Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Over the past three decades, the South Asian island of Sri Lanka has
been ravaged by a savage civil war that has left tens of thousands dead
and hundreds of thousands more fleeing the country. On one side are the
Sinhalese. They constitute the vast majority of the island’s total
population and are primarily Buddhist in faith. On the other side are
the Tamils. They are mainly Hindu by religion and, although they are the
minority in the west and south parts of the island, they are the
dominate ethnic group in the northern and eastern coasts of Sri Lanka.
More than 100,000 Sri Lankans, most of them Tamil, now call Canada home,
yet the average Canadian knows virtually nothing about this island
nation. This book is an excellent introduction.

Author A. Jeyaratnam Wilson was professor emeritus of political science
at the University of New Brunswick until his recent death. His book
combines exhaustive research with a plain-spoken writing style that
guides the reader gently through the complicated events that have led to
the current conflict. Wilson begins at the beginning, when precolonial
Sri Lanka was, in fact, two separate kingdoms sharing one small island.
Then came the European invaders (Portuguese, Dutch, and finally
British), who, for their own convenience, eventually administered the
island as a single colony. When the British abruptly left in 1948, they
left behind a power vacuum that both Sinhalese and Tamil hard-line
nationalists have rushed to fill. The result is the ongoing war that
neither side can apparently win.

Because this book is written from an obvious Tamil perspective, it may
be challenged by pro-Sinhalese scholars, but Wilson vigorously backs up
his text with copious endnotes and a 13-page bibliography. Chapter 9,
titled “Eelam Tamil Nationalism, an Inside View,” was contributed by
A.J.V. Chandrakanthan, a professor of theology at Concordia University
in Montreal and Professor Wilson’s brother-in-law. Those looking to
learn more about the Sri Lankan civil war will find this book an
excellent choice.