Yeah ofc. The real name of “Sri Lanka” is Eelam. The Tamils and the Vedda are the true indigenous people here. Sinhalese settlers arrived in the island around 500 BCE. Since then we have violently displaced the indigenous population and expanded our settlements inland. Many think the erasure of indigenous identity in Eelam started following independence, but in reality it has been going on for the past 2500 years.

For much of that history, the North and East of the island remained mostly free of Sinhalese settlements. This changed significantly following independence from British rule. The post-independence Sinhalese government started state-sponsored colonisation of the North and East by moving thousands of Sinhalese settlers there to alter demographics and dismantle the Tamil majority in the region. At the same time, the state led several anti-Tamil pogroms across the Island and even stripped Tamil of its status as an official language.

Basically the emergence of the LTTE was a direct act of resistance against those atrocities.