My Own English World

Draft 1

It happened on an island on the southern tip of India called Sri Lanka.The Sri Lankans are made up of three major races and they are the Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors.At that time, the races are not evenly distributed around the island. The Indian Tamils are concentrated in the highland districts. The Sri Lankan Tamils are mostly found in Jaffna and Batticaloa while the Sinhalese are found in large numbers everywhere except two areas.

Durga who is a typical Tamil girl came over to Sri Lanka with her family to look for jobs. After Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, Sri Lankan government only granted citizenship to those who were born here or whose forefathers were born here. Hence, many Indian Tamils found themselves stateless. Due to her being a Tamil, she did not have that much education compared to the Sinhalese. This caused her to have a hard time looking for a job and support the family at this age. Her parents were just too ill to get off the bed that time. Her friend, Rahul, offered her to work at the tea plantations in Sri Lanka .Without much consideration she agreed and this let her have the opportunity to interact with others and gain more experiences for her future.

Durga managed to speak English after working for a few months. When Sri Lanka was under the British rule, English educated Tamils like Durga could enter the government service get promoted and occupy some of the most important jobs in the government easily. With the independence, the Sinhalese government decided to improve the position of Sinhalese and made Sinhala the only language of administration in 1965 under the Official Language Act. Tamils like Durga were given three years to learn the language or they would be dismissed. This unfair treatment affected Durga as she found it difficult to secure her job. The thought of getting promoted after striving for so many months vanish in just a few seconds.
She found it unfair and when to look for Rahul. She said in a furious tone, “Why the government treats Indian Tamils so differently from the Sinhalese?"

"I…got no idea about it at all. Maybe the government was just too bias to the Sinhalese. “stammered Rahul.

"Before 1970, university admission was based on merit and examinations were in English. This benefited English educated Tamils and they scored well in examinations. This resulted in, the number of Tamil and Sinhalese students were almost proportionate in the medical and engineering courses," Rahul added on.

"If I was to born earlier, maybe life for my family and I would not be like that. Now, Tamils like us had to work harder and score higher than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the University. It’s important because it would later enable us to secure better jobs," Durga replied with a sign.

When Sri Lankan government rejected the idea of separating and creating an independent state, dissatisfied Tamil youths formed a militant group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) and resorted to violence. Durga being a girl were also forced to join the army to fight against the Sinhalese. Tension between the Tamils and Sinhalese continued to increase, leading to more fights and deaths.

The Sinhalese and Tamil conflict which began with peaceful demands by the Tamils escalated to violent conflict that involves other countries. There were political consequences which is the violence and armed conflict, the economic consequences which caused a massive unemployment, loss of foreign investment and tourism earnings and also social consequences like the Sri Lankan Tamils being driven out of their homeland. Attempts have continued for the past few years to resolve the conflict, but these have proved to be unsuccessful. There was nothing Durga could do to stop this but he had no choice but to continue doing this despite any other things because all she wants was just to be able to be with her family forever and never be separated.

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