The origins of the linguistic disenfranchisement of the Tamils owed partly to the appeasement of the Buddhist clergy, which is nearly exclusively Sinhala.
It not only caused the alienation of the Tamil-speaking population but led to the formation of the LTTE, a terrorist organisation, and a war.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were finally vanquished, but it took over two-and-a-half decades for the Sri Lankan state to realize this.
In the meanwhile, there was an exodus of Tamils, the better-off leaving for the West and, those that could escape, heading for Madras. With the Tamils having had a big presence within the professions, the country experienced a loss of experience in most spheres.
The impact of a loss of technical expertise on an economy is slow and infrequently indiscernible but absolute to affect it adversely, which we see happening in India. The warfare is additionally likely to own hold back investment.
While all uncertainty stalls investment, private investors would be particularly reluctant to commit their money during a time of near-anarchy.
A state pursuing a war can hardly form up for this through public investment because it is guaranteed to be severely fund-constrained because of its military operations.
Nor would it not have had much time to deal with stress points that arise from time to time in any laissez-faire economy, including a plan for economic development. In diverse ways, then, social strife can hamper the event of the productive forces of a rustic and its economic process gets affected.
Sri Lanka’s woes are economic on the surface but stem from social strife that is exacerbated by majoritarian identity politics fanned by the State. Identity politics between social groups could be a recipe for economic disaster.
The strife between the Centre and therefore the States and antagonism between religious communities are sure ways to discourage investment whether or not there’s some improvement within the easy doing business.
The exit of some high-net-worth Indians from the country and also the outflow of foreign direct investment are samples of this.
Inflow of foreign direct investment to India has been high since 2014 but has been unable to form up for the depressed domestic private investment.
