Citizenship

The first Constitution of independent Sri Lanka prohibited the enactment of any law which would impose disparities or restrictions or confer advantages or privileges on the members of any community or religion. However, the Citizenship Act of 1948 deprived the Indian Tamils of Sri Lankan citizenship. As the Indian Tamils were not citizens of India, they became stateless. Their status was the subject of long drawn-out negotiations between India and Sri Lanka and finally under the 1964 and 1974 Agreements it was agreed that 375,000 of the stateless would get Sri Lanka citizenship and 600,000 would be repatriated to India. The implementation has been slow, and those Indian Tamils who have obtained Sri Lanka's citizenship are almost all still plantation workers. The leader of the CWC, the estate workers' main trade union organization, Mr. Thondaman, is now a member of the Sri Lanka Government. (The Indian Tamils have disassociated themselves from the demand for Eelam, though they have joined the Sri Lanka Tamils in demands for linguistic and other rights. However, they have suffered grievously in the recurrent communal riots since they live in the Sinhala dominated areas).

Language, Employment, Autonomy, etc.

Following its landslide victory on the "Sinhala Only" platform of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Government immediately passed an Official Language Act which declared Sinhala as "the one official language of Ceylon". Violent agitations by Sinhala extremists prevented the Government from adding to this Act, provisions for the use of Tamil.

The Federal Party of the Sri Lanka Tamils threatened to launch a Satyagraha and to defuse the situation, the Prime Minister Mr. Bandaranayake met Mr. Chelvanayakam (leader of the Federal Party) and worked out an understanding embodying a statesmanlike compromise. The Bandaranayake-Chelvanayakam Pact of 1957 recognized Tamil as the language of a national minority, and as the language of administration in the Northern and Eastern provinces, and also for the setting up of regional councils and boards in agriculture and education. Had it been implemented it would have ameliorated many Tamil grievances. It had however to be abrogated in the face of violent agitation by militant Sinhalese Buddhists cynically manipulated by the opposition United National Party. In 1959 the Prime Minister was murdered by a Sinhalese militant.

In 1965, a similar Pact was made by Prime Minister Senanayake of the United National Party with Mr. Chelvanayakam under which Tamil was to be the language of administration in the north and east and District Development Councils were to be set up. This Pact also faced great opposition and was later unilaterally abrogated by the Sri Lanka Government.

1972 Constitution

In 1972, a Republican Constitution was passed, which reaffirmed Sinhala as the single official language of Legislation, courts and administration, with some provision for the use of Tamil. Buddhism was accorded a prominent place and earlier minority safeguards were omitted.

Formation of TULF

The new Constitution increased the alienation of the Tamils who boycotted the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly and set up the Tamil United Front bringing together the main political organizations of the Tamils. The TULF made 6 demands relating to equal recognition of language, religion etc. and a decentralized structure of Government. When the Sri Lanka Government still failed to respond to these demands, in 1976, the Tamil United Liberation Front was formed, with the creation of a "Tamil Eelam" in the north and the cast as one of its goals.

Side by side with the hardening of the position of the Tamil political parties came the rise of extremism among Tamil youth who were frustrated by unemployment and alienated by the inability of the political leadership to obtain meaningful concessions. The extremists rejected the nonviolent path and took recourse to violence, which further inflamed communal tensions and helped spark the increasingly vicious communal riots.

The 1977 elections and after

In the 1977 elections the TULF, campaigning on the "Eelam" platform, won almost all the seats in the northern province and some in the eastern province, and became the official opposition party. As the victorious UNP under J.R. Jayewardene had declared in its manifesto that it would take steps to remedy Tamil grievances in 4 areas, an acceptable settlement seemed a possibility. The 4 areas identified were: (i) education; (ii) colonization; (iii) use of Tamil; and (iv) employment.

The Tamil grievances

These relate to:
(1) Lack of equal opportunity in education: as a result of reservations, "standardization" of marks etc. which favour the Sinhalese.

(2) Employment: Largely as a result of recruitment policies, linguistic requirements etc., the percentage of Tamils in the Government sector, professions and armed forces has come down radically since the 1950's. While some gradual reduction was inevitable, at present the Tamils are underrepresented in the police, army, and clerical services.

(3) Use of Tamil Language: The Constitution recognizes only Sinhala as the official language but gives recognition to Tamil as a national language and as language for administration in Tamil areas. The Tamils state that this provision has not been implemented adequately.

(4) The policy of colonization: The Tamils have expressed great concern at the Government's policy of colonization especially in the northern and eastern provinces. They have pointed out that from 1953 to 1971 the Sinhalese population of Trincomalee increased from 15,000 to 55,000 while that of the Tamils increased from 37,000 to about 73,000. Similarly, in Batticaloa the population of the Sinhalese increased from 31,000 to about 95,000 while that of the Tamils increased from 1,30,000 to 2,46,000 - dearly a more rapid increase in the Sinhalese population. This has resulted from a deliberate policy of colonization by the Sinhalese following the establishment of new irrigation facilities and grant of Government owned land for settlement. The Tamils view this as an attempt to turn them into a minority in their traditional homelands.

The 1978 Constitution

This retained Sinhala as the official language but recognized Tamil as a national language along with Sinhala as the language of administration in predominantly Tamil areas. Assurances were given against colonization of Tamil populated areas and on employment. Later, the District Development Council Scheme was introduced. According to the Tamil leaders these schemes and assurances were never satisfactorily implemented and Tamil demands remained largely unfulfilled.

Largely as a result of these demands not being met, terrorism increased and a number of underground groups sprang up-the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam(PLOTE), Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). All are committed to the establishment of a separate State, and they have reduced the room for manoeuvres of the TULF political leadership.

Rather than taking decisive political steps to deal with the situation, the Sri Lanka Government responded with Draconian laws and vested the security forces with extraordinary powers. Because of indiscriminate utilization of these powers, serious violations of human rights have resulted and these are added to the Tamils' sense of grievance.

Undisciplined troops have killed large numbers of innocent Tamil civilians in retaliation against extremist attacks and torture of detenus was reported to be routine.

The 1983 Riots

1983 marked a watershed in the history of the ethnic problem. The ethnic riots in According to the Sri Lanka Government, the 1983 riots resulted in 316 deaths and rendered 100,000 persons homeless. Property destruction was estimated at SL Rs. 2 billion. There is widespread belief that the violence was planned, having the backing of political leaders including some members of the Cabinet, and that the security forces abetted the violence when they did not directly participate in it. The 1983 violence also had an anti-Indian tinge and members of the Indian Mission in Colombo were targets of attack. The riots also began the influx of Sri Lanka Tamil refugees into India.

Following the riots, the Sri Lanka Government sought to assuage Sinhala opinion by amending the Constitution to require all MPs to take an oath against separatism. This led to the TULF MPs losing their seats and resulted in making the cleavage between the Sinhalese and Sri Lanka Tamil leadership complete.