ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that while multiple issues coalesce to generate ethno-religious tensions in Sri Lanka, the ensuing violence is best understood when political and economic grievances and preferences get analyzed within the prism of Sinhalese Buddhist majoritarianism. Sri Lanka is Asia's oldest democracy in that it was the region's first country to be afforded universal franchise in 1931. The century leading to Sri Lanka's independence saw riots between Sinhalese Buddhists and Sinhalese Catholics and Sinhalese-Muslim violence. The 1956 election and the subsequent passage of the Sinhala Only Act were seminal events in that they heralded the dominance of Sinhalese Buddhists in the island's politics. But 1956 also was the year that sundered Sinhalese- comity. While some Tamil rebel organizations bent on secession were operating when the 1983 riots took place, the number thereafter may have been as high as 40 groups.
