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A Certain Gesture: Reflections on the Murder of S ivaram
Author(s) -
Spencer Jonathan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/johs.12009
Subject(s) - biography , opposition (politics) , militant , friendship , ethnography , politics , sri lanka , sociology , psychoanalysis , history , gender studies , media studies , political science , law , psychology , anthropology , social science , south asia
Abstract In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a generation of young T amils in S ri L anka joined one or other of the militant separatist groups that sprang up in opposition to the S inhala‐dominated government of S ri L anka. This paper examines the life of one member of this generation, the journalist and intellectual, S ivaram D harmaratnam, who was abducted and murdered in C olombo in 2005. S ivaram's death provoked a flood of reflections from his peers and these are used to ask questions about the relationship between personal biography, intellectual trajectory and political commitment in a post‐colony in long‐term crisis. The subsequent appearance of a biography of S ivaram, written by his friend the anthropologist M ark Whitaker, provides an opportunity for further reflection on ethnography, friendship and the limits of biography.