Subhas Hotel

The hotel was built in 1970 by Ayappan Sangaran, an Indian who had moved to Ceylon in 1928.[1] The hotel was named after Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian nationalist whom Sangaran admired.[1] Sangaran owned several businesses in the Jaffna including Subhas Café and Ice-cream which had a virtual monopoly on ice cream in the 1970s.[2] The 30 room hotel was certified by the Ministry of Tourism and served as the only tourist hotel in the Jaffna peninsula for two decades.[1] 15 more rooms were added to the hotel later.[1]

In October 1995, as the Sri Lankan military launched a military offensive to recapture the Jaffna peninsula from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The hotel, like many public buildings in Jaffna, became a shelter for refugees fleeing the fighting.[1] After recapturing Jaffna the Sri Lankan military declared the centre of the city, which included Subhas Hotel, as a High Security Zone (HSZ).[3] In December 1995 the Sri Lankan military occupied the hotel, like they did to many buildings in the city.[1] The hotel was the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army's 51-2 Brigade.[4] Sangaran, who moved to India with his family, died three years after the army took over the hotel.[1]

During the Norwegian mediated peace process the Sri Lankan military claimed it would hand the hotel back to the owners by mid-2003 but this never happened.[5][6] In March 2011, two years after the civil war ended, the military handed the hotel back to the family.[7] The refurbished hotel re-opened for business on 14 December 2012 under the management of S. Hariharan and S. Nimalaharan, Sangaran's sons and managing directors of Subhas Tourist Hotel (Private) Limited.[8][9]