Jaffna
(2002 est. population of the peninsula 480,000). Jaffna refers to the capital city, peninsula, adjacent islands, and hinterland of the northernmost region of Sri Lanka. It has been a major avenue of trade and migration between India and Sri Lanka since prehistoric times. After the collapse of the Anuradhapura kingdom and its conquest by the Chola dynasty, the area became a homogeneous Tamilspeaking Hindu region, and the city became the capital of a Tamil kingdom that periodically waged war with the Sinhalese kingdoms to the south. The area successively fell under Portuguese (1591), Dutch (1658), and British (1795) colonial rule. In the nineteenth century, it was integrated into the British Crown Colony of Ceylon. It remained part of the unified state when the colony gained its independence in 1948. Tamil claims of discrimination in favor of the majority Sinhalese Buddhists led to a separatist movement that erupted into a bloody civil war in 1983. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as the leaders of Tamil separatism through a violent contest with other separatists. The peninsula was occupied by the Indian army in 1987. When the Indian army withdrew in 1990, the LTTE established a harsh regime. The Sri Lankan army captured Jaffna in 1995. Despite government attempts to rehabilitate the region, fighting continued throughout 2001.
Further Reading
Abeyasinghe, Tikiri. (1986) Jaffna under the Portuguese. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Lake House Investments.
Rasanayagam, C. (1926) Ancient Jaffna: Being a Research into the History of Jaffna from Very Early Times to the Portuguese Period. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
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