SUMMARY

The state of Sri Lanka was given independence by Britain in 1948, being called Ceylon at the time of independence. The name was changed in 1972 to the contemporary name of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a turbulent and violent history, wracked by social tensions between political groups as well as ethnic tensions between the majority Sinhalese (mainly Buddhist) and the Tamil (mainly Hindu) and Muslim minorities. Ethnic dissent grew in response to an ever-more Sinhalese and Buddhist dominated polity evolving after independence, with political power being vested nearly exclusively in the hands of certain Sinhalese political dynasties. Armed conflict erupted between the government and the minority Tamils in 1983, as well as against the Marxist JVP in 1971, in response to these factors.

One-sided violence by the state of Sri Lanka surfaced in response to the political grievances of the minority groups and the JVP, and state repression increased to suppress armed conflict and sometimes-violent political dissent by the aforementioned groups.

The government of Sri Lanka has been involved in the intra-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.