In Memoriam

Thondaman was pater familias to the predominantly Tamil tea estate labourers, a union leader and politician who held the workforce of the most vital component of the island’s economy in his grip andthus won concessions for his people from successive Sri Lankan governments. Admired and despised in equal measure for his hold over the Indian Tamil community, Thondaman was much sought after by the two main political parties of Sri Lanka as a man who could swing an estimated three lakh voters in the direction he liked.

Thondaman’s political career began when he joined the Ceylon Indian Congress (later renamed Ceylon Workers Congress), the party that represented the Indian Tamils the official name for plantation labourers — in 1939 and entered parliament in 1947, in which he remained either as an elected or nominated MP till his death, except for a brief gap in the ’50s.

Ironically, it was the disenfranchisement of the Indian Tamils in 1948 — introduced to nip their growing political clout that increased Thondaman’s influence and made the CWC the dominant political force in the six tea growing districts. Stripped of all rights, workers flocked to the union-cum-political party for protection. Thondamandidn’t let them down.

Citizenship to the Indian Tamils was restored in dribs and drabs, but it was Thondaman’s deal to back Ranasinghe Premadasa for the 1988 presidential election that finally secured citizenship and voting rights for the remaining 2.5 lakh estate Tamils, with the UNP government enacting the necessary legislation just before the elections.

Thondaman’s stature as kingmaker grew after the 1994 elections. Though he had a pre-electoral alliance with the UNP, which nominated him to parliament, after the elections he chose to align himself with the victorious People’s Alliance coalition led by Chandrika Kumaratunga which needed the support of the nine CWC MPs to form the government.

For this, Kumaratunga rewarded him with a cabinet post, making him the only Sri Lankan to have been a cabinet minister continuously since 1978, that too in governments of different parties. The UNP fumed, but he is said to have remarked: "Why should I back losers? Only by being with the winning side can I dosomething for my people." Thondaman’s pragmatic leadership and politics did enable him to wring out many concessions for the estate Tamils, particularly in the matter of wages and ownership of the line rooms in which the labourers lived. Being in the cabinet never stopped Thondaman from organising periodic strikes that paralysed the tea industry.

His critics would argue that Thondaman asked for too little each time, so that the estate Tamils remained the most downtrodden section of Sri Lanka’s population, thus ensuring that his political clout continued. He was also accused of being a dictator within the CWC. Younger generations of plantation Tamils were especially disenchanted with his leadership, but no rival could match his influence among the Indian Tamils till his death.

To Thondaman also goes the credit of keeping the Tamil Tigers away from the tea estates. For all his support of the LTTE, he was clear that what he wanted was not a separate state for the Indian Tamils, but equality as citizens ofSri Lanka. Yet, to the very end he maintained links with his native Tamil Nadu.