The Guardian newspaper retracted a question in a travel quiz which referred to Sri Lanaka as Eelam, a name used by the LTTE fighting for a separate state, following protests by Sri Lanka’s mission in London.
The Quiz asked its readers which popular travel destination is known by the indigenous name Eelam and listed Sri Lanka among the answers. It was widely discussed and circulated among social media and one person commented on twitter, “...just amused by the lack of nuance and awareness on the part of the guardian to put such a loaded word, now associated with separatism on some travel quiz.”
Another said, Eelam is the actual Tamil word used for the island of Sri Lanka in history and ancient #Tamil literature.
In a release issued yesterday the Foreign Relations Ministry said the High Commissioner in the UK wrote to the Editor of the Guardian newspaper on the matter.
“The attention of the Ministry is drawn to a quiz titled “Travel quiz: do you know your islands, Man Friday?” published on the web edition of The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom on Friday, 15 May 2020.
The second question in the quiz reads -‘Eelam is an indigenous name for which popular holiday island?’.Among the answers to this question, Sri Lanka has been listed as one of the choices and when one selects Sri Lanka as the answer, while indicating it as the correct answer, a further description ‘the full name of the island’s recent military insurgency was LTTE – Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam’ appears.
The Ministry release stated, “The High Commissioner wrote to the Editor of the Guardian newspaper on the inaccuracy of this information requesting that the content be removed.”