Social_Studies

The Sinhalese-only policy angered many Tamils in Sri Lanka as they felt that they were deprived of the opportunity to achieve jobs in the government service and they took the streets for a peaceful demonstration but encountered many supporters of the Sinhala language and it eventually escalated into a riot. After that, leaders of both races gathered to sign a pact to use Tamil in Tamil-populated areas, in 1957, after the riots between the races led to many deaths and there were many clashes between both races causing political instability, as there was frequent fighting. Since then, the Sri Lankan Constitution has granted greater recognition to the Tamil language by declaring it the national language leading to greater peace between both races and also better ties between the leaders of both races. However, the resettlement policy also led to political instability as many Indians were unhappy that the Sinhalese were being given more land and the lands they were being relocated to were traditional Indian lands with Indian villages emptied and then offered to Sinhalese settlers and Indian land being given to the Sinhalese too, the Indians felt that the government was siding with the Sinhalese and were deeply unhappy with them as the different races are also not evenly distributed throughout Sri Lanka. The government had also implemented this policy to aid the landless Sinhalese peasants but no help was given to the Tamils leading to the Tamils unhappiness with the government leading to political instability with the Tamils against the government. The government had also sided with the Sinhalese on many occasion two main ones being the awarding of citizenship rights and university admission criteria. When Sri Lankan government gained independence in 1948, they chose to grant citizenship only to those who were born in Sri Lanka or had forefathers born in Sri Lanka, this policy led to many Tamils being stateless even though they had contributed significantly to the economy. The Tamils also did not have access to basic rights such as the right to vote, education, housing and jobs with priority given to the Sinhalese. Even though in 1964, when India tried to help the stateless Indians but it fell through in the end as the Sri Lankan government refused to cooperate and also due to the outbreak of ethnic violence leading to political instability as the Sri Lankan government was undecided in whether to allow the Tamils to move to India and granting those who were unable to move, Sri Lankan citizenship leading to the riots in Sri Lanka Even though the resettlement policy angered many Tamils, there wasn’t as many riots as compared to when the government chose to have Sinhala as its national language. Although Tamils were affected by the resettlement, it was only a few areas with the Tamils having Sinhalese in their land however, the recognition of Sinhala as the national language affected many Tamils and also the fact that the Tamils were given the choice to learn Sinhala in 3 years or lose their jobs which was a task perceived by the Tamils as difficult. It also affected all Tamils compared to the amount of Tamils affected by the resettlement policy, thus the Sinhalese-only policy caused more political instability than the resettlement policy.