One of the conflicts in Sri Lanka is about Citizenship rights. When Sri Lanka gained independance, the government passed the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948. This granted citizenship only to those who were born in Sri Lanka or those who forefathers were born there. Therefore many Indian Tamils were stateless. They did not have basic rights like Education, houses and voting. Because of this Citizenship act, India helped the Indian Tamils who were stateless but it was not carried out fully by the Sri Lankan government due to ethnic violence. Therefore the consequences of this citizenship rights caused a great conflict in Sri Lanka.

Another conflict in Sri Lanka is about the National Language in Sri Lanka. Under british rule, english-educated tamils in Sri Lanka could easily enter the government service and get promoted. On the other hand Sinhalese were disadvantaged as they could not read or write english well. Therefore when Sri Lanka achieved independance. Sinhala was made the country's official language in 1956. Tamils were then given 3 years to learn Sinhala or they would be dismissed from government service. A peaceful demonstration against the official language act turned out to be riot. The Tamils were then upset, and found it much harder to get promoted or to even be able to find jobs for themselves. This conflict between the two languages caused alot of riots and tension, causing another great conflict in Sri Lanka.

University admission criteria was is another one of the many conflicts in Sri Lanka. Before 1970 university admission was based on merit and the examinations were in English. Therefore this benefitted the english-educated Tamils. The admission of tamils were almost proportional to the amount of Sinhalese even though Tamils only made up 18% of the population of Sri Lanka. After 1970 Tamils students had to score higher marks than the Sinhalese students to enter the same courses in Universities. A fixed number of places were also reserved for the Sinhalese. Therefore , this conflict has greatly reduced the number of Tamils going into University from College as the Tamils will gradually feel that they are not being treated farily.

Resettlement is the last of the many conflicts in Sri Lanka. The different races of Sri Lanka were not evenly distributed throughout the island. With the indian tamils concentrated in the highland districts as the majority of them are tea plantation workers. While the Sri Lanka Tamils make up more than 95% of the population in the Jaffna peninsula. Sinhalese being found in large numbers everywhere except in the Jaffna and the Batticaloa districts. Under the Resettlement policy of the 1950s. Sinhalese peasants were transferred to traditional tamil areas for them to live on and cultivate padi. Buddhist monks and the Sinhalese Army also moved in to the Tamil areas. Therefore this is yet another conflict but not one with that great an impact on the country as compared to the other causes of the conflict.