Question

Explain the majoritarianism in sri lanka 5 points

Answer 1

Hello friend,

Sri Lanka emerged as an independent country in 1948. The democratically elected government adopted a series of measures to establish Sinhala supremacy.

In 1956, an Act was passed to make Sinhala as the official language.The government followed preferential policies favouring Sinhala applicants for University positions and government jobs.The constitution provided for State protection for Buddhism.

       The Sri Lankan Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture and denied them equal political rights which led to increased feeling of alienation among them

Answer 2

Answer:

Majoritarianism was followed in Sri Lanka in the following ways:

After Sri Lanka became independent of the colonial rule in 1948, it had two major communities, the Sinhalese (74 per cent) and the Tamils (18 per cent). As the Sinhalese were in majority, they introduced a series of majoritarian policies to ascertain the supremacy of their community.

They appointed Sinhalese people to preferential positions in government and also made Sinhala as the only official language of the nation. Various government measures gradually increased the feeling of alienation among the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

This led to dissent among the community which with time strained the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities. The distrust between both the communities finally culminated into a Civil war, with Tamils demanding the formation of an independent Tamil state in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. This led to thousands of people being killed in the civil war.

The majoritarian policies of the majority community threatened the unity and integrity of the country.

Explanation: