Sinhala Only Bill

▪ 1956, Sri Lanka

      (1956), act passed by the government of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) making Sinhalese the official language of the country. The bill was the first step taken by the new government of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to realize one of the main campaign promises that had brought about his landslide victory in the 1956 general election. Violently opposed by the Tamil-speaking minority in Ceylon, the passage of the bill was followed by rioting.

      The Tamil Federal Party, led by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, pressed demands that Ceylon be made a federal state. To conciliate the Tamils, Bandaranaike made a pact with Chelvanayakam, allowing for the official use of Tamil in Tamil-speaking provinces; in April 1958, however, under pressure of Sinhalese extremists, Bandaranaike nullified this pact. Such severe rioting and communal violence ensued that mass internal migrations of Tamils and Sinhalese occurred, and a state of emergency was declared. In August 1958 The Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act was passed, providing for the use of Tamil for certain administrative purposes and as a medium of instruction in secondary and higher education, a measure that temporarily mollified but did not satisfy either the Tamils or the more extremist Sinhalese.

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