The Tamil political parties of Sri Lanka, namely All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA), Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), collectively raised their voices for Tamil political aspirations that have remained unresolved due to a lack of political will within majoritarian politics. On July 24, they decided to work on issues where there is consensus while maintaining their separate political identities, policies and positions. They have already met the President and plan to meet the opposition next, followed by a meeting with the diplomatic community to appraise their position. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his election manifesto, underlined the need for a new constitution to fulfil Tamil political aspirations and received overwhelming support from Tamil voters.

Interestingly, each time the political issues concerning the Sri Lankan Tamils are raised, the Tamil parties state their demands with a preamble that they stand for United Sri Lanka, so their demand is not misconstrued as ‘separatism’. This is important because Tamil politics was hijacked by hardliners who espoused a separate state as the culmination of their long-standing grievances and as a separate ‘nation’. The unitary state of Sri Lanka is also mentioned in the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 when the two countries worked out a political solution that had festered for long. The Accord was important especially after the July 1983 massacre of Tamils in Colombo, which led to the evacuation of the Tamil population to Jaffna, underlining that Tamils can only be safe where their community is in the majority and shattering their faith in the state’s ability and willingness to protect them. Many Sri Lankans refer to the events of July 1983 as ‘Black July’. The separatists rejected the Accord at the time of signing. However, much water has flowed under the bridge since then.

The removal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) through a war that Sri Lankan forces fought valiantly in 2009 opened up new vistas to move forward on this issue and seek a lasting solution. While some progress has been made post-war in terms of rehabilitation and the return of some land occupied by the armed forces, the recovery of skeletons from the Chemmani mass graves—suspected of having been killed extrajudicially—has reopened old wounds. This has been compounded by the delay in implementing constitutional reforms to address the political issues affecting the Tamils.

The Tamil political parties have historically been divided in their approach to Tamil political aspirations. Moreover, the Tamils are divided as Sri Lankan Tamils, hill or plantation Tamils (also known as the Malaiyaga Tamil community) and Tamil-speaking Muslims. The latter consider themselves ethnically separate. Each party has tried to maintain a separate identity and has disagreed with others.

While some Tamil political parties were co-opted by the Rajapakse government—which was in power during the war and remained in power till 2015—they sought an economic solution to Tamil grievances based on the notion that economic development and employment opportunities would set aside political aspirations or make them marginal to Tamil politics post-war. The once powerful Tamil National Alliance (TNA), ably led by R Sampathan of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), is no longer a dominant force to reckon with in Tamil politics. After Sampathan’s death, internal divisions within the ITAK became apparent. The division between S Sritharan, the party’s president, and MA Sumanitharan, who was close to Sampathan, also came to light during the 2024 Presidential election over their support for the Tamil Presidential candidate, P Ariyanethran.

While the Tamils of the North and the East have been divided, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress also saw divisions in 2002, with the party’s split and the formation of ACMC, which has a strong presence in the North and East. With the patronage of the then Rajapakse government, a surrendered militant, Karuna Amman, one-time trusted ally of V Prabhakaran, who headed the LTTE, formed Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), splitting the Tamil vote in the East. The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) broke away, citing ITAK dominance within the coalition as an issue in 2015. In 2020, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) also pulled out of this political conglomeration. The Thamizh Makkal Kootani (TMK) is another party established by former Chief Minister of Northern Province, CV Wigneswaran, who accused ITAK of abandoning the cause of Tamils. Similarly, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), which represented plantation Tamils, split in 1989 with the formation of the Up-Country People’s Front (UCPF), another faction, which, after many permutations and combinations, has now formed the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), representing mainly Tamils living in other parts of Sri Lanka, beyond North and East where they have historically lived.

In the past, some of the Sri Lankan political parties have portrayed these parties, mainly the TNA and the ITAK, as espousing a separatist agenda as they worked with the LTTE even to operate in Tamil-dominated North and East. As the LTTE was dominant, none of the political parties could think of operating independently of LTTE patronage and getting elected, which was evident in the 2005 election that the LTTE boycotted. This division in Tamil political parties has always helped the ruling alliance. They also realise that without the support of political parties whose constituencies are predominantly Sinhalese and of a ‘southern consensus’, it is impossible for them even to secure a modicum of devolution.

While some of the issues of militarisation, such as the release of land occupied by the military, have made progress, the larger issue of constitutional reform is to be addressed as the government has failed to move forward. This is one of the reasons why the National People’s Power (NPP) share of the vote in the local election was reduced to 43 percent from the 61 percent it had received during the Parliamentary election two years ago. The Tamil parties’ better show in the local election reflects the community’s disillusionment with the NPP’s inability to address their concerns. While divisions within Tamil political parties strengthen the hand of ruling parties, the NPP’s assumption of power has given hope for new politics in Sri Lanka.