Book review: Diotima Chattoraj,Displacement among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants: The Diasporic Search for Home in the Aftermath of War

Based on detailed ethnography, this book focuses not only on the displacement of Sri Lankan Tamil migrants as a result of the civil war between 1983 and 2009 but also contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on ‘home’ and ‘homeland’. Chattoraj deconstructs the complexities of conflict and displacement in the context of the history and specific ethnic and religious demographics of Sri Lanka. To support her theoretical analysis, she has conducted detailed empirical research not only in Sri Lanka but also in Tamil Nadu in South India.

The book’s six chapters, including an introduction (pp. 1–18) and a conclusion (pp. 155–62), utilise both primary and secondary research on Sri Lankan migrants and specifically their relationship with Ur, a Tamil word that entails connotations of affection, love, memory and sentiment. Defined as ‘land’ or ‘home’, in various shades of meaning, Ur is also one’s native village, the place of origin or more generally one’s identity. As a prominent aspect of people’s lives in northern areas of Sri Lanka, Ur holds crucial significance in the ethnographic accounts of displaced individuals. Chattoraj shows how exile tends to strengthen one’s relations to Ur, forging a deeply emotional bond, a mental spatial attachment.

Together with the introduction, Chapter 2 (pp. 19–53) examines how Sri Lankan Tamils, originally from the northern areas around Jaffna, relocated mainly to Wellawatte in Colombo. After 2009, though, the ongoing militarisation and securitisation, slow pace of development, lack of employment and increased crime and violence in Jaffna dissuaded these Tamils from returning to their Ur. Chattoraj depicts how Wellawatte was transformed to replicate Jaffna, with numerous Hindu cultural markings and noticeable sights and smells. The suburb’s cultural transformations helped Northern Sri Lankan Tamils in Colombo to express ‘Tamilness’ and to remain close to their traditions, culture and memories (p. 11).

Chapter 3 (pp. 55–85) provides a normative understanding of migration and displacement before discussing the empirical data based on interviews, personal narratives and observations in the subsequent chapters. Chattoraj explores the regional dimensions of migration and displacement, including people’s changing sentiments on returning to one’s Ur in Jaffna, as well as assimilation and support from the Tamil Nadu state government in India to Sri Lankan Tamils who moved there to seek refuge. Many of these Tamils remained in India after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and the support extended by the Indian state and civil society groups to Tamil refugees encouraged them to feel ‘at home’ in India (p. 70).

The main feature of this book is its detailed discussion of the divergent notions of home, traced through multiple interactions and numerous in-depth individual interviews with members of different generations, including people from the same family. Chapter 4 (pp. 87–116) also sheds light on how some internationally displaced persons were subjected to discrimination and harassment from local residents in Tamil Nadu, who perceived the newcomers as lower caste or ‘untouchables’ (p. 104). This raises the question of whether there is a return to traditional power structures or the creation of new ones following the end of the civil war.

Chattoraj reports significant generational divergences among her respondents, many of whom attach intense social meanings and relationships to concepts of home and belonging, albeit fluid and dynamic in nature. Particularly the older generation strongly desired to return to their Ur because of memories associated with it. Middle-aged respondents indicated more mixed feelings, as individuals who initially felt emotionally attached to their Ur later became more distant. Younger respondents showed less motivation to return, partly because of painful associations of their places of origin with conflict and displacement. The brutal experiences of war can clearly disrupt individuals’ connection with their Ur and ruin the desire to return and recreate old memories. While many Tamil displaced persons experienced emotional turmoil and vulnerability, for some, displacement has been a boon, though, as the kind of life they are enjoying in Colombo or abroad would have been impossible in Jaffna (p. 92). Likewise, some displaced persons who returned to their place of origin to reconnect with their Ur confronted serious challenges due the changes that had meanwhile occurred (p. 70).

In Chapter 4, ‘Shifting Notions of Ur/Home’, interviews such as those with Kalam, a 69-year-old Sri Lankan Muslim man and his 31-year-old son Sihaan, both originally from Mannar, who moved to Colombo during the civil war, illustrate the diversity of individual reactions. While Kalam lacked a sense of attachment to Colombo and wanted to return to Mannar, Sihaan considered Colombo his home. Kalam’s connection with his Ur was influenced by past experiences of both nostalgia and tragedy. He perceived ‘home’ as a repository of strong Sri Lankan Muslim values, community and familial bonds (p. 99). The concept of home was often fragile and problematic for women and children. Padmini narrated how she faced many restrictions from her natal family while growing up in Janna, but these troubles only worsened after her marriage and relocation to Colombo. Violent experiences of sexual and emotional abuse in her matrimonial family turned attachment into detachment and made her feel ‘homeless-at-home’ (p. 111).

Especially in chapter 5 (pp. 117–53), Chattoraj lucidly captures people’s stories of attachment and detachment to their Ur. Her efforts to combine theoretical and policy data with empirical findings related to conflict, migration, age and gender bring out that shifting neighbourhood demographics in their original locations in and around Jaffna caught many post-2009 returnees by surprise. Samara, a 50-year-old Tamil-speaking Muslim woman, shared her disappointment on the demographic and cultural configurations in her original town, Moor Street in Jaffna (pp. 122–4). The relocation of many Hindu and Christian Tamil families to her predominantly Muslim locality after the civil war appears to have brought unease for Muslim returnees. Samara’s story warrants attention, given that most researchers have examined the relocation of Sinhala-Buddhist families to the northern and eastern provinces in the wider realm of majoritarian nationalism without critiquing how one minority, Tamil Hindus and Christians, might be encroaching on the space of another minority, Tamil Muslims.

Overall, the book confirms that notions of ‘home’ vary significantly, depending on a number of variables. Some aspects of thought and analysis could have been developed in more depth. The perspectives of local residents on the migration of displaced persons, sharing of resources and the reasons for opposing their integration or re-integration in the locality, could have been more rigorously analysed. Similarly, more information on how individuals and communities create new forms of attachment when their original sense of belonging is uprooted would have been useful. Overall, though, Chattoraj provides an enriching and valuable interdisciplinary contribution to the interrelated discourses on migration, displacement, human rights and nationalism, beyond the focus on Sri Lankan Tamils. This book would certainly be of interest to academics, practitioners and policymakers engaged in discourses of migration and displacement.