Sri Lanka, April 11 -- Between the mid-twenties and mid-thirties, Jaffna stood as a shining beacon, showing the path to a future filled with humane and liberal values aimed at bonding a divided nation into one united brotherhood, rising above castes and divisive creeds.

Jaffna held the future of the nation in the palm of its hands. Influenced, on the one hand by liberal-democratic values imparted in the schools run by American missionaries and, on the other, by the Gandhian ideals, the English-speaking Tamil youth took to non-violent radical politics with a passionate mission to give new directions to the nation struggling to be born.

This radical movement was led by the Youth Congress of Jaffna, known originally as the Students' Congre...