Explain the causes of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka attained democracy in the year 1948 and remained the same since then. It comprises of two major ethnicities that is the Tamilians and Sinhalese community. The main reasons for the ethnic conflict were-

• The Sinhala community which originally are from Sri Lanka wanted it to be a country comprising only of their group.

• From a long time however, there has been large scale migration of the Tamil community from India for rubber, coffee and tea plantation.

• The feelings of Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka strengthened due to the neglect faced by them and led to the formation of the group known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) demanding for a Tamil Eelam which is a separate country for Sri Lankan Tamils. They were fighting against the Sri Lankan army for it.

• Since this problem consists of Tamil people of Indian origin this led to the direct involvement of the Indian government in the year 1987.

• The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent to Sri Lanka and they ended up fighting with the LTTE. But since ‘Indian’ presence was not liked by the local people the force was withdrawn in 1989.