How Majoritarianism Has Increased the Feeling of Alienation Among the Sri Lankan Tamils? Explain.
Sri Lankan Tamils felt alienated because:
- Government adopted majoritarian measure to establish Sinhala Supremacy. In 1956, an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the only, official language thus disregarding Tamil.
- The governments followed preferential politics that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.
- A new Constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.
- Sri Lankan Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture.
- As a result, the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities strained overtime and it soon turned into a Civil War.