The Civil War In Sri Lanka

The Civil cont rarity In Sri LankaThe Sri Lankan well-bred state of war by definition started in 1983 when both pronounced congregations began to rival, the Sri Lankan g overnment and the expiration Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, a separatist host that was formed seeking to represent the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka (Clarance, 2002). fifty-fifty civil war on an emotional aim mingled with the twain ethnic assorts, Sinhala and Tamils started in 1948, when Sri Lanka was granted independence from the British (Clarance, 2002).Sri Lanka get-go encountered colonialism in 1505 when the Lusitanian arrived in search of valuable natural resources much(prenominal) as cinnamon, tea, and the to the highest degree valuable, land (Clarance, 2002). The Portuguese conquered regions of Kotte, Sitavaka and Jaffna. They likewise aimed to conquer Kandy as well unless failed by dint of several attempts (Clarance, 2002). Next were the Dutch, in 1638 fountain Rajsinha who ruled Kandy at th at beat turned to the Dutch to fight over the Portuguese, the Dutch conquered everything except Kandy (Clarance, 2002). Last to colonize Sri Lanka was the British, they set foot in 1796 when the Dutch rule gave away to the British (Clarance, 2002). The British conquered the stallion island, and make coffee and tea plantations and imported laborers from India in the main Tamils to maneuver in these plantations (Clarance, 2002). In 1947 Sri Lanka call for to become an independent community, and in 1948 Sri Lanka net incomeed independence (Clarance, 2002). On the surface, colonialism arsehole be viewed as harmless and in most areas beneficial as it guided Sri Lanka into development. Even though colonialism brought forth an identity for Sri Lanka in analogy to trade and inter bailiwick exporting, it also brought interval, discrimination, and a hunger for dominance amongst the citizens of Sri Lanka.organism a Canadian natural Sri Lankan Tamil this topic brings colossal wid eness and relevance to me. My Canadian birth is a sequel of this civil war in which my parents found the desperate need to emigrate from their greatly love motherland. This topic is extremely important to me be work I believe in ataraxis and safety for the needy and vulnerable, fierceness and death for the individuals who choose to fight is every bit remorseful however inevitable. I missed both my grandfathers as innocent civilians to the civil war in Sri Lanka likewise more Sinhalese families were destroyed. altogether due to the separation ca employ by run-in, as everything else between a Tamil and a Sinhalese was identical.There are great faults on both sides, with regards to the actions of both opposition parties. until now when pinpointed, the foundation for this violent desire for domination, pile be seen as closure as the main cause if non the only cause for this fight for power and equality.Theoretical BackingColonialism has granted Sri Lanka a controvert impac t rather than the positive outcomes it has provided the ball-shaped northwards with. Through what can be seen as an immature rivalry between European states to gain land, and other valued goods, it is proven that lack of social system and democracy when granting independence to a colony can shatter an entire nation. The development surmisal that supports the argument of colonialism being the main cause of the civil war in Sri Lanka would be the post-development theory. The post-development theory believes that only with relation to the global south, colonialism has been destructive on several levels culturally, economically, socially, and psychologically. Sri Lanka is non the only former European colony that is facing the af margeaths of colonialism several other countries in Asia seduce been robbed of their estimable effectiveness to run as a developed nation, especially in the Middle East. Another prime example would be in Africa, where even in the present day, systems tha t were brought in by the European states are until now being used, such as monarchy. Another more specific theory that would back up this argument would be the postcolonial theory, the postcolonial theory investigates the offspringive and bequest of European invasion on global south. Postcolonial theorist, Franz Fanon states And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they assimilate nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, orthogonal the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms village and decolonization a simply a question of relative strength. Fanon pinpoints the adopt fate that Sri Lanka has overcome with its decades extensive civil war, the need for violence to hit goals, in this case justice and equality.Research and AnalysisColonialism is the necessitateing cause for the now silent, yet on-going civil war in Sri Lanka. When the British left hand Sri Lanka in 1948, they built a government and left power to mainly the wealthy Sinhalese landowners (Lange, 2009). These powerful Sinhalese landowners had nothing in commons with the rural areas or the minorities in Sri Lanka. Thus, taking rule and advantage of the nation to their liking. They made Sinhala as the official national language and also making Buddhism as the official national religion in Sri Lanka. This created great tension amongst the Tamil community as opportunities were not made equal, Tamils were not permitted nor able to obtain a higher level education or work for the government due to the fact they were not able to let out the national language (Lange, 2009). This created massive riots and rage throughout the Tamil community, which last ended in the creation of a separatist group the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam seeking to gain land separate from the Sinhalese state for the Tamils called Tamil Eelam. This was the beginning of a two-decade civil war for the Tamils to both gain equal rights and dignity or to gain a separate Tamil region.Histories of Sri Lanka prior to British colonization are important aspects when examining cause of conflict, in this case the cause of civil war in Sri Lanka. harmonise to enquiry of DeVotta (2000) archeological analysis can prove that Sri Lanka was physically part of India, and was quarantined through plate plumpment caused by slow, natural causes. The southern regions of India, specifically Tamil Nadu, are concentrated with a Tamil population, and the northern regions of Sri Lanka are also concentrated with Tamils. Such relations and connections cannot only be seen through language but also through religion and way of life. Clarance (2002) states that reoccurring enslavement caused by colonialism creates a need for finally holding the dominant, leading post. some(prenominal) the Tamils and the Sinhalese were faced with great amounts of mental an d physical damage when the Portuguese, Dutch, and the British colonized Sri Lanka, however the Sinhalese were faced with a greater level of damage because it was mainly Sinhalese regions that were fought for, such as Katte, Kandy, Sitavaka, Colombo and Anuradhapura (Clarance, 2002). thereof the Sinhalese psychologically developed the need for control, power, domination (Duncan, 2002). Wickramasinghe (2006) expands on the roles that distributively colonizing groups had. The Portuguese conquered Colombo on arrival which caused the Sinhalese population to move into the Kandy region of Sri Lanka. The Portuguese also forced religious conversion, Christianity, Buddhists and Moors a term used for Sri Lankan Muslims were impeached. Wickramasinghe (2006) argues that such invasion of the Sinhalese caused them to make Buddhism as their national religion when independence was gained. Clarance (2002) makes a diverse point in stating that with the colonization of the Dutch it was greatly the fa ult of the Sinhalese. Rajasinghe II who was the king of Kandy in 1638 requested the help of the Dutch to fight against the Portuguese, the Dutch however defeated the Portuguese and overruled what Portuguese had conquered and everything else on the island except Kandy. They also promoted protestant views and demoted Catholicism, and to keep their legacy they mixed themselves with the Sinhalese, now known as Burgher peoples. This subsequent on was a another major cause of great discrimination and violence.The British were the last rulers in Sri Lanka they take the majority of the blame for the current do of colonization and the civil war in Sri Lanka today. According to Lange (2009) the Tamils and the Sinhalese were in peace living together, reason being that different regions were ruled by Kings that were associated with the citizens of that particular region, because conflict with other regions were minimal. When the British entered Sri Lanka in maintenance of the French gaining power of Sri Lanka in 1796, they started off by merely occupying the coastal areas, to remove the Dutch from the picture, through the Treaty of Amiens, the Dutch ruled areas of Sri Lanka was conceded to the British. Since the Dutch had conquered the entire island excluding the Kandy region, the British only had to fight for Kandy. Jones (2008) states that there were two Kandyan wars in which both were defeated by the Kandy. Jones (2008) clarifies that this was the real cause of independence in Sri Lanka, lack of British gaining the most resourceful region in Sri Lanka. However Duncan (2002) elaborates on the beneficial aspects of the British rule in Sri Lanka, the British disdain failing to conquer Kandy, built massive, national standard plantations for coffee which later became tea production, which was the money making resource in Sri Lanka at the time. The Sinhalese were reluctant to work on tea plantation as they were used to the working on the paddy farm. Wanting to expand th e industry thousands of Tamils were shipped from India into Sri Lanka to work on these plantations. Duncan (2002) states that this was also a great cause in the separation between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. As working on a plantation was considered a job of the members of the lower castes, because the desperate and the poor were eager to gain a job at the these plantations for a fraction of what was considered a minimum occupy back then. And since thousands of Tamils were imported from India by the British, this caste was automatically generalized for the Tamils, creating a hierarchy between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Winslow (2001) expands on the final gestures of the British that caused a long term effect on the future of the nation. When Sri Lanka was granted independence the British unconcerned and naively transferred most if not all the power to the Sinhalese, maybe not intentionally by ethnicity but intentionally by who held the most power, the Sinhalese at the time ha d most of the islands land, business, and wealth, in comparison to the Tamils. According to Erritiouni (2010) it was this particular mistake that is until today the leading cause of the civil war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese.Effects of colonialism in Sri Lanka still take in effect today. Errotiouni (2010) proceeds to state the following occurrences that fed this hunger for war. When the Sinhalese gained power for the entire island they omitted the existence and importance of the Tamils, they made the Sinhala the national language of Sri Lanka, and they made Buddhism the national religion of Sri Lanka. This as a result lead to the discrimination of the Tamil population, not being granted access to a higher level of education such as university or college, and not being granted to opportunity to hold a government job, therefore forbidden to gain a position in the government to have a say in the rights that Tamils are given. Jacoby (2006) elaborates on the separatist group Libe ration Tigers of the Tamil Eelam that was formed, as a result of discrimination this group that represented a majority but not the entire Tamil population demanded a separate region for the Tamils, namely, Tamil Eelam. The quest for Tamil Eelam was at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives over the past two and a half decades. A member of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam was the convicted suicide milling machinery in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Indias Prime Minister at the time, in a deadly, sinful quest to gain international attention on Indias coalition with Sri Lankas war against the Tamils. Sri Lanka has lost a great deal as result of this war, the most important, innocent lives.Effects of colonialism are causing major issues in the present time. The recent crisis that occurred in Egypt where nearly the entire population of Egypt protested against the government of former President Mubarak. The fight to start a democratic government, and to end a monarch gove rnment (Pakistan article warns against struggle for power afterwards Egypt unrest, 2011). According to Burke (1998) Europeans set up boundaries around Africa that split up tribal areas and groups of Africans, so Africans who spoke the same dialect or just the same traditions would be split between two different European territories. This also was the cause of monarchies that continue today within countries in Africa. This has caused many civil wars across Africa, and more importantly the mass level of pauperisation that was caused that even until this day is unsolvable.Power is a vital tool that unavoidably to be transferred and received wisely. Colonialism is a prime example of how power should not be gained and withdrawn from. Sri Lanka has been greatly victimized by colonialism and has been ripped from its great potential as a nation. Through the unprofessional use of power by the European states power was distributed unequally to the people in Sri Lanka at the time of decolo nization, which has caused a great deal of destruction and death for tens of thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives due to the crossfire between the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government, they were slaughtered, shot, molested, violated, and tortured solely because they were born either Tamil or Sinhalese. As there were positive personal effects to colonization in Sri Lanka, they will never out weight the negative effects that have caused a greatly unstable nation even today. Power at any level is a position with numberless value especially when it is in relation to people. The Europeans help immense power, but childishly overthrew that power to distribute power in a nation. They intellection for the better of themselves and failed to think for the better good of the nations people. Their decisions that were made carelessly have caused great damage and will continue to cause difficulty in the far future.