what if

there had been no attempts by the sinhalese to make buddhism and sinhalese prevail over the tamils.
it is a possibility that the country would have had a modern outlook by now with all the people having the identity of the island nation.
the problems began right with the naming of the country.
if it had retained some earlier name,it is not hard to imagine that it would have become quite a happy and prosperous place,attracting many tamils and indians looking for job opportunities.a flourishing and stable island at the southern end of india might have altered the focus of our country as more of the north in it much earlier than now.it is almost a no go zone now.religious tourism would have been a prime component of the traffic.most indians would have been spending time on the island during vacations,the traffic between chennai and colombo would have resulted in the software revolution taking root in the island,in jaffna probably.more of our movies would have been made in sri lanka.the inter connectivity and intermingling would have made it almost a part of india.if there were colleges over there,the environs would have been attractive to students.most of the urban populations of the two countries would have been travelling routinely between the two countries.
if kashmir had not been invaded by pakistan,it would also have become one such place,where both indians and pakistanis would have gravitated to.
the traffic between the north and pakistan would have been robust and dynamic and full of life,more people doing trade with each other,instead of exporting to the usa and europe.it would have been a self sufficient existence for the sub continent.
the pakistanis invaded kashmir and the sinhalese sought to brow beat the tamils and all of these possibilities were lost.
the saarc was an initiative in the right direction but nothing much can be sen today.
the sinhalese thought that they would crush the armed struggle of the tamils and things would be back as they liked it.it did not strike them that having made all the blunders,it was up to them to walk the extra mile in getting the tamils to give up their nation.they got stuck in some battles which some guy had won sometime in history.
the men who are stuck in the past and want to go back to the events of one millennium back which were settled long ago are the ones standing in the way of a contented population.
the advanis who think that they will turn back time and get to some point from which they can restart time and freeze the entry of thinking and people into their defined areas,the hafiz saeeds who want to make another attempt to spread their religion in an area which has a simplicity and a morality and an intelligence that cannot be forced into a strict code or a book,the rajapakses who want to make believe.
these are the ones who are hopelessly labouring in the service of the religion that they were born into and not realising that religion is after all for living a honest and a trouble free life.if a religion is followed by just one human being and it is helping him to live a good and healthy life,it will still be a great religion.