The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in the island country of Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island due to the continuous discrimination against the Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government, as well as the 1956, 1958 and 1977 anti-Tamil pogroms and the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library carried out by the majority Sinhalese mobs, in the years following Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end.
The United National Party, often abbreviated as UNP, is a political party in Sri Lanka. The UNP had previously been the governing party or in the governing coalition from 1947 to 1956, from 1965 to 1970, from 1977 to 1994 and 2001 to 2004. In total, the UNP governed Sri Lanka for 38 of 69 years of its independent history. The UNP also had control of the executive presidency from the presidency's formation in 1978 to 1994. The UNP is a conservative party to the right of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, favouring a more neo-liberal market-oriented economy. The UNP is also a member of the International Democrat Union.
The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka
Velupillai Prabhakaran was a Tamil guerrilla freedom fighter. Hailed as "Thalaivar" (leader), he was the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The LTTE waged war in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years, to create an independent state for the Sri Lankan Tamil people.
The Tamil National Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka that represents the country's Sri Lankan Tamil minority. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate Tamil nationalist parties and former 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 which selected 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.
The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) is an Eelam Tamil organisation campaigning for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in the northeast of Sri Lanka. The TELO was originally created as a militant group, and functioned as such until 1986, when most of its membership was killed in a conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Its surviving members reorganised themselves as a political party, and it continues to function as such today.
The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) is a political party and a pro-government paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka. It is led by its founder Douglas Devananda.
The United Socialist Party is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It is affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International.
The Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), also known as the Eelam Revolutionary Organisers, is a former Tamil militant group in Sri Lanka. Most of the EROS membership was absorbed into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990. The rump, which continues to use the EROS name, has transformed itself into a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. EROS' political wing is known as the Eelavar Democratic Front.
Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups rose to prominence in the 1970s to fight the state of Sri Lanka in order to create an independent Tamil Eelam in the north of Sri Lanka. They rose in response to the perception among minority Sri Lankan Tamils that the state was preferring the majority Sinhalese for educational opportunities and government jobs. By the end of 1987, the militants had fought not only the Sri Lankan security forces but also the Indian Peace Keeping Force. They also fought among each other briefly, with the main Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group dominating the others. The militants represented inter-generational tensions, as well as the caste and ideological differences. Except for the LTTE, many of the remaining organizations have morphed into minor political parties within the Tamil National Alliance, or as standalone political parties. Some Tamil militant groups also functioned as paramilitaries within the Sri Lankan military against separatist militants.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi formerly known as the Dalit Panthers of India or the Dalit Panthers Iyyakkam is an Indian social movement and political party that seeks to combat caste based discrimination, active in the state of Tamil Nadu. The party also has a strong emphasis on Tamil nationalism. Its chairman is Thol. Thirumavalavan, a lawyer from Chennai and its general secretary is the writer Ravikumar.
Tamil Eelam is a proposed independent state that Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The name is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, Eelam. Tamil Eelam, although encompassing the traditional homelands of Sri Lankan Tamils, does not have official status or recognition by world states. Sections of the Eelam community were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 1990s–2000s.
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.
Tamil nationalism is the ideology which asserts that the Tamil people constitute a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Tamil people. Tamil nationalism is primarily a secular nationalism, that focus on language and homeland. It expresses itself in the form of linguistic purism, nationalism and irredentism, Social equality and Tamil Renaissance.
The history of Sri Lanka from 1948 to present is marked by the independence of the country through to Dominion and becoming a Republic.
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a government in exile among the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora which aims to keep alive the idea of Tamil Eelam, a state which TGTE aspires to create in the north and east provinces of Sri Lanka.
Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is a Sri Lankan political party which represents the Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minority in the country. It was originally formed in 1949 as 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 Tamil United Liberation Front. ITAK remained dormant until 2004 when a split in the TULF resulted in ITAK being re-established as an active political party. ITAK is constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is a Trotskyist political party in the United States, one of several Socialist Equality parties around the world affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). The ICFI publishes daily news articles, perspectives and commentaries on the World Socialist Web Site and maintains Mehring Books as publishing house.
The Vaddukoddai Resolution was adopted on 14 May 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 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.
Dharmalingam Siddarthan is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician and Member of Parliament. He is the current leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
