Causes of the conflict between T & S

Citizenship Rights

After gaining independence, the Sri Lankan government passed Ceylon

Citizenship Act (CCA) on 1948 for people who either born or whose
forefathers were born in Sri Lankan.

Thus, many Indian Tamils found themselves stateless.

Though they live in Sri Lankafor several years and contributed significantly to
the Sri Lankan economy, the Indian Tamils did not have the basic rights such
as education, jobs, housing and voting.

As a result, in 1964, India helped the stateless Indian Tamils by holding a

discussion with Sri Lanka and agreed to allow a certain number of Indian
Tamils to return to India.

The rest were to be granted as a Sri Lanka citizenship.

HOWEVER, the agreement was not carried out fully as it was interrupted by
the outbreak of ethnic violence.

As many 100,000 Indian Tamils remained stateless.

In 2003, Sri Lanka passed the grant of citizenship to Persons Of Indian Origin
Bill (IOB) which provided citizenship to any Person Indian Origin

who had permanently stayed in Sri Lanka since 1964 or

descended from someone who had permanently stayed in Sri Lanka since
that date.

As the agreement to grant Sri Lankan citizenship to Tamils were not carried
out fully in 1964,

the Tamils felt that they were not highly regarded by the Sri Lankan
government and

were treated like 2nd class citizen.

They felt used and

this resulted resentment that further fueled the hostility between Tamils and
Sinhalese causing the conflict.

Sinhala Only Policy

When Sri Lanka was under British rule, English-educated Tamils could enter
the government service and be promoted.

Although the Tamils were the minority in the country, they occupied some of
the most powerful jobs in the government service.

On the other hand, the Sinhalese were the majority in the country but were at
disadvantages as they could not read or write English well.

After Sri Lanka achieved independence, English remained the official

language but the Official Language Act changed Sinhala as the Language Of
Administration (LOA)

A peaceful demonstration against the Official Language Act was carried out
but

was interrupted by rioting among supporters of the Sinhala Language which

resulted in many deaths.

Tamils in the government service was given 3 years to learn or they will be
dismissed.

This resulted the Tamils to be upset as they found it difficult to find jobs or be
promoted.

In 1957, the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil leaders signed a pact to
make Tamil a language of the Tamil minority and

to allow its use as a language in the Northern and Eastern part of Sri Lanka
where most Tamils lived.

TAMILS FELT THAT THEY WERE OPENLY DISCRIMINATED AND THEY WERE
ROBBED OF THEIR JOBS when they were forced to learn a foreign language.

This cause resentment and hatred towards the Sinhalese

resulting in tension between T&S. Which led to fighting and death.

University Admission Criteria

Before 1970,

UAC was based on merit and the examinations were in English which
benefited the English-educated Tamils as they scored well in examination.

The proportion of Tamils admitted to university was significantly higher than

the proportion in the population.

EXAMPLE:
The number of Tamils and Sinhalese students was almost equal in the most
requested medical and engineering courses although the Tamils only made
up of 18% of the population.

After 1970,

the government introduced new UAC.

Tamil students had to score higher marks than the Sinhalese students to
enter the same courses in the university.

A fixed number of places in the university were also reserved for Sinhalese.

Admission was no longer based on academic results.

Due to the new requirements set by the government,

Tamils are robbed of their education opportunities to enter the university

which negatively impacted their job propects and future.

This caused them to be disillusioned and the hatred towards the Sinhalese
increased which resulted in hostility between them.