In 1983, the country went into Civil War - the government and army representing the Sinhala, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers) representing the Tamil nationalist interests. Riots have occurred throughout the nation's short history, with the Tamil working for an independent homeland and the Sinhala working to keep government control. Since that time, the relations between the Sinhala and the Tamil have been strained. Sri Lanka became an independent nation in 1948 with the departure of the British control from the Indian subcontinent. The two groups are divided religiously and ethnically. The Tamil claim an equally long history in Sri Lanka. According to legend, the Sinhala claim to be descendants from the earliest settlers of Sri Lanka. The biggest ethnic population in Sri Lanka is the Sinahala. Geographically, Sri Lanka is only about 25,000 square miles - a little bit larger than the state of West Virginia its population in about 20 million people - about the population of the state of New York. Sri Lanka is a small island nation in the Indian Ocean off the coast of India.
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