2. Long questions
a) Compare the ways in which the Belgium and Sri Lanka dealt with cultural diversity,
b) Power sharing is the very spirit of Democracy "Justify the statement with four suitable
points."
c) Evaluate the steps which turned out to be the milestones to the majoritarianiasm in Sri
Lanka,
TER
Answers
Answer:
a)In Belgium, the minority French-speaking community was more rich and powerful than the Dutch-speaking community. The Belgian leaders realized this problem and took some significant measures to solve this as follows
(i) Number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central Government.
(ii) Many powers of the Central Government are given to State Governments.
(iii) Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation.
(iv) Community Government is elected by people belonging to one language community that deals with cultural, educational, and language related issues.
In Sri Lanka, major social groups are the Sinhala speakers (74 percent) and the Tamil speakers (18 percent). In Sri Lanka, the democratically elected government adopted a series of Majoritarian measures to establish Sinhala supremacy. ’
b)Power sharing helps in reducing the conflict between various social groups. Hence, power sharing is necessary for maintaining social harmony and peace. ... Maintaining the spirit of democracy is considered as the moral reason for power-sharing
c)The three steps to achieve majoritarianism by the Sri Lankan government were: In 1956, an Act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official language, thus disregarding Tamil. The governments followed preferential policies that favored Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.