ABSTRACT
With independence in 1948 Sri Lanka was heralded as a model for democracy in the Third World, but within two decades it became the archetypical example of a country wrecked by political violence. Colonial Sri Lanka was no exception. In response to the Sinhala domination in the post-colonial state building process, Tamil elite began to mobilize the Tamil masses, which effectively brought the two ethnic communities to a face-to-face confrontation. A conflict between Sinhala and Tamil political elite had already begun in the last three decades of British rule. The growth of Tamil political resistance on territorially based political demands created resentments amongst politically conscious members of the Sinhalese community. The rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was the most consequential event in the development of Tamil militancy. Although the Northern insurgency is connected to the Tamil nationalist resistance, the socio-economic issues of the oppressed youth were the same in both the North and the South.
