View source for Burning of Jaffna Public Library

{{Short description|1981 event during the Sri Lankan civil war}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Burning of Jaffna Public Library
| partof = [[1981 anti-Tamil pogrom]]
| image = Jaffnalibrary1.jpeg
| caption = The Jaffna Public Library after burning
| date = 31 May 1981
| place = [[Jaffna]], [[Northern Province, Sri Lanka|Northern Province]], [[Sri Lanka]]
| coordinates = {{coord|9.6621|80.0118|region:LK_type:event|display=inline,title}}
| causes = Ethnic tensions between Tamils and Sinhalese, ongoing civil war
| goals = Destruction of Tamil cultural symbols
| methods = Arson, Looting
| status = Concluded (Library was destroyed)
| result = Destruction of the library, loss of thousands of books and manuscripts
| side1 = Sri Lankan Armed Forces
| side2 = Tamil civilians, Tamil activists
| leadfigures1 = Senior members of Sri Lankan government and military
| leadfigures2 = Tamil political and cultural leaders
| casualties1 = Unknown
| casualties2 = Unknown
| fatalities = None directly attributed
| injuries = Unknown
| arrests = None
| damage = Extensive damage to the library
| buildings = 1 (Jaffna Public Library)
| detentions = None
| charged = No formal charges filed
| fined = None
| effect = Major cultural loss, loss of historical records, increased ethnic tensions
| effect_label = Cultural and political impact
| casualties_label = Casualties (unclear if specific to the event)
| notes = The destruction of the library remains a symbol of ethnic tensions and the Sri Lankan Civil War's impact on Tamil cultural heritage.
| sidebox = 
}}{{Sri Lankan Tamil history}}
The '''burning of the Jaffna Public Library''' ({{langx|ta|யாழ் பொது நூலகம் எரிப்பு}}, ''Yāḻ potu nūlakam erippu''; [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]: යාපනය මහජන පුස්තකාලය ගිනිබත් කිරීම, ''Yāpanaya mahajana pustakālaya ginibat kirīma'') by an organized mob of [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] individuals took place on the night of 31 May 1981.<ref name="DATE">{{cite news |url=https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/burning-of-the-jaffna-public-library-whodunit/ |work=Colombo Telegraph |date=June 1, 2014 |title=Burning Of The Jaffna Public Library: Whodunit?}}</ref> The [[Jaffna Public Library|library]]'s burning was one of the most violent examples of ethnically motivated [[Book burning|biblioclasm]] of the 20th century.{{cref|Term}}<ref name="ifla">{{cite web |url=http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/papers/119-Knuth-en.pdf |title=Destroying a symbol|access-date=February 14, 2007 |work=IFLA }}</ref> At the time of its destruction, the library was one of the biggest in Asia, containing over 97,000 books and manuscripts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/02/070202_kandy_library.shtml|title=Fire at Kandy public library|access-date=March 14, 2006 |work=[[BBC News]] }}</ref><ref>Wilson, A.J. ''Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'', p.125</ref> Sri Lankan Government rebuilt the burnt library and restarted its collection.

==Background==
The library was built in many stages starting from 1933, from a modest beginning as a private collection of philanthropist and linguist scholar [[K. M. Chellappah]]. Soon, with the help of primarily local citizens, it became a full-fledged library. The library also became a repository of archival material written in [[palm leaf manuscript]]s, original copies of regionally important historic documents in the contested political history of Sri Lanka and newspapers that were published hundreds of years ago in the [[Jaffna]] [[peninsula]]. It thus became a place of historic and symbolic importance to all Sri Lankans.<ref name="History">{{cite web |url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/12/12/fea01.html |title=History of the Public Library |access-date=April 13, 2007 |work=Dailynews |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310145532/http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/12/12/fea01.html |archive-date=March 10, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="priu">{{cite web|url=http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/features/20020130jaffna_library.htm|title=The reconstruction of the Jaffna library by Dr. Jayantha Seneviratne|access-date=April 17, 2006|work=PRIU|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051224070539/http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/features/20020130jaffna_library.htm|archive-date=December 24, 2005|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Eventually, the first major wing of the library was opened in 1959 by then Jaffna mayor [[Alfred Duraiappah]]. The architect of the [[Indo-Saracenic]] style building was S. Narasimhan from [[Madras]], [[India]]. Prominent Indian [[librarian]] [[S.R. Ranganathan]] served as an advisor to ensure that the library was built to international standards. The library became the pride of the local people as even researchers from India and other countries began to use it for their research purposes.<ref name="History"/><ref name="priu"/>

==The riot and the burning==
[[File:Jaffnalibrary dome.jpeg|thumb|230px|right|Damaged dome with holes made by shelling]]
On Sunday 31 May 1981, the [[Tamil United Liberation Front]] (TULF), a regionally popular democratic party, held a rally in which two policemen  Sergeant Punchi Banda and constable Kanagasuntharam were shot and killed by [[People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam|PLOTE]] gunmen.<ref>T. Sabaratnam, December 11, 2003, Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.22 The Burning of the Jaffna Library https://sangam.org/pirapaharan-vol-1-chap-22-the-burning-of-the-jaffna-library/</ref>

That night police and paramilitaries began a [[pogrom]] that lasted for three days. The head office of [[TULF]] party was destroyed. The Jaffna MP [[V. Yogeswaran]]'s residence was also destroyed.<ref name=KK>{{cite web|url=http://www.noolaham.org/wiki/index.php/%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%80%E0%AE%A3%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%9F%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B4%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%A3%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%8E%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B1%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%81|script-title=ta:மீண்டும் யாழ்ப்பாணம் எரிகிறது|author = நீலவண்ணன்|author-link = Sengai Aaliyan|access-date=31 May 2016}}</ref>

Four people were pulled from their homes and killed at random. Many business establishments and a local [[Hindu temple]] were also deliberately destroyed.<ref name=KK/>

On the night of 1 June, according to many eyewitnesses, police and government-sponsored paramilitias set fire to the Jaffna public library and destroyed it completely.<ref name="ifla"/><ref name=KK/> Over 97,000 volumes of books along with numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts were destroyed.<ref name="priu"/> Among the destroyed items were scrolls of historical value and the works and manuscripts of philosopher, artist and author [[Ananda Coomaraswamy]] and prominent intellectual Prof. Dr. [[Isaac Thambiah]]. The destroyed articles included memoirs and works of writers and dramatists who made a significant contribution toward the sustenance of the Tamil culture, and those of locally reputed physicians and politicians.<ref name="priu"/>

The office of the ''Eelanaadu,'' a local newspaper, was also destroyed. Statues of [[Tamil people|Tamil]] cultural and religious figures were destroyed or defaced.<ref name=KK/>

The Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) who sent an investigative team to Jaffna after the riot concluded:

{{Quote
|text="After careful inquiries there is no doubt that the attacks and the arson were the work of some 100-175 police personnel."<ref>T. Sabaratnam, December  17, 2003 , Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.23 Who Gave the Order? https://sangam.org/pirapaharan-vol-1-chap-23-who-gave-the-order/</ref>
}}

[[Nancy Murray]] wrote in a journal article in 1984 that several high-ranking security officers and two [[cabinet minister]]s [[Gamini Dissanayake]] and [[Cyril Mathew]] were present in the town of [[Jaffna]], when uniformed [[security]] men and [[Undercover operation#Plainclothes law enforcement|plainclothes]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1166237.stm|title=Chronology of events in Sri lanka|access-date=March 14, 2006 |work=BBC | date=November 5, 2009}}</ref><ref>T. Sabaratnam, December 11, 2003, Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.22 The Burning of the Jaffna Library https://sangam.org/pirapaharan-vol-1-chap-22-the-burning-of-the-jaffna-library/</ref><ref>T. Sabaratnam, December  17, 2003 , Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.23 Who Gave the Order? https://sangam.org/pirapaharan-vol-1-chap-23-who-gave-the-order/</ref> mob carried out organized acts of destruction.<ref>Nancy Murray (1984), ''Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian State,'' Issue no. 1,  Race & Class, vol. 26 (Summer 1984)</ref> After 20 years the government-owned ''Daily News'' newspaper, in an [[editorial]] in 2001, termed the 1981 event an act by "goon squads let loose by the then government".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/EditorialReviews/erev200106/20010608editorialreview.html|title=EDITORIAL, DAILY NEWS|access-date=March 14, 2006|work=Daily News|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040921183752/http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/EditorialReviews/erev200106/20010608editorialreview.html|archive-date=September 21, 2004|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==Reaction==
Two cabinet ministers, who saw the destruction of government and private properties from the [[verandah]] of the Jaffna Rest House (a government-owned hotel), claimed that the incident was

{{quote|an unfortunate event, where [a] few policemen got drunk and went on a looting spree all on their own}}

The national newspapers did not report the incident. In subsequent parliamentary debates some majority Sinhalese members told minority Tamil politicians that if Tamils were unhappy in Sri Lanka, [[Perpetual foreigner|they should leave for their 'homeland' in India]].<ref name="ifla"/> A direct quote from a [[United National Party]] member is

{{quote|If there is discrimination in this land which is not their (Tamil) homeland, then why try to stay here. Why not go back home (India) where there would be no discrimination. There are your [[kovil]]s and [[Hindu|Gods]]. There you have your culture, education, universities, etc. There you are masters of your own fate}}
::::- [[W. J. M. Lokubandara|Mr. W.J.M. Lokubandara]], [[Member of Parliament#Sri Lanka|MP]] in Sri Lanka's Parliament, July 1981.<ref name="UNP">{{cite web|url= http://www.independentsl.com/cgi-bin/newsscript1.cgi?record=1034|title= Over two decades after the burning down of the Jaffna library in Sri Lanka|access-date= March 15, 2006|work= The Independent|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927204835/http://www.independentsl.com/cgi-bin/newsscript1.cgi?record=1034|archive-date= September 27, 2007|df= mdy-all}}</ref>{{cref|Reaction}}

Of all the destruction in Jaffna city, it was the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library that was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna.<ref name=Peebles>{{cite book |last= Peebles |first= Patrick |title= The History of Sri Lanka |orig-year= 2006 |series= The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations |publisher= Greenwood Press |location= Westport, Connecticut |isbn= 0-313-33205-3 |pages= 133 & 134|chapter= chapter 10 |year= 2006}}</ref><ref name=Ponnambalam>{{cite book |last= Ponnambalam|first= Satchi|title= Sri Lanka: The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle |orig-year= 1983 |publisher= Zed Books Ltd. |location= London |isbn= 0-86232-198-0 |pages= 207 & 261 |year= 1983|author-link=Satchi Ponnambalam}}</ref> Twenty years later, the mayor of Jaffna [[Nadarajah Raviraj]] still grieved at the recollection of the flames he saw as a university student.<ref name="ifla"/>

For Tamils, the devastated library became a symbol of "physical and imaginative violence". The attack was seen as an assault on their aspirations, the value of learning and traditions of academic achievement. The attack also became the rallying point for Tamil rebels to promote the idea to the Tamil populace that their race was targeted for annihilation.<ref name="ifla"/><ref name="priu"/>

The priest and scholar [[H. S. David|Rev. Fr. (Dr.) H. S. David]] died of shock the next day after seeing flames engulfing Jaffna Library from his room at [[St. Patrick's College, Jaffna]] the night before.<ref name=AHDS>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/970601/plus6.html|title=Appreciations:He died seeing the Jaffna library burn|accessdate=May 22, 2024|work=[[The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)]]|date=1 June 1997}}</ref><ref name=TGRBJPL>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/37-years-remembering-burning-jaffna-public-library|title=37 years on - remembering the burning of the Jaffna Public Library|accessdate=May 23, 2024|work=[[Tamil Guardian]]|date=31 May 2018}}</ref> 

===President J. R. Jayewardene===

The then President [[J. R. Jayewardene]] admitted that members of his party had encouraged the violence against Tamils in this period:

{{quote|"I regret that some members of my party have spoken in Parliament and outside, words that encourage violence and the murders, rapes and arson that has been committed."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kaufman |first1=Michael T |title=Harassed Sri Lanka Minority Hears Calls to Arms |access-date= |agency=New York Times |date=1981-09-05}}</ref>}}

===President Ranasinghe Premadasa===
In 1991 the then president of Sri Lanka [[Ranasinghe Premadasa]] publicly proclaimed that

{{quote|During the District Development Council elections in 1981, some of our party members took many people from other parts of the country to the North, created havoc and disrupted the conduct of elections in the North. It is this same group of people who are causing trouble now also. If you wish to find out who burnt the priceless collection of books at the Jaffna Library, you have only to look at the faces of those opposing us.}}

He was accusing his political opponents within his [[United National Party|UNP]] party, [[Lalith Athulathmudali]] and [[Gamini Dissanayake]], who had just brought an [[impeachment]] motion against him, as directly involved in the burning of the library in 1981.<ref name="UNP"/>

===President Mahinda Rajapakse===
{{Anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka}}
In 2006 the president of Sri Lanka [[Mahinda Rajapakse]] was quoted as saying,

{{quote|The [[United National Party|UNP]] is responsible for mass-scale riots and [[Black July|massacres against the Tamils in 1983]], vote-rigging in the Northern Development Council elections and [the] burning of the Jaffna library}}

He was also further quoted as saying in reference to a prominent local [[Sri Lankan Tamil|Tamil]] poet, reminding the audience that

{{quote|Burning the Library sacred to the people of Jaffna was similar to shooting down [[Lord Buddha]]}}

He concluded in that speech that as a cumulative effect of all these atrocities, the peaceful voice of the Tamils is now drowned in the echo of the gun; referring to the rebel [[LTTE]]'s [[militancy]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/11/051104_mjaffna.shtml|title=Mahinda promises compensation for high-security zone |access-date=March 14, 2006 |work=BBC }}</ref>

=== Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe ===
In 2016, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the United National Party apologized for the burning of the library which happened during a UNP government. He was interrupted by the shouting of [[Joint Opposition (Sri Lanka)|Joint Opposition]] MPs for which he claimed<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/50177|title=Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe Apologises in Parliament for Destruction of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981 when the UNP was in Power.|date=December 7, 2016|newspaper=dbsjeyaraj.com|language=en-US|access-date=January 1, 2017|archive-date=January 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101231811/http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/50177|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{Quote|We are giving jobs to people. We are opening industries. By the time President Maithripala Sirisena celebrates his second anniversary of assuming office, we will have completed a massive amount of development work in the North. The Jaffna Library was burnt during the time of our government. We regret it. We apologize for it. Do you also apologize for the wrongs you committed?|sign=|source=}}

==Government investigation==
According to [[Orville H. Schell]], Chairman of the Americas Watch Committee, and Head of [[Amnesty International]]'s 1982 fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka, the [[United National Party|UNP]] government at that time did not institute an independent investigation to establish responsibility for these killings in May and June 1981 and take measures against those responsible.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Burning of the Jaffna Library
| work = [[Amnesty International]]'s 1982 fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka
| publisher = Tamilnation.org
| url = http://www.tamilnation.org/indictment/indict016.htm}}</ref><ref name="UNP"/> No one has been indicted for the crimes.

==Reopening==
[[File:Jaffnalibrary1-edit1.jpg|thumb|Jaffna Public Library being rebuilt, with partly burned right-wing. At the front is a statue of [[Saraswati]], the Hindu goddess of learning.]]

In 1982, one year after the initial destruction, the community sponsored Jaffna Public Library Week and collected thousands of books. Repairs on parts of the building were in progress when the [[Black July]] pogrom-induced civil conflict began in 1983. By 1984, the library was fully renovated; however, the library was damaged by bullets and bombs. The military forces were stationed in the [[Jaffna Fort]] and the rebels positioned themselves inside the library creating a [[no man's land]] as the fighting intensified. In 1985, after an attack on a nearby police station by Tamil rebels, soldiers entered the partially restored building and set off bombs that shredded thousands of books yet again.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tamilnation.org/indictment/indict016.htm |title=Destruction of Jaffna Public Library - May/June 1981 |website=Tamil Nation |access-date=March 7, 2022}}</ref> The library was abandoned with its shell and bullet-pocked walls, blackened with the smoke of burnt books.<ref name="ifla"/><ref name="npr.org">{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/19/432779251/up-from-the-ashes-a-public-library-in-sri-lanka-welcomes-new-readers|title=Up From The Ashes, A Public Library in Sri Lanka Welcomes New Readers|newspaper=NPR.org|access-date=January 9, 2017}}</ref>

As an effort to win back the confidence of the Tamil people<ref name="priu"/> and also to mollify international opinion, in 1998 under president [[Chandrika Kumaratunga]], the government began the process to rebuild it with contributions from all Sri Lankans<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sundaytimes.lk/970601/news3.html
|title= Building a bridge of peace with bricks and books|access-date=March 15, 2006 |work=The Sunday Times}}</ref> and foreign governments.<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.museum-security.org/03/020.html
 |title        = French government donates books to the Jaffna library
 |access-date  = May 3, 2007
 |work         = Museum Security
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070712081113/http://www.museum-security.org/03/020.html
 |archive-date = July 12, 2007
 |url-status     = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref>
Approximately US$1&nbsp;million was spent and over 25,000 books were collected. By 2001 the replacement building was complete but the 2003 reopening of the rebuilt library was opposed by the [[Rebellion|rebel]] [[LTTE]] (who wanted the burnt remnants of the original building to stand and a replacement library constructed in a different location). This led all 21 members of the [[Jaffna]] [[municipal council]], led by Mayor [[Sellan Kandian]], to tender their resignation as a protest against the pressure exerted on them to postpone the reopening.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=8343
|title= Jaffna library opening put off as Mayor, councilors resign|access-date=March 14, 2006 |work=Tamilnet }}</ref>
Eventually the library was opened to the public.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2006/stories/20030328000505900.htm
 |title       = Story of Jaffna Library
 |access-date = March 15, 2006
 |work        = The Hindu
 |url-status     = usurped
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071224191941/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2006/stories/20030328000505900.htm
 |archive-date = December 24, 2007
 |df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Sri Lanka|1980s}}
*[[1981 Anti-Tamil pogrom]]
* [[Book burning]]
* [[Cultural genocide]]
* [[Library of Alexandria#Destruction of the Library|Destruction of Library of Alexandria]]
* [[Burning of books and burying of scholars]]
* [[Nalanda#Decline and destruction|Burning of Nalanda University Library]]
* [[List of anti-minority pogroms in Sri Lanka]]
* [[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]]
* [[List of destroyed libraries]]
* [[List of attacks on civilians attributed to Sri Lankan government forces]]

==Notes==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cnote|Term|'''Biblioclasm''', which the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] defines as the deliberate destruction of books, a cultural offense of the first magnitude. Some of the ancient calamities are the destruction of the [[Alexandria]] library in [[Egypt]]. A well-known historic event was the destruction of thousands of books made from the bark of trees and bearing the wisdom of [[Mayan culture]], which were burnt in 1562 in [[Mexico]], because a [[Spain|Spanish]] friar wanted to "cleanse" the natives of "devilish" thoughts. The late 20th century [[China]]'s [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guard]] wiped out artifacts and books in the takeover of [[Tibet]] in the 1960s. [[Pol Pot]] destroyed many books in the [[genocide]] of [[Cambodia]] in the 1970s. On August 25, 1992, the [[Serbs]] extended "[[ethnic cleansing]]" to the National and University Library of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] in [[Sarajevo]], resulting in 1.5&nbsp;million books and manuscripts being incinerated in one night.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/2004/01/msg00087.html |title=Fragile Guardians of Culture By Nicholas A. Basbanes |access-date=April 16, 2007 |work=Los Angeles Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070129111543/http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/2004/01/msg00087.html |archive-date=January 29, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}
* {{cnote|Context|In the post-colonial era the history of immigration patterns of various ethnic communities from India to Sri Lanka has become a dimension that fuels the ethnic conflict.  Sinhala nationalists maintain that as they descend from the original "Yaksha" clans of Sri Lanka (later mixed with immigrants from India about 2600 years ago), they have special rights to scarce resources, jobs, and other opportunities.  Government policies that have favored this interpretation has run into opposition from the minority Tamils who during the colonial period enjoyed a disproportionately large share of available opportunities.  As a response, Tamils too began to emphasize their history of earlier immigration from India.  The library held the only original copy of ''[[Yalpana Vaipava Malai]]'' that documented the rise and fall of the Tamil and Hindu dominated [[Jaffna kingdom]] in the north of the island nation.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2103/stories/20040213000206000.htm|title= History from the LTTE|access-date= April 15, 2007|work= Frontline|url-status= usurped|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071023110036/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2103/stories/20040213000206000.htm|archive-date= October 23, 2007|df= mdy-all}}</ref>}}
* {{cnote|Nancy Murray| Director, [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] Education Project with [[American Civil Liberties Union]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0249214
 |title=Nancy Murray: Hyper-Nationalism and Our Civil Liberties
 |access-date=March 15, 2006
 |work=Democracy Now
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060317175653/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F04%2F07%2F0249214
 |archive-date=March 17, 2006
 }}</ref>}}
* {{cnote|Political situation|Sri Lanka's nation-building program became intimately linked with a [[Sinhalisation]] of the state directive. It was expected that the [[minorities]] would be assimilated into this new [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] [[Buddhist]] nation-state. Moreover, the 1956 election marked the beginning of an era of ethnically based party politics.<ref name=SB >{{cite thesis |first=Sunil |last=Bastian |title=The Failure of State Formation, Identity Conflict and Civil Society Responses – The Case of Sri Lanka |url=http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/confres/assets/CCR2.pdf |date=1999 |publisher=University of Bradford |access-date=March 7, 2022 |archive-date=April 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090407095318/http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/confres/assets/CCR2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> One form of extremism and violence led to the other and by 1981 there were some minority radical Tamil youth who were legitimizing [[terrorist]] attacks against the state as a response to alleged [[Allegations of State terrorism by Sri Lanka|state violence]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.paradisepoisoned.com/PDFs/Preview21.pdf|title= How it Came to This – Learning from Sri Lanka's Civil Wars By Professor John Richardson|access-date= March 30, 2006|work= paradisepoisoned.com|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080911032223/http://www.paradisepoisoned.com/PDFs/Preview21.pdf|archive-date= September 11, 2008|url-status= dead}}</ref>}}
* {{cnote|Reaction|Some majority Sinhalese politicians expressed no regrets and used subsequent parliamentary discussion to drive home the message sent by the library's destruction: if the Tamils were unhappy, they should leave Sri Lanka and return to their homeland, India. Thus the attack on the library was used to send a message of point of no return for negotiations and indicated a willingness to engage the political process with further violence. Thus radical elements within both the communities took over the direction of further conflict management and marginalizing those moderates who wanted to resolve the conflict peacefully.<ref name="ifla"/><ref name="UNP"/>}}
{{refend}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* Rebecca Knuth (2003), ''Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century''.  New York: Praeger. {{ISBN|0-275-98088-X}}
* Rebecca Knuth (2006), ''Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction''.  New York: Praeger. {{ISBN|0-275-99007-9}}
* [[Nicholas A. Basbanes]] (2003), ''A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World''.  New York: HarperCollins. {{ISBN|0-06-008287-9}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/history-flames-remembering-burning-jaffna-library-0 History in Flames: Remembering the burning of Jaffna Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100622051958/http://jaffnalibrary.lk/ Official website of the Jaffna library]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11668352 Jaffna library vandalized 2010]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080613072039/http://burningmemories.org/ Documentary on the burning of the library by Someetharan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310145532/http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/12/12/fea01.html History of the Jaffna public library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070119215122/http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/20060612/hz_srilanka_0606/blogs5735 Burning Books] – Reported by [[Kevin Sites]]
* [https://www.jaffnalibraryburning.com/ Jaffna Library burning Website]

{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}
{{Sri Lankan coups}}
{{Sri Lankan Tamil people}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffna library}}
[[Category:1980s fires in Asia]]
[[Category:1981 disasters in Asia]]
[[Category:Arson in 1981]]
[[Category:1981 in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:1981 riots]]
[[Category:Arson in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Book burnings]]
[[Category:1981 mass shootings]]
[[Category:History of Jaffna|Burning of Jaffna Public Library]]
[[Category:Anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:June 1981 in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Library fires]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1981]]
[[Category:Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Political controversies in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Spree shootings in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Attacks on libraries]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murder in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1981]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:1981 controversies]]
[[Category:1981 in politics]]
[[Category:Destruction of cultural heritage|Jaffna Public Library]]
[[Category:Destroyed libraries|Jaffna, Burning]]