How Sri Lankan government isolated the minority group?
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Answer:
Throughout most of this decade, Sri Lanka has suffered from escalating violence. Once the envy of many developing countries for its educational and health care systems, the current crisis has reversed these achievements and damaged much of the social fabric of this small Indian Ocean country. The conflict centers around years of pent-up frustrations between two ethnic groups - the largely Buddhist, Sinhala-speaking majority, which composes some 75 percent of the population, and the mostly Hindu, Tamil-speaking minority; which makes up about 17 percent of the country.
Until last summer, even though more than 100,000 Tamils had fled to nearby southern India, the civil war was largely internal in its dimensions. But in July 1987, Indian peace-keeping forces, under an arrangement between the Sri Lankan and Indian governments, moved onto the island to enforce a political settlement that would theoretically grant Tamils greater rights as a minority and demilitarize the conflict areas. The forces have encountered stiff resistance by Tamil armed groups, which were initially pressured into favoring the agreement but are now fighting everyone - including themselves.
India is attempting to repatriate the Tamil refugees back to Sri Lanka; other governments, mostly European, which see influxes of thousands of Tamils seeking political asylum, wish to do the same. With little confidence that the war is over, many Tamils are reluctant to return to their homeland. Thus, a resettlement dilemma is taking shape which requires some historical background to fully comprehend.
The Great Destabilizer Enflames Sri Lanka
Last year in New York City, Sri Lanka's National Security Minister Athulathmudali casually referred to how the US is partly responsible for problems in Sri Lanka today. In the early 1800s, he correctly noted, US missionaries started in educational institutions in northern areas of the island inhabited by Tamils. This quality education led to Tamils having better access to universities and employment in government. This situation bred resentment by many Sinhalese and began to be reversed after independence in 1948 by successive Sinhalese-dominated governments.
The minister was right in suggesting that many Tamils became frustrated with limited access to schools and government work. But far more revealing is his perception, as a Sinhalese, that the crisis stems from "problems with Tamils." Tamils, who have been systematically discriminated against since independence, are no more a cause to conflict in Sri Lanka than are persons of color in South Africa for the abuses of apartheid. The fundamental cause to the civil war in Sri Lanka is the nation's inability to forge a just political system that accommodates diverse ethnic groupings.
Of course, this is not just a problem in Sri Lanka, but a global problem. As the respected editor of the Lanka Guardian in Colombo notes in a New York Times article:
Ethnic allegiance is no respecter of state borders, which have been arbitrarily drawn. The struggle for cultural identity is now the world's most potent anti-systemic force, the great destabilizer. The violence it generates defies the neat categories of "class war" of Marxism-Leninism just as it makes nonsense of the Soviet-sponsored global terrorism theories of Reaganism-Thatcherism.
Answer:
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Explanation:
in Sri Lanka sinhala community was in majority so they secured dominance over government.
An act was passed to recognise sinhala as the official language disregarding tamil.
A new Constitution came that gave more preference to buddhism.
Due to these reasons Sri Lankan tamils felt that the government were denying them equal rights, discriminating them in getting job and other opportunities.
Sri lankan tamils launched parties and struggles for the recognition of tamil as an official language and for regional equality and equality for opportunity to secure jobs and get educated.
however their demand was declined.
In 1980s several political organizations were formed demanding for and Independent tamil state In north east parts of the country.
This distrust between the two communities led to a civil war.