Sinhala Only Act

The Sinhala Only Act (formally the Official Language Act) was a law passed in the Ceylonese parliament in 1956 (the country was renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). The law mandated Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community, which is spoken by over 70% of Sri Lanka's population, as the sole official language of Sri Lanka, instead of English which was the language used by the colonial rulers of the island.

Supporters of the law saw it as an attempt by a community that had just gained independence to distance themselves from their colonial masters, while its opponents viewed it as an attempt by the linguistic majority to oppress and assert dominance on minorities. The Act symbolizes the post independent majority Sinhalese to assert its Sri Lanka's identity as a nation state, and for Tamils, it became a symbol of minority oppression and a justification for them to demand a separate nation state, which resulted in decades of civil war.

British rule

Under the British Empire, English was the language of rule in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). Until the passage of the Free Education Bill in 1944, education in the English language was the preserve of the subaltern elite and the ordinary people had little knowledge of it. A disproportionate number of English-language schools were located in the mostly Tamil-speaking north. Thus, English-speaking Tamils held a higher percentage of coveted civil service jobs, which required English fluency, than their share of the island's population.

After their election to the State Council in 1936, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) members N.M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena demanded the replacement of English as the official language by Sinhala and Tamil. In November 1936, a motion that 'in the Municipal and Police Courts of the Island the proceedings should be in the vernacular' and that 'entries in police stations should be recorded in the language in which they are originally stated' were passed by the State Council and referred to the Legal Secretary.

In 1944, J.R. Jayawardene moved in the State Council that Sinhala should replace English as the official language.^[1]

However, nothing was done about these matters and English continued to be the language of rule until 1956.

Sri Lanka after independence

Sri Lanka gained dominion status in 1948 with a peaceful struggle, the passage to sovereignty from the British to the Sri Lankan subaltern elite being a peaceful one. For the first years of independence there was an attempt to balance the interests of the elites of the main communities: the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Most Sinhalese did, however, harbour the view that the Tamils had enjoyed a privileged position under the British. This was mainly due to the British policy of "divide and rule".^[2] In 1949, with the concurrence of the leaders of the Ceylon Tamils, at the behest of the foreign plantation owners, the government disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers, who accounted for 10% of the population.^[3][4]

In 1951, the ambitious Solomon Bandaranaike broke with his party, the conservative United National Party (UNP), and created a new centrist party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). In 1955, the SLFP decided to break ranks with the general consensus on the left to have both Sinhalese and Tamil as official languages to campaign on the slogan "Sinhala Only".

Enactment

In the 1956 parliamentary elections, the SLFP campaigned on largely nationalist policies, and made the one of their key election promises. The result was electoral victory for the SLFP, and "The Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council" or "Sinhala Only Bill" was quickly enacted after the election. The bill was passed with the SLFP and the UNP supporting it, with the leftist LSSP and Communist Party (Ceylon) as well as the Tamil Nationalist Parties opposing it.^[5]

Tamil and Sinhalese opposition to the Act

The Left bitterly opposed it, with Dr N.M. Perera moving a motion in Parliament that the Act "should be amended forthwith to provide for the Sinhalese and Tamil languages to be state languages of Ceylon with parity of status throughout the Island."

Dr Colvin R de Silva of the LSSP responded, in what some regard as famous last words: "Do we... want a single nation or do we want two nations? Do we want a single state or do we want two? Do we want one Ceylon or do we want two? And above all, do we want an independent Ceylon which must necessarily be united and single and single Ceylon, or two bleeding halves of Ceylon which can be gobbled up by every ravaging imperialist monster that may happen to range the Indian ocean? These are issues that in fact we have been discussing under the form and appearance of language issue."^[6]

The passage of the law was met with demonstrations from Tamils, which were repressed, the most prominent by Tamil MPs on "Galle Face Green" in the centre of Colombo.

Partial reversal in 1958

Parts of the law was reversed in 1958, after the so-called "Sinhala Only, Tamil Also" compromise made by the Tamil leaders. On 3 September 1958 the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act - which provided for the use of the Tamil language as a medium of instruction, as a medium of examination for admission to the Public Service, for use in state correspondence and for administrative purposes in the Northern and Eastern Provinces - was passed.^[7] The Left parties continued to demand parity of status until after the Tamil electorate voted overwhelmingly in the 1960 elections for the same leaders who had agreed to the compromise.

Effect

The law had its intended effect. In 1955 the civil service had been largely Tamil; by 1970 it was almost entirely Sinhalese, with thousands of Tamil civil servants forced to resign due to lack of fluency in Sinhala.^{[8][page needed]} For much of the 1960s government forms and services were virtually unavailable to Tamils, but this situation improved with later relaxations of the law.

Languages today

According to Chapter IV of the Sri Lankan Constitution, the Sinhala and Tamil languages are both official and national languages of the country. This constitution was amended in 1987.^[9][10]

According to the Chapter 4: Language of Legislation of the Sri Lanka constitution, previously written law is to be interpreted in Sinhala to avoid mis-interpretation. In the case of a new law the parliament, at the stage of enactment has the authority to determine which version of the legislation prevails in the event of inconsistencies.^[10]

Further reading

• Sandagomi Coperahewa, Bhashanuragaye Desapalanya (Colombo: Godage, 1999)

References

1. ^ "Mr.J.R.Jayawardene on 'Sinhala Only and Tamil Also' in the Ceylon State Council". http://www.tamilnation.co/indictment/indict004.htm#Mr.J.R.Jayawardene. 
2. ^ Mihlar, Farah (1 September 2006). "Britain is failing Sri Lanka's Muslims". The Guardian (London). http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/farah_mihlar/2006/09/post_331.html. Retrieved 23 May 2010. 
3. ^ "Missed Opportunities and the Loss of Democracy". http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume1/Chapter1.htm. 
4. ^ "Plantation Tamils deprived of vote and citizenship, 1948/50". http://www.tamilnation.co/indictment/indict001.htm. 
5. ^ De Silva, K. M., & Wriggins, W. H. (1988). J.R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: a political biography.
6. ^ "Broken Promises". http://www.eelamweb.com/publication/broken_promises/bp5.shtml. 
7. ^ P. A. Ghosh, 'Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and role of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)', APH Publishing, 1999; ISBN 8176481076, 9788176481076
8. ^ Tambiah, Stanley (1984). Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-78952-7. 
9. ^ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA
10. ^ ^{a b} THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA, CHAPTER IV - LANGUAGE