Ayathurai Santhan’s the Whirlwind as a writing of Victimhood

Abstract

The objective in reading Ayathurai Santhan‘s The Whirlwind is to form a discussion of how Santhan has constructed the narrative of violence during the IPKF rule in Jaffna peninsula as an instrument in the writing of history. The history Santhan strives to construct in The Whirlwind is ‗the barbarity of the alien‘, ‗pride of soil‘, and ‗the legitimacy of battle‘. The very force IPKF who comes to promote the peace ultimately violates them. The novel is influenced by true incidents, thus claiming a historicity and the legitimacy to construct the ‗reality of conflict‘. The Whirlwind is about the powerlessness and victimization of the particular community, their lack of strength to transform their politics or to question their miserable events that happened around them. The use of the narrative as history often objectifies the people, geo-cultural landscape and the cultural and religious background of people especially the Hindu and Tamil culture. As the present atmosphere does not provide culture which has been preserved as wealthy, Santhan shifts the narratives to the past very deliberately to overcome this limitation. There is a sense of belongingness to the soil and people are proud of the culture, heritage and life-style. The novel is a harsh commentary in neocolonial politics of India. They kill the value system of their own country and the mission which upheld the ideology of non-violence. It shows the failure to be peace-makers instead crushing the freedom of people in their neighbouring country. The study is geared at demonstrating the barbarity during the IPKF rule, sense of belongingness among the natives and the justification of the conflict. As a descriptive study, the text under scrutiny will be used to illustrate this end.