Origins Of The Sri Lankan Civil War
The origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War lie in the continuous political rancor between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. Before and during early part of the colonial rule by Europeans, Sri Lanka was under the rule of three separate kingdoms. War and peace was a status quo between nations, unlike the present status quo of war crimes and terrorism between majorities and minorities. During the colonial rule by Portuguese and then the Dutch, the three sovereign states were ruled as separate entities. The final British colonial rule amalgamated the entire island into a single administrative entity and the minorities were handed over to the mercy of the majority who were warring parties before the period of the European colonisation. According to Jonathan Spencer, a social anthropologist from the School of Social and Political Studies of the University of Edinburgh, the war is an outcome of how modern ethnic identities have been made and re-made since the colonial period, with the political struggle between minority Tamils and the Sinhala-dominant government accompanied by rhetorical wars over archeological sites and place name etymologies, and the political use of the national past.
Read more about Origins Of The Sri Lankan Civil War: Follow Up To Armed Struggle, Rise of Militancy, Denial of Citizenship To Estate Tamils, Language Policy, 1958 Riots, 1970 - Banning of Tamil Media and Literature Importation, 1971 - Universities Act, Rise of Separatism, 1981 - Destruction of The Jaffna Public Library
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