Name: Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 4 min 41 s
Description: No event showcases the dangers of majoritarianism more than the war between the Tamils and the government in Sri Lanka. Let's take a look at what happened.

Question

"Inadequate power-sharing arrangements have been responsible for ethnic trouble in Sri Lanka." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Accepted Answer

The major social groups in Sri Lanka are the Sinhala speakers, comprising $74$ percent of the total population and the Tamil speakers form a minority of $18$ percent. Most of the Sinhala-speaking people follow Buddhism, while most of the Tamils are Hindus or Muslims.

The Government of Sri Lanka adopted the policy of majoritarianism to establish Sinhala supremacy by disregarding the interest of Sri Lankan Tamils. According to the act of $1956$ , Sinhala was recognised as the only official language of the country and disregarded all the other languages. The new Constitution specified that the state shall protect and promote Buddhism.

The mistrust between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities turned into Civil war. Consequently, thousands of people from both communities have been killed. It ended in $2009$ .

"Inadequate power-sharing arrangements have been responsible for ethnic trouble in Sri Lanka." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Important Questions on Power Sharing

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