In 1948, the British handed over governmental power over the entire island to the Sinhala nation, leaving the Tamils at the latter’s mercy and turning Tamil Eelam into a colony of the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated Ceylon state, which was renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, meaning the holy land of the Sinhala Buddhists. Facing the genocidal onslaught of the Sri Lankan state, in 1972 Tamils launched an armed struggle for political independence. After 18 years of armed struggle, and having confronted the military might of India, which aided Sri Lanka and briefly occupied the Tamil homeland, in 1990 Tamils asserted their sovereignty by establishing the defacto state of Tamil Eelam in their homeland. However, after almost two decades of military offensives, and massacring and disappearing over 150,000 Tamils, in 2009 the Sri Lankan state recolonised Tamil Eelam. Since then, Tamils have been continuing their freedom struggle through peaceful, non-violent means.