Question

How did ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka led to a civil war

Answer 1

Dear Student,

The roots of the modern conflict lie I Hindi British Colonial rule. The British ruled over Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) from 1815 to 1948. They started the production of cash crops on the island. Firstly they produced coffee and later they produced rubber and tea. They bought millions of Tamil speaking people to work as plantation labourers. Later on the British established colonies for these Tamil speaking people and also they appointed them on the bureaucratic positions. The Sinhalese were angry with this. So, they passed many acts which discriminated the Tamils and driven them out of the civil services. The Ceylon Citizenship Act (1948) was passed to ban the citizenship of the Tamil population.
Because of all these things the Tamils became angry. The increasing tensions in Sri Lanka led to low level insurgencies in July, 1983. The ethnic riots broke out in Colombo and other cities. The Tamils made their own party named as 'Tamil Tiger'. They killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers that increased violence and Sinhalese attacked over the Tamils. 2000- 3000 Tamils were died at that time. The violence made the situation critical and led to the Civil War.
In this way, the ethnic war led to the civil War in Sri Lanka.
Regards.