This has led to political, cultural and ethnic turmoil within Sri Lanka between the two dominant ethnic groups since the 1950's, which gave birth to a civil war in 1983. .
In order to present this situation in a manner that allows readers to fully comprehend it, I will attempt to create a conflict map according to the guidelines provided to me by Miall, Ramsbotham and Woodhouse in Contemporary Conflict Resolution (2003: 92-93). I will not concentrate fully on a particular time/year of the conflict, but will provide an overall and generalised account of the conflict. In order to achieve this, I have split this conflict map into two separate parts: the conflict itself and the analysis of the conflict. The conflict itself will include: the history of the nation before colonisation, the colonial powers, especially the policies of the British, and the events after independence was granted undertaken by the government. Once the situation is laid out, an analysis of the conflict will be presented. This will be conducted with the help of ideas, theories, definitions and concepts derived from different scholars. .
Part 1: The Conflict.
Brief description of the country.
Sri Lanka is the name of the island earlier known as Ceylon. The new name was bestowed by the Republican constitution in 1972. "Ceylon" is the name by which the island came to be known to the outside world after Portuguese mercantile penetration in the early 16th century (Ponnambalam, 1983: 2). .
(Source:http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/indian_subcontinent/sri_lanka/sri_lanka.htm).
Sri Lanka is situated at the southern extremity of the Indian subcontinent, separated from it at its narrowest point by only twenty-two miles of sea called the Palk Strait. It lies between six and ten degrees north of the Equator and on the longitude of seventy-nine and eighty-one east. The island has an area of 61,610 square kilometres and consists of a mountainous terrain, an upland area and a coastal plain (Diessen, 1986: 10).