Siva Parameswaran
Images of a flower native to the Tamil areas in the North and East of Sri Lanka printed on slippers have caused huge anguish and anger among the Tamils both locally and globally calling for its withdrawal immediately from the market.
The Karthikai flower or senkanthal flower (commonly known in English as Flame Lilly and Gloriosa Superba botanically) a species commonly found in South Asia has been associated with Tamil language and culture for centuries.
Tamils say it is an affront to them and amounts to insulting their culture and love of nature.
Police in the North too often question the Tamils when the ‘Karthikai Poo’ is displayed at social or cultural events organized by them.
However, the state police have turned a blind eye as the largest footwear manufacturer in the country is marketing slippers with the picture of the Flame Lilly. Tamil activists say this exposes the duplicity of the Sri Lankan police. While the display of the flower with bright red and yellow colours is stopped from being used in the Tamil areas, the print of the same flower is now being allowed on slippers with no action being taken against it they allege.
“We are deeply disturbed by prints depicting the Karthikai Poo-the national flower of the Tamil nation amounts to humiliating the cultural sentiments of the Tamil people,” Sivagnanam Siritharan, leader elect of the Ilangai Tamil Arasu katchi and Jaffna district lawmaker said.
The printing of the flame Lilly picture on slippers has forced Tamils to boycott the products manufactured by the company.
Cutting across party lines Tamil politicians have called for the immediate withdrawal of the slippers with the print of their national flower on it.
Posting a strong comment on the social media platform X Kanagaratnam Sugash attorney and spokesperson of the Tamil People’s National Front called for the slippers to be withdrawn from the market.
“We humbly request the manufacturing company to withdraw the slippers with the prints of the ‘Karthikai Poo’ from the market as it offends the sentiments of the Eelam Tamils”
He further appealed to the Tamils to boycott the company’s products if they failed to withdraw the said slippers with the print from the market immediately.
“If they fail to withdraw it, we request our brethren to boycott the products of the company and also the business establishments which sell the products produced by the company” Sugash posted further on the micro-blogging platform.
Ponnuthurai Aingaranesan former minister for agriculture of the Northern Province too expressed his deep dismay about the flower print on a footwear. He called it an affront to Tamil people while speaking to media persons in the Tamil heartland of Jaffna Aingaranesan- environmental activist and founder of the Tamil National Green Movement said such prints on slippers are deeply humiliating and unacceptable.
“For Tamils, the flower is very holy. If the print of such a flower is on the sandal is akin to stamping it by foot which is what they are conveying, so to say anything relating to Tamils and their culture would be humiliated in all possible ways”
International condemnation from Tamils too has come in. France-based Global Tamil Movement says such acts are expressions of racist hatred and have the tacit support of the state and its agencies. The group has questioned if such acts relating to Buddhism would be tolerated in the country.
“Basically why the print of Karthikai Poo in the slippers. Will they dare to print the picture of the Lotus flower which is sacred to the Sinhala people on the slippers? There have been incidents when people have been arrested and detained at airports for wearing costumes with pictures of Lord Buddha. This is a clear double standard of the Sri Lankan state and its agencies” says Vijay Alagesan media spokesperson of the Paris-based movement.
The issue came to the spotlight after the slippers with pictures of the Flame Lilly were spotted at a footwear showroom in Wellawatte a Tamil-dominated residential area in the capital Colombo. Subsequently, pictures of the sandal went viral on social media.
The footwear is manufactured by D Simpson and Sons- a private company whose brand DSI is popular in the country. The company is the largest footwear manufacturer in Sri Lanka and the largest importer of footwear from abroad, with the largest footwear retail chain in the country.
Questioning the rationale of the state security forces the Tamils ask the usage of the flower on solemn occasions be brutally curtailed and banners with it be torn apart, while they remain mute spectators when it is depicted on footwear, which amounts to openly discriminatory in nature and insulting the Tamil nation and its people.
Tamil students were investigated by the state police when they of the Tellipalai Union College in Jaffna decorated their hostels with the flower during their sports day event. Even the teachers and the principal of the school were summoned by the police for displaying the ‘Karthikai Poo’.
Police have demolished pandals and torn apart decorations with the Flame Lilly during events when Tamils remember the war dead. Even youngsters who posted a picture of the flower on Facebook were questioned by the police.
“Tamils should understand the psyche of the racist government through their police who brutally act against the Tamil students who use the ‘Karthikai Poo’ in decorations whilst printing of the flower in a footwear is being permitted” Aingaranesan added further while speaking to reporters.
He too has called upon the Tamils to boycott the products manufactured by the said company.
DSI which has produced the hugely controversial footwear affecting the sentiments of the Tamils is yet to respond to the condemnation and demand for withdrawal of the footwear with the print of the ‘Karthikai Poo’ from the market.
The Flamed Lilly or ‘Karthikai Poo’ is also the state flower of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu
