The so called discrimination against tamils that so many commentators talk about is actually as a result of British Colonization. Brits couldn't get the sinhalese to do their dirty work. Sinhalese openly resented and resisted British rulers. Brits found it difficult to get the majority sinhalese workers in the govt. They turned to tamils and did everything possible to marginalize the majority sinhalese. Provided special privileges to the local minority community and made them their faithful collonial allies in the govt. Also, sinhalese didn't want to do any estate labor work for the brits. Brits had an answer, they imported hundreds of thousands of south indian tamils to do the slavery.
After the exit of the brits the sinhalese majority started getting the administrative power back. A correction to the system was needed to give back the majority rights. Some measures were probably over-corrections and there were enough tamil politicians to exploit the situation and level charges of discriminations.
