Arul Pragasam

Arul Pragasam
Occupation	EROS founder
Spouse	Kala Arulpragasam
Children	Kali Arulpragasam Mathangi Arulpragasam Sugu Arulpragasam

Arul Pragasam (also known by his nom de guerre as Arular,) is a Tamil activist and former revolutionary from Jaffna who had a part in forming the group Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) during the Tamil independence movements to secure an independent Tamil Eelam. Arulpragasam graduated in Engineering from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. In March 1976, he was one of three EROS members selected to train for six months in Lebanon with Palestinian militants associated with the Fatah wing of the PLO. He left after three months of training, returning to Sri Lanka with his family.

Arul Pragasam is the father of artists Kali Arulpragasam, Mathangi Arulpragasam (aka M.I.A.) and Sugu Arulpragasam. His family moved back to Sri Lanka when Maya was six months old. M.I.A. named her debut album Arular in 2005 after her father's first name partly for him to get in contact with her, but that it is also a shortened version of his name that the majority of the Tamil people know him by.

From 1978 - 1986, he lived and worked in Tamil Nadu where India supported and trained several Tamil militant groups. Arulpragasam was an old friend of LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran during the early years of the Tamil rebellion although he was not himself a member. His daughter Mathangi (Maya) has stated in interviews her father shared revolutionary ideals, and that he was a politician, although she has had no contact with him since the early 1990s. Rarely speaking about her father publically, in an interview with The Guardian in 2005, M.I.A. stated "He never had a practical, physical influence" in her familys' life. On his involvement in the war, she has said "The Tigers were big in numbers but my dad was too selective. The Tigers had machetes and said, 'They killed my mum so I'm going to fucking fight them.' And my dad was like, 'No no no no, read this amazing book about revolution. Let's sit down and draw up a manifesto." She has said she "understands what he's doing and how he lives" but that "he made a mistake getting married and having three children. We paid the price for that."

Arul Pragasam left his group EROS and the conflict in the late 80s. In 1997, he set up an Institute of Sustainability Development at Trincomalee on the Eastern Province's coast. The same year, he wrote a seminal book on Tamil history. Arulpragasam now heads the Britain-based Global Sustainability Initiative, which has overseen inventions such as a redesigned bullock cart, a motorised wheelbarrow and a car that consumes less petrol. Arulpragasam has explained "GSI's mission is to develop a programme with a global perspective."

Further reading

Arulpragasam, Maya (2002). M.I.A. No. 10 (Paperback ed.). Pocko Editions. ISBN 1-903977-10-X