This idea continued until 1932 when a system of territorial representation was introduced along with universal suffrage (Brown & Louis, 1999: 452-3). This new system favoured the majority Sinhalese community although that plainly was not the intention of the English reforms. .
In the meantime, the interior of the island was opened up for coffee and tea plantations due to considerable amounts of European capital flowing in. The government provided the necessary infrastructure in roads, railways, communication and transport facilities, and by doing so, created conditions that could sustain the growth of a European dominated export economy. Those districts, which in one way or another were connected to the plantation system, prospered. The rest of the island, mainly its greater part, was practically ignored as there weren't any government efforts to restore the irrigation systems built by the Sinhalese kings. The duality of the economy was created due to this, and it became a critical source of social tension. Historian Ananda Wickremeratne states, "The social tension fused into the politics of post independent Sri Lanka, a tendentious sensitivity to the peasant, a highly visible segment of whom lived in north central Sri Lanka, which virtually formed a buffer between the ethnicised Tamil north, and the ethnic conscious Sinhalese of the centre and south west" (1980: XIV).
The introduction of government spending made the mobility of labour possible. One of its most significant consequences was a demographic change with many implications for the future. Due to new economic activity in the south-west area of the island, the Tamils moved southwards. There was now no part of the country that did not have the presence of the Tamils. Naturally, in time, the Tamils regarded these places as their home, but Jaffna remained their traditional homeland. However, there was no corresponding migratory movement to the north on the part of the Sinhalese as there was no economic reason to do so.
