Sumanasiri Liyanage, Department of Economics, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka: Prof Sumanasiri Liyanage teaches political economy at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. His main research interests include identity-based conflicts, state-restructuring, and economics of power-sharing. He is a regular contributor on social issues in Sri Lanka to academic journals, magazines, newspapers, and websites. His recent publications are: Interventions in the Devolution Debate (Colombo: SSA); A Glimmer of Hope: The Current Phase in Constitutional Reforms in Sri Lanka (Colombo: SAPi) (co-editor); One Step at a Time: Reflections on the Peace process in Sri Lanka (Colombo: SAPi); Inter-State Conflicts and Intra-State Relations: Perspectives on India-Sri Lanka Relations (Co-editor), Colombo: SAPi).
What would be the form the Tamil national question in Sri Lanka that in the past led to one of the dirtiest internal wars? What shape it would take in the future as one of the main contending parties to armed conflict, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), suffered a comprehensive defeat in the hands of the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL)? Does the end of the armed conflict signify that the Tamil national question is put in the back burner at least for the time being? How would GoSL respond to the concerns of the democratic forces in the country, Tamil nationalist political parties and India? How would Tamil nationalism evolve in the new political space created by the end of the LTTE and the armed conflict? These issues together with immediate post-war problems have become some of the key issues in the Sri Lankan political landscape in the post-LTTE period and are the focus of this paper.