Historical Roots of Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism and the Structural Genocide of Eelam Tamils. Gender Specific Religious Persecution*

The persecution of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka did not begin with the civil war. Its ideological foundations were laid more than a century ago, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under the influence of Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist revivalist movement.

What began as a religious reform effort soon transformed into a political project of Sinhala-Buddhist supremacy. Dharmapala and his contemporaries reinterpreted the ancient chronicle Mahāvaṃsa, which narrates the story of Dīpavaṃsa or Dampadeepa — the “Island of the Dhamma” — to claim that Sri Lanka was divinely destined to belong solely to the Theravāda Buddhist Sinhala race.

Through this narrative, a new national identity was engineered: one that fused Sinhala ethnicity with Buddhist religiosity, excluding all others — especially Hindus, the original custodians of the island’s ancient Dravidian civilisation. Over time, this ideology became embedded in the state’s education, administration, and religious institutions, forming the ideological blueprint for modern Sri Lanka.

A century later, this exclusivist ideology found its legislative expression. In 1956, the Sinhala Only Act was enacted, declaring Sinhala the sole official language of the state. This law systematically marginalised Tamil-speaking citizens — both Hindus and Christians — denying them equal access to education, public service, and state participation. The Act became a tool of linguistic and cultural domination, institutionalising ethnic discrimination.

The next decisive blow came in 1972, when the government abolished the Soulbury Constitution, which had at least nominally preserved minority protections, and introduced a new Republican Constitution. This new framework officially granted Buddhism “the foremost place”, mandating the state to protect and foster it. Sri Lanka was thus redefined, not as a multi-ethnic nation, but as an explicitly Theravāda Buddhist state.

From this point onward, state power and religious identity became inseparable. The constitution itself legitimised the exclusion, dispossession, and subjugation of non-Buddhist minorities. This constitutional nationalism laid the legal and moral groundwork for what would become a structural genocide against the Tamil people.

In the following decades, this ideology translated into devastating realities:

Over 200,000 Tamils were killed during the final stages of the war.

More than 60,000 people were forcibly disappeared, many never found.

Organ harvesting, sexual violence, and mass displacement became systemic.

The Tamil population declined by nearly 48% through killing, displacement, or forced migration.

Over 90,000 women-headed families were left in poverty and trauma.

Two-thirds of Sri Lanka’s military forces remain stationed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, where most Tamil Hindus live, enforcing occupation rather than peace.

Even today, Sri Lanka allocates over 36% of its national budget to defence — one of the highest proportions in South Asia — indicating a state more invested in militarisation than reconciliation.

These structures of domination are sustained by a dangerous alliance between Sinhala-Theravāda extremists and certain Islamist elements, seen most tragically in the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, where extremist ideologies intersected under the guise of religious conflict.

For over a hundred years, Sri Lanka’s political evolution — from Dharmapala’s revivalism to the Sinhala Only Act and the 1972 Constitution — has followed one unbroken trajectory: the creation of a Buddhist ethnocracy. This has systematically erased the political, cultural, and demographic presence of the Eelam Tamil Hindu civilisation.

Yet, in the face of this historic injustice, the Eelam Tamil people continue to survive with resilience and dignity. Our struggle is not only for justice but for revival through education, unity, and moral strength.

As the Jewish community has shown — representing only 0.02% of the world’s population yet earning nearly 22% of Nobel Prizes — even small, persecuted communities can rise through knowledge, solidarity, and purpose. Their history teaches us that survival is not enough; transformation through intellect and unity is the path to dignity and recognition.

Let this be our lesson and our vision: to transform the pain of the past into the power of knowledge, ensuring that the sacrifices of our ancestors lead to a future where the Eelam Tamil identity stands strong, educated, and unyielding before the world.

Nila Bala

17:32

Washington DC

America

11/10/2025