| 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom | |
|---|---|
 Location of Sri Lanka | |
| Location | Dominion of Ceylon |
| Date | June 5–16, 1956 (+6 GMT) |
| Target | Majority Tamil civilians in Colombo and Gal Oya, also Sinhalese civilians in Batticaloa and Gal Oya |
Attack type | Decapitation, burning, stabbing, arson, assault, looting |
| Weapons | Knives, sticks, fire |
| Deaths | 20-200[1][2][3][4] |
| Injured | 100+ |
| Perpetrators | Vast majority Sinhalese mobs,[5] also Tamil mobs[4] |
The 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom,[6][7][8][9][10] also known as the Gal Oya riots, was the first organised pogrom against Sri Lankan Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon.[3] It began with anti-Tamil rioting in Colombo, followed by anti-Sinhalese rioting in Batticaloa.[11] The worst of the violence took place in the Gal Oya valley, where 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, mostly Tamils, had died during the violence.[12] The police and army were eventually able to bring the situation under control.
- ^ "An evolving army and its role through time". Sunday Times. 2005-10-16. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
Following the 1956 elections and the introduction of Sinhala as the country's official language, the first major outbreak of ethnic violence occurred leading to the deaths of around 150 people.
- ^ Vittachi, T. Emergency '58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, p. 8
- ^ a b Chattopadhyaya, H. Ethnic Unrest in Modern Sri Lanka: An Account of Tamil-Sinhalese Race Relations, p. 52
- ^ a b Tambiah, Stanley. Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia , p. 89
- ^ Horowitz, D. The Deadly Ethnic Riot, p. 181
- ^ Kurian, Alka (2012). Narratives of Gendered Dissent in South Asian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96117-2.
- ^ Kingsbury, Damien (2012-03-12). Sri Lanka and the Responsibility to Protect: Politics, Ethnicity and Genocide. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-63997-5.
- ^ Wadley, Susan S. (2014-12-18). South Asia in the World: An Introduction: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-45959-0.
- ^ Morris, Gay; Giersdorf, Jens Richard (2016). Choreographies of 21st Century Wars. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-020167-8.
- ^ Ghosh, Pothik (2022-10-04). Insurgent Metaphors: Essays on Culture and Class. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-78099-4.
- ^ Neil DeVotta, Ethnolinguistic Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, p. 85
- ^ Swamy, M. R. Naranayan. Tigers of Lanka: From Boys to Guerrillas, p. 11