A Tribute To Our Friend – Nalliah Suriyakumaran (Suri)

Colombo Telegraph published a memorial tribute from Lionel and Chitra Bopage, who describe Nalliah Suriyakumaran, known as Suri, as a comrade, political associate and cherished friend of their family for over 20 years.

Colombo Telegraph reports that Suri was born in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, in 1948 to a prominent family. The tribute says his father, Vallipuram Nalliah, worked as a teacher and principal before becoming a politician. It recounts that Nalliah declined to gain financially from political office, and that the family sold all of Thangaratnam’s inheritance to support his election campaigns; they remained tenants until his death.

According to Colombo Telegraph, Nalliah represented the Trincomalee-Batticaloa electorate in Ceylon’s State Council between 1943 and 1947, then represented Kalkudah in Parliament from 1947 to 1956. He held the cabinet portfolio of Minister of Posts and Information briefly in 1952. The tribute credits him with supporting free education and teaching in students’ first languages, and with helping create the Teachers’ Training College in Batticaloa and Central College in Vantharumoolai, which is now Eastern University.

Colombo Telegraph reports that Suri attended Royal College in Colombo, where Ranil Wickremesinghe was among his classmates; Wickremesinghe later became Sri Lanka’s prime minister and president. The tribute links Suri’s upbringing in Batticaloa and his father’s support for marginalised communities in eastern Sri Lanka to the values he developed.

Colombo Telegraph says Suri’s mother, Thangaratnam, was one of Sri Lanka’s earliest female university graduates and a respected religion teacher. The tribute says she passed on Tamil cultural knowledge and shaped his character through her example.