Fresh censorship row as Customs hold Tamil novel 'Thoarai'

Customs officials in Jaffna have refused to release 32 copies of the Tamil novel Thoarai by Piratheep Kunaradnam, who writes as Yatharthan, until the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Government Information approve the books.

The author went to the customs division at the Jaffna Post Office on Thursday, 22 October, to collect copies ordered by readers in Sri Lanka.

The novel is published by Kalachuvadu in Tamil Nadu.

A detention receipt issued by Sri Lanka Customs on 22 October lists the 32 books and gives the pending approvals as the reason for their detention.

It warns that goods not cleared within a month will be dealt with under the Customs Ordinance.

It also says the owner is liable for a storage fee of Rs 50 per parcel for each day the goods are held.

Writing on his website, Yatharthan said customs staff opened the package and searched the book for particular words, including “field bike” and “army man”.

He said a Tamil officer was then called in, and the officials told him the books could be released only with approval from the Ministry of Defence.

He said he told them the novel contained nothing that incited ethnic hatred or promoted armed groups.

He said he offered to wait while they read a few chapters, but the officials declined.

He said they told him two copies would be sent to the Ministry of Defence, which they said rarely responds, and suggested he travel to Colombo to pursue the matter himself.

Yatharthan said he had collected copies of his earlier novel, Nakulaathai, from the same office in 2022 without any difficulty.

He said the government had set out no clear legal framework for what writing it considers a threat to national security.

He also criticised the silence of much of the Tamil and wider Sri Lankan literary community.

He noted that books by the Tamil writers Shobasakthi and Theepachelvan Piratheepan had also been blocked recently, prompting a protest, and had still not been released.

This month the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka ruled that Sri Lanka Customs had violated the fundamental rights of Theepachelvan by holding two of his books for more than six months.

The commission found that state institutions had treated the books with suspicion because they were written in Tamil.

It called for all copies to be released immediately.