Sri Lanka Flashcards
Tamils
Sri Lanken Tamils
Indian Tamils (plantation workers brought from the British)
Colonization
played an important role in planting seeds of animosity
British laid the roots for ethic conflict
development of an education system that promoted English and gave preferences to the elites that spoke English
Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
Sinhalese (70%) vs Tamil (15%)
Sinhalese promoted their beliefs and that Sinhalese were the first to settle on the land before the Tamils
Tamils
Tamils were denied territorial rights
some form of autonomy within Sri Lanka
Tamils were mostly Hindus
Buddist Monks
believed that Buddism was under threat
this fear was formed by repeated invasion of Sri Lanka
monks tried to advocate that Sinhalese buddist society faced a constant danger from the Hindus (Tamils)
developed this minority complex although they were the majority
Colonisation and Language
issue of language after independence that contributed to the conflict
Sinhalese and Tamil are linguistic groups: emotional identification
under British rule, administration language was English
difficulties in providing English education
if you were not apart of the select few, could not be apart of the English education
this resulted in division/class hierarchies
Choice of Language
Led to movement of choice of language
pushed for the Sinhalese language to be the only official language instead of English
This led Tamils to assimilate to Sinhalese culture
Post-Independence and the Rise of Sinhalese Nationalism
Ethnic differences
because Sinhalese were majority population, this creates an overwhelming voting constituencies
Tamil population tried over and over again mechanism to have their voice heard
when channels were blocked, that is when they restored to violence after their peaceful mechanism were not accepted
Post-Independence and the Rise of Sinhalese Nationalism (part 2)
different communities participated in the political process under British rule
divide country into different territories and would be divided relatively to each community’s size
religious insecurities
minority complex
Post-independence Ethnic Conflict
The Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948
quantified discrimination
strict requirements and documents for Sri Lanken citizenship
very few Indian Tamils were able to bring documents
so, most Indian Tamils became stateless and could not take apart of the electoral process
Post-independence Ethnic Conflict (2)
gave minorities inferiority status in their own country
Sri Lanken Tamils had no choice but to fight againsy this but violence was never first choice:
legal channels, strikes, civil disobedience
Internationalization of the Ethno-nationalist conflict
the role of India and regional-nationalist conflict
80 million tamils
sympathetic towards their ethnic kin
process of peace settlement with India in the middle of it
Refugee Flows
Britain offered Tamil populations asylum
Canada took sympathetic stance
Diaspora outside Sri Lanka would send money and financial support to publicize the issue and help financially
refugees brought stories and anger for their local kin
put pressure on India to intervene for their ethnic kin
India
India tried to compel Sinhalese and Tamil communities to a peace agreement
Gandi (6th prime minister of Sri Lanka) was give the task for mediation of the Sinhalese and Tamil government
give Tamils autonomy in Sri Lanka
death of Gandi led to the closure of these discussions of the agreement
The Ethnic Civil Wars in 1990s and 200s
another round of failed peace negotiations
negotiations
suspensions
internal political turmoil
Tsunami disaster (led to massive destruction)
Internal communities send their humanitarian aids
conflict of distribution aid between LTTE and Sri Lanken government
