“That year, Seelan and K studied for Advanced Levels together. On weekend mornings, they went to tuition classes for students in their year; then they came home and had lunch, at K’s house or ours, and went to the Jaffna Public Library to continue” (p. 15)
The burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981, two years before the beginning of the civil war, stands as a deliberate act of intentional cultural destruction that had no precedent in modern Sri Lankan history. The library, established in 1933, had grown from a small collection into one of South Asia’s largest libraries through decades of careful curation and community support. By 1981, it housed nearly 97,000 books and manuscripts, including many irreplaceable historical documents vital to understanding Tamil culture and history in Sri Lanka.
Image: Exterior view of the rebuilt Jaffna Public Library, photographed on May 15, 2012, by Gary Hausman, South Asian Studies Librarian at Columbia University Libraries.
Libraries
Libraries have long served as repositories of collective and community knowledge and cultural heritage. In Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon), written knowledge was largely confined to colonial administrators, religious institutions, and elite schools until public libraries emerged to democratize access. Tamil scholar K.M. Chellappah founded the Jaffna Public Library in 1933, initially as a private collection in his home. As the collection grew, it moved to a central building. The local community later supported construction of a modern facility designed by architect V.M. Narasimman, with renowned Indian librarian S.R. Ranganathan providing development guidance. The main building officially opened in 1959 under Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraippah’s leadership. By the early 1980s, it had become one of South Asia’s most prestigious libraries, housing nearly 100,000 volumes including rare Tamil manuscripts, palm-leaf texts, and irreplaceable historical documents.
Language Politics and Cultural Suppression
Jaffna thrived for generations as a center of Tamil learning and culture, renowned for its educational institutions, high literacy rates, and vibrant publishing scene. Scholars, writers, and students actively engaged with Tamil literature, history, and political thought. The Jaffna Public Library stood at the heart of this intellectual life.
This cultural center gained political significance following Sri Lanka’s 1948 independence from Britain. The 1956 Official Language Act (Sinhala Only Act) established Sinhala as the sole official language, marginalizing Tamil speakers in education, employment, and public services. By the 1970s, the government had banned Tamil books, magazines, and films from neighboring Tamil Nadu, further isolating Tamil cultural expression. As Tamil political parties increasingly advocated for autonomy, the government responded with restrictive constitutional changes, including a 1983 amendment prohibiting advocating the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka. These policies deepened Tamil alienation.
Burning of the Jaffna Public Library
On the night of May 31, 1981, during a period of intense political unrest, the Jaffna Public Library was deliberately set on fire. The arson was carried out by a mob that included members of the Sri Lankan police force, brought to Jaffna under the direction of senior cabinet ministers to monitor a Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) rally. The rally devolved into violence, and following the deaths of three police officers, chaos erupted across Jaffna.
“The Sinhalese policemen burned our library last. Mercifully, we did not see it; we did not see the white walls blacken and fall into each other like so many dominoes […] They had torched the elegant palace of white rooms where Seelan and K and I had studied, its clean and well-lit shelves, the rare books section with the beautifully lettered palm leaf manuscripts. Dayalan had shown me some when he had first begun working there. Ninety thousand volumes gone, some of them original and single copies. Our past, but also–oh, the beautiful wooden tables where I had turned the pages of my textbooks, and my brothers’ textbooks–the future. And it was gone” (p. 40-41).
The Jaffna Public Library was left to burn for two nights, during which nearly its entire collection was lost. The violence spread beyond the library, with additional attacks on homes, shops, the TULF headquarters, and the offices of the Eelanadu newspaper. Religious and cultural sites were also defaced and destroyed. In the aftermath, TULF leaders were forced into hiding as state violence escalated.
The fire destroyed nearly everything in the library, including its rare palm-leaf manuscripts, documents chronicling Tamil history, and the only existing copies of many regional historical records. Among the most devastating losses was an original palm-leaf manuscript copy of the Yalpana Vaipava Malai, a comprehensive historical chronicle of Jaffna. The destruction of the library which had grown into a vital center of Tamil intellectual and cultural life, was widely perceived as a deliberate act of cultural erasure and an attempt to annihilate Tamil identity and history.
The burning was described by the Sri Lankan government as an unfortunate incident caused by drunken police acting independently. This narrative was echoed by Sinhala leaders and media and became a common form of deflection and denial in post-colonial Sri Lanka, contributing to a climate of impunity. For Tamils, the library was not a random target. It symbolized educational achievements, cultural richness, and a historical legacy. Although the library was partially reopened in 1984 and fully restored by 2003, the original collections, many of which were unique and irreplaceable, were lost forever. Today the rebuilt Jaffna Public Library stands as both a functioning institution and a memorial to and reminder of what was lost. It is a symbol of cultural resilience and resistance against the forces of destruction. The destruction of the library also spurred a massive digitization project of Tamil language and cultural materials from Sri Lanka, known as the Noolaham Foundation.
Possible discussion questions for students
- What role do libraries play in preserving cultural heritage?
- How does the destruction of cultural institutions impact a community’s identity?
- What parallels can we draw between the burning of the Jaffna Library and other instances of biblioclasm (deliberate destruction of books) or cultural destruction throughout history?
- Who is responsible for protecting and preserving cultural heritage?
- What role do/can public libraries play in preserving communities histories, minority languages, and cultures in multicultural societies?
