The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

From 1983 to 2009, Sri Lanka was embroiled in a devastating civil war. This war had many players but was primarily a conflict between ethnic factions. The Tamils had long been a minority in Sri Lanka and were oppressed by the Sinhalese-dominated government. This oppression included several pogroms between the end of British imperialism in 1948 and the beginning of the Civil War. These ethnic divisions date back to colonization when British imperialism oppressed both the Tamils and the Sinhalese. In post-colonial Sri Lanka, the power vacuum resulted in the dominant Sinhalese population taking power and recreating colonial violence. For example, the Ceylon Citizenship Act, rendered many Tamils stateless, and the government perpetuated state-sponsored colonization of Tamil areas and banned Tamil-language media. In response, Tamil insurgents organized the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1976 to fight for a separate Tamil state.

Today, Tamils comprise 11.2% of the population in Sri Lanka, while the Sinhalese make up 75%. This ethnic disparity parallels a religious division; Tamils are typically Hindu while the Sinhalese are typically Buddhist, leading to religious and linguistic differences. In 1956, the Sinhalese-controlled government of Sri Lanka passed the Sinhala Only Act, which made Sinhala the sole official language of the country, alienating the Tamils. Furthermore, this Act made accessing services and education particularly difficult for the Tamil people.

Tamil Eelam, the name for the potential separatist state, was posited as a solution for the Tamil people to regain their dignity and their own institutions and supported by the LTTE. Riots in July 1983 led to violent outbursts that escalated and started the Civil War. The LTTE was branded a terrorist group by both the Sri Lankan government and America’s FBI. The LTTE assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. The Sri Lankan government responded with their own war crimes, escalating a violence that would last for 30 years. The war ended with the 2009 assassination of Velupillai Prabhakaran, a prominent LTTE leader.

Another faction involved in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Translated as the People’s Liberation Front, the JVP was the Sri Lankan a communist paramilitary organization. The JVP wanted to establish a socialist state in Sri Lanka based on Karl Marx’s theories. They believed that such a shift would eradicate ethnic and religious divisions because every Sri Lankan would be a comrade under the banner of socialism. The JVP were insurgents who, like other involved parties, committed atrocities during the war, contributing to the instability and violence. The military branch of the JVP was mostly made up of younger boys with little experience, as embodied by the character of Sena in this novel. Tamils were often the victims of the military insurgencies; despite preaching equality, the JVP was often responsible for violence against ethnic minorities.

International aid organizations often added to these divisions, despite their mission to help. The situation in Sri Lanka during the Civil War was complex, and many atrocities like massacres were not known until years after the fact. People often disappeared, and civilians could be killed simply for being associated with different factions. International aid organizations often couldn’t understand the nuances of the conflict and often brought in their own biases. In this novel, Jonny is a British diplomat who resents Sri Lankans and all native populations where he works, positing him and other diplomats as poor allies. Another plotline in this novel reveals that bad actors in international aid organizations would profit from the war; for example, one organization disguises arms dealers as journalists, and Elsa is willing to hide evidence of war crimes to advance her career.

Karunatilaka’s novel criticizes the culpability on all sides in the Civil War. Police departments are inefficient, and civilians live in perpetual fear. People are forced to bribe their way into a semblance of justice when loved ones go missing or are murdered. Mostly, civilians are forced to endure the layers of violence in their society. Maali Almeida, the titular character, is a photojournalist who captures evidence that shows all sides in this conflict are responsible for senseless death and destruction. By creating a version of the afterlife that is neither Buddhist nor Hindu, Karunatilaka subverts the religious and ethnic divisions of the conflict by revealing that such divisions are arbitrary in the grand scheme of the universal human experience.

While the Civil War ended in 2009, Sri Lanka is still dealing with the aftermath. Today, a significant number of Tamil people remain displaced, and Tamil communities are heavily policed and observed for ties to the LTTE and violence. In 2010, the Permanent People’s Tribunal found the Sri Lankan government and military guilty of war crimes and genocide, and the Sri Lankan government has resisted international probes into human rights violations and atrocities.