Gal Oya riots

Gal Oya riots
Location of Sri Lanka
Location	Dominion of Ceylon
Date	June 11–16, 1956 (+6 GMT)
Target	Primarily Tamil civilians
Attack type	Decapitation, burning, stabbing
Weapons	Knives, sticks, fire
Deaths	150
Non-fatal injuries	100+
Perpetrators	Sinhalese mobs

The Gal Oya riots or Gal Oya massacre were the first ethnic riots that targeted the minority Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon. The riots took place from June 11, 1956, and occurred over the next five days. Local majority Sinhalese colonists and employees of the Gal Oya Development Board commandeered government vehicles, dynamite and weapons and massacred minority Tamils. It is estimated that over 150 people lost their lives due in the violence. Although initially inactive, the police and army were eventually able to bring the situation under control.

In British Ceylon, most civil service jobs (roughly 60%) were held by minority Tamils who comprised approximately 15% of the population. This was due to the availability of Western style education provided by American missionaries and others in the Tamil dominant Jaffna peninsula. The overrepresentation of Tamils was used by populist Sinhalese politicians to come to political power by promising to elevate the Sinhalese people. The pro-Sinhalese nationalist Freedom Party came to power in 1956 promising to make Sinhala, the language of the majority Sinhalese people, the sole official language. The so-called Sinhala only policy was opposed by the Tamil Federal party which conducted a nonviolent sit-in protest on June 5, 1956, in front of the parliament in Colombo, the capital city. About 200 Tamil leaders and politicians took part in this protest. But the protestors were attacked by a Sinhalese mob that was led by a junior government minister. The same mob, after listening to a speech by populist Sinhalese politicians urging them to boycott Tamil business, went on a looting spree in the city. Over 150 Tamil owned shops were looted and many people were hospitalized for their injuries. But these disturbances were quickly brought under control by the police.