Causes of conflicts in Sri Lanka 1.

Citizenship Rights Sri Lanka gained independence from British -> the government passed a CEYLON CITIZENSHIP act -> only grants citizenship to those who are wither born in Sri Lanka or those whose ancestors are born in Sri Lanka -> many Tamils in Sri Lanka are stateless as a result Agreement between India and Sri Lanka allows a number of Indian to return to India and the rest grant Sri Lanka citizenship But still a lot Tamils are stateless -> does not belong to any country and has no voting rights and denied education and jobs 2. Sinhala only Policy When Sri Lanka is under the British rule -> the English educated Tamils can enter the government and even occupy some of the most important jobs in the government -> they can also be promoted even they are the minority in the government Sinhalese even is the majority in the country cannot read or write English well -> disadvantage in competing with the Tamil in government positions The government later passed the Sinhala Only policy which states that Sinhala is the official language of Sri Lanka -> government documents must be written in Sinhala language 3.University admission criteria In the past the university admission criteria is based on No voting rights -> cannot elect Tamil representative to work in government and thus have their views neglected Tamils felt very angry and discriminated as they had worked in tea plantation and had contributed to the economy but they are denied citizenship by the government -> support Tamil tigers as they had a common target

Tamils are given 3 years to master the Sinhala language or be dismissed -> stir Tamils feelings as they felt the policy is unfair and biased towards the Sinhalese many of them perceived this is done in purpose to favor the Sinhala and to discriminate the Tamils -> tension among the 2 racial groups and resentment against the government

The policy made it tough for a Tamil student to enter a university -> they cannot pursue

merit and the examination is in English -> many Tamil people do well as they are English educated and thus can go to universities Later the government introduced the new university admission criteria -> admission now not solely depends on a students results but also its race Tamil students must score more marks to enter the same course as a Sinhalese students e.g. to go the dentist and medicine course ->Tamil: 250, Sinhalese : 229 A fixed number of the University places are resevered for Sinhalese students

their dream as they are crippled by the policy -> felt biased and angry that the government is unfair -> felt the discrimination towards their race -> Join tamil tiger to express anger and discontentment against government