Eventually, as the civil war escalated, it became unsafe for the family to stay in Sri Lanka, so they were forced to relocate to Madras, India. They moved into an almost derelict house three and a half miles from the nearest road or neighbor. They survived there for a while, with sporadic visits from Arular, and the girls attended the local school, excelling as students. However, visits from friends and family grew less frequent and money grew very tight. The children became ill; Kali caught typhoid fever and the family struggled to survive on a limited amount of food and water. A visiting uncle took concern and moved them back to Sri Lanka, where they settled in Jaffna again.

By now, the violence of the civil war was at its peak, and the family once again tried to flee the country. The army regularly shot Tamils seeking to move across border areas and bombed roads and escape routes. After several failed attempts to leave, Maya’s mother successfully made it out with the three children, arriving first in India before finally returning to Maya's birthplace in London, where they were housed as refugees.

It was in the late 80s, on a notoriously racist council estate in Mitcham, Surrey, that an eleven-year-old Arulpragasam began to learn the English language. Here she was exposed to Western radio for the first time, hearing broadcasts emanating from her neighbors' flats. Her affinity for hip-hop and rap began from there. The uncompromising attitudes of Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante and N.W.A. clicked with a frustrated, energetic war-child trying to relate to grey and foreign surroundings. "Those records were rhythmic, so whether you understood the language or not, you could understand the music," she now says.

Art and film

A successful art career beckoned and, for a while, seemed to be Maya's destined path. Her first-ever public exhibition of paintings in 2001 at the Euphoria Shop in Portobello, London, featured candy coloured spray-paint and stencil pictures of the Tamil rebellion movement. Graffitied tigers and palm trees mixed with orange, green and pink camouflage, bombs, guns and freedom fighters on chip board off-cuts and canvases. The show was nominated for the Alternative Turner Prize, every painting sold (Jude Law is a patron of her art) Kitty Empire: Flash-forward. The Guardian. 20 March 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2006. and a monograph book of the collection was published by Pocko (which was simply entitled M.I.A.).

The Publication's back cover reads:

Music beginnings

An innovative recipe of dancehall, electro, grime and world music, Showbiz Records only pressed 500 copies of the independent vinyl single "Galang", but that was enough for her to win the widespread and immediate support of DJ's and the media. Numerous major record labels caught onto the underground success of "Galang" and M.I.A. eventually signed to XL Recordings home to Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx and the White Stripes, embracing them as they were the only label to offer her complete creative control. She also chose them because it was the closest to her house, telling the label, "Trust me, you've been looking for me",Mark Pytlik: Interview: M.I.A.. Pitchforkmedia. 14 March 2005. Retrieved 12 April 2006. before dropping off the "Galang" tape. They called her back 20 minutes later.

"Galang" was rereleased. The accompanying music video for "Galang", featuring multiple M.I.A.’s amid a backdrop of her graffiti artwork animated and brought to life, was directed by Ruben Fleischer and art directed by M.I.A. herself. Scenes of urban Britain and the war in Sri Lanka are depicted and delivered with a wry sense of humour. For her next single release, "Sunshowers", Arulpragasam again hooked up with Ross Orton and Steve Mackey who had furnished her so successfully with the beats on "Galang". Together they pushed boundaries even further with minimalist production and a reworked chorus from Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band’s track of the same name to create a template for her to fire out her young-girl bravado, this time about guerrilla warfare and the Sri Lankan war. A lush video was made for the track, which she filmed in the jungles of South India with acclaimed director Rajesh Touchriver. To this day, MTV refuses to play the video until the references to the Palestine Liberation Organization are removed from the song. Maya refuses to comply with their requests (although she has recently appeared on an MTV Live spot online where this reference is uncensored).

Meeting Diplo

Arulpragasam approached Diplo when he was DJing one night at the Fabric Club, London. "Besides me being a white dude from Florida and her being a Sri Lankan girl in England, everything else was the same: were both film graduates, to all the same music when we were kids, were going in the same direction right now in music, it was amazing."Mark Pytlik: Interview: Diplo. Pitchforkmedia. 4 April 2005. Retrieved 18 April 2006. he said of their meeting. Funnily enough, Diplo was playing "Galang" as she entered the club.

The next month, Arulpragasam left for Philadelphia to work on the production of her first composition and the hidden track on her album, "M.I.A.," with Diplo, and to also collaborate on new material. Nothing worthwhile came of it, until Diplo began experimenting with a capellas of the tracks on Arular, remixing, sampling and mashing them up with already famous rappers and musicians, eventually using the material created during the sessions to build the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism.

Piracy Funds Terrorism was initially only given to the press and handed out at early live shows, but because of the album's huge underground success, Turntablelab.com began releasing the mixtape exclusively through their website around December, 2004. The mixtape added to the already building hype of Arulpragasam's debut album and also forced people to acknowledge the mixtape subculture in general. It also established M.I.A.'s growing fanbase within the music and MP3-sharing blogosphere.

Diplo later produced the third track on Arular, "Bucky Done Gun," which mixes the popular baile funk sound from Rio de Janeiro with a sample from the "Theme From Rocky". The two are romantically involved and briefly toured together. Recently, there were rumours of a break up. However, as of September 2005, M.I.A. confirmed the two are still together during her appearance on MuchMusic's MuchOnDemand.

Arular