1976 – VADDUKODDAI RESOLUTION
This constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without the consent of the Tamil people under the Prime Ministership of Srimavo Bandaranaike ( SLFP) on May 22, 1972.
Sri Lankan Government abolished, the only legal safeguard granting rights and protection to minorities entrenched in unalterable Article 29(2) of the Soulbury Constitution.
The country’s name was changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, and Buddhism was given the ‘foremost’ place among the country’s religions.
FORMATION OF TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT (TULF)
Almost all Tamil political parties, including Tamil Federal Party and Ceylon Tamil Congress, came together for the first time under a single banner – the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) on May 4, 1976. It was noted the reservations to its commitment to the setting up of a separated state of TAMIL EELAM expressed by the Ceylon Workers Congress as a Trade Union of the Plantation Workers, the majority of whom live and work outside the Northern and Eastern areas.
1976 – VADDUKODDAI RESOLUTION
TULF, youth, and other Tamil organizations participated in the Vaddukoddai conference on May 14, 1976. The Chairman, TULF, S J V Chelvanayakam, MP, unanimously adopted the resolution
“Restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM, based on the right of self – determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.”
Under the leadership of TULF, the Tamils overwhelmingly voted in the parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.
