Essay on the history of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s historical and cultural heritage covers more than 2, 000 years. Known as Lanka-the “resplendent land”-in the ancient Indian epic the Ramayana, the island has numerous other references that testify to the island’s natural beauty and wealth. Asian poets, noting the geographical location of the island and lauding its beauty, called it the “pearl upon the brow of India. ” A troubled nation in the 1980s, torn apart by commune violence, Sri Lanka has more recently been called India’s “fallen tear. ” In the years since independence, Sri Lanka has experienced severe communal clashes between its Buddhist Sinhalese majority- approximately 74 per cent of the population-and the country’s largest minority group, the Sri Lankan Tamils, who are Hindus and comprise nearly 13 per cent of the population. The communal violence that attracted the harsh scrutiny of the international media in the late 1980s can best be understood in the context of the island’s complex historical development-its ancient and intricate relationship to India’s civilization and its more than four centuries under colonial rule by European powers.