Braindead Zombies of the Biriyani Aragalaya
The only reason for Tamil separatism was that during the British colonial period, the Tamil (Vellalar) elite class, which enjoyed greater privileges, gradually lost its political and civil powers after the British left Sri Lanka. Until then, the Tamil elite had dominance in the State Council of Sri Lanka, the Ceylon Civil Service, academic education, and professional fields. With the departure of the British, since the majority population of the country was Sinhala-Buddhist, they gradually began to naturally gain power in these fields, from which they had been excluded during British rule.
The Tamil elite correctly predicted in advance that they would lose the power they previously held. Accordingly, by the 1940s, based on a concept of a Tamil homeland they had developed, they created an idea of a separate “Tamil state.” This idea was primarily initiated by C. Sundaralingam and S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. This emerged in parallel with India’s Dravida Nadu movement in the 1940s, which also called for a separate Dravidian state.
It was not only the Tamil elite who were dissatisfied with the Sinhala-Buddhist community gaining power; Sri Lanka’s Christian elite were also not happy about it. A group of Christian military officers attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister in 1962 and establish a military government for this reason.
In any case, based on the Tamil homeland myth, S.J.V. Chelvanayakam formed the Federal Party (Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi) in 1949. That marks the beginning of separatism in Sri Lanka.