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on the night of june 1, 1981, exactly 39 years ago, an organized sinhala mob carried out an arson attack on the jaffna public library, which was at its time, one of the largest and best equipped libraries in south asia.
the mob comprised of a large group of about a hundred police officers who were taken to jaffna by two senior cabinet ministers cyril mathew and gamini dissanayake, with the intention of observing and disrupting a TULF (tamil united liberation front) rally.
the rally went out of control and it resulted in the deaths of three police officers in the group. the rest of the police officers arrived at the jaffna public library that night and set it ablaze, and the burning remained unchecked for two whole nights.
in the aftermath, the TULF headquarters was destroyed in addition to the eelanaadu newspaper office. many homes and shops in jaffna were also destroyed by fire and acts of violence by the organized mob.
the library was completely destroyed - the fire burning around 97,000 volumes of books along with various culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts. the destroyed items also included the works and manuscripts of ananda coomaraswamy and prof. dr. isaac thambiah.
the library also contained numerous memoirs and works of prominent writers and artists who contributed significantly to the sustenance of tamil culture.
let it be known that when the library was set ablaze, the politicians cyril mathew and gamini dissanayake watched it burn from the veranda of the jaffna rest house, and later claimed that it was an “unfortunate event” simply blaming the policemen being drunk.
