Sri Lanka: The Road to Reconciliation

Though the long Civil War in Sri Lanka ended in May of 2009 with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers Elam divisions remain within the country.

Shortly after gaming independence the following law was passed which stripped over a million Tamil's of their citizenship.

 

Ceylon Citizenship Act No.18 of 1948

AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR CITIZENSHIP OF CEYLON AND FOR MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH.
[15th November,1948.]

1.This Act may be cited as the Citizenship Act.PART I CITIZENSHIP OF CEYLON 2.(1) With effect from the appointed date, there shall be a status to be known as "the status of a citizen of Ceylon". (2) A person shall be or become entitled to the status of a citizen of Ceylon in one of the following ways only:- (a) by right of descent as provided by this Act; (b) by virtue registration as provided by this Act or by any other Act authorising the grant of such status by registration in any special case of a specified description. . (3) Every person who is possessed of the aforesaid status is hereinafter referred to as a "citizen of Ceylon". In any context in which a distinction is drawn according as that status is based or registration, a citizen of Ceylon is referred to as " citizen by descent " or " citizen by registration "; and the status of such citizen is in the like context referred to as " citizenship by descent " or " citizenship by registration ". 3, A citizen of Ceylon may, for any purpose in Ceylon, describe his nationality by the use of the expression "Citizen of Ceylon". PART II CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT 4(1) (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Part, a person born in Ceylon before the appointed date shall have the status of a citizen of Ceylon by descent, if - (a) his father was born in Ceylon, or (b) his paternal grandfather and paternal great grandfather were born in Ceylon. (2) Subject to the other provisions of this Part, a person born outside Ceylon before the appointed date shall have the status of a citizen of Ceylon by descent, if - (a) his father and paternal grandfather were born in Ceylon, or (b) his paternal grandfather and paternal great grandfather were born in Ceylon.

Sinhala Only Act

The Sinhala Only Act (formally the Official Language Act) was a law passed in the Ceylonese parliament in 1956 (the country was renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). The law mandated Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community, which is spoken by over 70% of Sri Lanka's population, as the sole official language of Sri Lanka, instead of English which was the language used by the colonial rulers of the island.

Supporters of the law saw it as an attempt by a community that had just gained independence to distance themselves from their colonial masters, while its opponents viewed it as an attempt by the linguistic majority to oppress and assert dominance on minorities. The Act symbolizes the post independent majority Sinhalese to assert its Sri Lanka's identity as a nation state, and for Tamils, it became a symbol of minority oppression and a justification for them to demand a separate nation state, which resulted in decades of civil war.