Examine the given Cartoon carefully and answer the questions that follow:-

Which community is the lion representing in the cartoon?

Sinhala Community

The correct answer is Option 4 -Sinhala Community

The lion is representing the Sinhala Community in this picture.

The cartoon, created by Keshav was published in the Hindu. It depicts the dilemma of the Sri Lankan leadership in trying to balance Sinhala hardliners or the Lion and Tamil militants or the Tiger while negotiating peace.

After its independence, politics in Sri Lanka (it was then known as Ceylon) was dominated by forces that represented the interest of the majority Sinhala community. They were hostile to a large number of Tamils who had migrated from India to Sri Lanka and settled there. This migration continued even after independence. The Sinhala nationalists thought that Sri Lanka should not give ‘concessions’ to the Tamils because Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhala people only. The neglect of Tamil concerns led to militant Tamil nationalism. From 1983 onwards, the militant organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been fighting an armed struggle with the army of Sri Lanka and demanding ‘Tamil Eelam’ or a separate country for the Tamils of Sri Lanka. The LTTE controls the northeastern parts of Sri Lanka.