Sri Lanka became an independent nation in 1948.  The majority Sinhalese began a program of making the island nation a Sinhala Buddhist State.

The Sinhala Only Act of 1956, which made Sinhala the sole official language, restricted many government jobs to Sinhala speakers, and made changes in university admissions policies based on race.

The government also began re-settlement programs on Sinhalese villagers from the south to the east.

In the decades after independence, Tamils politicians pushed for a federal system through the Tamil Federal Party. The concept of a separate nation, Tamil Eelam, was proposed by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1976.

TULF was a coalition of parties who went on to campaign in the 1977 elections for an independent state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. The TULF won an overwhelming mandate from the Tamil people for a separate state.

 Frustrated by the lack of progress through politics and non-violent protest, Tamil youth started to form militant groups.

In July 1983 after a deadly attack on a Sri Lankan military patrol in northern Sri Lankan by the LTTE, 3000 Tamils were killed in by Sinhalese mobs in 2 weeks of rioting.

In October 1983, all the TULF legislators, numbering sixteen at the time, forfeited their seats in Parliament for refusing to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state in accordance with the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

To date over 65,000 people have died in the conflict.