Sri Lanka: majoritarian state-building after 1948

Detail

1. The land and the people

• Location: Sri Lanka is an island nation. It lies only a few kilometres off the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, across the Palk Strait.
• Population: about 2.2 crore at present; verify the latest census figure (NCERT: "about two crore").
• Language groups:

Group	Share	Where they live / origin
Sinhala speakers	74%	The majority across most of the island
Tamil speakers (all)	18%	Split into the two groups below
— Sri Lankan Tamils	13%	Native Tamils whose families settled long ago. They live mainly in the north and east
— Indian Tamils	~5%	Descendants of plantation workers that the British brought from India in colonial times

• Britannica also divides Tamils into two groups. Sri Lankan Tamils descend from people of south-east India who settled long ago. Indian Tamils are more recent migrants whom the British brought in as plantation workers [7][4].
• Religion:
• Most Sinhala speakers are Buddhists.
• Most Tamils are Hindus or Muslims.

• About 7% are Christians, and they come from both the Sinhala and Tamil groups.

• Tamil-speaking Muslims (Moors) speak Tamil but see themselves as a separate community, not as "Tamils". So the minority side has more than one identity.

2. What is majoritarianism?

• Majoritarianism: the belief that the majority community may rule the country however it wants and may ignore what minorities want and need.
• It confuses majority rule (the bigger group wins elections) with majority domination (the bigger group decides everything alone).
• It is the opposite of accommodation, which is power-sharing that gives minorities a real share in government. Belgium is NCERT's example of accommodation.

3. Independence and the drive for Sinhala dominance

• Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became independent on 4 February 1948.
• Sinhala leaders wanted to dominate the government because they were the majority.
• NCERT names three majoritarian measures:

Measure	Year	What it did
Official Language Act ("Sinhala Only Act")	1956	Made Sinhala the only official language and left out Tamil
Preferential policies	1950s–70s	Favoured Sinhala applicants for university places and government jobs
New constitution	1972	Required the state to "protect and foster Buddhism"

4. The Sinhala Only Act, 1956

• Sinhala Only Act: the popular name for the Official Language Act (No. 33 of 1956). It made Sinhala the only official language of Ceylon and gave Tamil no official status.
• It was the first step taken by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's new government. It kept one of the main promises behind his landslide win in the 1956 general election [2][3].
• Chain of effects:
• Tamil speakers opposed the bill strongly, and riots followed its passage [2].
• The policy pushed Tamils away from the state. The Federal Party (the main Tamil party) led a bitter opposition [2][3].
• Tamil speakers in government service now had to work in Sinhala. That shut many of them out of public jobs.

5. Failed accommodation: the B–C Pact and the 1958 riots

• Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact (1957): an agreement between PM Bandaranaike and Federal Party leader S.J.V. Chelvanayakam.
• It promised regional councils with some self-rule.

• It allowed the official use of Tamil in the Tamil-speaking provinces [2].

• How it collapsed:

• Sinhala extremists put pressure on the government. Bandaranaike cancelled the pact in April 1958 [2].

• Severe communal riots followed. Tamils and Sinhalese moved in large numbers to areas where their own community lived, and a state of emergency was declared [2].

• Partial remedy: the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act, August 1958, allowed Tamil for some administrative work and as a medium of teaching in secondary and higher education [2].

• It did not restore equal official status for Tamil. So the anger remained.

6. Shutting Indian Tamils out of citizenship

• Ceylon Citizenship Act, 1948: citizenship mostly depended on proving descent from people already in Ceylon, through records most plantation workers did not have. As a result, most Indian Tamils became stateless (they were citizens of no country).
• 1949 franchise law (Ceylon Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act): it linked the vote to citizenship. Indian Tamils therefore lost the vote.
• India–Sri Lanka settlement:
• The Sirimavo–Shastri Pact (1964) and a 1974 agreement divided the stateless people. Some would go back to India, and the rest would get Sri Lankan citizenship.
• 4,61,639 Tamils were sent back to India under the 1964 and 1974 Agreements on Persons of Indian Origin [5].
• Sri Lanka gave citizenship to 7,40,985 Indian-origin Tamils through several citizenship laws passed between 1967 and 2003 [5].

7. "Standardisation" of university admissions (1970s)

• Standardisation: a policy that adjusted entrance marks by language medium, and later by district, before admitting students to university. It began under the United Front government after the 1971 unrest [6].
• The stated aim was to make science faculties reflect each community's share of the population [6].
• In practice, Tamil students needed higher marks than Sinhala students to get into the same science faculties [6].
• Result: the Tamil share in university science faculties fell [6]. Educated young Tamils became especially angry, and this fed later militancy.

8. The 1972 Republican Constitution

• Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 and stayed in the Commonwealth [4].
• Buddhism was given "the foremost place" [4]. Section 6 placed a duty on the state to "protect and foster" Buddhism, and the 1978 Constitution kept this as Article 9.
• Sinhala was confirmed again as the official language [4].
• Tamil demands for a federal set-up (power shared between the centre and the regions) were ignored. The constitution kept a unitary state (one in which all real power sits with the central government).

9. The result: alienation of Tamils

• Alienation: a feeling of being shut out, and of not belonging to or being protected by the state.
• NCERT traces the following feelings among Tamils:
• No major political party cared about their language and culture. All the major parties were led by Sinhala Buddhists.
• The Constitution and government policies denied them equal political rights.
• They faced discrimination in jobs and other opportunities.

• Their interests were ignored.

• Over time, relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities became strained. This prepared the ground for the Tamil demand for autonomy and later the civil war (1983–2009), which the next section covers.

• NCERT cartoon: "If Sinhalas don't rule in Sri Lanka, where else will they rule?" It sums up the majoritarian mindset, which treats being the majority as a right to rule alone.

Prelims Hooks

• Sinhala Only Act = Official Language Act, 1956, passed under S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. It made Sinhala the only official language.
• Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact (1957) promised regional councils and the use of Tamil. It was cancelled in April 1958, and riots followed.
• Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act, 1958 gave Tamil a limited role in administration and education. It did not make Tamil an official language.
• Ceylon Citizenship Act 1948 left most Indian Tamils (not Sri Lankan Tamils) stateless. The 1949 law took away their vote.
• Sirimavo–Shastri Pact = 1964, followed by a 1974 agreement. Together they sent about 4.6 lakh people back to India.
• 1972 Constitution made Ceylon the Republic of Sri Lanka, still in the Commonwealth. It gave Buddhism "the foremost place".
• Trap: Sri Lankan Tamils = 13% (native, north and east), while all Tamil speakers = 18%. Sinhala speakers = 74%. About 7% are Christians, from both groups.
• Trap: Standardisation (1970s) concerned university admission marks, not the language of administration.

Mains Points

• Majority rule versus majoritarianism: Sri Lanka shows that a democracy where elections are free can still become unfair to minorities. A majority that controls language, religion, jobs and education through ordinary laws can lock minorities out. Democracy needs constitutional limits on majorities, not just elections. (GS-II: comparing constitutions)
• Accommodation delayed is accommodation denied: the B–C Pact (1957) and partial remedies like the 1958 Act came too late, or were withdrawn under majority pressure. Each failure made Tamils trust the state less and pushed them from asking for federalism towards separatism.
• Contrast with India: India's protections for minority languages and religion (Articles 29–30, 343–351, 25–28, the Eighth Schedule), the 1965–67 language compromise and the linguistic reorganisation of states (1956) accommodated diversity. Sri Lanka's "one language, one religion" policies set communities against each other. This is a useful case-study pair for GS-II and essay answers.
• India's stake: the statelessness of Indian Tamils, the 1964/1974 agreements and refugee flows tied Sri Lankan majoritarianism to India's foreign policy and to Tamil Nadu politics. (GS-II: India and its neighbourhood)