“On forgiving and forgetting” by Devanesan Nesiah

“Pre-Independence, our island was among most peaceful lands in Asia. For some centuries there had been no large scale ethnic riots in our Island apart from the anti-Muslim riots of 1915. Even the 1915 riots lacked the scale and brutality of some of the anti- Tamil, JVP led and state led anti-JVP pogroms that we had experienced since the mid – 1950s. The distinctive feature of the post-independencepogroms is that very few of the perpetrators had been identified or punished. What we have often witnessed is either denial or justification of the violence, and the surviving victims and their loved ones being asked “to forgive and forget”. Is this possible or even desirable?”

Via http://groundviews.org/2014/02/20/on-forgiving-and-forgetting/

source: Groundviews