write a breif note on the present relation between india and srilanka?
Answers
Sri Lanka is India’s closest maritime neighbor and is just 30 nautical miles away from the territorial boundary. India has deep historical and cultural ties with this island nation. In this post, we analyze the areas of co-operation between India and Sri Lanka. You can also learn about the major issues between the two nations.
Background of Sri Lanka and History of Civil War
Tamils and Sinhalese are the two major ethnic groups In Sri Lanka. Sinhalese eternal conflict with Tamils for power had been gathering strength since before independence.
Many Tamils attended English language schools which were the passport to higher education and better employment in the colonial period. And the Tamil-dominated Northern Province had comparatively better facilities in terms of education and employment.
Post independence Sinhalese nationalism sought to curb the Tamil presence in education and civil administration. In 1949 Indian Tamil plantation workers disenfranchised, the start of a wave of Sinhalese nationalism which alienates the Tamil people in the region.
The passing of the infamous “Sinhalese Only Bill” in 1956 was an another attempt in the same lines.
The constitutional provisions in the 1972 Constitution favoring the Sinhalese language and Buddhist religion, along with their educational policies convinced many Tamils that they had been perceived as a marginal community.
As a result of open discrimination, in 1976 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was formed to fight for Tamil rights and in 1983 Civil war started.