In this informed historical account, Prof. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson traces the growth and transformation of Tamil consciousness in Sri Lanka—from a movement to safeguard cultural identity to a political struggle for a separate state. The militarisation of the Sinhala-Tamil conflict began in the 1970s. The Tamils’ claim for basic individual and collective rights could no longer be reconciled with the Sinhalese need to allay their chronic sense of insecurity. The ...
