Sri Lanka 3

Sri Lanka

Part three

Contiued with part two   here to go previous one

The Soulbuiy constitution ushered in Dominion status, with independence proclaimed on 4 February 1948.D. S. Senanayake became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon Prominent Tamil leaders including Ponnambalam and Arunachalam Mahadeva joined his cabinet.The British Royal Navy remained stationed at Trincomalee until 1956. A countrywide popular demonstration against withdrawal of the rice ration, known as Hartal 1953, resulted in the resignation of prime minister Dudley Senanayake.

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was elected prime minister in 1956. His three-year rule had a profound impact on his self-proclaimed role of "defender of the besieged Sinhalese culture". introduced the controversial Sinhala Only Act, recognizing Sinhala as the only official language of the government. Although partially reversed in 1958, the bill posed a grave concern for the Tamil community, which perceived in it a threat to their language and culture. The Federal Party (FP) launched a movement of non-violent resistances(atyagraha) against the bill, which prompted Bandaranaike to reach an agreement (Bandaranaike Chelvanayakam Pact) with S. J. V. Chelvanayakam leader of the FP, to resolve the looming ethnic conflict.!118] The pact proved ineffective in the face of ongoing protests by opposition and the Buddhist clergy. The bill, together with various government colonization scheme contributed much towards the political rancor between Sinhalese and Tamil political leaders. Bandaranaike was assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk in 1955.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike; the widow of Bandaranaike, took office as prime minister in 1960, and withstood an attempted coup d'etatin 1962. During her second term as prime minister; the government instituted socialist economic polices, strengthening ties with the Soviet Union and China, while promoting a policy of non-alignment. In 1971, Ceylon experienced a Marxist insurrection which was quickly suppressed. In 1972, the country became a republic named Sri Lanka, repudiating its dominion status. Prolonged minority grievances and the use of communal emotionalism as an election campaign weapon by both Sinhalese and Tamil leaders abetted a fledgling Tamil militancy in the north during 1970. The policy of standardization by the Sirimavo government to rectify disparities created in university enrolment, which was in essence affirmative action to assist geographically disadvantaged students to obtain tertiary education, resulted in reducing the proportion of Tamil students at university level and acted as the immediate catalyst for the rise of militancy.The assassination of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiyappahin 1975 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) marked a crisis point.

The government of J. R. Jayawardene swept to power in 1977, defeating the largely unpopular United Front government. Jayawardene introduced a new constitution together with a free-market Econo my and a powerful executive president modeled after that of France. It made Sri Lanka the first South Asian country to liberalize its economy. Beginning in 1983, ethnic tensions were manifested in an on and off insurgency against the government by the LTTE. A LTTE attack on 13 soldiers resulted in the anti-Tamil race riots in July 1983, allegedly backed by Sinhalese hard-line ministers, which resulted in more than 150,000 Tamil civilians fleeing the island, seeking asylum in other countries. Lapses in foreign policy resulted in India strengthening the tigers by providing arms and training. In 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was deployed in northern Sri Lanka to stabilize the region by neutralizing the LTTE. The same year, the JVP launched its second insurrection in Southern.

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