<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Sinhala Only Act, formally the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956, was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956 . The act replaced English as the official language of Ceylon with Sinhalese . The act failed to give official recognition to Tamil, which had not received official recognition before . </P> <P> Sinhalese is the language of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese people, who accounted for around 70% of the country's population at that time . Tamil is the first language of Ceylon's three largest minority ethnic groups, the Indian Tamils, Sri Lankan Tamils and Moors, who together accounted for around 29% of the country's population . </P>

How is sinhalese being declared official language of sri lanka