'Arular'

"Arular" is the code name for Mathangi "M.I.A." Arulpragasam's father, Arul Pragasam, who was a member of the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Tamil were a minority ethnic group in Sri Lankan, mostly Hindu and Christian, which have fought the majority Sinhalese (mostly Buddhist) for 40 years. Due to restrictions on education and employment, the Tamil formed militant groups in order to establish their own sovereign country on the north side of Sri Lanka.

The fighting culminated during Black July, after 13 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed by Tamil militants during a raid. It resulted in a riot and systematic murder of between 400-3,000 Tamils and countless property being destroyed. The Tamil Tigers have fought ever since.

M.I.A. named the album "Arular" as a way of getting her father to contact her. It's unclear why her and her father were not talking outside of him fighting as a rebel in a civil war, although it seems that Arul has been high profile and not locked down in a jungle somewhere.

Good news is that he did contact his daughter. Yah.