Trilingualism, National Integration, and Social Coexistence in Postwar Sri Lanka Mufeeda Irshad Abstract Language has been attributed a causal role with regards to social discord, and language policies that govern media of instruction in schools in multilingual communities such as Sri Lanka have undoubtedly contributed to the disruption and distortion of social relations and structures in otherwise stable ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse communities. However, abundant historical and contem- porary examples suggest that language policy is not usually the sole basis for social disharmony, nor can language policy alone be an adequate response to the need to ameliorate tensions or to repair social fractures following discord or conflict. In Sri Lanka, where postcolonial changes to language policy are commonly argued to be the catalyst for a civil conflict lasting 30 years, hopes are pinned on recent language policy changes which promote language learning to achieve trilingualism (Sinhala, Tamil and English) throughout the country. This chapter considers the potential of the Trilingual Language Policy to achieve political goals of reconciliation and coexistence in the post-war Sri Lankan context given the larger geo-political cir- cumstances, arguing that the promotion of language learning aligns with socioe- conomic aspirations of Sri Lankans although trilingualism is a necessary yet, in itself, insuf ficient prerequisite for the achievement of social harmony. Keywords Trilingual policy Á Language in education Á Ethnic conflict National integration Á Social co-existence Trilingualism and Coexistence in Postwar Sri Lanka Each year, the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, where I teach, admits around 1200 students of cul- turally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to twelve undergraduate courses. Admission to all courses in universities throughout Sri Lanka generally takes place M. Irshad (&) University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka e-mail: mufeedairshad@sjp.ac.lk © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 I. Liyanage (ed.), Multilingual Education Yearbook 2018, Multilingual Education Yearbook, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77655-2_7 107 indika.liyanage@deakin.edu.au