Virakesari’s ‘News King’ Sellathurai was the doyen of Jaffna journalists
 Though ‘Virakesari’ appointed several correspondents in different parts of Jaffna, not all of them were productive or industrious as Sellathurai
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Sri Lanka, known earlier as Ceylon, has produced many journalists of a high calibre in the past. These excellent scribes writing for Sinhala, Tamil or English newspapers acquired a large readership and made their mark over the years. Some were bi-lingual too. Unfortunately most of these journalists were known only to people proficient in the language of the newspapers or journals they wrote for. Despite being household names to one segment of readers, these illustrious members of the fourth estate were virtually unknown to other readers.
Sinnathamby Sellathurai
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It is in this context that this column focuses on a scribe who in his heyday bestrode the world of Tamil journalism like a colossus. Sinnathamby Sellathurai whose birth centenary was on February 26, 2025 was the Jaffna correspondent of the Tamil daily ‘Virakesari’ (Valiant lion) for 36 years. Although a provincial correspondent, Sellathurai made a name for himself at and through the Virakesari .The quantitative output and qualitative nature of the news stories he filed from Jaffna made him a legend in the Tamil journalistic realm. Sellathurai was regarded as the doyen of Jaffna journalists during his time.
‘Virakesari’, founded 95 years ago in 1930, will celebrate its centenary in 2030. The reputed newspaper is regarded as the leading Tamil newspaper in Sri Lanka. This rise to the top was made possible by the newspaper’s editors, sub-editors, reporters, feature writers and provincial correspondents of yore. Sellathurai was foremost among those who contributed to ‘Virakesari’s success. His professional life was inextricably, inter-twined with that of the newspaper; so much so that he was widely referred to as ‘Virakesari Sellathurai’.
Naavatkaadu, Atchuvely
Sinnathamby Sellathurai was born on February 26, 1925 at Naavalkaadu, Atchuvely in the Jaffna peninsula. He was the eldest among the seven children. Sellathurai had his primary education at the Saraswathy Vidyalayam in Atchuvely. His secondary education was at the Atchuvely Christian College (now Atchuvely Maha Vidyaayam) where he completed his Senior School Certificate (SSC). Due to the family’s financial circumstances, he could not proceed further in studies. The family owned some land and also leased out more. Sellathurai became an agriculturist in his late teens.
Eelakesari
Though his formal schooling had ended, Sellathurai remained a life-long student. He was a voracious reader and read a lot in Tamil. Moreover he had a knack or flair for writing. In those days a popular Tamil weekly newspaper ‘Eelakesari’ was published at Chunnakam in Jaffna. The Editor was S. Sivapathasundaram, who later went to London to establish the BBC’s Tamil radio service. A well-known yesteryear Tamil literary personality Kanaga Senthinathan recommended the youngster to editor Sivapathasundaram. Sellathurai became a freelance journalist attached to Eelakesari. He was assigned to cover various events and write about them in the weekly. Impressed by Sellathurai’s writing, the editor later got him to interview people and also write profiles of prominent people.
Interestingly he also wrote pieces for the women’s section. Sellathurai used the pseudonyms ‘Ilavarasu’ for literary articles and ‘Sellam’ for the Woman’s page.
Atchuvely Correspondent
An Indian Tamil businessman Subramaniam Chettiar began publishing the Tamil daily ‘Virakesari’ in Colombo in 1930. The paper largely catered to the Tamils of Indian origin in Colombo and the hill country. After World War II ended the Virakesari began expanding to the North and East of Sri Lanka. Sellathurai was appointed Atchuvely correspondent in 1946 and became known as ‘Atchuvely”Sellathurai’.
Though ‘Virakesari’ had appointed several correspondents in different parts of Jaffna, not all of them were productive or industrious as Sellathurai. The young man would cycle throughout the length and breadth of the Jaffna peninsula gathering information for news articles and news features. They would appear under the byline of ‘Atchuvely correspondent’.
Jaffna Correspondent
A Catholic schoolmaster from Eeachamottai in Jaffna was Virakesari’s Jaffna City correspondent, but he was not very active. So Sellathurai had to double up as Jaffna correspondent too. In 1953, Sellathurai ‘the Atchuvely correspondent’ was officially appointed as Virakesari’s Jaffna correspondent. He remained so until his demise in 1982.
Meanwhile Subramaniam Chettiar returned to India for good. The Virakesari was bought by a group of Colombo based Indian Tamil businessmen. They wanted the paper to sell well in Jaffna, but there was a problem. The Virakesari editorial staff in Colombo were mainly Indian Tamil. Their news coverage was mainly about Indian affairs and about the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka. Besides the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the news and articles was akin to Tamil newspapers published in India.
Widely read in Jaffna
Thus Virakesari did not appeal to the Jaffna reader then. It was perceived as an ‘Indian’ paper. Gradually the paper changed its substance and style to suit the local environment. The paper also began to devote more space to news and views from Jaffna. Virakesari’s Jaffna correspondent S.Sellathurai played a huge role in popularising the paper in Jaffna. He worked tirelessly to file numerous news reports from Jaffna. Due to efforts spearheaded by Sellathurai, Virakesari became the most widely read Tamil newspaper among readers in Jaffna.
Virakesari, in the early days, had no office in Jaffna. Sellathurai would sit at the back of a barber saloon in Jaffna town and write his copy. The saloon owner was Dominick Jeeva, a literary icon of Jaffna, who edited the literary monthly ‘Mallikai’. Jeeva even wrote a short story ‘Seithi Vettai’ (news hunt) inspired by Sellathurai. After sometime, Virakesari rented part of a shop on Power House Road. Sellathurai got a table and chair there. Subsequently Express newspapers Ceylon Ltd, that runs Virakesari, set up a large office on Station road in Jaffna. It still remains there.
Filing news copy
Filing news copy from Jaffna then was an uphill task. There were no cellular phones. Only the old dial phones. Long distance calls to Colombo had to be booked as trunk calls through the telephone exchange. Only the latest or very important news stories were relayed by phone. Most news stories and articles were sent by post. Photographs were developed in Jaffna and sent by post.
Sellathurai however was innovative enough to resort to some unorthodox measures. One was to send a news bulletin by telegram. Another was to send the news copy as a railway parcel by the daily mail train. An office aide in Colombo would collect the parcel of news each morning and bring it to the editorial. In later years Sellathurai would use the Air Ceylon and Upali Airlines flights from Jaffna to send his news parcels too. Another of his innovations was to take film rolls to a studio and get them clipped neatly and send them to Colombo where they would be developed.
Well-written and credible
Thus Sellathurai was able to send the news quickly to Colombo from Jaffna. These methods were replicated by other outstation correspondents whenever and wherever possible. But what really put Virakesari on top in Jaffna was the quality and quantity of the news sent by its Jaffna correspondent. They were well-written, reliable and credible. A news story by Virakesari’s Jaffna correspondent was believed by readers.
In later years a rival newspaper cast aspersions on Sellathurai’s coverage of the visit to Jaffna of Kundrakkudi Adigalaar a spiritual leader from Tamil Nadu. The paper conducted a prolonged campaign in its columns to undermine Sellathurai’s credibility and tarnish his image. Sellathurai however did not give in and stood his ground. Ultimately the anti-Sellathurai campaign was called off.
Chelliah Kumarasuriar
Another serious matter took place during the United Front Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The only Tamil minister in that cabinet was Chelliah Kumarasuriar, the post and telecommunications minister. The arrogant Kumarasuriar, encouraged by a bunch of servile sycophants, used to behave like a tin pot dictator in the Tamil areas.
The independent Sellathurai fell foul of Kumarasuriar because he did not toe the cabinet minister’s line. A furious Kumarasuriar pressured the Virakesari management to discontinue Sellathurai, but the management refused. Kumarasuriar then used his influence to deprive the paper of Govt. advertisements. “Sack Sellathurai or lose advertising revenue” was the implied threat. To its credit Virakesari’s Editor and management stood by their Jaffna correspondent and lost money rather than cave into the minister’s demands to fire Sellathurai.
Remained a Free-lancer
The irony of it was that Sellathurai was not a staff reporter to be fired. Despite his long stint at Virakesari, Sellathurai remained a free-lancer. Although the Virakesari wanted to put him on the staff, Sellathurai turned down the offer. One reason was that he wanted to be independent and not restricted by the office. The other and perhaps the main reason was that Sellathurai- thanks to his prodigious output of news and articles- earned much more each month than what he would have been paid as a staff reporter. Even though his news was measured and paid per column inch, the Jaffna Correspondent’s payment each month was more than double the amount paid to most of his colleagues on the staff
Though not on the newspaper’s staff, Sellathurai was the mainstay of ‘Virakesari’ during the decades he was attached to it. Sellathurai’s news copy did not require much subbing as it was flawless and perfect. It was a model to be followed.
Editor’s Advice
When I entered journalism by joining the Virakesari as a staff reporter in 1977, the then Editor K.Sivapragasam advised me to read Sellathurai’s news stories carefully and emulate their structural format in writing news stories. I followed this advice dutifully and learnt the rudiments of the craft in this way. When I told this to Sellathurai later, the veteran newsman was happy.
Former Jaffna University Vice-chancellor Prof. S. Vithianandan once telephoned the Editor Sivapragasam about a news story that had appeared in Virakesari. I was seated in front of the editor when the call was put through. Prof. Vithianandan asked Sivapragasam whether the story was correct. Editor Sivapragasam told Vice-chancellor Vithiananthan that the news story in question was written by the Jaffna correspondent Sellathurai. Therefore the story cannot be wrong said the editor. Such was the faith in Sellathurai. Writing for Viraesari became the consuming passion of his life. Extremely lucrative offers were made by other Tamil newspapers, but Sellathurai declined them all and remained faithful to Virakesari.
As mentioned earlier, Sellathurai was incredibly loyal to Virakesari. Prior to becoming the paper’s Jaffna correspondent, he had been writing for newspapers such as the Eelakesari and Suthanthiran, but once the Virakesari link was firmly established, he stopped writing to other newspapers.
‘Virakesari’ Sellathhurai
As the years progressed, Sellathurai became known as ‘Virakesari’ Sellathhurai. When he built a new house in Naavatkaadu, Sellathurai named it ‘Virakesari’ and engraved the name on the upper wall above the verandah and below the roof. Later the house was re-structured and enlarged years after Sellathurai’s death. The family made sure the Virakesari name in Tamil letters remained despite the renovation.
One of the remarkable things about Sellathurai was that he did not belong to the dominant castes in Jaffna. In spite of this, Sellathurai was able to blossom into a leading journalist in ‘Caste-conscious’ Jaffna. He was widely respected by all political leaders in Jaffna There were many politicians who sought his advice and opinion on political matters.
Sellathurai had devised a formula based on proportionality in providing political coverage. Each political party was given coverage in proportion to the political strength it enjoyed in Jaffna. Since the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi (ITAK) and later the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) were the pre-dominant political parties in Jaffna, they received the lion’s share in coverage, but no party was ignored or denied adequate coverage.
E.V.R. Periyaar
Sellathurai in his youth was an admirer of Tamil Nadu’s ‘Dravida Kazhagham (DK) Leader E. V. Ramaswamy known as ‘Periyaar’. EVR’s belief in the concepts of ‘Suyamariyaathai’ (self-respect) and ‘Samuha Neethi’ (social justice appealed to Sellathurai. He even went to India once and met Periyaar in person. Sellathurai also staged dramas written by Kalaingar Karunanidhi, who later became Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. However with the advent of the ITAK in 1949, Sellathurai became enamoured of the new party and its policies.
ITAK/TULF
Sellathurai’s native village Atchuvely is part of the Kopay electoral division. He has moved closely with all Parliamentarians representing Kopay such as Vanniyasingham, Balasundaram, Kathiravetpillai and Aalaalasundara. In later years he got close to other ITAK/TULF leaders such as Chelvanayagam, Naganathan, K.P. Ratnam, Amirthalingam, Sivasithamparan, Dharmalingam Jeyakkodi and V.N. Navaratnam. Nevertheless, he always remained independent and fair in his political reporting.
One of the news stories by Sellathurai that made a big splash in those days was one bordering on superstition that he wrote on the eve of the 1970 election. Apparently three mishaps had occurred then at different election meetings. The “Niraikudam” (auspicious pot) placed on a table on the stage at a meeting held by Former Uduppiddy MP M. Sivasithamparam had toppled. The stage had collapsed at a meeting held by former Vaddukkoddai MP A. Amirthalingam. The pandol set up at a meeting for former Nallur MP Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan had fallen.
Sellathurai threaded these three isolated instances together and wrote a news story implying that these were three bad omens. All three incumbent MPs Naganathan, Amirthalingam and Sivasithamparam lost their seats in Nallur, Vaddukkoddai and Uduppiddy in the 1970 election. Sellathurai’s bad omen news became a sensation.
White verti, cream shirt
Sellathurai would be usually clad in a white verti and a cream coloured long sleeve shirt. It was like his uniform. Though a journalist by profession, Sellathurai never gave up being an agriculturist. He would get up early and devote the morning to agriculture. He cultivated onions and chillies.
He would have an early lunch and take the bus to Jaffna. Atchuvely was 16 km away from Jaffna city. He would go to the Virakesari office on Station road and start work. He would use the office cycle to go to the Kachcheri and Municipality, courts or Police station when necessary. Otherwise he would be on the telephone. Working at breakneck speed, Sellathurai would write his news stories, telephoning Colombo if required.
He would wind up in the evening at 6.30 pm and walk to the nearby railway station and send his news despatches by railway parcel on the Colombo bound mail train. Sellathurai would then walk to the Jaffna bus stand and browse through papers, magazines and books at the Poologasingham book depot
Sellathurai would then buy his usual bundle of cigars and sweets and biscuits, for his children, and board the Point Pedro bound bus. He would get off at the Aavarankaal junction and go home. This routine would change if he had events or meetings to cover in the mornings or evenings.
Hospitalization
The hard-working Sellathurai was diagnosed as having cancer in 1981. He delayed hospitalization for a few months. This was because he wanted to cover the inaugural meeting of the Jaffna District Development Council. Sellathurai like many Tamils yearned for a devolution scheme that would bring about power sharing. He was happy even when the DDC scheme was set up, but that too was a failure. Nevertheless, Selathurai delayed hospitalization simply because he wanted to cover the DDC inaugural meeting.
The Virakesari Jaffna Correspondent was admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo where he underwent surgery. He returned home. After a few months he was hospitalized again. After some time his condition started deteriorating. The end seemed inevitable.
‘Seithi Mannan’
Sellathurai returned home and passed away peacefully on April 29, 1982. He was 57 years old. Virakesari honoured Sellathurai by publishing an editorial about him titled ‘Seithi Mannan Sellathurai’ (news king Sellathurai). Large crowds including politicians from diverse parties attended his funeral
Sinnathamby Sellathurai married his cousin Rajeswari in 1955. They had 10 children; four boys and six girls. Some of his children now live abroad while the others are in Sri Lanka. One of his sons joined the LTTE and was killed in a clash with the Navy. Another son Ravichandran worked as a journalist at the Virakesari in Jaffna. He later relocated to The Netherlands.
Sellathurai Annan Request
This then is the tale of a Tamil journalist who was devoted to his profession or rather vocation. I consider myself fortunate for having been able to interact with him. He was quite fond of me and would say “I want you to become the editor of Virakesari one day”. Sellathurai Annan, as I called him, was hugely disappointed when I moved to English journalism by joining ‘The Island’. Yet he wished me well. His one request to me was “Thamizhaiyum Thamizharaiyum Marrakka Vaendaam”(Do not forget Tamil or the Tamils).I have not forgotten that request.
(D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com)
