This is a summarised version of an unbiased analysis, and I was never born when most of these things occur. So I'm not 100% sure about the correctness of post. Older people pls correct me if I'm wrong. [But you have to have a DOB before 1977]
Mr. S W R D Bandaranaike ruled the country.
Tamil people and Sinhala people lived together.
But there was some discrimination because Tamils were the minority.
Then came the era of Sirimavo.
Still there was some discrimination but Sirimavo tackled it strategically.
She bought vegies, grain, fruits from Jaffna farmers. So they became rich hence they lived peacefully.
Then there was this turning point. J R Jayawardena was elected in 1977.
He got 5 out of 6 votes in Sri Lanka. Sirimavo only got 6 or 7 seats. Hence Tamil party became the opposition. And the foreign community thought the Tamils will become the next ruling government in SL.
Western countries always wanted to have a war to sell their weaponry basically.
J R Jayawardena introduced Open Economy in SL. So SL could buy stuff from foreig countries for a much lesser price than buying from the inland farmers including the tamil farmers in Jaffna.
This was a massive hit to the Tamil Farmers because selling those items was the main occupation in Jaffna. And that's the main reason for they being so rich those days.
Tamil people may be intelligent. But if some one is telling they are brainy than Sinhala people that is not a proven fact. But in the history there were few top notch Tamil leaders heading several companies in the country. That's because Sinhala people never wanted to learn tamil and Tamil people have a tendency to give more marks for Tamil people in A/L s and other exams. So they pased all the exams etc.
Then there was this guy, called Prabakaran. who didn't want to go to school but wanted to watch cow boy movies resulted to SL by the open economy. When he was in his youth, he wanted to have a revolution because he didn't like the current situation of the Tamils. [Basically they couldn't sell their crop to Sri Lankan government]
Apparently Prabakaran is a patient having a mental disorder called Parabola disease.
So Praba and another friend of his called Mahaththaya wanted to have a revolution and they somehow able to get a pistol from somewhere.
One day Prabha killed an army soldier, actually a civil engineer in Jaffna. This is mainly with the intention to start a war.
SL Government sent a group of 13 soldiers to investigate the situation.
These 13 soldiers were killed by a Claymore mine.
Then there was this black mark called the Black july. (Kalu juliya)
Sinhala people in Colombo started killing Tamils in Colombo and as a result almost all the tamils went to Jaffna where there was a good situation for them with the leadership of Prabha. Then the tamils also started the war.
Killings went on and on.
Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) came to Sri Lanka to give support to the Sri Lankan forces to wipe off LTTE from the surface. But they did many bad things too. As an example raping women.
Again there was a situation where they had to have an election. And R Premadasa gave a promise saying that he will send the IPKF back to India. For 2 reasons. IPKF was doing bad stuff for SL women as well. And SL people thought someday India will capture the control of SL. (Including Rajiv Gandhi)
So people wanted to have Premadasa as the president.
After being the president, Premadasa discussed with LTTE for a solution. mainly to send the IPKF back. LTTE and Premadasa had 2 different agendas in this scenario. So ultimately Premadasa gave weapons to LTTE to kick IPKF out meanwhile discussing with India about the negotiation. After some time Rajiv Gandhi ordered IPKF to fall back to India.
But as a personal revenge Prabha killed Rajiv Gandhi. This was the biggest mistake prabha has done in his history. For the first time he has given a chance to his heart to act instead of his mind.
So now the LTTE have more weapons and many tamils supported Prabha. So here we are... with a war having a history of 25 years.
In Jaffna, casts play a huge role. Prabha is from the lowest cast called commonly as "sakkili" the people who wash toilets. But because of the JRs open economy, Tamils have very few options. So they had to support a leadership. They chose Prabha.
Western countries played a huge role in starting this war. Mainly the British. They are the people who introduced this divide. They wanted to have 50 : 50 in the Parliment (Sinhala : Tamil) where there was only a minority of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
So mainly, British people, Sinhala people, Tamil people, JR's open economy are the main reasons for this war.
[This is an answer for DJ Parker
]
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