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majority pro-Sinhala political leadership. A prominent activist has since commented
on the failure of senior Tamil politicians at that time to recognise the danger signs.
“Those with nationalist sympathies had little difficulty in swallowing this
propaganda [against Alfred Duriappah] and failed to ask where this was
leading to. Planted in the minds of youth who were on the threshold of
militancy, it was an instigation to kill.” 29
The senior Tamil leaders were accused by the government of practicing non-violence
only in theory whilst encouraging violence against the State. Mainstream Tamil
parties joined together to form the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). At its first
National Convention, held at Vaddukoddai on 14 May, 1976 and presided over by
S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, the TULF unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the
formation of a separate state of Tamil Eelam.
The politics of violence saw an upsurge after 1977 when the UNP, headed by J.R.
Jayawardene, came into parliament on a two-thirds majority. With the electoral
decimation of the SLFP, the TULF became the major opposition party after securing
the North on a secessionist electoral campaign. Communal violence followed the
elections. Tamils were killed in riots across the island, and large numbers were
displaced. The killing of a police officer, Inspector Bastianpillai, led to the
proscription of the militant movement later to become the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE).
Using the COI Act of 1948, the Jayawardene government appointed a Commission of
Inquiry into the incidents that took place between 13 August and 15 September, 1977,
popularly referred to as the Sansoni Commission. The Second Republican
Constitution (‘the 1978 Constitution’) came into effect on 31 August, 1978. It
established the Executive Presidency and replaced the first-past-the-post electoral
system with proportional representation. The 1978 Constitution recognised both
Sinhala and Tamil as national languages while continuing to state that Sinhala will be
the official language. 30 Tamil was eventually given official language status thorough
constitutional amendments in the 1980s. 31 The Tamil community’s grievances might
have been mitigated had these constitutional provisions been incorporated at the
outset. That said, these provisions have been only weakly implemented to date. 32
29 Hoole, Rajan, op. cit, at p. 18. At p. 8, it is observed that “It is difficult not to be moved by
Chelvanayakam. But on looking back, it is also difficult to avoid the conclusion that the isolation and
exclusive sense of victimhood (that) Federal Party politics brought to the Tamils was unhealthy and
ultimately tragic. There was little recognition by him that the Left which was then powerful in the
South, took the same stand as the Federal Party on the key issues of the day- the citizenship and
language issues. The possibility of an alliance was never taken seriously, if ever contemplated.”
30 Articles 18 and 19 of the 1978 Constitution in its unamended form.
31 2 nd , 4 th , 13 th and 16 th Amendments.
32 Shanthakumar, B. (ed.), ‘Language Rights in Sri Lanka – Enforcing Tamil as an Official Language,’
Law & Society Trust, 2008. The language issue is key in drawing lines between the Sinhala and Tamil
people. A recent study done by the Official Languages Commission covering a population of over 3.5
million of which over 1.1 million were Tamil speaking people living outside the Northern and Eastern
provinces found that, of the 6,626 public officials of all grades working there, only 627 or 9.5 per cent
were proficient in Tamil. A similar study was conducted in the Northern and Eastern provinces found
that (in respect of the over 1.5 million population in these provinces of which the Sinhala speaking
population was a little over 365,000), only 98 or 18.1 per cent of the total of 540 public officials
serving, were proficient in Sinhala - vide interview with Mr Raja Collure, ‘Official Languages Policy -
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