| A new constitution offered minorities a more secure position; it rejected many of the authoritarian features of the constitution of 1972 and emphasized individual rights and the rights of minorities. Article 19 declared that Sinhala and Tamil were to be the national languages of Sri Lanka (with Sinhala remaining the sole official language). Tamils benefited by the removal of distinctions between citizens by descent and citizens by registration, and by extension of civil rights to stateless persons. S. Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Worker's Congress (CWC), the main political party cum trade union of the Indian plantation workers, entered the cabinet. These changes brought the Indian Tamils within Sri Lanka's “political nation” for the first time since the 1930s. | 2 |
