M.I.A. official website
On July 18, 1975, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam was born in Hounslow, London. She is the daughter of a seamstress and author Kala Pragasam and Sri Lankan Tamil engineer Arul Pragasam. Her father became a political activist when he joined the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), a Tamil political group affiliated with the LTTE. He…
On July 18, 1975, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam was born in Hounslow, London. She is the daughter of a seamstress and author Kala Pragasam and Sri Lankan Tamil engineer Arul Pragasam.
Her father became a political activist when he joined the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), a Tamil political group affiliated with the LTTE.
He adopted the name Arular there. For the first eleven years of Arulpragasam’s life, he lived in a moving situation because of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Since her family had to go into hiding to avoid the Sri Lankan Army during this period, Arulpragasam had little contact with her father. She describes it as “exciting” that troops would fire their weapons at the school while it was still open during the Civil War.
Her students were taught to hide beneath the table or flee to nearby English-language schools where they “wouldn’t get shot,” in her words. Along with a large portion of her extended family, Arulpragasam resided on a road and enjoyed playing within the town’s churches and temples.
Arulpragasam’s mother moved herself and her children to Madras in India out of fear for their safety. There, they lived in a run-down house and occasionally saw their father, who was introduced to them as their “uncle” to keep them safe.
M.I.A. official website
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