Here’s a list of commonly asked questions regarding the Tamil genocide.

What is Grief-Stricken Winds?

Grief-Stricken Winds is a documentary series documenting the genocide committed against the Tamils by the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist entity of Sri Lanka. The documentary series is named after a poem written by S. Vilvarathnam called Kaatrukku Vandha Sogam (literally “the grief that came to the winds”).

Where did you get the funding for all of this?

This project is entirely self-funded.

Are you associated with any organizations?

No. I know people from other organizations such as PEARL Action, Tamil Guardian, Maatram/Vikalpa, JDS, etc. however I am not a part of or affiliated with any organization.

Can I share everything on this website with my class/seminar/teach-in/organization/etc.?

Yes. I not only give you express permission to share it, but I hope that you, the reader, will disseminate this information far and wide.

Can I use pieces of this documentary in my own media?

Yes, however you must credit the original documentary that you source it from and source it as Grief-Stricken Winds.

How can I trust you?

We have citations for all of our sources, and we have talked to several academics and authorities on the matter.

Would you be willing to talk about the documentary on my podcast/show/broadcast?

Contact me at arunannow@proton.me.

Why did you decide to start making this film?

It wasn’t originally my idea. An Eelam Tamil person gave me the idea of trying to consolidate this information in one place as a resource for people to use because of the lack of readily accessible information on this topic.

The reason I became passionate about this topic was because I saw the Mullivaikkaal massacre as a child, and was permanently mentally scarred by it. Fast forward a decade later, I renewed my interest in this topic in the wake of the Aragalaya, wherein Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa were thrown out of office. Much of the narratives surrounding those two in mainstream media completely ignored their involvment in war crimes and genocide against the Tamils, and I felt the need to correct the record.

Is this still ongoing?

Yes. Although the bombing and shelling of the No-Fire Zones ended in May 2009, many long-standing issues such as arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and land grabs/colonization are still ongoing. The genocide has effectively turned quiet.

As late as 2025 there have been arbitrary arrests and and torture and murder against Tamil civilians at the hands of the occupying Lankan army.

Sri Lanka? Ceylon? Eelam?

Sri Lanka is the modern version of the state of Ceylon. The name Sri Lanka was originally advocated as the name for the entire island by Sinhala Buddhist nationalists, hence why I resist using the word wherever possible.

Eelam is the historic Tamil name of the entire of the island of Ceylon, however these days the term is often synonymous with Tamil Eelam, the Tamil speaking majority portions of the island.

Sri Lanka? I love Chicken Tikka Masala/Bikram Yoga/RRR/Shah Rukh Khan!

That is a different, although related country called India. Sri Lanka is just off the coast of India.

Basic questions

Where is Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is right across the Palk Strait off the southeastern coast of the state of Tamil Nadu in India.

What is a genocide?

Raphael Lemkin, the person who coined the term genocide, defined it as “the destruction of nation of an ethnic group.” Article II of the Genocide Convention states:

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Sri Lanka is guilty of engaging in at least 4 out of these 5 atrocities against the Tamils.

Who are the Tamils?

The Tamils are an ethnic group native to the state of Tamil Nadu in India, as well as the northeastern coasts of the island of Sri Lanka/Ceylon.

The Eelam Tamils are the Tamils native to the northeastern coasts of the island of Ceylon/Sri Lanka/Eelam and have been on the island for millennia.

The Malaiyaha Tamils are the descendants of Indian Tamils brought to Ceylon in the 20th century to work the tea plantation.

The Tamils are speakers of the Dravidian language with the longest literary history, dating back to at least 500 B.C.E. The Tamils are majority Shaivite Hindus, although there is a sizeable minority of Christians within the Eelam Tamil community.

Who are the Sinhala?

The Sinhala, or Sinhalese are an ethnic group native to the southwestern portions of the island of Ceylon/Sri Lanka.

The Sinhala are primarily follow Theravada Buddhism, although there is a sizeable Christian minority as well.

The Sinhala language is an Indo-Aryan language.

Who are the Moors/Muslims?

The Sri Lankan Muslims are a federation of many different Muslim-majority ethnic groups, the largest being the Sri Lankan or Ceylonese Moors.

The Moors are an ethnic group that primarily speak Tamil as a home language, however many Muslims are bilingual in both Sinhala and Tamil. In the southwestern Sinhala dominated portions of the island, there has been a shift towards the adoption of Sinhala as a home language for some Muslim families.

Moors in general do not identify with the Moor label and prefer the term Muslims, and as such when we refer to Sri Lanka’s Muslims, we specifically mean the primarily Tamil and sometime Sinhala speaking Muslim population.

Who are the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)?

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, were a Tamil nationalist militant organization that existed from 1976 to 2009, when its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his family were executed by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.

Tamil militancy as a whole began as a response to decades of apartheid policies that the Sri Lankan govenrment against the Tamil speaking population as a whole.

Who was Velupillai Prabhakaran?

Velupillai Prabhakaran was a Tamil nationalist militant and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers. He goes by many nicknames or nom-de-guerres in the Tamil community such as:

• Thalaivar (meaning “leader”)
• Thesiya Thalaivar (meaning “leader of the nation”)
• Karikaalan (the name of an ancient Chola empire king)
• Methagu (meaning “his Excellency”)

Geography terms

What is the Vanni?

The Vanni refers to the mainland portions of the Northern province of Eelam, comprising the districts of Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar, and most of Kilinochchi.

The No-Fire Zones that the Sri Lankan government set up in 2009 were located around the towns of Puthukudiyiruppu and Mullivaikkaal in Mullaitivu district, which is in the Vanni.

What is Mullivaikkaal?

Mullivaikkaal is a town on the coasts of Mullaitivu district in the Northern Province of Eelam, geographically located in the Vanni region. This town was the site of the second and third No-Fire Zones, wherein safe zones were set up surrounding makeshift hospitals built around schools in Mullivaikkaal town.

In the final No-Fire Zone, over 300,000 Tamils were trapped by the Sri Lankan government as they bombarded the makeshift hospitals with heavy artillery and allegedly chemical weapons.

Other terminology questions

What is a No-Fire Zone?

As the Sri Lankan government closed in on the LTTE, beginning in January 2009, the Sri Lankan government designated certain areas in Mullaitivu district as No-Fire Zones, meaning that neither the Sri Lankan government nor the LTTE were to use firearms or heavy weaponry in those zones. The purpose of these No-Fire Zones on paper was to be a safe haven for civilians.

However, what seemed to really be the case was that the Sri Lankan government used these No-Fire Zones as a pretense to herd Tamil civilians into safe zones containing makeshift hospitals which were simultaneously being denied aid by the Sri Lankan government.

What is to be done?

What is the political solution?

The solution to this is a two polities on the island: Eelam and Sri Lanka. Eelam comprises the northeastern parts of the island as originally claimed by proto-state of Tamil Eelam during LTTE control.

Why not a federal state?

1. Modifying the Sri Lankan state into a federal state without smashing the settler colonial apparatus will only serve to provide cover for the settler colonialism still happening against the Tamils and Muslims of Eelam.
2. Even in a federal apparatus, it’s relatively easy to erode the rights of a minority ethnic group, even if they are given constitutional protections.
3. The majority of the island is already against the idea of a federal state anyways to begin with.

In order to fully decolonize Eelam, the first step is to sever the land from the settler colonial apparatus through the severing the state.

What can I do?

The easiest way to boycott Sri Lanka is to simply not ever go there, and tell others not to go there either. Much of Sri Lanka’s continued occupation of Eelam relies on tourism to mask the ongoing war against the Tamil people that the Sinhala Buddhist state is engaging in.

The very reason that you’ve probably only heard of Sri Lanka before stumbling upon this project is that you’ve probably stumbled upon it as a tourist destination.