On Sri Lanka Becoming a Truly Multilingual Society

Photo courtesy of e-sinhala Managing language equality in any multilingual society is challenging. But for Sri Lanka, language is especially politically, historically and culturally loaded because the nation began by setting one language as superior to all others through the Sinhala Only policy. Sadly, language is such a complex and long standing issue that it’s regularly overlooked to deal with immediate challenges like the economy. Since 2009, the process for linguistic reconciliation has been slow. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report of 2011 showed promise with the recommendation that Sri Lanka become a trilingual state where citizens would know…

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