Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war
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| Background |
| Origins of the Civil War |
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• Origins of the Civil War |
| LTTE |
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• LTTE • Attributed Terrorist attacks • Child Soldiers |
| Major figures |
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• Mahinda Rajapakse |
| Indian Involvement |
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• Operation Poomalai |
| See also |
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• Military of Sri Lanka |
The origins of the Sri Lankan civil war lie in sharp disagreements over language, access to universities, and riots between Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese, mostly buddhist, and minority Tamil, mostly Hindu, community. These gradually but continuously escalated from the 1920s until the outbreak of civil war in 1983.
[edit] Pre-colonial period
While many have been led to believe that the struggle between Tamils and the majority Sinhalese has been a permanent historical feature of political life in Sri Lanka, this is not so.
Before the colonial era, there were local kingdoms in Kotte, Kandy (both nominally Buddhist and largely Sinhalese) and Jaffna (Hindu and Tamil in its orientation). There were also some Tamil dominated areas in the Eastern Province, but these were under Kandyan control.
Historical invasion by the south-Indian Tamil king Ellalan, or Ellare, was reported as an epochal conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese by the Mahavamsa which led to a brief period of South Indian rule in the north, but he was defeated in battle by the Sinhala king Dutugamanu. Later, Pallava, Chola, Pandya and Kalinga kingdoms from India invaded and dominated the country from time to time along with periods of intense commercial and cultural interactions. These invasions have been retrospectively interpreted as an age old enmity between two ethnic groups by later historians. Many Sinhalese castes (see Caste in Sri Lanka) derive from South Indian immigrants who have happily assumed Sinhala Buddhist identity.
[edit] Colonial period
Sinhalese argue that Tamils received preferential treatment under British rule (1796-1948). By the time of independence, there were more missionary-built, English-language schools in the principal Tamil-dominated city, Jaffna, than in the rest of the island. This meant that there was a disproportionate number of Sri Lankan Tamils in the civil service, medicine and law in post-independence Sri Lanka. Sinhalese nationalists claim that this showed that the Tamils had benefited from favoritism; and although some nationalists do not agree with this view, many historians agree that the roots of the conflict stem from a "divide and rule" policy adopted by the British Raj during their occupation of Sri Lanka.
[edit] Denial of citizenship to estate Tamils
There is a sizable population of Tamils in the Central Province, descendants of plantation laborers from India imported by the British colonial authorities in the nineteenth century. These Indian Tamils, as they are called, still work mainly in Sri Lanka’s money making tea plantations. They have been locked in poverty for generations and continue to experience poor living conditions[citation needed]. Although they speak the same language, they are usually considered a separate community from the Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East.
Originally, they were the chief targets of Sinhala nationalism. The government of D.S. Senanayake passed legislation stripping the estate Tamils of their citizenship in 1949, leaving them stateless.
The effect was to tilt the island's political balance away from the Tamils. In 1948, at independence, the Tamils had 33% of the voting power in Parliament.[citation needed]. Upon the disenfranchisement of the estate Tamils, however, this proportion dropped to 20%. The Sinhalese could and did obtain more than a 2/3 majority in Parliament, making it impossible for Tamils to exercise an effective opposition to Sinhalese policies affecting them. The main reason for the imbalance was that several multi member constituencies elected a Tamil member of Parliament in a majority Sinhala electorate. The idea in having multi member constituencies was to prevent domination of minorities by a future nationalist government.
Not content with stripping their citizenship, successive governments tried to remove the estate Tamils from the country entirely. In 1962, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike signed an agreement with Indian Prime Minister L.B. Shastri. A second agreement was signed three years later with Indira Gandhi. These provided that 600,000 of the estate Tamils would be expelled and sent to India over a 15-year period, and 375,000 would be restored their Sri Lankan citizenship. Not all of the former group actually returned to India, and remained in Sri Lanka without the ability to vote, travel abroad, or participate fully in Sri Lankan life. It was not until 2003 that full citizenship rights were restored to the remaining Tamils in the hill country.
[edit] Sinhala colonisation of Tamil areas
The settlement of Sinhalese into traditionally Tamil areas in the north and especially the east of the country by successive Sri Lankan governments, often called "colonisation", has always been a source of tension between all three communities (Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim). One of the first of these contentious schemes took place after the 1947 completion of the Gal-Oya dam project in the Batticaloa region. Land surrounding the newly formed reservoir should have, by law, been given to Tamil families displaced by the project. However, the government instead developed and gave the prime land to thousands of Sinhalese colonists brought up from the south. Some of these schemes were so successful that the ethnic makeup of entire areas were changed, so much so that Tamils become a minority in some areas of what they considered their traditional homeland.[1][2]
[edit] Official Language Policy
A defining moment in Sri Lankan politics was the Sinhala Only Act of 1956. The consensus among all the island's communities was that English be replaced as the country's official language. The government, however, replaced English not with Sinhala and Tamil together, but Sinhala only. This was deemed to be inappropriate by the Tamil community.
The SLFP government at the time, led by Solomon Bandaranaike, was sworn into office on the platform that would help the growing population of disenfranchised youth who were educated yet unemployed through a ‘Sinhala Only’ language policy. The majority of civil servants under colonial rule were Tamil, whose positions owed greatly to the free English-medium missionary schools in the north and east of the island. When Sinhala became the official state language it meant that many Tamil workers in government employment who were not fluent in Sinhala were rendered unemployed. The Tamil Federal Party led a group of Tamil volunteers and staged a sit-down satyagraha (peaceful protest). This protest was broken up by hardline Sinhalese nationalist gangs.
However the policy was gradually watered by all the governments that followed until 1988. Regardless, English remains the de facto language of rule - the business of government continues to be carried out in English, with the drafting of legislation being in English, although the law states that the Sinhala version should take preference.
[edit] 1958 riots
In the 1958 riots another 150-200 Tamils were murdered, thousands more were assaulted and Tamil property looted. Over 25,000 Tamil refugees were relocated to the North.
[edit] 1970 - Banning of Tamil media and literature importation
Importing Tamil language films, books, magazines, journals, etc. from the cultural hub of Tamil Nadu, India was banned. Sri Lanka also banned groups such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham and the Tamil Youth League. Culturally, Tamil Sri Lankans were cut off from Tamil Nadu. Foreign exchange for the long established practice of Tamil students going to India for university education was stopped. Equally, examinations for external degrees from the University of London were abolished. The government insisted this was a part of a general program of economic self-sufficiency, part of its socialist agenda, however most of the Tamil population did not accept nor believe this.
[edit] 1971 - Universities Act
During the 1970s university admissions were standardized. This initiative took place to rectify disparities created in university enrollment during colonial rule.
Under the British, English was the state language and consequently greatly benefited English speakers. However, the majority of the Sri Lankan populace lived outside urban areas and did not belong to the social elite, and therefore did not enjoy the benefits of English-medium education. The issue was compounded further by the fact that in northern and eastern regions of the island, where a largely Tamil and Muslim populace resided, students had access to English-medium education through missionary schools regardless of their socio-economic status. This created a situation where the large proportion of students enrolled in universities were English speaking Tamils, particularly in professional courses such as medicine and engineering.
The government policy of standardization in essence was an affirmative action scheme to assist geographically disadvantaged students to gain tertiary education. The benefits enjoyed by Sinhalese students also meant a significant fall in the number of Tamil students within the university population.
[edit] Rise of separatism
At first, Tamil politicians pushed for a federal system through the Federal Party. This met with suspicion and resistance from many Sinhalese. In the 1960s, the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike proceeded to nationalize most missionary schools in the country, secularizing them and changing the language of instruction from English to Sinhala and Tamil. After this, it became rare for Sinhalese and Tamil children to attend school together. Without the advantage of English education, it became increasingly difficult for Tamil youth to gain access to coveted civil service jobs, and unemployment rose.
The name of the country was changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka in 1970, a name of Sinhalese origin that angered and alienated many Tamils.
The concept of a separate nation, Tamil Eelam, was proposed by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1976. TULF was a coalition of parties who went on to campaign in the 1977 elections for an independent state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. They won most of the Tamil seats, but the government later banned them from Parliament for advocating an independent state.
[edit] 1977 riots
Riots broke out again in 1977, in response to an alleged assault on Sinhalese policemen. Up to 300 Tamils were killed[citation needed] and 25,000 fled their homes.
[edit] 1981 - Destruction of the Jaffna Public Library
A mob went on rampage on the nights of May 31 to June 2 burning the market area of Jaffna, the office of the Tamil Newspaper, the home of the member of Parliament for Jaffna, the Jaffna Public Library and killing four people.[3] The destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna. The 95,000 volumes of the Public Library destroyed by the fire included numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts. Witnesses reported the presence of uniformed police officers in the mob[4] and their involvement in the deaths of four individuals.
[edit] Outbreak of war
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