Language Laws of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s way of life was drastically disrupted with the entry of European colonial powers, namely, the Portuguese and Dutch who controlled the coastal belt of the island excluding the central Kandyan kingdom for around 300 years from 1505 onwards. The Portuguese while taking control of the trade in spices, etc. from the Arab traders, were also interested in converting the people to the Catholic faith through forceful means. The Dutch East India company backed by the Dutch government which replaced the Portuguese sought to control the trade.  Next came the British who took control of the entire island and ruled the country then known as Sinhale, for the next 133 years from 1815 till the grant of independence in 1948 following the ending of the second world war in 1945. 

The British took over the land belonging to the people through various laws such as the Waste Lands Act without paying a penny in compensation, which they gave to British capitalists at 50 Ceylon cents per acre (less than the surveying costs)  to set up plantations to raise cash crops.

They sought to change the culture of the people by making English the sole language of administration, and attempted to convert people to Christianity by providing incentives to the new converts and discriminating against the others in the fields of education and employment.

They invited Christian Missionaries from the UK and USA to set up English medium schools mainly in the north and east where the Tamils were predominantly settled at the time, resulting in the Tamils with competency in English coming to dominate the public service. 

Despite British colonial rule lasting 133 years, the number of persons proficient in English remained around 5-6 percent due to the lack of teachers to teach children in schools other than in the larger cities. This problem persists even to this day.  The other schools that functioned in the mother tongue were referred to as Vernacular schools.  The Tamil speaking areas were better served with English education as the colonial administration encouraged Christian Missionaries to establish new schools in the north of the island where the vast majority of Tamil speakers lived at the time. This naturally gave them an advantage over the rest resulting in most public sector offices being manned by members of the Tamil community comprising 11 percent of the total population.  The Official Language Act therefore made Sinhala spoken by 75 percent of the population the new official language in 1956, replacing English spoken by less than 6 percent. This Act was to come into effect 5 years later in 1961. Tamil was at no stage recognized as an official language both during the colonial period or earlier times. While Sinhala was made the only official language, no Tamil child was denied the right to education from the kindergarten level to the university level in the Tamil language.  These concessions allowed to Tamil speakers referred to as the Reasonable Use of Tamil was given legal force per the Tamil Language Special Provisions Bill No. 28 of 1958.

The Sinhala people comprising 75 percent of the population who were made second class citizens under the British for lack of knowledge of a foreign language demanded the recognition of the language spoken by them, as they continued to be deprived even after obtaining independence from Britain in 1948.  They were looked down upon by the English educated as ‘Godayas’, and could only aspire to become household servants in an English speaking person’s home as the jobs which were mainly available in the public sector at the time were denied to them.  Although the Act was enacted in 1956 it was to take effect 5 years later in the year 1961.  Those employed in the public sector who were unable to function in the official language of Sinhala were given the option of retiring with pensions as though they had been in service up to the normal date of retirement, i.e. age of 60, or continue for a further 5 years and acquire a working knowledge of Sinhala set at the Grade VIII level.  Even some Sinhala officers took this option and retired from the public service with pensions, and thereafter went to work in the private sector or became self-employed in fields  such as Surveying, Architecture, Accountancy, etc.

Further concessions were granted by the next government led by Mr. Dudley Senanayake, where the five year period to obtain competency in the official language was extended by an equal period to qualify to remain in service.  Even Non-Tamils who were required to serve in predominantly Tamil speaking areas were similarly required to pass a test in Tamil even in the case of professionals such as engineers, doctors, etc.

Tamil was elevated to the status of a National Language and language of administration in the north and eastern provinces, and as the language of the courts by the Second Republican Constitution adopted in 1978.  Following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 after  India militarily intervened  in the armed conflict launched by Tamil separatist groups to form a break away state,  Tamil was once again

elevated as an official language on par with Sinhala by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1987 whilst at the same time recognizing English as a link Language.