Narratives of Sri Lankan Displaced Tamils Living in Welfare Centres in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Diotima Chattoraj (University of Brunei Darussalam)

Journal of Maritime Studies and National Integration
Vol 2, No 2 (2018)

This article addresses the kind of attachment that the Sri Lankan Tamil IDPs, refugeed in the welfare centers of Jaffna, have to their Ur/homes in the post-war era. This article is to explore, how they describe the meaning of attachment to their Ur even after two decades of displacement and how this is related to the negotiations with displacement. To understand this relationship, I used the concept of attachment to analyze my collected data. The qualitative materials are drawn from the data collected during my ethnographic field-visit in Jaffna in February-March 2013. The focus is on narrative interviews with IDPs staying at the welfare centers in Jaffna. This article discusses in detail the narrative of an IDP who spoke on behalf of several others who were in the same situation and staying at the center since the early 1990s. From his narrative, I show their intense sense of attachment not only to their Urbut also to the memories and emotions which are related to their Ur. I argue that the meaning of Urand attachment to it, has remained unchanged for this group of population in Jaffna due to socio-economic reasons and aspirations to a good life.