The Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

The Vaddukodai resolution
If there is any document where the Tamils state their disgust at
the perfidy of successive governments this country had had, and
the Tamil resolve to deal firmly with matters arising from such
hypocrisy, it is the Vaddukodai Resolution. The document states:
“…Successive Sinhalese governments since independence have
always encouraged and fostered the aggressive nationalism of
the Sinhalese people and have used their political power to the
detriment of the Tamils,” and goes on to enumerate the different
spheres of life – political, social, economic and physical – in
which Sinhala nationalism has been used “to the detriment of
the Tamils.”
The relevant portions of the Vaddukodai Resolution are too long
to quote here. Suffice it to say that the areas highlighted are:
depriving the Tamils of recent Indian origin their citizenship;
sponsoring state-aided colonisation in the Tamil-majority areas;
denying the use of Tamil as an official language; giving Buddhism
the foremost place to the detriment of other religions; denying
equality of opportunity to the Tamils in education, employment
and economic life; denying the Tamils’ right to freely enjoy
their culture. The Resolution goes on to accuse governments of
unleashing successive bouts of communal violence on both the
Tamils and Muslims; torturing, terrorising and imprisoning Tamil
youth on flimsy excuses; imposing upon the Tamils the (1972)
constitution without their consent, which gave weightage to
Sinhala representation on the basis of mere numerical strength,
while depriving the Tamils of the few safeguards they had had
under the earlier constitution (1948).
The Vaddukodai Resolution was drafted in 1976. Thirty years
later, has any one of these problems except that of granting
citizenship to the Tamils of recent Indian origin, been addressed
comprehensively, let alone resolved to the satisfaction of the
Tamil people?
Just three examples, would suffice to delineate the procrastination
of the state in recognising Tamil grievances articulated in the
Vaddukodai Resolution. First, even though the Indo-Lanka
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