Various
parts of Tamil Nadu has seen many
people protesting against neighboring island Country Sri Lanka that
is accused of killing millions of Tamil people after defeating the-
erstwhile powerful activists- LTTE in the year 2009 after a civil war
that lasted for about 26 years.
Especially the Tamil Nadu political parties and social organizations
are staging huge number of protests day after day. A majority of
faction blames Indian union government stating it to have supported
the Sri Lankan army with weapons and armed training to defeat militants as a retaliation to the killing of former Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The
politicians in Tamil Nadu have very well reacted for the issue. From
boycotting the travel of Sri Lankan citizens to India from
restricting the Indian Prime Minister to attend the recent
Commonwealth meet in Colombo. Opposition is not a matter of fact as
all politicians were seen fighting unanimously for the cause.
The
fact is, not only from 1983-2009, since time immemorial the conflict
between Tamils and Sinhalaese in the island country persist. So now
let us go back to the times of Pallavas and Cholas.
Conquest
Of Pallavas, Cholas
The
inscriptions and records so far available says that the Pallavas were
ruling the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. During the time
of Narasimhavarman I(630
CE– 668 CE),
numerous number of rock cut temples in dravidian style were
constructed. And coming to the Cholas conquest, Raja Raja Chola
captured Anuradhapura in Northern Sri Lanka somewhere between 991 AD
and 993 AD and dominated the northern province till 1076 AD-1077 AD.
The Cholas made use of a local civil war against the then Sinhalese
monarch Mahinda V.
Raja
Raja Chola was succeeded by Rajendra Chola and the latter by
Kulothunga Chola. Things were successful until 1041 AD when
Vikramabahu I rose in a rebellion and drove chola to Pulattinagara.
But he mysteriously died. When Rajendra was successfully carrying-out
the conquest of his predecessor Kulothunga lost it. But by 1076 AD-
1077 AD Vijayabahu, the Sinhalese king fought back and drove the
Tamil rulers out of the island.
During
the reign of Cholas it is said that certain Tamil business
communities who had trade affairs with Sinhalese entered the island
and started trading from there. Nagarattar, Nanadesi, Valanjiyar were
some who settled down in Sri Lanka during the conquest of Cholas. It
is also mentioned that certain Vanniyar community settled down on the
eastern parts of the island. All such communities were apparently
dominating the Sinhalese in their home land in the upcoming
centuries.
1900s
To Post-Independence Era
Eventhough
invasions and conquests make a irreversible damage to ethnic
settlements, people have accepted each other as happened in the case
of other countries at one point of time. But minor issues were revolving around, which blew up and led to acts of discrimination
and adding injury to the wound.
But
unlikely, the beginning of 19th
century saw dominance of the Tamil community who were appointed in
top government posts and designated especially to dominate the
ethnics. As per the records, after 1948(Independence) it is said that
Tamil communities continued dominating them for which the latter
opposed and led the Government pass Sinhala Only Act on the year
1956.
According
to this Act, Sinhala became the official language of Sri Lanka as 70
percent of the nations population constituted Sinhala. So this act
certainly discriminated the Tamil language. But opposition mounted as majority of civil servants were Tamils, which led the government to
revert it as Sinhala Only, Tamil Also in 1958. But by 1970,
everything was Sinhalese in civil service departments thereby forcing the Tamils to resign as they
were not fluent in the ethnic language.
By
1970 Policy Of Standardization was launched stating disparity in the
colonial structure. The policy was claimed to be discriminating the
Tamils thereby asking them to score more marks in university entrance
exams.
All
these issues and even more paved way for Black July in 1983 and all put together served as a reason for the civil war that
broke out on the same year taken forward by well known militant group and
lasted till 2009. By 2009 militants were defeated by the army.
