Profil du Pays: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka gained its independence from the British in February 1948 after nearly 450 years of colonial rule that included Portuguese and Dutch control. The country’s colonial history and the influence of Indian civilization have contributed to a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society that currently numbers around 22 million people.

As per the last census, the Sinhalese are approximately 74.9 percent of the population, Sri Lankan Tamils 11.2 percent, Indian Tamils 4.2 percent and Moors (Muslims) 9.2 percent. From a religious standpoint, the island is 70.2 percent Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 7.4 percent Christian (with 6.1 percent of that Roman Catholic) and 9.7 percent Muslim. Muslims primarily speak Tamil, while most younger Muslims now also speak Sinhala, though the community has long used Islam as its identity (thereby differentiating itself from the country’s ethnic Tamils).

The country’s ethno-religious diversity generates complex crosscutting cleavages. For instance, today, about 10 percent of Sinhalese and Tamils are Christian, and one rarely encounters Sinhalese Hindus or Tamil Buddhists, although, in ancient times, Buddhism enjoyed a strong presence in Tamil areas (in both India and Sri Lanka). The majoritarian milieu that has overtaken Sri Lanka since especially independence has unfortunately de-emphasized the common Buddhist link Sinhalese and Tamils share. It has instead emphasized ethno-religious divisions and insularity, thereby contributing to much violence. Religion and ethnicity thus get used as the main diversity types in this analysis, with identities and cleavages such as caste, gender and socio–economic inequalities factored in as necessary.

While caste operates as a major identity marker throughout South Asia, its manipulation has diminished in Sri Lanka since independence. Overall, caste divisions are more pronounced among Tamils. Among Sinhalese, most social interactions outside the private sphere occur without reference to the caste system. However, caste plays an important role in marriage and especially during local elections. The upshot is that while caste constitutes one among many identities, its salience among Sinhalese is less germane than in the past and is not used conspicuously as in neighbouring India.

Sri Lanka represents Asia’s oldest democracy, having enjoyed universal franchise since 1931. The country’s populace makes clear that they prefer democracy to any other form of government. This is so across the board—among women, men, youth and non-youth. The protests in 2021 and 2022 against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government, and the demand across ethno-religious lines that the Rajapaksa family quit politics, attest to how embedded freedom of expression is on the island. At the same time, the country has experienced serious democratic backsliding amidst destabilizing violence. Two left-wing insurrections—the first in 1971 and the second between 1988–89—saw thousands of Sinhalese youth killed. The most destructive violence, however, was due to the civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils that lasted nearly three decades.

The first anti-Tamil ethnic rioting took place in 1956 followed by more riots in 1958. This stemmed from the government superimposing Sinhala as the sole official language. More anti-Tamil violence took place in 1977, but the worst anti-Tamil rioting took place in July 1983 after Tamil rebels ambushed and killed 13 army soldiers. The year 1983 marks the beginning of the civil war; it lasted until May 2009, and over 100,000 people were killed. The defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may have ended the ethnic conflict, but the alleged war crimes perpetrated during that time have complicated Sri Lanka’s diplomacy, especially with countries in the west. The LTTE’s defeat, rather than leading to reconciliation with Tamils over their legitimate grievances and encouraging the state to build a more pluralist post-war milieu, has instead contributed to Sinhalese Buddhist triumphalism.

The civil war caused thousands of Tamils to flee the island, and they now constitute a potent diaspora that demands accountability for the atrocities committed against their families and community. While the Sri Lankan government has taken limited steps toward reconciling with Tamils, it denies being involved in war crimes. The anti-Tamil politics have also exercised those in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and this is a sentiment that the Indian government must consider when dealing with Sri Lanka. This as China’s expanding presence in the island adds to Indian angst.

Since the civil war ended, Sri Lanka has also witnessed anti-Muslim violence. The most serious such rioting took place in 2014, 2018 and 2019. The ethno-religious violence that has hitherto targeted Tamils and Muslims are directly related to attempts by successive Sri Lankan governments to empower Sinhalese Buddhists at the expense of all others. And this by disregarding a history of the communities co-existing amidst amity. The divisive attempts have led to Sri Lanka becoming a veritable ethnocracy even while the island contains numerous constituencies that promote ethno-religious tolerance. In short, while majoritarian, Sri Lanka has regressed democratically, many among its resilient people evidence the capacity to co-exist amidst pluralism. This was a sentiment expressed amidst the massive protests that ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2022.

The proximate cause for the protests was a balance of payments crisis—stemming from longstanding corruption, continuous budget deficits and bloated state enterprises—which was exacerbated by COVID-19’s impact on tourism and remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad. It has led to post-independence Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis. The country was close to attaining upper-middle–income status but the balance of payments crisis has led to widespread hunger especially among rural and low-income communities. The international community will slowly come to Sri Lanka’s aid, and the country will, over time, deal with the scarcity of essentials and its economic woes. Whether the collective trauma will encourage people to band together across ethno-religious lines and thereby strengthen pluralism, however, is yet to be seen.