Independence was therefore seen as a mechanism by which Buddhism, the Sinhala language and its intertwined culture could be restored to its rightful place of prominence and dominance. The rhetoric justifying such an outcome inevitably relied on racialization of ethnic identities. [ ] It was the "Sinhala only- language movement that created the Sinhalese-Tamil ethnic animosity in the postindependence era.
Sri Lankan independence provided a basis for the Sinhalese majority - seventy four percent of the population - (Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka), to start the oppression of the Tamil minority - sixteen percent of the population - (Popham) as revenge for the Sinhalese subjugation by the British, the Tamils and other minorities for over one hundred years during Sri Lanka's colonial era (Popham). The Tamils feel the Sinhalese have wronged them since independence was granted. This feeling grew in strength until something had to happen.
The 1970's brought out a militant attitude from the young Tamil population. One of those militant youths was an uneducated nineteen year-old named Velupillai Prabhakaran. He started an organization called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Initially, the group was involved in political protests regarding the treatment of the Tamil people. The LTTE called for the formation of an independent Tamil state called Eelam (Popham). .
In a 1998 Time magazine article, Meenakshi Ganguly details the life of Velupillai Prabhakaran as follows,.
Born into a warrior-fisherman caste from Velvettiturai, a coastal village near Jaffna, he was the son of a pious Hindu agricultural officer who was famed for being so incorruptible that he would refuse cups of tea from his subordinates. The official's voice seldom rose above a timid whisper, and one relative recalls that the man would not even crush a stem of grass. His son was oblivious to the father's gentle message; Prabhakaran spent his days killing birds and squirrels with a slingshot.