Sri Lankan Tamils felt alienated because:
(i) The government adopted a majoritarian measure to establish Sinhala Supremacy. In 1956, an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the only official language thus disregarding Tamil.
(ii) The governments followed preferential politics that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.
(iii) A new Constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.
(iv) Sri Lankan Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture.
(v) As a result, the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities strained overtime and it soon turned into a Civil War.
