Constructing Tamil Worlds in Cyberspace

The emergence of information explosion is remoulding social and political systems, changing every single aspect of social existence. In the context of marginalized societies, however, the choices are more contracting than expanding. The technological revolution of the advanced economies has widened the gap.  Nonetheless, the possibility of autonomy and loose associations of the cyberspace makes various means available for less powerfull communities to leave behind information pertaining to their social identities for the next generations. Thus, proliferating information on the internet assumes greater significance for a community such as the Sri Lankan Tamils whose social and political voices have been subject to marginalization. This paper attempts to propose how this challenge can be (or is being) addressed.

There are people who attach to themselves several interceptive identities while also preserving a common identity. The Sri Lankan Tamil communities living all around the globe whose once trenchantly cohesive identity has become increasingly scattered over the last few decades as a result of the protracted ethnic conflict are evidently desirous of endowing their next generations with their identities, imprints of their experiences, and ancient memories. While the interaction among various communities, living in the ‘other worlds / worlds of others’, clashes of differences and the need to wear different identities have caused a sense of alienation among Sri Lankan Tamils, they also strive to assert their collective identities and preserve their liveliness. This paper attempts to focus on how the scattered collective identities are/can be preserved through digitized archiving. The Sri Lankan Tamil’s apparent aspirations for a mono-dimensional identity have been subject to circulation owing to regional rifts, exchanges between cultures and the diasporic second generations. They can unite in the future by developing a pluralist vision and moving toward a common/collective identity.  This paper primarily focuses on how digitization can contribute to this re-creation of identities.

This paper presents a real world example in Project Noolaham which is a non-profitable, collective and voluntary endeavor aimed at preserving publications related to Sri Lankan Tamils in digital format. Intellectual content related to marginalized communities such as those concerned with the up-country Tamils, Muslims, Dalits, and Feminism in the context of pluralist nature of Tamil speaking communities and the role of a digital library in constructing a possible common identity that has non-static and constantly changing centers are further discussed.

Accepted in Tamil Studies Conference 2010 in Toronto