bombers in history and significantly impacted the political landscape in the region, leading to a decline in popular support for the Tamil Tigers and a gain for rival political factions. Over the following years, the LTTE continued its violent activities until a cease-fire was established in 2001. Rajaratnam's life and actions remain a poignant representation of the complexities and tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil conflict, reflecting the deep-seated ethnic divisions and the extreme measures taken in pursuit of political goals.
Subject Terms
Thenmuli Rajaratnam
Assassin and suicide bomber
- Born: 1974?
- Birthplace: Sri Lanka
- Died: May 12, 1991
- Place of death: Sriperumbudur, India
Major offenses: Assassination and suicide bombing
Active: May 21, 1991
Locale: Sriperumbudur, India
Early Life
Thenmuli Rajaratnam (thehn-MOO-lee rah-jah-RAHT-nahm) was born in Sri Lanka in the midst of ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Sri Lankan Tamils. Tamils are descendants of the inhabitants of the Indian region Tamilakam, which includes present-day Indian states Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as Sri Lanka. Civil war between Sinhalese and the Tamils, who resented official and unofficial governmental preference for Sinhalese, broke out in 1983 after a long series of discriminatory acts against the Tamils, including removing the citizenship of more than one million Tamils in 1950, the passage of the “Sinhala Only Act” in 1956, and the massacre of three thousand Tamils in 1983.
A Tamil, Rajaratnam grew up in a country torn by strife. In 1987, after the failure of an armistice, Indian governor Rajiv Gandhi sent troops into Sri Lanka to intervene, leading to the deaths of more than one thousand of those troops. Some accounts maintain that Rajaratnam was raped by members of these troops, but this remains unconfirmed.
Motivated by patriotism as well as revenge, as a teen Rajaratnam joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE or Tamil Tigers), a military organization attempting to establish an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka. The Tigers trained her in their resistance movement and eventually prepared her for the assassination that would also take her life.
Criminal Career
At the age of seventeen, Rajaratnam learned that Gandhi would be campaigning in Tamil Nadu for upcoming parliamentary elections. When last in power in 1987, Gandhi had sent Indian troops into Sri Lanka to enforce a peace accord; the Tamil Tigers feared that he would do so again.
Upon discovering that Gandhi would be addressing a public meeting in Sriperumbudur (also known as Tamil Nadu), the Tigers dispatched Rajaratnam to assassinate him. Rajaratnam was prepared with a belt bomb that held the explosive material on her lower back. A detonator switch was in front, where she could reach it easily. The bomb was a research department explosive (RDX), which held about ten thousand 2-millimeter steel bars. Rajaratnam approached Gandhi, placed a celebratory sandalwood garland around his neck, and activated the bomb as she stooped to touch his feet.
It is believed Gandhi knew what was happening and tried to stop her, because his face bore the majority of the impact of the blast. With her act, which killed thirteen bystanders as well, Rajaratnam became one of the most famous women suicide bombers of all time.
Legal Action and Outcome
While conducting a lengthy inquiry into the failure of Gandhi’s security, the government searched for Rajaratnam’s co-conspirators. After seven years, in 1998, twenty-six people were convicted and imprisoned for having planned and aided the assassination attempt.
Impact
Thenmuli Rajaratnam’s assassination of Rajiv Ghandi caused popular support for the Tamil Tigers to wane. The group that gained the most from Rajaratnam’s act was, in fact, an opposing group, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Party, led by Jayalalitha Jayaraman, which gained substantially at the polls as a result of public anger. The Tamil Tigers continued committing assassinations and other acts of violence throughout the following years until it finally agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Norway in 2001.
Bibliography
Kaarthikeyan, D. R., and Radhavinod Raju. Triumph of Truth: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination—The Investigation. Chicago: New Dawn Press, 2004. Written by two of the investigators responsible for tracking down Rajaratnam’s co-conspirators, this account details both the events leading up to the assassination and its aftermath.
Richardson, John. Paradise Poisoned: Learning About Conflict, Terrorism, and Development from Sri Lankha’s Civil Wars. Kandav, Sri Lanka: The International Center for Ethnic Studies, 2005. This study of violence in Sri Lanka provides an overview of the multiple conflicts that have been waged in it across the past century.
Somasundaram, Daya. Scarred Minds: The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998. Beyond providing a succinct account of the history of war in Sri Lanka, the author analyzes the impact of the ongoing struggle on the psyche of the country’s inhabitants.