Men of Jaffna are considered strong willed and down to earth personalities, whatever their social status. They hardly show their feelings in any situation and stand their ground firmly.
However, on June 1, 1981 hundreds of Jaffna men were seen weeping and wiping their tears with their shawls and handkerchiefs, looking at the majestic Jaffna Public Library which had thousands of books and old manuscripts, engulfed in fire.
The carnage happened when the District Development Council election campaigns were in progress in the Northern Province.
A large number of police personnel were in Jaffna for election duties. It was around midnight on May 31, 1981, when the mob believed to be a group of drunken police personnel went on rampage and set on fire the Jaffna Public Library.
The Jaffna Public Library, the foremost institution of Tamil literature and heritage was considered a premier landmark of Jaffna and it was designed by popular Madras architect Narasimhan.
The foundation stone for the Jaffna Public library was laid on 29 March, 1954. Following the completion of the first stage, it was declared open by then Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah on 11 October 1959.
Over 95,000 unique and irreplaceable Tamil palm leaf (ola), manuscripts, parchments, books, magazines and newspapers, housed within an impressive building inspired by ancient Dravidian architecture, were destroyed during the burning. Some books that were housed in the Jaffna library, including the Yalpanam Vaipavamalai (A History of Jaffna), were literally irreplaceable, being the only copies in existence. At the time Jaffna library went up in flames, it was considered as one of the largest libraries in South Asia.
The destruction took place under the rule of the United National Party (UNP) regime led by late President J. R. Jayewardene. Two key ministers in the Jayewardene cabinet, ministers Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake were in Jaffna on District Development Council election activities when the Jaffna library was set on fire.
Earlier on in the day, three Sinhalese police officers were killed during election rally in Jaffna.
Nancy Murray, a western author described the carnage: ”Uniformed security men and plainclothes thugs carried out the well organised acts of destruction. They burned to the ground certain chosen targets – including the Jaffna Public Library, with its 95,000 volumes and priceless manuscripts – no mention of this appeared in the national newspapers, not even the burning of the library, the symbol of Tamils’ cultural identity. The government delayed bringing in emergency rule until 2 June 1981, by which time the key targets had been destroyed.”
The burning continued unchecked for two nights. Homes and shops across Jaffna town were also set alight by the mob, including the TULF headquarters, the offices of the Eelanadu newspaper, as well as the residence of former Jaffna district TULF Parliamentarian V. Yogeswaran.
The Eelanadu newspaper office was set on fire by the same mob which had incinerated the Jaffna library. Later, the investigation into the incident had revealed that since the Eelanadu newspaper was the only regional newspaper to publish from Jaffna, the mob had burnt the office to make sure the news about the burning of the Jaffna Public Library would not appear in the newspaper.
The linguist and a high-profile intellectual Rev. Father David who was known as a book worm had spent most of his time at the Jaffna Public Library. His demise, from the shock days after the destruction of his beloved institution, has highlighted the extent of the respect and also outlined how far the people of all walks of life, not only from Jaffna, but even from other parts of the country had used the library.
The burning of Jaffna Public Library was also one of the premier reasons for the Jaffna youth to launch a separatist war in the country, which had lasted for over three decades.
