Long Answer -Class-10-Civics- Chapter 1 : Power Sharing

Long Answer -Class-10-Civics- Chapter 1 : Power Sharing

Q1. How majoritarianism has increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils? Explain.

Ans : Sri Lankan Tamils felt alienated because:

1. Government adopted majoritarian measure to establish Sinhala Supremacy. In 1956, an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the only , official language thus disregarding Tamil.

2. The governments followed preferential politics that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.

3. A new Constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.

4. Sri Lankan Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture.

5. As a result, the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities strained overtime and it soon turned into a Civil War.

Q2.  Explain the power sharing arrangement in Belgium.

Ans : The main elements of the power-sharing model evolved in Belgium were:

1. Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central Government. Some special laws require the support of majority of members from each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.

2. Many powers of the Central Government have been given to State Governments of the two regions of the country. The State Governments are not subordinated to the Central Government.

3. Brussels had a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation. The French- speaking people accepted equal representation in Brussels because the Dutch speaking community has accepted equal representation in the Central Government.

4. Apart from the central and the state government, there is a third kind of government called the Community Government.

5. This community government is elected by people belonging to one language community—Dutch, French and German-speaking. This government has the power regarding cultural, educational and language related issues

Q3. Compare the different ways in which the Belgians and the Sri Lankans have dealt with the problem of cultural diversity.

Ans : The Belgian leaders recognised the existence of regional and cultural diversities.

a. They amended their Constitution four times so as to work out an innovative arrangement that would enable everyone to live together in peace and harmony, i.e., there was sharing of power between the Dutch and the French both in the Central Government, State Government and Community Government. They followed a policy of accommodation.

b. This helped to avoid civic strife and division of the country on linguistic lines.

c. On the other hand, the Sinhalese who were in majority in Sri Lanka as compared to the Tamils followed a policy of majoritarianism and adopted a series of measures to establish Sinhala Supremacy by passing an Act of 1956. These measures alienated the Tamils leading to civic strife between the two communities.