Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
The Price of British Colonialism on the Tamil and Sinhalese Peoples
A brief evaluation of how British colonialism has brought about the current conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, is famed for its tea production, and its beautiful landscape makes it a popular tourist destination. Once considered a model colony by the British government, and the first colony to be granted universal suffrage, it is now more known for the violence and terror which threatens to tear it apart, in particular for the actions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Governments and media across the world rightly condemn their mode of expression. However, they are not the only party at fault in one of the most devastating civil wars of modern times.
Sri Lanka has always had a Tamil minority, an inevitable consequence of the island’s proximity to the Tamil Nadu region of India. Before colonial occupation, they lived peacefully alongside the native Sinhalese.
The British, upon their arrival, imported close to a million more Tamil workers to staff the plantations which support the Sri Lankan economy. They favoured this majority, providing them with education opportunities and positions in the administration and professions.
In 1948, Sri Lanka was granted independence. The new government was largely made up of wealthy Sinhalese landowners. This group had little in common with the rural masses, apart from their treatment at the hands of the former colonial power. The Tamil minority had been raised to a status far beyond the percentage of the population that they formed. The new Sinhalese government took advantage of the tide of nationalism which flowed through the nation, and attempted to redress the balance.
The steps which followed: the adoption of Sinhala as the official language, and the promotion of Buddhism as the national religion, had unforeseen consequences. Measures that were meant to equalise the playing field, instead stirred a wave of anti-Tamil feeling. The riots that ensued devastated the Tamil community. Furthermore, they were pushed out of higher education and the civil service because they could not speak the national language.
We are all familiar with the waves of violence that followed on both sides. The Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese administration must both be held responsible for the atrocities carried out and the thousands of innocent lives that have been lost. However, this is a conflict that arose from outside interference in a peaceful nation. The two ethnicities were governed under separate terms, and the balance was not corrected before independence. The clash was inevitable. Like Rwanda, this is a horrible example of the long term effects of colonialism.
