ITAK launches half-day hartal with twin objectives in North-East

"HARTAL" is a word that entered the political discourse of countries like India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia during British rule.

- By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The Gujarati word was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian freedom struggle in the 20th century. A hartal denotes a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, schools, transport services and courts of law. The Gandhi-led Indian National Congress often resorted to such civil disobedience protests in their campaign for independence from Britain. The Mahatma being a Gujarati himself used the Gujarati word hartal to describe the mass protests resulting in stoppages of work and shutting down of business activity.

The term hartal was first introduced to Sri Lanka known formerly as Ceylon by organisations and trade unions representing the plantation workers of Indian descent in the hill country areas. Strike action was often coupled with a "hartal" shutdown.

When the Sri Lankan Tamils began politically opposing the Sinhala dominated State in the postindependence period, several hartals were conducted by the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi (ITAK) known in English as the Federal Party (FP). Even Tamil militant organisations have observed hartals in the past.

However the word hartal became famous in 1953 when an island-wide mass protest cum strike action was launched against the United National Party (UNP) Government in power then. The UNP Government led by PM Dudley Senanayake had removed the rice subsidy thereby increasing the price of rice by 180% .There were other price increases also. The call for the 1953 August Hartal was made by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), Communist Party (CP), Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP) and the ITAK/FP. The hartal protest resulted in the Police shooting dead 10 persons. Eventually Dudley Senanayake resigned and Sir John Kotelawela became Premier.

Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi