What has 1983 meant for Sinhalese and Tamil societies?
Many Sinhalese feel extremely ashamed about it. That is one reason why they don’t want to recall it a collective shame. There are some who want to believe that nothing seriously happened in 1983. It was also the moment when there was official recognition of Sinhalese mob violence against the minorities. Would you call it a pogrom or a riot? It was a pogrom. It was not a riot. It was an organised attempt by sections of the Sinhalese, the United National Party, the bureaucracy and the armed forces, to control ethnic relations in Sri Lanka to put the Tamil minority in a place of minority so that it should not assert themselves. What happened is that the whole ethnic relations became militarised. It marked the beginning of a sustained process of militarisation of inter-ethnic relations. We have 20 years of continued militarisation. The challenge now is how to deal with 1983, how to de-militarise Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim societies. That’s the real challenge that 1983 will continue to pos
