HISTORY OF TAMIL
STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN SRI LANKA
A PHOTO ALBUM
THE BEGINNINGS
Although most authors start with 1983, the genocidal violence against the Tamils and the consequent Tamil resistance movement predates 1983. See timeline for a chronology of events.
The initial Tamil resistance to a series of discriminatory acts by the newly independent, Sinhala majority government was entirely non-violent.
When a million Tamils were disenfranchised and made stateless (1949), Tamil leaders protested in parliament, and their protest were ignored.
Again, protests in parliament against Sinhala colonization of Tamil homelands were also similarly ignored.
Sinhala was made the only official language of the country, in violation of the Constitution (1956). A sit-in protest in front of the parliament by Tamil parliamentarians against this was rewarded with increasing physical violence against all Tamils by organized Sinhala mobs .
This culminated in the Anti-Tamil Riots of 1958