The need of unity of Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka

(February 03, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's major Tamil constituent Tamil National Alliance is in talks with the major Muslim constituent Sri Lanka Muslim Congress to form an electoral alliance. If the talks will succeed, the alliance will be able to achieve a resounding mandate from the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka at the upcoming general election. 

But, an extensive dialogue is needed to set forth a declaration of common aspirations of these two minority communities. For that, the coalition is needed to be one that exceeds the limits of mere electoral alliance. 

Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims share same language although they are culturally different. The Tamil struggle for equality in state was for a Tamil speaking polity in its early stages. However, the sentiments of a narrower Tamil nationalism among the Sri Lankan Tamils, the majority among the minority communities, led the other minorities like Muslims and Upcountry (Indian origin) Tamils to deviate from the Tamil struggle. 

Later, the Muslim and Upcountry Tamil communities developed identical polities and they have their own aspirations now. But unity among the minorities is a must to struggle for more opportunities in the political, economical and social spaces in this island vis-a-vis rising ethnic chauvinism of the sectors of Sinhala polity that are in power.