Abstract
Sri Lanka came to the international limelight through the backdrop of its undesirable war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that lasted over three decades. The LTTE was formed as a social force, and then it transformed as a leading armed movement to forward their decades-long quest to set up a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. The government ended the LTTE’s secessionist struggle in May 2009 after a lengthy and bloody battle. Several national and international factors played a crucial role in ending the civil war sooner. The study used a qualitative method of inquiry to explore the key factors that led to the fall of the LTTE, a vigorous armed movement that attempted to set up a separate state in the Island of Sri Lanka. The findings show that strong political leadership, fortified security forces, implementing sophisticated national security strategies, the split of the LTTE and the global war on terrorism are the major factors that had a significant impact and contributed in the LTTE being defeated in 2009.
Highlights
In the post-colonial era of the state of Sri Lanka, the ethnic majority dominated the process and framework laid for framing rules
By reviewing the historical relationships between the state-society and their rivalries from the post-independence period, this paper aimed to preset the growth of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a vigorous social force tracing their journey into challenging the image and actual practice of the unitary model of the Sri Lankan state
Their uprising weakened the actual practice of Sri Lankan state, and both parties entered a phase of negotiations when both matched each other leading to a stalemate
Summary
In the post-colonial era of the state of Sri Lanka, the ethnic majority dominated the process and framework laid for framing rules. This served as a key instrument of domination as seen on the societal layers within their territories. They prioritised the Sinhalese majority that enjoyed the benefits of state policies planned and implemented for their benefits and interests. The mainstream political parties whilst appeasing the majority were discriminatory against the Tamil minorities This led to a slew of policies such as the Citizenship Act, Sinhala only Act, land policies, university admission policies hurting the minorities. The post-colonial legacy of Sri Lanka had an undesirable trajectory (Fazil, 2016; Fowsar, 2020)
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