DOCSLIB.ORG

Diplomarbeit

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Diplomarbeit Diplomarbeit Titel der Diplomarbeit Sinhalese Nationalism and its interrelation with Identity, Peace and Conflict Verfasserin Nisansala Sirimalwatta angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. Phil.) Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 057 390 Studienrichtung lt. Zulassungsbescheid: Internationale Entwicklung Betreuer: Dr. Wilfried Graf Wien, im März, 2009 Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 I INTRODUCTION 4 1 Epistemic interest 4 2 Methodology 6 II INTRODUCTION INTO A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8 1 Nationalism: Approaching a Holistic Framework of Understanding 10 2 The Cultural Dimension of Nationalism 11 2.1 Print Capitalism and Promoting Nationalism: Spreading 13 a ‘Social Construction’ 3 Structural Dimension of Nationalism 14 4 The Agent/Agency − Dimension of Nationalism 16 4.1 Defining National Identity 16 4.2 Ethnic Heritage and Nationalism 17 4.3 Educating Consensus 18 4.4 The Functions and Meanings of National Identity 19 5 The Non-Western Conception of the Nation 20 6 Discourses on Nationalism and Identity 22 7 Conclusion 24 III LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR MODERN 26 SINHALESE NATIONALISM IN CEYLON 1 Sinhalese Societal Structure in the Eighteenth Century 27 2 Structural Changes through British Colonialism 28 2.1 State and Religion in Ceylon 31 3 Cultural Changes: Religious Revival as Precursor for Nationalism 32 3.1 Arrival of Print Capitalism and the Formation of 32 ‘Protestant Buddhism’ 4 Anagarika Dharmapala as an Agent of Early Sinhalese Nationalism 35 5 The Temperance Movement and the Anti-Moors Riots of 1915: 37 Two Examples of Arousing Nationalist Sentiments 6 Agents of Change: National Identity and the Role of the 41 Ceylonese Elites 6.1 English and Vernacular Education 41 6.2 The Elite in Colombo and its Notions of Nationalism 42 6.2.1 Communal versus Universal 44 7 Post-Orientalist Identity Discourse in Ceylon 46 7.1 The Invention of Modern Ethnic Identities 47 7.2 Colonial Census in Ceylon 48 7.3 The Introduction of the Aryan Theory 52 7.4 The Pali-Chronicles: The Role of Religious Mythology 53 8 Conclusion 55 »» 1 IV HISTORY OF IDENTITIES IN POSTCOLONIAL SRI LANKA 58 1 Majority Politics: Consolidating Nationalist Values 58 2 Constitutional Developments: Framing Identity and Discrimination 62 3 Influencing the Socio-Cultural Perception: Obstacles to Inter-Ethnic 63 Accommodations 4 The Rise and Success of Sinhala Nationalism 67 4.1 Creating Unity and Empowering the Sinhalese Masses 67 4.2 Sinhala Nationalising the State 70 5 The Janatha Vikmuthi Peramuna: Insurrection in the 73 Name of a Sinhala Nation 5.1 Socioeconomic Stimulation for Sinhala Nationalism 78 6 The Role of Elites and the Masses 81 7 Cultural Production through the State: Education and Media 83 8 The Rise of the Tamil Tigers 85 Black July: the Anti-Tamil Pogrom of 1983 88 9 Conclusion 91 V SINHALESE NATIONALISM − IDENTITY , CONFLICT 96 AND PEACE IN PRESENT -DAY SRI LANKA 1 Three Gaps in Peacebuilding 97 1.1 The Interdependence Gap 97 1.2 The Justice Gap 98 1.3 The Process-Structure Gap 99 1.4 The Authenticity Gap 99 2 The Sri Lankan Peace Process in Brief 100 Excursion: Tsunami, Peace and Sinhalese Nationalism 102 3 Gaps in the Sri Lankan Peace Initiatives 103 4 Exploring Perceptions of Rural Sinhalese Youth: 106 Introspective Thoughts 4.1 Methodological Choice 108 4.2 Participants 108 4.3 Procedure 109 4.4 Picturing My Own Experiences and Thoughts on 110 Interviewing Rural Sinhalese Young Adults 4.4.1 Sinhalese are Very Hospitable People, Smiling and Friendly 111 5 Conclusion: Peaceful National Identities 120 VI SOURCES 126 VII APPENDIX − Questions for the interview 134 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG (139) − SUMMARY (141) 139 CURRICULUM VITAE 143 »» 2 Acknowledgments The writing of my thesis has benefited enormously from the support of my fam- ily, friends and members of the Institute for Integrative Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding. I want to thank my academic advisor Wilfried Graf for help- ing me to conceptualize my work and putting my ideas straight, Gudrun Kramer for sharing her profound knowledge on Sri Lankan politics and conflict, as well as Augustin Nicolescou for discussions on current developments in Sri Lanka. I want to express gratitude towards my family who supported me in various ways during this one year of writing. This work would not be possible without the help and assistance of my father who never got tired debating about Sri Lankan politics. Even though sometimes contrary in our views, I would not have been able to get such insights into Sri Lanka without his knowledgeable and intellectual guidance. He clearly verified and contextualized a lot of my informa- tion. Furthermore I want to thank my mother and my brother for counterbalanc- ing heated discussions on Sri Lankan politics and being so supportive. Concerning methodological questions I want to give special thanks to Tamara Neubauer, whom I could bother at almost any given time with problems arising out of my research, as well as Maria Husinsky and Natalie Plhak for reading and criticizing my theoretical framework. I am grateful for the versatile help of Shankar Nath. Besides loyally supporting me and encouraging me to carry out my research, he as a fellow aspiring re- searcher on South Asia provided me with relevant intellectual inputs to shape my work for the better. Finally I would like to thank all Sri Lankans who took the time to talk with me and answer my questions, without their openness and eagerness to explain I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the manifold dimensions of Sri Lankan society at large. »» 3 I Introduction 1 Epistemic Interest The topic of national identity is highly complex and very difficult to grasp, yet every one is affected by it in some way. The reason why I chose to work on na- tionalism in Sri Lanka in general and Sinhalese nationalism in particular lies without a doubt in my own Sinhalese origin. During my studies of International Development in Vienna I started to realise that the country from which I came is a country haunted by violence and conflict, where minorities claim to be op- pressed and extremely violated by the majority. I come from the Sinhalese ma- jority. Western media and Western literature enhanced this view, sometimes calling the Sri Lankan government Sinhala chauvinist or supremacist. On the other side, I was confronted in my every day life with Sinhalese people, none of who seemed to me to be chauvinistic or racist. To the contrary, I actually found that they were the most friendly and hospitable people I had ever met. Thus, I was confused and deeply irritated by the huge gap in my knowledge and under- standing. How was it that I had no idea about the conflict or how somebody could call Sinhalese people ‘racist’, ‘chauvinist’ or ‘oppressors’? In fact, I started my quest by asking my family questions about Sri Lankan his- tory and about the reason why my father decided to leave the country. As many children of South Asian expatriates know, topics like this are not frequently dis- cussed; it took me a lot of time and patience to reach the core of the matter, but understanding Sri Lankan history and culture became a matter of my own pend- ing identity. At first my view and perception was blurred by the violent attacks of the Libera- tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), all the more so as there where only Sin- halese people there to explain the conflict to me; the only thing they could offer was their one-sided perception, mainly enriched by descriptions of LTTE atroci- ties. To my naive question as to why they were fighting a guerrilla war against the state, their only response was, “Because they want a separate state.” If I »» 4 asked further questions I would only be met by a yawning void. It was obvious that there was something missing in their explanations. Thus, I started reading; and the first thing one encounters while focusing on the Sinhala-Tamil divide is the year 1983: the year I was born and the year that marked the outbreak of the Sri Lankan conflict that caused extreme human suffering. The anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 was the extreme violent and perverted manifes- tation of feelings and actions canalized and instrumentalized by Sinhalese na- tionalist agitators. During this ‘Black July’ I was an unborn child in my mother’s womb, who was at that time in Colombo visiting my grandparents. My mother described this event to me, and told me how Colombo was suddenly filled with gangs of rural Sinhalese that even came to my grandparent’s house and asked if they would hide any Tamil and told them that if they did, they would burn us all alive. Luckily they did not come in, and even luckier for the Tamil family my grandfather was hiding in his old unused wedding hall. Nevertheless, this year marks the rise of a tragic play whose main actors are the people guided by false nationalism, whether it be the Sinhalese version or the Tamil one. Thus I finally was given insight into my first question of why some people call Sinhalese oppressors, chauvinists or racist. At the same time it appeared to me that this issue was far too precarious and complex to simply brand it as Sin- halese chauvinism. It needed to be approached with care and sensitivity, most of all with understanding, but at the same time without trying to legitimise the violence connected to it. The next task for me was to understand how it had reached this point. This part was not as easy to ascertain and I am still not sure if it is possible for anyone to determine how events can go so astray that humans become capable of killing each other.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cultural Nationalism in a Multi-National Context: the Case of India
    Cultural Nationalism in a Multi-National Context: The Case of India Subrat K. Nanda Nationalism is generally seen as a political principle for establishing sovereign nation-states. In this paper, it is argued that nationalism in a multi-national context is viewed differently at different levels. By analysing several cases of linguistic and provincial movements in India, it tries to demonstrate that in multi-national countries, such as India, nationalism assumes a political connotation at the macro level and a cultural connotation at the regional level. While the political connotation symbolises the establishment of a sovereign nation-state at the macro level, the cultural connotation, by and large, underlines the protection of distinct cultural nation/nationality in a given provincial political space within the common sovereign state. It is popularly believed that nationalism, either as an ideology or as a movement, is necessarily linked with the concept of sovereignty. From this perspective, nationalism as a principle of political self-determination invariably tends to achieve a sovereign nation-state. However, empirical evidence in many culturally plural and/or multi-national countries reveals that the goal of nationalism may vary from different kinds of political autonomy to outright sovereignty/independence. For example, in several multi-national countries it is seen that nationalistic sentiment was and continues to be invoked by people to protect their distinct cultural- linguistic identity within the provisions of provincial political autonomy under a common sovereign state. This variety of nationalism seeking provincial statehood in a multi-national set-up may be referred to as ‘cultural nationalism’. This paper proposes to bring into focus this phenomenon of cultural nationalism in the context of multi-national countries in general and in India in particular.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism and Ethnic Politics Book Reviews
    This article was downloaded by: [University College London] On: 29 December 2009 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 772858957] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37- 41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Nationalism and Ethnic Politics Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713636289 Book reviews To cite this Article (2003) 'Book reviews', Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 9: 2, 128 — 148 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/13537110412331301445 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537110412331301445 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. 92nep06.qxd 27/10/2003 09:21 Page 128 Book Reviews rank K. Salter (ed.). Risky Transactions: Trust, Kinship and Ethnicity. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2002.
    [Show full text]
  • Rearticulations of Enmity and Belonging in Postwar Sri Lanka
    BUDDHIST NATIONALISM AND CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM: REARTICULATIONS OF ENMITY AND BELONGING IN POSTWAR SRI LANKA by Neena Mahadev A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October, 2013 © 2013 Neena Mahadev All Rights Reserved Abstract: Based on two years of fieldwork in Sri Lanka, this dissertation systematically examines the mutual skepticism that Buddhist nationalists and Christian evangelists express towards one another in the context of disputes over religious conversion. Focusing on the period from the mid-1990s until present, this ethnography elucidates the shifting politics of nationalist perception in Sri Lanka, and illustrates how Sinhala Buddhist populists have increasingly come to view conversion to Christianity as generating anti-national and anti-Buddhist subjects within the Sri Lankan citizenry. The author shows how the shift in the politics of identitarian perception has been contingent upon several critical events over the last decade: First, the death of a Buddhist monk, which Sinhala Buddhist populists have widely attributed to a broader Christian conspiracy to destroy Buddhism. Second, following the 2004 tsunami, massive influxes of humanitarian aid—most of which was secular, but some of which was connected to opportunistic efforts to evangelize—unsettled the lines between the interested religious charity and the disinterested secular giving. Third, the closure of 25 years of a brutal war between the Sri Lankan government forces and the ethnic minority insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has opened up a slew of humanitarian criticism from the international community, which Sinhala Buddhist populist activists surmise to be a product of Western, Christian, neo-colonial influences.
    [Show full text]
  • Republic at 40
    ! 24 Interview From Federalism to Separatism: The Impact of the 1970-72 Constitution- Making Process on Tamil Nationalism’s Ideological Transformation g D. Sithadthan1 1 Former Member of Parliament; Leader, People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). This interview was conducted by Luwie Ganeshathasan on 20th July 2012 in Colombo. ! ! From a Tamil perspective, what were the broad political issues of the post-independence period and what were the main political and constitutional challenges that the Tamil people faced? Opinion was divided at that time among the Tamils. Some sections were advocating for a federal state but people like Mr G.G. Ponnambalam were for a unitary state. I think he believed that, at that time since the Tamils were in an advantageous position, that within a unitary state, Tamils could have a major portion of the cake. There was a belief that if the Tamils ask for a federal state they will be confined to the north and east only and will have no share of the power in the central government. The Tamil people’s opposition was on an issue-by-issue basis. For example, there was opposition to the design of the national flag because the Tamil people felt it is a symbol of the Sinhala people only. Later the green and orange stripes were added to signify the Muslim and Tamil people, but to this day the Tamil people are not willing to accept the national flag as ours. Furthermore, in spite of Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution and the famous Kodeeswaran Case, the Sinhala Only Act was passed.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics in Plural Societies : a Theory of Democratic Instability
    POLITICS IN PLURAL SOCIETIES A Theory of Democratic Instability ALVIN RABUSHKA University of Rochester and KENNETH A. SHEPSLE Washington University, St. Louis Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company A Bell & Howell Company Columbus, Ohio CHAPTER 5 Majority Domination We turn in this chapter to an analysis of ethnic politics in dominant major- ity configurations. A major theme that emerges from this analysis is the denial by majorities of political freedoms to minorities as well as access to a proportional share of the public sector. First we explore ethnic politics in Ceylon to illustrate how a dominant Sinhalese majority deals with an important Tamil minority; second, we extend the empirical coverage with a comparative treatment of majority domination in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). Ceylon The most important source of division and disruption in Ceylonese politics and the greatest impediment to integrative trends has been the persistence of sentiments of identification and solidarity with broader primordial groups generally referred to as communities.1 The Sinhalese, constituting about seventy percent of the population, is the majority community in Ceylon. The remaining minorities consist of Ceylon Tamils who arrived from India between the fourth and twelfth centuries, eleven percent; Indian Tamils who arrived in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to work on the tea estates, twelve percent; Moors 1. Robert N. Kearney, Communalism and Language in the Politics of Ceylon (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1967), p. 4. We rely heavily upon the evidence Kearney provides of Sinhalese politics. See also W. Howard Wriggins, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960); Calvin A.
    [Show full text]
  • Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka
    Policy Studies 40 Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka Neil DeVotta East-West Center Washington East-West Center The East-West Center is an internationally recognized education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen understanding and relations between the United States and the countries of the Asia Pacific. Through its programs of cooperative study, training, seminars, and research, the Center works to promote a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Asia Pacific community in which the United States is a leading and valued partner. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, private foundations, individuals, cor- porations, and a number of Asia Pacific governments. East-West Center Washington Established on September 1, 2001, the primary function of the East- West Center Washington is to further the East-West Center mission and the institutional objective of building a peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific community through substantive programming activities focused on the themes of conflict reduction, political change in the direction of open, accountable, and participatory politics, and American under- standing of and engagement in Asia Pacific affairs. Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka Policy Studies 40 ___________ Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka ___________________________ Neil DeVotta Copyright © 2007 by the East-West Center Washington Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka By Neil DeVotta ISBN: 978-1-932728-65-1 (online version) ISSN: 1547-1330 (online version) Online at: www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/publications East-West Center Washington 1819 L Street, NW, Suite 200 Washington, D.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Les Minorités Tamoules À Colombo, Kuala Lumpur Et Singapour : Minorités, Intégrations Socio-Spatiales Et Transnationalités Delon Madavan
    Les minorités tamoules à Colombo, Kuala Lumpur et Singapour : Minorités, intégrations socio-spatiales et transnationalités Delon Madavan To cite this version: Delon Madavan. Les minorités tamoules à Colombo, Kuala Lumpur et Singapour : Minorités, inté- grations socio-spatiales et transnationalités. Géographie. Université Paris IV - Paris Sorbonne, 2013. Français. tel-01651800 HAL Id: tel-01651800 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01651800 Submitted on 29 Nov 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. UNIVERSITÉ PARIS-SORBONNE ÉCOLE DOCTORALE de Géographie de Paris Laboratoire de recherche Espaces, nature et culture T H È S E pour obtenir le grade de DOCTEUR DE L’UNIVERSITÉ PARIS-SORBONNE Discipline/ Spécialité : Géographie Présentée et soutenue par : Delon MADAVAN le : 26 septembre 2013 Les minorités tamoules à Colombo, Kuala Lumpur et Singapour : Minorités, intégrations socio-spatiales et transnationalités Sous la direction de : Monsieur Olivier SEVIN, Professeur, Université Paris-Sorbonne JURY : Monsieur Christian HUETZ DE LEMPS, Professeur
    [Show full text]
  • Ethno-Territorial Conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan Rezvani, B. Publication date 2013 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Rezvani, B. (2013). Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan. Vossiuspers UvA. http://nl.aup.nl/books/9789056297336-ethno-territorial- conflict-and-coexistence-in-the-caucasus-central-asia-and-fereydan.html General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:02 Oct 2021 Chapter Six 6 Ethno-Territorial Conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia Eight out of the 129 ethno-territorial encounters are, or were until recently, afflicted by ethno-territorial conflict. All these encounters are located in the (post-)Soviet space: the South Ossetian and Abkhazian conflicts in Georgia; the North Ossetian-Ingush conflict over Prigorodny and the Chechen conflicts in Russia; the Armenian-Azeri conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan; the Osh conflict between the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan; and finally the Tajikistani Civil War, with the participation of Uzbeks and Pamiris in alliance with and against Tajiks.
    [Show full text]
  • Government Response to Self-Determination Movements: a Case Study Comparison in India
    GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO SELF-DETERMINATION MOVEMENTS: A CASE STUDY COMPARISON IN INDIA By Pritha Hariharan Submitted to the graduate degree program in MA Global and International Studies and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ________________________________ Chairperson: John James Kennedy ________________________________ Committee Member: MichaelWuthrich ________________________________ Committee Member: Eric Hanley Date Defended: November 18th 2014 The Thesis Committee for Pritha Hariharan certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO SELF-DETERMINATION MOVEMENTS: A CASE STUDY COMPARISON IN INDIA ________________________________ Chairperson: John James Kennedy Date approved: November 18th 2014 ii Abstract The Indian government’s response to multiple separatist and self-determination movements the nation has encountered in its sixty-six year history has ranged from violent repression to complete or partial accommodation of demands. My research question asks whether the central government of India’s response to self-determination demands varies based on the type of demand or type of group. The importance of this topic stems from the geopolitical significance of India as an economic giant; as the largest and fastest growing economy in the subcontinent, the stability of India as a federal republic is crucial to the overall strength of the region. While the dispute between India and Pakistan in the state of Kashmir gets international attention, other movements that are associated with multiple fatalities and human rights abuses are largely ignored. I conduct a comparative case study analysis comparing one movement each in the states of Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Assam, Kashmir, and Mizoram; each with a diverse set of demands and where agitation has lasted more than five years.
    [Show full text]
  • 12 Manogaran.Pdf
    Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka National Capilal District Boundarl3S * Province Boundaries Q 10 20 30 010;1)304050 Sri Lanka • Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka CHELVADURAIMANOGARAN MW~1 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS • HONOLULU - © 1987 University ofHawaii Press All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Manogaran, Chelvadurai, 1935- Ethnic conflict and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Sri Lanka-Politics and government. 2. Sri Lanka -Ethnic relations. 3. Tamils-Sri Lanka-Politics and government. I. Title. DS489.8.M36 1987 954.9'303 87-16247 ISBN 0-8248-1116-X • The prosperity ofa nation does not descend from the sky. Nor does it emerge from its own accord from the earth. It depends upon the conduct ofthe people that constitute the nation. We must recognize that the country does not mean just the lifeless soil around us. The country consists ofa conglomeration ofpeople and it is what they make ofit. To rectify the world and put it on proper path, we have to first rec­ tify ourselves and our conduct.... At the present time, when we see all over the country confusion, fear and anxiety, each one in every home must con­ ., tribute his share ofcool, calm love to suppress the anger and fury. No governmental authority can sup­ press it as effectively and as quickly as you can by love and brotherliness. SATHYA SAl BABA - • Contents List ofTables IX List ofFigures Xl Preface X111 Introduction 1 CHAPTER I Sinhalese-Tamil
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Development: Land and Labour in Israeli, Palestinian and Sri Lankan Literature Nicola Anne Robinson Phd University Of
    Resisting Development: Land and Labour in Israeli, Palestinian and Sri Lankan Literature ! Nicola Anne Robinson ! ! PhD ! University of York ! English ! September 2014 ! ! ABSTRACT ! This thesis examines literary representations which depict the evolution of capitalist development in narratives by Israeli, Palestinian and Sri Lankan writers. This comparative study is the first of its kind to bring the contexts of Israel/Palestine and Sri Lanka together. Collectively, my chapters analyse a range of literary texts by writers including Yosef Brenner, Sahar Khalifeh, Punyakante Wijenaike and Ambalavaner Sivanandan which explore the separatist ethnonational conflicts. I focus on narratives which critique the dominant discourse of development in their societies, through the formal and literary strategies that the writers utilise such as utopia, realism and melodrama. I argue that the texts I consider draw attention to the impact of uneven development on the content and form of literature in order to resist the current dispensation. This resistance is invaluable when one considers that development continues to be a contentious and divisive issue in Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka and beyond today, yet one that has clear implications for sustainable peace. As a result, my research highlights that literature can play an invaluable role in anticipating, if not imagining, alternatives to the current world order. ! ! ! ! ! ! !2 Table of Contents ! ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................2
    [Show full text]
  • Sri Lanka's General Election 2015
    International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Submitted: 2016-01-12 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 68, pp 7-17 Accepted: 2016-02-10 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.68.7 Online: 2016-04-07 CC BY 4.0. Published by SciPress Ltd, Switzerland, 2016 Sri Lanka’s General Election 2015 SM.ALIFF Head, Dept. of Political Science, Faculty of Arts & Culture South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Oluvil Sri Lanka [email protected] Keywords: Parliamentary election of Sri Lanka 2015, Politics of Sri Lanka, Political party, Proportional Representation, Abstract Sri Lanka emerges from this latest election with a hung Parliament in 2015. A coalition called the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) won 106 seats and secured ten out of 22 electoral districts, including Colombo to obtain the largest block of seats at the parliamentary polls, though it couldn’t secure a simple majority in 225-member parliament. It also has the backing of smaller parties that support its agenda of electoral. In the August parliamentary election, the former president Rajapaksa forces upped the nationalist ante and campaigned to win a majority of parliamentary seats with the votes of the Sinhala Buddhists only, but extreme appeals to nationalism failed to get traction in the elections among the Sinhalese. It is fair to say that the double blow against nationalism in the south was occasioned by the politics of good governance promoted by the UNP and its alliance in the election. In Sri Lanka’s eighth General elections, none of the two major political alliances- the (UNF), nor the (UPFA)- gained a clear majority in the election.
    [Show full text]