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Who are you?

Who are you?. Identity and Politics. What is Identity?. Identity can be defined as “a sense of separate and unique selfhood”…… How people see themselves Determined by a network of social and other relationships which differentiate people from people

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Who are you?

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  1. Who are you?

  2. Identity and Politics

  3. What is Identity? • Identity can be defined as “a sense of separate and unique selfhood”…… • How people see themselves • Determined by a network of social and other relationships which differentiate people from people • Identity is a broad concept based on gender, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, etc….

  4. Identity in Western Societies • Refers to exercising choice-eg. Lifestyle choice • Implies difference

  5. What is Identity Politics? • Identity politics calls for full and formal recognition of the difference • Adapting and even celebrating it • Calls for a shift from universalism to particularism • Recognition of a significant cultural difference within the society • Also called politics of difference • Identity links the personal to the social • Sees the individual as embedded in a particular cultural, social, institutional and ideological context ( Heywood 2007: 212).

  6. Origin of Identity Politics? • Post colonial theories • Emerged from the collapse of the European empires during the early post-1945 period (Heywood 2007: 212).

  7. Core Feature • Challenged to overturn the cultural dimension of imperial rule by establishing the legitimacy of non-western and sometimes anti western political ideas and traditions • Edward Said critiqued Eurocentrism through his notion of “orientalism”….. “ belittled and demeaned” non-western people and culture • Eg. “mysterious East, “instructable Chinese” and “Lustful Turks” ( Heywood 2007: 212). • Rise of Black consciousness movement in 1960s in the USA • Growing political assertiveness, expressed through ethnic nationalism of cultural groups in various parts of the world determines identity politics (ibid.: 212).

  8. Identity Politics in Sri Lanka • Sinhalese and Tamil identity politics • Historical claims constructed IDP, contested and evolved into cultural contestation, cultural contestation transformed into ethnic conflict • Political parties were formed on ethnic lines • Tamil Rule Party or Freedom Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP) • Ethnic nationalism was introduced into politics • Stress on Sinhalese consciousness - Buddhism and language • Take power from English educated, urban elite and the idea of building Sinhala nation through the villages • Ethnic conflict becomes separate nationalism • Sought to seek separate homeland for Tamils (Eller 2002: 126).

  9. Identity Politics in Sri Lanka- Contd. • Citizenship Act No.18 of 1948- September 21, 1948 established criteria for citizenship that most Indian Tamils could not meet • Individual born before October 15 1948 required two generations of Sri Lankan descent • The compulsory study of Sinhala language at the secondary school level • Bandaranaike’s Sinhalese nationalist government built politics on the basis Sinhala culture • Sinhala made official language through the Official Language Act, No 33 of 1956 • Sinhalese peasants resettlement in thinly populated land of that Tamils considered their own (Eller 2002: 124-129).

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