Legislation

• 1945 - State Council appoints a Select Committee to look into the recognition of Sinhala and Tamil as official languages
• 1946 - The Select Committee reports on transition from English to Sinhala and Tamil as official languages
• 1947 - The Select Committee reports on transition from English to Sinhala and Tamil as official languages. Mr. D.S.Senanayake, the leader of the State Council, urges the Tamils and other minorities to accept the Soulbury Constitution granting independence. He promises that the Tamil and other minorities need not fear at the hands of the majority Sinhalese in a free Lanka and no harm would befall them.
• 1948 - British grant independence under the Soulbury Constitution. The parliament with its entrenched Sinhalese majority legislates to disenfranchise Tamils of Indian origin who have live there for generations and have always exercised their franchise. The Tamil people lost almost half of their representation in the parliament. The state aided colonization of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.
• 1954 - Prime Minister Kotalawela declares his intention to amend the constitution that gives ‘parity of status’ to Sinhala and Tamil languages.
• 1956 - The Sinhalese Language was made the only official language by legislation, disadvantaging Tamil people in dealing with the state administration and denying them equal access to education and employment. Sinhala mobs attacked the Tamil leaders who staged a Satyagraha demonstration protesting the passage of the Act.
• 1961 - Sinhala Police and Army unleash violence on Tamil Members of Parliament who staged Satyagraha (peaceful protest) against the Language of the Courts Act, which imposed ‘Sinhala Only’ in the North and East Provinces courts.
• 1962 - Tamil public servant C. Kodeeswaran successfully sues the government for denying him his annual salaries increment on grounds of non-proficiency in Sinhala.
• 1967, December 3 - Parliament approves a Bill to make Sinhalese and Tamil the only language of instruction in all schools. English would cease to be a medium of instruction.
• 1969 - The Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act. Since s.29 (2) the constitution entrenched the equality of all the linguistic and cultural rights.
• 1972, May 22 - Constitution amended to make Ceylon an independent republic, changing the name to Sri Lanka, giving preeminence to Buddhism and diluting even the modicum of minority rights. Sinhala language been affirmed as the single official language of the courts and the administration.

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