Official Language Act No. 33 Of 1956 (Ceylon)
The Sinhala Only Act (formally the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956) was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English as the official language of Ceylon with Sinhala. The act failed to give official recognition to Tamil, which had not received official recognition before.
Sinhala is the language of Ceylon's (now Sri Lanka) majority Sinhalese ethnic group, who then accounted for around 70% of the country's population. Tamil is the mother tongue of Ceylon's three largest minority ethnic groups (Indian Tamil, Sri Lankan Tamil and Moors), who together accounted for around 29% of the country's population.
The act was controversial as supporters of the act saw it as an attempt by a community that had just gained independence to distance themselves from their colonial masters, while its opponents viewed it as an attempt by the linguistic majority to oppress and assert dominance on minorities. The Act symbolizes the post independent majority Sinhalese to assert its Sri Lanka's identity as a nation state, and for Tamils, it became a symbol of minority oppression and a justification for them to demand a separate nation state, which resulted in decades of civil war.
Read more about Official Language Act No. 33 Of 1956 (Ceylon): British Rule, Ceylon After Independence, Enactment, Tamil and Sinhalese Opposition To The Act, Partial Reversal in 1958, Effect, Languages Today, Further Reading
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