The Double-Edged Sword of Power: How Global Power Struggles Shape and Betray Liberation Movements

The Hunger for Power: From Rulers to the Common People

The struggle for power has been the primal force driving human history. It has built empires and destroyed them, enriched societies and corrupted them.
Power is often seen as a privilege of rulers — those who command armies, control laws, and rule states. But in truth, the thirst for dominance runs through every layer of human society. Even ordinary individuals seek influence, wealth, or control within their surroundings.

When such desire enters the realm of liberation struggles, born from noble ideals like freedom, justice, and equality, it becomes both a source of strength and decay. History shows that movements born to resist oppression often end up consumed by their own internal thirst for power. Thus, the liberator may eventually become the ruler — sometimes even more ruthless than the oppressor he once fought.

The Tragedy of Liberation: Oppression and Betrayal

Every liberation movement is crushed by two relentless forces — external oppression and internal betrayal.

External Oppression: The Denial of Identity

Oppression is not mere violence; it is a system — carefully designed, legally enforced, and socially normalized.

• Law as a weapon: When a state systematically undermines the language, culture, and religion of a people, it strips them of participation in political and economic life. Power becomes the property of a single dominant group.

• Violence as a warning: When libraries are burned and civilians are massacred, these acts are not random. They serve as a message — “Resistance will be met with annihilation.”

Through such acts, violence becomes an instrument of policy — a political weapon aimed at erasing cultural identity. Yet paradoxically, oppression does not silence a people; it transforms their struggle into one of existential survival.

Internal Betrayal: Factionalism and the Decay of Ideals

The most devastating blow to liberation movements often comes from within. As wars prolong, leadership vacuums appear. These spaces are soon filled by ambition, factionalism, and opportunism.

• From liberation to tyranny: Across Africa and other postcolonial regions, many who once fought for freedom turned into corrupt rulers. Movements that rose against injustice became the very instruments of oppression they had once condemned.

• The cost of compromise: The Irish Civil War after the Anglo–Irish Treaty of 1921 is a classic example — a liberation movement splitting over moral compromise, destroying its unity and moral authority.

Betrayal, whether through greed, foreign manipulation, or internal rivalry, poisons trust. Once trust collapses, unity collapses — and the struggle becomes endless.

The Tamil National Community: Identity and Sacrifice

The Tamil national struggle stands as one of the most profound examples of how external domination and internal disunity can simultaneously threaten the survival of an entire nation.

The Assault on Language and Culture

For decades, Tamil people faced systemic discrimination that excluded them from political, educational, and economic participation. What began as a call for equality turned into a fight for survival.

When a language and culture are treated as threats to state power, identity itself becomes resistance. In such a reality, political freedom becomes the prerequisite for existence.

Generations of Tamils sacrificed their education, careers, and lives not for conquest, but for the simple right to live as a people.
Their struggle must be understood not merely as a military movement — but as a battle for identity, a fight to preserve the dignity of a civilization.

The True Glory Belongs to the People

History records the names of rulers, generals, and treaties — yet the true honor belongs to the ordinary people.

• Those who endured oppression: Families who lost their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones, yet refused to surrender their language or pride.

• The unnamed martyrs: Men and women who gave their lives not for fame, but for the purity of an ideal.

• The guardians of memory: Those who continue to speak truth, even when movements have fractured and leaders have fallen silent.

These are the real heroes of history.
Their silent endurance, their unbroken faith in justice, and their unwavering devotion to their language and culture form a legacy far greater than any political victory.

Conclusion:

Power is a double-edged sword. It can be used to fight for freedom — or to betray it.
But time has revealed an unshakable truth: even the harshest oppression and deepest betrayals cannot erase the sacrifices of the people.

Their courage, their memory, and their will to endure are what define the true meaning of liberation.
And that — unyielding and eternal — is the living heritage of the Tamil nation.