Q.Highlight any two reasons for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka was primarily driven by the denial of equal political rights to the Tamil minority and discriminatory government policies that favoured the Sinhalese majority.
The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka did not erupt overnight. It was the result of decades of growing mistrust and resentment between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority, rooted in the way the country was governed after independence from British rule in 1948. The Sinhalese, who make up about 74% of the population, saw themselves as the rightful inheritors of the island, while the Tamils (about 18%) feared being permanently sidelined in a democracy where numbers alone could decide their fate. Two major reasons stand out as the primary triggers of this conflict.
The first and most explosive reason was the series of discriminatory government policies that systematically undermined Tamil identity and opportunities. The most damaging of these was the Official Language Act of 1956, which declared Sinhala as the only official language of Sri Lanka. This was a devastating blow to the Tamil-speaking population, who now found themselves unable to use their own language in government offices, courts, or public examinations. For a community that had historically held a strong position in the civil service and professions, this was not just an inconvenience — it was a deliberate exclusion from public life. The government also introduced policies favouring Sinhalese students in university admissions, drastically reducing the number of Tamil students who could enter engineering, medicine, and other prestigious courses. These measures convinced many Tamils that the state was not merely indifferent to their welfare, but actively hostile to their existence as a distinct community.
The 1956 Official Language Act was the single most important turning point. Before it, Tamil and Sinhalese leaders had worked together; after it, the idea of a separate Tamil homeland began to gain real support.
The second reason was the denial of political autonomy and federalism. Sri Lanka is a unitary state, meaning all power is concentrated in the central government in Colombo. The Tamils, who are concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of the island, repeatedly demanded a federal system that would give them control over their own regional affairs — especially in areas like land, education, and policing. They argued that only such autonomy could protect their language, culture, and economic interests from being overridden by the Sinhalese majority. Every such demand was rejected by successive Sinhalese-dominated governments, which saw any form of devolution as a threat to national unity. Instead of negotiating, the state responded with increasingly harsh measures, including the deployment of the army to Tamil areas and the use of emergency laws. This refusal to share power pushed moderate Tamil leaders aside and strengthened the hands of those who argued that only an independent state — Tamil Eelam — could guarantee their safety.
The conflict was not simply about language or jobs. At its heart was a fundamental disagreement about the nature of the Sri Lankan state: should it be a unitary state dominated by one community, or a federal state that respects the diversity of all its peoples?
These two factors — discriminatory laws and the refusal of political autonomy — fed each other. Each new act of discrimination made Tamils more desperate for self-rule, and each demand for autonomy made the Sinhalese government more determined to crush what it saw as a separatist threat. By the 1980s, peaceful protest had given way to armed insurgency, and the country was plunged into a brutal civil war that would last for nearly three decades.
In short, the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka was caused by the Sinhalese-dominated government's refusal to grant equal language rights and political autonomy to the Tamil minority, turning a democratic state into a site of systematic exclusion and, eventually, violent confrontation.
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