Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was enacted on 8 August 1983 and made it a criminal offence to advocate secession and establishing a separate state within Sri Lanka .It also made it mandatory for Sri Lankan members of Parliament and holders of official posts not to support a separate state within Sri Lankan borders and take an oath on this. This was done as Tamil United Liberation Front had called for a separate state called Tamil Eelam in the Vaddukoddai Resolution and the Black July riots had taken place which led to the Sri Lankan Civil War. [1] [2] [3] [4] This led to members of the Tamil United Liberation Front in the Sri Lankan parliament refusing to take the oath and forfeiting their seats. Tamil separatists led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam took over leadership of the Tamils during the course of the Sri Lankan Civil War. [5] [6] [7]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the northeast of the island in response to violent persecution and discriminatory policies against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan Government.
Sri Lanka is a unitary multi-party semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Sri Lanka is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka.
The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colombo on 29 July 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene. The accord was expected to resolve the Sri Lankan Civil War by enabling the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act of 1987. Under the terms of the agreement, Colombo agreed to a devolution of power to the provinces, the Sri Lankan troops were to be withdrawn to their barracks in the north and the Tamil rebels were to surrender their arms.
The Tamil National Alliance was a political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate Tamil nationalist parties and former Tamil militant groups. The alliance originally supported self-determination in an autonomous state for the island's Tamils. It supported negotiations with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resolve the civil war in Sri Lanka. The TNA was considered a political proxy of the LTTE, with the LTTE personally selecting some of its candidates, even though its leadership maintains it never supported the LTTE and merely negotiated with the LTTE just as the government did.
Neelakandan Tiruchelvam, PC was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, academic, human rights activist and politician. He was a Member of Parliament and Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. He advocated for a peaceful resolution to the Sri Lankan Civil War and is considered one of the most influential researchers on constitutional law and constitutional theory in Sri Lanka.
Veerasingham Anandasangaree is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician, former Member of Parliament and leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front. He is commonly known as Sangaree. A vocal critic of violence committed by all sides, Sangaree is a supporter of federalism similar to that of India as a solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict.
Tamil Eelam is a proposed independent state that many Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Eelam Tamil diaspora aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Large sections of the North-East were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 1990s–2000s during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Tamil Eelam, although encompassing the traditional homelands of Eelam Tamils, does not have official status or recognition by world states. The name is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, Eelam.
Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah was a Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher, politician and Member of Parliament.
Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism is the conviction of the Sri Lankan Tamil people, a minority ethnic group in the South Asian island country of Sri Lanka, that they have the right to constitute an independent or autonomous political community. This idea has not always existed. Sri Lankan Tamil national awareness began during the era of British rule during the nineteenth century, as Tamil Hindu revivalists tried to counter Protestant missionary activity. The revivalists, led by Arumuga Navalar, used literacy as a tool to spread Hinduism and its principles.
Rajavarothiam Sampanthan was a Sri Lankan politician and lawyer who led the Tamil National Alliance from 2001 until his death in 2024. He was one of the longest serving Member of Parliament in the country, serving as an MP from 2001 until his death, and previously from 1977 to 1983 and from 1997 to 2000. He was the Leader of the Opposition from September 2015 to December 2018.
Murugesu Sivasithamparam was a leading Sri Lankan Tamil politician, Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker.
The history of Sri Lanka from 1948 to the present is marked by the independence of the country through to Dominion and becoming a Republic.
Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran is the prime minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, which aims to realize accountability for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed by Sri Lanka against the Tamil minority and to create a separate Tamil state, called Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. He was the former legal advisor to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). By profession he is a lawyer in the United States. He is currently a US citizen and lives in New York City.
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is a Sri Lankan political party which represents the Sri Lankan Tamil minority in the country. It was originally founded in 1949 as a breakaway faction of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). In 1972, ITAK merged with the ACTC and Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) to form the Tamil United Front, which later changed its name to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). ITAK remained dormant until 2004 when a split in the TULF resulted in ITAK being re-established as an active political party. ITAK was the main constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance from 2004 until its dissolution in 2024. As of 2024, the party is the largest Tamil party in Parliament and the third-largest overall, after the National People's Power and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan civil war between separatist Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan Military.
Visvanathan Dharmalingam was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and Member of Parliament.
Arumugam Murugesu Alalasundaram was an assassinated Sri Lankan Tamil teacher, politician and Member of Parliament.
The Vaddukoddai Resolution was adopted on May 14, 1976, in Pannakam, near Vaddukoddai, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It called for the creation of an independent Tamil Eelam by the Tamil United Liberation Front under the leadership of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam. It was a major event in the modern history of Sri Lanka, as it was the first time the demand for a separate state for the Sri Lankan Tamils was made; Tamils had previously only demanded devolution or power sharing under a federal system. TULF contested the 1977 Sri Lankan parliamentary election on its demand for Tamil Eelam and won an overwhelming mandate in the Tamil areas, becoming the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, the only time a minority party has done so. It gave impetus to Tamil nationalists, who claimed it was a democratic endorsement of a separate state.
Xavier Mark Sellathambu was a Sri Lankan Tamil civil servant, politician and Member of Parliament.