Sinhala, Tamil And Zero Sum Game
By RMB Senanayake -
RMB Senanayake
The official language refers to the language in which records are maintained in official records. British colonial rulers used English as the Official Language, and Court proceedings were recorded in English even when witnesses spoke in Sinhala and Tamil.
Lawyers too spoke in English. It was the same in government offices – both at headquarters and in district and field offices. Government employees knew English and were able to record their views in the form of minutes.
The minutes of interviews were submitted to the higher officers who gave written orders that were recorded. Letters to the government offices were written in English and the public understood that official correspondence would be in English.
The British realized that it was necessary to educate a sufficient number of locals in the English language to man the public service. They depended on the English medium schools run by the missionaries to man the public service. Since the American missionaries were not welcome in the South they opened schools in the North and provided good English education to the people of the North.
The Tamils obtained a disproportionate number of jobs in the public service. This roused the envy of the Sinhalese lower middle class consisting of Sinhalese teachers, and provided the base for the anti-Tamil sentiments among the Sinhalese which the Sinhalese politicians were quick to capitalize on.
The solution to the problem, they thought, was to replace English with Sinhala as the official language in order to obtain more government jobs exclusively for them.
It was based on what economists call the zero sum game – the Tamils must lose job opportunities if the Sinhalese were to get more employment in the public service. So SWRD introduced the Sinhala Only Act which required Sinhala to be the official language, in 24 hours.
