An understanding of the conflict in Sri Lank requires insight into a complex structure of inter-linking factors. These factors are the origin and character of the Sri Lankan State, the issue of defining the political status of the Tamil people living predominantly in the North-East, and the problem of reconciling mutually exclusive claims to nationhood and statehood. There have been four major efforts to arrive at a negotiated political settlement, which have collapsed and led to more intense and destructive violence. The conflict in Sri Lanka cannot be simply reduced to a question of the protection of minorities as against majority rule. Nor can it be reduced to a problem of how to disarm the LTTE and bring it to the mainstream of democratic politics. Nor can it be reduced to a question of cosmetic reforms that would provide formal devolution of power to the regions The solution to the national crisis and to the war lies in articulating a vision of a democratic pluralist social order and entrenching this vision within political institutions that respect the fundamental equality of all the national and ethnic identities and religious traditions and which provide them with dignity and justice as equal and integral partners of the state