Tamil Unrest (1971 AD -
1982 AD)
Misery of Tamils that had long
been presented was particularly pushed (for uprising) by two
pieces of registrations approved in the Bandaranaike period.
The first one, passed in 1970, was apparently designed to reduce
their places in universities and the second one was the new 1972
constitution declaring Buddhism as a state's primary religion.
Subsequent civil unrest resulted in a state of emergency in Tamil
areas of the north for several years. During this time, many Tamil
organizations were found among them was the Tamil United Front
founded in 1972 which later became the Tamil United Liberation
Front (TULF) in 1976.
In 1977, Bandaranaike lost
the election for the reorganized UNP making Junius Richard (JR)
Jayewardene, the UPN's leader, became a prime minister. While
Indian Tamils in the plantation areas had no interest in gaining
Tamil state, Sri Lanka Tamils gave support to Jayewardene and
became involved in the parliament under the banner of TULF. The
TULF was later known as the Tamil Tigers (comprised mostly of
Tamil youths), with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
as a strongest group, was responsible for some of the earliest
and most gruesome acts of Tamil terrorism including a trigger of
the most brutally communal riots. As a result, Jayewardene
promoted Tamil as a 'national language' to be used in Tamil areas
and granted Tamil greater local government control. Nevertheless,
the breakout violence did not stop.
The introduction of a new
constitution (Sri Lanka's third) in 1978 was marked as the
country's political development in which greatest power conferred
on the new post of president. Jayewardene himself was elected as
the Sri Lanka first president and re-elected for the second time
in 1982. |
