EXPLAINING EELAM
this carrd will be covering:
who are the tamilssinhalisation in ceylon/sri lankathe history of anti-tamil violence in ceylon/sri lankathe LTTEthe definition of tamil eelamthe eelam tamil genocide
[not completed yet]
tamil is a language, race, culture and some even consider it as a religion. the tamils are a dravidian ethnic/ethnolinguistic group who are native to south india and the northeastern province of sri lanka.
with tamil being the only classical language to make it to the modern world, tamil is the oldest living language [thought to have been formed in 450 BC]. many modern-day inventions and scientific ideas were created by tamil people, such as mathematical astrology. tamil people and culture have influenced a lot of modern day south asian culture, which is why it is upsetting that the heritage is being destroyed slowly.
sinhalisation: the enforcement of the sinhala language and sinhalese culture onto tamils, veddas, and other minorities.
shortly after sri lanka's independence in 1948, claims of favored treatment of tamils by the british were made. several pieces of anti-tamil legislation were subsequently passed. the citizenship act of 1948 meant that approximately one million tamils from india who had been brought by the british to work in the plantations could not consider themselves "sri lankan”. the act also denied those same “stateless” people the right to vote.
“land development schemes” have also played a significant role in allowing the state to justify state-sponsored sinhalization. these lands were distributed in order to carry out various settlement plans, particularly in historically tamil areas. there were many types of schemes including village expansion, youth development, agriculture, irrigation and fisheries. however, these schemes were less effective at fostering genuine development and more effective at settling sinhalese people in tamil land.
on top of this, tamils were also not allowed to speak their language in official areas, thus were not let into political spaces or the parliament. this was due to the "sinhala only act", which was only discontinued in 1987.