Sad Tale Of Sri Lanka Tamils-What Happened And What Needs To Be Done?
May 23, 2012
By Dr G K Nathan -
The current situation is due to four and a half centuries of colonial rule by Portuguese, Dutch and finally British who thought that the proposed Sri Lanka constitution at the time of Independence in 1948, provided protection to minority communities: Eelam Tamils (one of the original group of inhabitants, mainly Hindus), Upcountry Tamils (Indentured labour brought to work in plantation industry starting from the nineteenth century, mainly Hindus), Muslims (number of groups of Islamic faith arrived over many centuries, but majority is Tamil speaking) and Burghers (mixed race between Europeans and local people of Christian faith).
Unfortunately, Sinhala majority community failed to respect or accommodate the rights of other groups; immediately after Independence, almost half of the Upcountry Tamils were disenfranchised, started the state aided colonization, later denied language, educational and political rights of minorities; also changed the constitution twice further marginalizing the minorities rights’. Above acts happened because Britain failed to incorporate rigorous safeguards in the constitution for the protection of rights of minorities; furthermore the constitution did not meet the needs of multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious groups in Sri Lanka. This led to Sinhala-Tamil conflict, started with peaceful protests that were oppressed and culminated with Tamil youths taking up arms; the early phase of armed conflict was supported by Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister of India, finally in 2008 India collaborated with Sri Lanka in ending the military conflict.
During the three decades long armed conflict and based on available published estimates, minimum casualties are put at: killed (100,000), maimed (30,000), widowed (85,000) and also large scale destruction of infrastructure and means of livelihood during the conflict over the past six decades, left them as destitute. Everyone who has followed and others who have experienced this catastrophe is hoping for a fresh initiative from the International community to resolve the six decades long Sinhala-Tamil conflict.
