Arul Pragasam

Arul Pragasam (also known by the name Arular) is a Tamil activist and former revolutionary from Jaffna who had a part in forming the group Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) during the Tamil independence movements to secure an independent Tamil Eelam.Richard Harrington (September 16, 2005). Washington Post. Accessed October 21, 2008. Arulpragasam graduated in Engineering from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. In March 1976, he was one of three EROS members selected to train for six months in Lebanon with Palestinian militants associated with the Fatah wing of the PLO. He left after three months of training, returning to Sri Lanka with his family.

Arul Pragasam is the father of jewelry designer, Kali Arulpragasam, musician/filmmaker/visual artist, Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (better known by her stage name, M.I.A.) and Sugu Arulpragasam. His family moved back to Sri Lanka when Maya was six months old. M.I.A. named her debut album Arular in 2005 after her father's first name, partly for him to get in contact with her, but it is also a shortened version of his name that the majority of the Tamil people know him by.

From 1978 - 1986, he lived and worked in Tamil Nadu. Although not himself a member, Arulpragasam was an old...
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