PO377 Ethnic Conflict and Political Violence

1. PO377 Ethnic Conflict and Political Violence Week 2: Sri Lanka

2. Pop Quiz • The conflict in Sri Lanka is between… • Muslims and Hindus • Muslims and Buddhists • Tamils and Sinhalese • Indian terrorists and the Sri Lankan state

4. Lecture Outline • Overview • Pre-Colonial History • Competing historical narratives • Competing analyses of conflict • Colonial Period • Lead-up to independence • Post-Independence History & Entrenchment of Nationalisms • Sinhala state nationalism • Tamil nationalism • Civil War • Conclusion

5. Overview • Population: estimated around 21 million (in 2012). • Ethnic makeup (1980s estimate): roughly 74% Sinhalese, 13% Sri Lankan Tamil, 7.5% Muslim, 5% Indian Tamil, less than 1% other. • Sinhalese: predominantly Buddhist, small Christian minority; Tamils: mostly Hindu, Christian minority. • Civil war 1983-2009. Tamil nationalist groups fought the state for an independent Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) in the north and east. LTTE most powerful group. • Possibly 90,000-110,000 people dead (20,000-40,000 in final months); 500,000+ have left Sri Lanka; up to 1,000,000 displaced at various points with many thousands still living in IDP camps.

6. Channel 4 Documentary • Do you find the documentary and its evidence credible? • How does watching the documentary make you feel? • What are some implications you could draw from it regarding the future of Sri Lanka?

7. Pre-Colonial History Competing historical narratives • Sinhalese narrative claims they were first ‘civilised’ settlers of Sri Lanka, from 5th/6th C. BC. • Sinhalese history of SL based on Buddhist chronicle the Mahāvamsa and its myth of Prince Vijaya; Buddha entrusted the island to the Sinhalese people. • Sinhala nationalism claims Tamils in north and east are descendants of Tamil-speaking Hindu ‘invaders’. • Claims SL Tamils never had autonomous political units previously and accepted Sinhalese rule.

8. Pre-Colonial History (2) Competing historical narratives • Tamil narrative (less extreme) claims Tamils have lived in Sri Lanka for at least 1,000 years and have had autonomous political units. • Tamil narrative (more extreme) claims Tamils settled first and Sinhalese were originally Tamils who later converted to Buddhism and adopted the Sinhala language.

9. Pre-Colonial History (3) Competing analyses of conflict • Primordial analyses of SL conflict:Sri Lanka has always been dominated by two exclusive and conflictual groups, Sinhala-speaking Buddhists and Tamil-speaking Hindus. • Non-primordial analyses: groupings within Sri Lanka based on language and religion have been historically variable and intersecting social divisions. Before 19th C. was never a perfect congruence of ‘race’, language, religion and political territory. Current political identities have been generated by the form and formation of the modern SL state.

10. Pre-Colonial History (4) ‘For long periods of time groups which would now be characterized in terms of the Sinhala-Tamil divide lived more or less at peace with one another. There were dynastic wars; but Sinhala-Tamil communal violence dates from after Independence. This is not to say that there were no differences between groups of people living in the island: the point is simply that differences of language, custom and religion were made into something new by the devices of a modern state.’ (Nissan and Stirrat, 1990)

11. Colonial Period • European ideas of ‘race’ that British rule brought were significant in development of nationalism. • British policy influenced by new racial theories, incl. notion of ‘Aryanism’ (linguistic affinity = common ‘blood’). • Buddhist revivalist movement from late 18th/early 19th century: resistance to old élite and to the British. Began as anti-imperialist but contributed to construction of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist identity. • Circa 1890 on working-class called for economic improvements and union rights; emerging bourgeoisie demanded political reforms, equal opps and democratic rights from circa 1900.

12. Colonial Period (2) Lead-up to independence • 1931 Constitution replaced communal representation with territorial electorates; with universal suffrage this led to Sinhalese majority rule. • First general election 1931 (self-government) – Sinhalese leadership unwilling to share power with minority ethnic groups. • New administrative division of the island according to language.

13. Post-Independence History & Entrenchment of Nationalisms Sinhala state nationalism • Citizenship Act 1948 and Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act 1949. • Language policies. • Educational policy known as ‘standardisation’ from 1970. • Official entrenchment of Buddhism and growth of political Buddhism.

14. Post-Independence History & Entrenchment of Nationalisms (2) • Economic alienation and exclusion from traditional employment for Tamils. • Post-independence ‘ethnic outbidding’ very significant (see DeVotta, 2002). • ‘Colonisation schemes’ from 1950s. • 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act. • Series of violent inter-communal (anti-Tamil) riots, beginning 1956 and culminating in 1983.

15. Post-Independence History & Entrenchment of Nationalisms (3) Tamil nationalism • Federal Party from 1950s: stood for federal constitution with Northern and Eastern Provinces as states of a federal union. • Non-violent protest campaigns met with repression; last one in 1964. • Tamil push for secession from early 1970s; TULF formally demanded independent state in 1976.

16. Post-Independence History & Entrenchment of Nationalisms (4) • Small-scale Tamil guerrilla activity from early to mid-1970s; increased militancy from late 1970s. • 1983: Tamil MPs forced out of Parliament by 6th amendment to Constitution requiring allegiance to unitary state; Amnesty Intl report on torture by armed forces and police; huge organised anti-Tamil riots in July.

17. Civil War • Split betw. Tamil parliamentarians (TULF) and militants from 1982; armed campaign increasingly significant. • 1983: beginning of civil war, rush to join Tamil guerrilla groups. • Mid-1980s: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aim to destroy competitors.

18. Civil War (2) • ‘Eelam War I’: July 1983 until 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord (or 1990 collapse of it). • ‘Eelam War II’: 1990-95, brief ceasefire in 1995. • ‘Eelam War III’: 1995 until start of ceasefire at the end of 2001/early 2002. • ‘Eelam War IV’: Jan 2008 to May 2009.

19. Conclusion • European racial categories formed the framework for developing nationalist identities in Sri Lanka; after independence British were replaced by Tamils as the ‘threatening other’ for Sinhalese. • Contemporary Sinhalese-Tamil conflict is partly result of processes begun by British colonialism: unification of country; introduction of unitary bureaucratic structure; import of western ideas of ‘race’ and its relation to ‘nation’; impact of mass media and state education; formalised communal political representation but then a shift to territorial representation.

20. Conclusion (2) • Contemporary conflict is also a result of post-independence political, social and economic changes that marginalised Tamils, along with intra-Sinhalese political competition (ethnic outbidding). • Sri Lanka can be viewed as a ‘double minority’ model. • Shift in Tamil demands from federal union to separate state and from non-violent to violent means: lesson in dangers of majority instituting ethnocentric unjust policies at expense of minority, BUT catch 22 problem here. • Where to from here??

21. Pop Quiz • Sri Lanka will return to war… • Within the next five years • Within the next ten years • Not within our lifetime