What is Happening with the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka?

Off the southeast coast of India lies the Island of Sri Lanka. Most associate the island with the rapper M.I.A (paper planes) as did I before researching the history of the conflicted Island. Sri Lanka was conquered by the Portuguese in 1505 and later put under the control of the Dutch and British.

The colonial influence has ultimately caused for an unstable political system along with a strong ethnic divide. The ethnic groups within the Island are the Sinhalese (Indo-Aryan) migrants from Northern India in the fifth century BC while their Tamil (Indian) counterparts migrated to the island in the third century BC (BBC). The Tamil are the minorities within the country and hold 12.6% of the population while the Sinhalese compose around 74% (Photius). While their caste system creates a socioeconomic divide between the major ethnic group, religion plays a large role as well.Majority of the Sinhalese is Buddhist whereas the Tamil are around ⅘ Hindu (the rest are other major religions)..                         

 

After the decolonization of Sri Lanka tensions rose between the ethnic groups in 1948. This divide between the two major groups lead to a long bloody civil war. In the late 1950’s the Tamil’s began to become targets of the majority Sinhalese as the President Solomon Bandaranaike was elected who made “Sinhala sole official language” and “boost Buddhist feeling.” Protests by the Tamil lead to violence and over 100 tamils slain. Fast forward to the 1970’s and Sinhalese Marxist held a revolt in the Northern Territory of the Tamil which was ultimately unsuccessful. This lead to the Civil war that lasted from 1983-2009 with three periods of “Eelam Wars” and international attention. LTTE (Tigers) was a rebel group formed by Tamil partisans who fought the Sinhalese for Tamil rights. In 1993 the LTTE was labeled a terrorist Organization due to their part in the assassination of the Sri Lankan prime minister. This is when International actors such as the EU, US, Canada, and other major countries acted (Youtube Video linked). Eventually the Tiger army was defeated in the Sinhalese remained in control of Sri Lanka in 2009. However, this bloody civil War that lasted over three decades caused around 100,000 deaths. The feud between ethnic groups also internally displaced around 800,000 Tamil people who are living in poor conditions within the northern part of Sri Lanka.

 

 

There has been recent unrest within the Tamil people to gain back their rights along with returning to their homes. With a large presence in the Tamil territory they are “socially and politically oppressed.”However, both sides are not clear of blame while looking at the centuries old feud. On a positive note after the long bitter civil war the GDP of Sri Lanka has increased greatly in 2010 with signs of continuing its strong growth (Statistica).

 

It is clear that tensions in Sri Lanka will never quite “go away” however through exposing the situation and bringing attention hopefully a compromise can be made. I recently learned about this conflict in Sri Lanka through the Al Jazeera explore phase which highlights a documentary filmed and directed by Jude Ratman explores the Tamil Identity (Al Jazeera).

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/qa-sri-lanka-civil-war-tamil-lens-180131121436527.html

 

History of Sri Lanka Conflict

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQOSxLqpITA

Works Cited

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11999611

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2018/01/demons-paradise-memories-sri-lanka-civil-war-180125062937537.html

http://www.dailymirror.lk/

https://photius.com/countries/sri_lanka/government/sri_lanka_government_race_religion_and_~430.html

https://www.holidify.com/pages/culture-of-tamil-nadu-124.html