Hello, students, today we will be starting with a new chapter which is called as Power Sharing. Let us understand what does it mean and what are the contents.

First and the foremost, okay, we will start off with a simple example. An example of a country called as Belgium, Belgium is a small country in Europe, and smaller in area than the state of Haryana. It has borders with countries of Netherlands, France and as well as Germany. Now it has population of a little over one crore, about half the population of Haryana. The ethnic composition of this small country is very complex. Now what do we mean by ethnic? A social division based on shared culture. People belonging to the same ethnic group believe in their common descent because of similarities of physical type of culture or both. They need not always have the same religion or nationality.

Moving forward, 59 percentage of life in Flemish region and speaker of Dutch language.

Next, another 40 percentage of the people live in the Wallonia region and speak French. Now remaining 1 percent of the Belgians speaks German. In the capital city Brussels 80% people speak French, while 20% are Dutch speakers.

Next, the minority French, okay, that is the people those who live in less in numbers speaking community was relatively rich and powerful. This was resented by the Dutch speaker community who got the benefit of economic development and education much later.

From 1950 to the year 1960, acute tension between the Dutch speaker as well as the French speaking communities in Brussels happened. Now Brussels presented a special problem. The Dutch speaking people constituted a majority in the country but minority in the capital. Now when we say, okay, problem arises. Just imagine what could happen in a situation like this.

In Belgium, the Dutch community could take advantage of its numeric majority and force its will upon the French minority as well as the German speaking population. This would push conflict among the communities, this could lead to a very messy partition of the country. Both the sides would claim control over Brussels.

Now the Belgian leaders took a different path, that is, they recognized the existence of regional differences and cultural diversities. Between the years 1970 to the year 1973, okay, there were amendments to the constitution, and that too, okay, the constitution was amended four times. This was an arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country. The arrangement they worked out is different from any other country and is very innovative, right.

So moving forward, what are the elements of the Belgian model. Let’s see them in detail.

We will start off with the constitution.

The number of Dutch and the French speaking ministers were equal, right, and they were equal within the central government.

Special laws required support of majority members from each linguistic group.

Next, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.

So now going towards the next one, the power of the central government.

Given to state government of two regions of the country.

The state governments are not subordinate to the central government.

Next, we will see the points related to separate governments. Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation. The French speaking people had accepted equal representation in Brussels because the Dutch speaking community had accepted equal representation in the central government.

Now, let’s go towards the next one, the community government. Elected by the people belonging to one language community, that is the Dutch, the French and the German speaking, no matter where they lived.

This government had the power regarding cultural, educational and as well as language related issues.

Now the Belgian model worked very well so far. They helped to avoid civic strife or problem between the major community and a possible division of the country on linguistic line.

Next, okay, let’s take an example of Sri Lanka. Now when talking about Sri Lanka, the first and the foremost thing, it is an island nation. The location, it is a few kilometres off the southern coast of Tamil Nadu.

The population is around 2 crore people, quite a diverse population.

Let us understand the division of the population here. Okay, there were some people those who were called as Sinhala speakers, or the people speaking Sinhala language while the rest were the Tamil speakers. Now most of the Sinhala speaking population were Buddhists, while most of the Tamils are Hindus or Muslims.

Now the Tamil speakers, the Tamil speakers were further divided into two parts, now let us see.

So we are talking about Sinhala speakers as well as Tamil speakers. The Sinhala speakers form 74 percentage of the population while the Tamil speakers form 18% of the population, right. Like I told they were divided into two parts, let’s see them, Sri Lankan Tamils as well as Indian Tamils. Now the Sri Lankan Tamils were concentrated in the north and east of the country, most of Sinhala, that is people speaking Sinhala are Buddhists. While the India Tamils are those whose forefathers came from India as plantation workers during colonial period.

Now next is that when you are talking about percentage wise, the Sri Lankan speaking Tamil or the Sri Lankan Tamils were just 13% while the Indian Tamils were 5%.

So in the year 1948, it gained independence.

Next, the Sinhala community started growing dominance over the government by virtue of majority. Now when we say Majoritarian, it is nothing but a belief that the majority community should be able to rule a country in whichever way it wants to, by disregarding the wishes and the needs of the minority. So when we say by virtue of the majority, the democratically elected government adopted a series of Majoritarian measures to establish the Sinhala supremacy.

Now in the year 1956 there was an Act which was made according to the Act, Sinhala was recognized as the official language of Sinhala. A new constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.

The government followed preferential policies. That is:

• They would be given government jobs
• They would be given University positions.

Now when we say preferential policies what does it mean? It means preferential policies that favoured the Sinhala applicants. Now when we say, okay, preferential jobs given to the Sinhalese, okay.

Now what was the government measures against Sri Lankan Tamils.

They were denied equal political rights. Second, there was discrimination against them in getting jobs.

Ignored their interest, that is relationship between the Sinhala and the Tamil communities strained over a period of time.

Next, when we say Sri Lankans Tamils launched parties as well as started struggles against the Sinhala Tamils, okay, there was mutual distrust among them. Why was this going on? Okay, this struggle was going on for recognition of Tamil as an official language. Also they wanted religious autonomy and also they wanted equality of opportunity, jobs as well as education. And of course, because of this problem there was distrust which further led to conflict and conflict led to a big civil war in Sri Lanka, okay.